Ryan Hamilton Cuellar

Online Nickname: @dotpic, @dotpic.bsky.social, dotpic(discord)

Introduction 

My name is Ryan, I’m 34 years old and have been playing RPGs since I was 17. I started out on Dungeon & Dragons 3.5 and moved over to Pathfinder 1e and Call of Cthulhu 6e. I wanted to transition to DMing for my group and we played Firefly Role-playing Game and a homebrew world for DnD3.5.

I’ve always had a love of games, storytelling, and just generally anything “nerd” related. I got the start from my father when I was a child who would play the MS-DOS DnD games and would also would watch him and his friends play ADnD. He got me into Magic:The Gathering and PC gaming but I didn’t play tabletop games until high school. His DnD group as well would teach me the love of reading and world building/story telling through games like Icewind Dale on the PC and Final Fantasy 7 and 9 on the Playstation.

The reason I think I would be a good judge is I don’t limit myself to a certain game or genre. I’m very open minded on what we enjoy in my groups. I collect/read all different types of tabletop games and love the perspective each game gives to the GM/DM. I also am currently in the process of creating my own game and have worked with and am friends with people in the game industry be it tabletop or video games. I love what tabletop games do for creative thought process and how it can bring out the best in people.

Why do you play/run RPGs?

I run RPGs because it brings out collaborative story telling with a group of strangers or friends. I have good friends in life I met through rolling dice and sharing stories together. It lets you bring out your creative thoughts aloud. It can be funny, scary, or sad. End of the day it’s you expressing yourself in ways other media can’t. Reading lets you imagine the world and how these characters talk or look. Video games lets you control a character or party through a story being presented to you or you can play with friends in their boundaries the game has set. Tabletop games lets you do all of those and lets you break the boundaries on your tables terms. You can share the vision of the world and your character together at a table or online.

The ENNIES requires a major commitment of time and energy. What resources do you have that will help you discharge these responsibilities? Will your gaming group or other individuals be assisting you? Does your family support you?

I am very fortunate with my job where it doesn’t require a lot of time commitment and I have a lot of free time for reading and planning. My fiance would also assist if needed. For playing games I have 3 groups I can rely on as we’ve been playing with each other for about 4 years consistently.

For personal things that assist me, I keep a journal for my in-person table top and notes for online. Together when I need to collectively organize my thoughts I use the program Obsidian.

Judging requires a great deal of critical thinking skills, communication with other judges, deadline management, organization, and storage space for the product received. What interests, experience, and skills do you bring that will make you a more effective judge?

My day job is I manage a team of 12 with very strict guidelines if an event was to occur. I execute them fast and precise. When deadlines are needed I make sure to prioritize them to get ahead of the curve just in case any changes are needed by the client(s). I work as a Systems Engineer for a company that provides IT for law firms. Lawyers and their clients work on a strict schedule and timeline. I have to make sure anything they have is there when needed. Proper communication is also needed when outages/replacements/changes/etc. are happening to make sure everything is known ahead of time and schedule.

Storage isn’t an issue as well I have a personal shelf filled with books and a fairly large basement. We just cleared up space in one of our rooms to be kind of a nook for personal time in my house.

What styles and genres of RPGs do you enjoy most? Are there any styles or genres that you do not enjoy? Which games best exemplify what you like? Do you consider yourself a fan of a particular system, publisher, or genre?

I’ve been told by my groups that when it comes to a genre of RPG I GM excel at it’s Horror/Sci-fi. I love capturing the tension in the game, I enjoy trying my best to give the feeling of dread to my players as they explore whatever scenario they’re in. As a player I love a good classic heroic fantasy in the vein of Lord of the Rings, The Wheel of Time, or The Stormlight Archive.

There isn’t any style or genre I don’t really not enjoy, if I’m playing a game with my group I’ll enjoy it either way. If there is something I dislike we share it amongst the table and figure out what isn’t really jellying with us. An example would be my in-person groups generally don’t like playing games that have a “modern” settings or anything near it. Games like Delta Green and Call of Cthulhu don’t mesh well with them because of the story, however games like Mothership or Alien do.

My favorite publisher is Free League, I love the Year Zero engine they employee to most of their games. My favorite system funny enough is Call of Cthulhu/Delta Green I love the D100 system and the setting piece you can do with them.

List (up to 5) games you’ve played in the last 2 years. What drew you to playing them? Which did you like best and why?

Have you been a game master in the past 2 years? If yes, what games have you run? What made you decide to run those games?

I’m primarily a Game Master. One of my tables I swap with another GM after a campaign. Currently he is running Dungeon & Dragons 4th edition but by August I’ll have the reigns again. I’ve ran a lot of games and usually my interest for them come for online chatter I see on reddit, youtube, bluesky, or twitter. If the mechanics look fun I’ll decide which group I will run it for. I’ve run The Witcher RPG, Fallout 2d20, Shadowdark, Mothership, Call of Cthulhu, Delta Green, Fabula Ultima, Pathfinder 2e, Pathfinder 1e, Dungeon & Dragons 5e, Old School Essentials, Mutant Crawl Classics, Alien Evolved Edition, Daggerheart, and plan to run many more in the future.

Summarize the criteria you would use to determine if a game deserves to be nominated for Best Game.

Setting – What is the game trying to capture in the setting it presents? Does it do it well? What kind of vibe is the setting and what should I expect when I run the game in the world they created. Sometimes the setting is system agnostic. Does the setting it’s presenting work well across multiple systems or does it seem to focus more one way or another

Mechanics – What is this game trying to do? Is it rules-lite? Is it crunchy? How much crunch are we doing? What dice are using? Is there a metacurrency? After everything is answered I look at how it uses the rules for the game. Does it have good tables if it uses tables and how do I use them? Are they well explained?

Layout – I think what kills my interest in a game fast is poor book layout. If I have to flip to 5 different pages for 1 specific rule it’s not laid out well. Does it have a good Table of Contents, Index, Glossary?

Art – I love good art for a game it’s honestly one of the first things I look at when picking what to run. The dart has to draw me in. There has been cases where art is limited but the setting saves it or vice versa.

How will you judge supplements or adventures for game systems whose core rules you are unfamiliar with or you believe are badly designed?

I give everything a fair shake. If I am to judge a supplement/adventure for a system I don’t like that’s fine. We’re not judging the game we’re judging the supplement/adventure. Are they well written? Does it tell a good narrative or give good narrative for what is occurring?

If it’s for a game that is also being judged along side it it’ll be judged individually. If an adventure was a great time but the system itself wasn’t that great, then we have to ask what made the adventure great? Did it bring the system up from our poor reception to a better reception?

How would you like to see the ENNIEs change? What should remain inviolate?

I’ve never been to an ENNIES before and hope to go in the future. I think what is presented is great and show casing each category nominees with hyperlinks to each product is perfect and should never change. Easy hyperlinks and access is a good way to make sure these things are seen by the community. Ease of access is always something as an industry we should strive towards for TTRPGS

I do think we should have more spotlight on the person/team who created the product especially if they’re a bronze, silver, gold winner.