Critical Role's Daggerheart and the rustic-fantasy RPG Legend in the Mist both racked up nominations when the 2026 ENnie Award shortlist landed on 3 July, setting up a showdown for tabletop roleplaying's headline awards at Gen Con.
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Find events near youLegend in the Mist, from Son of Oak Game Studio (the team behind the noir-fantasy game City of Mist), leads the field with seven nominations including Best Game, according to the ENnies announcement. The horror anthology The Crooked Moon follows with five, and Daggerheart, the fantasy roleplaying system from Critical Role's publisher Darrington Press, picked up four including Best Game and Best Rules. The Best Game field is stacked: alongside those two it features Free League's sci-fi game Coriolis: The Great Dark, plus Sickest Witch and Thieves of the Tome.
The freshest wrinkle this year is a brand-new Best Solo Game category, a nod to just how many people now play RPGs on their own. Its first nominees include SPINE, a dark game about losing yourself in a book, plus The Bonsai Diary, Odyssey of the Giant, Pirouette and Song of the Scryptwyrm.
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See how it worksWinners are revealed at the ENnies ceremony during Gen Con, running 30 July to 2 August, so there is a month of campaigning and cheering ahead. If the nominations leave you itching to try one, it is a good excuse to round up an RPG group and roll some dice.
Sources: ENnie Awards | ComicsBeat
