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The Origins Awards, one of tabletop gaming’s longest-running prizes voted on by industry professionals, has crowned its latest group of winners after whittling them down from 120 nominees.

Jon Perry’s Hot Streak continues to live up to its name as far as award wins go, adding party game of the year to a pair of Golden Geek Award wins, casual game of the year in the American Tabletop Awards, and a ‘recommended’ accolade in the Spiel des Jahres.

Matt Leacock’s The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship, built on the DNA of his global hit Pandemic, doubled down on its own Golden Geek Award wins by being named cooperative/solo Game of the Year, while Vital Lacerda’s design Speakeasy took the Heavy Strategy Game of the Year award.

Railroad Tiles, designed by Hjalmar Hach and Lorenzo Silva, took Gateway Game of the Year, while Will Thompson’s Winter Rabbit was named Light Strategy Game of the Year at the award ceremony, which took place at Origins Game Fair last month.

The awards also recognised Matt Brown and Zara Reid’s conservation-themed board game Kavango with a Sustainability Award, which aim to celebrate games with thoughtful production and publishers which “have taken strides towards sustainable manufacturing to reduce the impact on the natural environment”.

Outside the board game categories, James Parks and Ben Costa’s Land of Eem won Roleplaying Game of the Year, while in the trading card and collectible game categories Riftbound: Proving Grounds won Fixed Constructible Game of the Year, while the Gudnak: Expansion Bundle took the Randomized Constructible Game award.

Games Workshop dominated the miniatures awards, winning both Miniatures Game of the Year with Blood Bowl: Third Season Edition and Miniature of the Year with Warhammer: Age of Sigmar model Festus The Leech Lord.

Goblin Hobbies’ Stampin’ Plates claimed the Paint/Hobby Accessory award, while Luis Silva’s TCG design Shard Bugs claimed Fan Favorite Game of the Year, voted on by Origins attendees.

The awards, which are organised by non-profit trade organisation GAMA, came under fire earlier this year for failing to mention any of the games’ designers for the third year in a row.

GAMA made an effort to rectify that error with its announcement of the award winners, including not only the names of the designers but also the artists who worked on each title.

The Origins awards, which were first presented in 1975, have been in heavy flux over the past few years, going from 10 categories in 2019 to 24 in 2024 – with the make-up of those categories significantly shaken up from year to year.

GAMA briefly introduced categories in 2024 which represented its membership having expanded beyond just retailers, publishers and wholesalers – including recognition for artists, writers and media.

But those segments were quickly dropped again in 2025, with categories cut including Best Media Production, Best Game Related Writing and Best 2D Artwork – although the miniatures segment was expanded from two categories to three, covering games, the miniatures themselves, and paint and accessories.

Separate from the main slate of awards, the trade organisation also revealed its hall of fame entrants this year, awarded – like the Origins Awards – by its division the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design.

AAGAD describes itself as “a peer based network of gaming industry professionals whose mission is to promote innovation and excellence in design and production of games and game related materials”.

Individuals inducted into the hall of fame this year include Richard Borg, famous for his design of the Command and Colors system used by games including Memoir ’44, and Antoine Bauza, the creator of designs including 7 Wonders, Hanabi and Tokaido.

Magic: The Gathering, Pathfinder RPG and Dungeons & Dragons artist Wayne Reynolds was also inducted into the hall of fame.

Origins Awards 2026 – Full Results

Gateway Game of the Year
Railroad Tiles
Publisher: Horrible Guild
Designers: Hjalmar Hach and Lorenzo Silva
Artists: Francesco De Benedittis and Barla Tranquilli

Party Game of the Year
Hot Streak
Publisher: CMYK
Designer: Jon Perry
Artist: Cécile Gariépy

Light Strategy Game of the Year
Winter Rabbit
Publisher: Absurdist Productions
Designer: Will Thompson
Artists: Kindra Swafford and Jonni Ketcher

Heavy Strategy Game of the Year
Speakeasy
Publisher: Eagle-Gryphon Games
Designer: Vital Lacerda
Artist: Ian O’Toole

Cooperative/Solo Game of the Year
The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship
Publisher: Z-Man Games
Designer: Matt Leacock
Artists: Jared Blando and Cory Godbey

Roleplaying Game of the Year
Land of Eem
Publisher: Exalted Funeral
Designed & Written by: James Parks and Ben Costa
Artists: Justin Gerard, Sean Kiernan, Anneliese Mak, Sam Mamei, Rosario Mendez and Rob Gatto

Roleplaying Game Supplement of the Year
Call of Cthulhu: The Sutra of Pale Leaves – Twin Suns Rising
Publisher: Chaosium
Designers/Authors: Yukihiro Terada, Jason Sheets, Damon Lang, and Andrew Logan Montgomery

Miniatures Game of the Year
Blood Bowl Third Season Edition
Publisher: Games Workshop

Miniature of the Year
Warhammer: Age of Sigmar – Festus, The Leech Lord
Publisher: Games Workshop

Paint/Hobby Accessory of the Year
Goblin Hobbies Stampin’ Plates
Producer: Goblin Hobbies
Designed by: Brent Amberger and Casey Alden

Fixed Constructible Game of the Year
Riftbound: Proving Grounds
Publisher: UVS Games & Riot Games
Designers: David Smith and Jon Moormann

Randomized Constructible Game of the Year
Gudnak: Expansion Bundle
Publisher: Chaotic Great Games
Designer: Tim O’Brien and Ian Oliver
Artist: Vittoria Pompolani

Fan Favorite Game of the Year
Shard Bugs
Publisher: Shard Bugs LLC
Designer: Luis Silva
Artists: Ray of Sand, Nelygibi, Julio E. Jácome Paz, María Ayuso, Alma Faustica, Pietro Desirò, Ninamarie, Steve Ozminkowski, Erick Mezart

The post Hot Streak, Speakeasy, Fate of the Fellowship among this year’s Origins Awards winners first appeared on .

Die Spielhilfe zu Herr der Ringe – Das Schicksal der Gemeinschaft – Spielhilfe ist nun online und kann auf der Projektseite heruntergeladen werden.

Asmodee has revealed the first slate of partner companies it has picked to make Lord of the Rings-themed board games and accessories, six months after becoming the steward of the hugely lucrative Middle-earth licence for the tabletop.

Endeavor: Deep Sea co-publisher Grand Gamers Guild, Ascension publisher Stone Blade Entertainment, and Play to Z, the board game publisher created by Z-Man Games founder Zev Schlasinger, have all been selected by Asmodee to produce new Lord of the Rings titles.

They are joined by dice and tabletop accessories maker Sirius Dice, and Game Toppers, which announced separately that it will be creating Lord of the Rings-themed gaming tables, mats and other accessories.

Individual projects from most of those publishers are still under wraps, although last month Stone Blade announced it would be bringing a Lord of the Rings-themed version of its Ascension deckbuilding game to Gamefound.

Asmodee has had an impressive run of success with Lord of the Rings-themed releases in the last couple of years, with games including 7 Wonders Duel-reworking Duel for Middle Earth, The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick-Taking Game, and Matt Leacock’s pandemic-inspired Fate of the Fellowship all picking up both critical acclaim and a string of awards.

The board game giant was previously the sister company of Middle-earth Enterprises when both businesses were owned by video games major Embracer Group, before Asmodee was spun off as an independent operation early last year.

When Asmodee was given power over the tabletop licence by Middle-earth Enterprises last October, the initial reaction from some publishers was that they would struggle to get a look in, with Asmodee likely to reserve the best opportunities for Lord of the Rings releases for itself.

Speaking to BoardGameWire a couple of weeks after Asmodee became manager of the licence for tabletop, however, Luke Peterschmidt – the tabletop veteran tasked with running the Middle-earth operation at the company – was at pains to quash that line of thinking.

He said at the time, “Our job is to make the right number of Middle-earth games at the right pace, so that every game has space to breathe, and there is a Middle-earth game or gaming accessory for every type of game.

“That’s the mission, and no part of that mission says, ‘and Asmodee makes all the games’.”

He added, “It is absolutely fair to have that thought in your head, and it’s our job to prove that thought wrong. And, I mean, literally nothing I say, I think, could convince anybody other than action. So yeah, it’s got to be the action, we’ve got to follow it up.”

In a statement announcing the first slate of partner companies, Peterschmidt said, “There may be The One Ring to rule them all, but it takes many publishers to satisfy the gaming needs of The Lord of the Rings fans and I’m sure each of our partners are going to do their part in that quest.”

Asmodee’s own Lord of the Rings-themed releases this year are currently set to include The Lord of the Rings: The King’s Gambit, which its studio Space Cowboys is developing in partnership with Restoration Games.

That title is a reimagining of turn-of-the-millennium Avalon Hill release Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit, which is based around four battles that take place during the events of Star Wars film The Phantom Menace.

Publishers interested in pitching a Middle-earth game to Asmodee can do so by emailing METTGlicensing@asmodee.com.

The post Asmodee unveils first slate of publishers picked to make new Lord of the Rings games first appeared on .

Co-op designs The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship and Vantage put in a powerful showing in this year’s Golden Geek Awards, winning five categories between them and scoring another five runner-up successes.

Pandemic creator Matt Leacock’s spin-off creation The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship took home the awards for medium game of the year, best thematic game and best co-op at the 20th annual Golden Geeks, which are selected and voted on by BoardGameGeek users from games released in the prior year.

Co-op open-world exploration game Vantage, designed by Scythe and Viticulture creator Jamey Stegmaier, won the innovative game prize and best solo game awards, while Jon Perry’s chaotic mascot racer Hot Streak triumphed in the best party game and light game of the year categories.

The much sought after heavy game of the year title went to Galactic Cruise, while The Old King’s Crown secured the artwork and presentation award, Toy Battle took best 2-player game and Star Wars: Battle of Hoth best wargame.

Fate of the Fellowship’s flurry of wins and runner-up nods continues a powerful run in the Golden Geeks for games based on JRR Tolkien’s seminal novels, with Bryan Bornmueller’s The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick-Taking Game and Antoine Bauza and Bruno Cathala’s Duel for Middle-earth both having secured wins in last year’s contest.

All of those Lord of the Rings titles were published by studios at board game giant Asmodee – which last October announced it had been named manager of the hugely lucrative Middle-earth licence for tabletop games and accessories.

Questions naturally abounded within the industry about what that would mean for other publishers hoping to create The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings-based titles – but Luke Peterschmidt, the tabletop veteran tasked with running the Middle-earth operation at Asmodee, sat down with BoardGameWire at Spiel Essen last year to outline his vision for the IP, what they want from publishers in terms of pitches, and how they hope to prove naysayers of the deal wrong.

No game based on The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings had won a Golden Geek prior to last year’s awards, despite multiple nominations for Journeys in Middle-Earth in 2019, Battle of the Five Armies in 2014 and The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game in 2012.

Fate of the Fellowship winning the co-op award marked the second year running that a Lord of the Rings game has triumphed in the category, after Bryan Bornmueller’s The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick-Taking Game took home the prize in 2025.

Despite the high-profile successes of two co-operative titles in this year’s Golden Geeks, the results were less positive for co-op fantasy adventuring game Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread – which failed to convert any of its six nominations into wins or runner-up placings.

Sci-fi and space-themed games were notably everywhere again across this year’s awards, continuing a trend from 2025 which ended in multiple wins for Arcs and SETI.

In addition to win for Star Wars: Battle of Hoth and Galactic Cruise, SETI’s expansion Space Agencies won expansion of the year award in this year’s Golden Geeks, while there were two runner-up places for Star Trek: Captain’s Chair, and runner-up nods for Moon Colony Bloodbath and Dune: Imperium – Bloodlines.

Elsewhere in this year’s awards, Dungeons of the Oak Dell won best print and play game, Board Game Hot Takes secured best podcast and Ark Nova took home the best digital app prize.

Speaking about Vantage’s multiple wins and nominations, designer Jamey Stegmaier – who spent about eight years designing and playtesting the title – told BoardGameWire, “I’m just happy for the opportunity to bring a little joy to people through our games, and I’m honored that my labor of love, Vantage, was able to do that for the people who selected it for the Golden Geek Awards.”

Fate of the Fellowship creator Matt Leacock said, “Designing The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship was such a rewarding experience for me. I’m so pleased that players are continuing to enjoy it and using it to write their own stories with each other.

“So many things came together with this product: the creative direction, development, illustration, paper engineering, graphic design, sculpting, and marketing. I want to extend my congratulations to the entire team that brought it to life.”

The 20th Annual Golden Geek Awards results in full:

2-Player Game
Winner: Toy Battle
Runner-up: Tag Team
Runner-up: Star Trek: Captain’s Chair

Artwork & Presentation
Winner: The Old King’s Crown
Runner-up: Galactic Cruise
Runner-up: The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship

Cooperative Game
Winner: The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship
Runner-up: Vantage
Runner-up: Eternal Decks

Expansion
Winner: SETI: Space Agencies
Runner-up: Lost Ruins of Arnak: Twisted Paths
Runner-up: Dune: Imperium – Bloodlines

Innovative
Winner: Vantage
Runner-up: Moon Colony Bloodbath
Runner-up: Hot Streak

Light GOTY
Winner: Hot Streak
Runner-up: Magical Athlete
Runner-up: Toy Battle

Medium GOTY
Winner: The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship
Runner-up: Moon Colony Bloodbath
Runner-up: Vantage

Heavy GOTY
Winner: Galactic Cruise
Runner-up: Speakeasy
Runner-up: Luthier

Party Game
Winner: Hot Streak
Runner-up: Magical Athlete
Runner-up: Take Time

Print & Play
Winner: Dungeons of the Oak Dell
Runner-up: Rise of the Oak Dell
Runner-up: 52 Duels

Solo Game
Winner: Vantage
Runner-up: The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship
Runner-up: Star Trek: Captain’s Chair

Thematic Game
Winner: The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship
Runner-up: Galactic Cruise
Runner-up: Vantage

Wargame
Winner: Star Wars: Battle of Hoth
Runner-up: Toy Battle
Runner-up: Cross Bronx Expressway

Best Podcast
Winner: Board Game Hot Takes
Runner-up: Space-Biff! Space-Cast!
Runner-up: Five Games for Doomsday

Best Board Game App
Winner: Ark Nova
Runner-up: Cascadia Digital
Runner-up: MicroMacro: Downtown Detective

The post Co-op titles Fate of the Fellowship, Vantage dominate 20th Golden Geek Awards, Hot Streak scores pair of wins first appeared on .

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It’s long been said that we’re the foremost experts in knowing which way the awards winds blow, so we’re putting our talents to use guessing, nay, predicting, nay, deciding who the winners in the Golden Geeks are going to be. Before we geek out, we talk about Chronicles of Crime: 2400, Quarto, and Shackleton Base: A Journey to the Moon.

If you don’t want to miss an episode, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts/Google Podcasts/Stitcher/Spotify, or add our RSS feed to your favourite app. Reviews and subscriptions really help us and would be greatly appreciated! To download the episode directly, click here.

If you’d like to discuss anything in the episode, please do so in the comments below, visit our BoardGameGeek guild, join our Discord, or Facebook Group! Any feedback is also always helpful. If you’d like to show your support for the show, we also have a Patreon with some fun rewards, and a merch store!

Timecodes:

04:07 – Chronicles of Crime: 2400
12:00 – Quarto
16:13 – Shackleton Base: A Journey to the Moon
30:16 – Golden Geeks 2025

Thank you to Heart Society for generously letting us use What’s On Your Mind, Kid? from their album Wake the Queens.

If you don’t want to miss an episode, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts/Google Podcasts/Stitcher/Spotify, or add our RSS feed to your favourite app. Reviews and subscriptions really help us and would be greatly appreciated! To download the episode directly, click here.

If you’d like to discuss anything in the episode, please do so in the comments below, visit our BoardGameGeek guild, join our Discord, or Facebook Group! Any feedback is also always helpful. If you’d like to show your support for the show, we also have a Patreon with some fun rewards, and a merch store!

Timecodes:

04:07 – Chronicles of Crime: 2400
12:00 – Quarto
16:13 – Shackleton Base: A Journey to the Moon
30:16 – Golden Geeks 2025

Thank you to Heart Society for generously letting us use What’s On Your Mind, Kid? from their album Wake the Queens.