The 2011 Basement Awards! - Nomination Thread

[Batman]

Is that your not-so-subtle hint towards CGI remakes of your once great classic posts, superimposed with Hayden Christensen?

Or am I looking too much into it?

 

[Hound55]

Hayden Christiansen = Harry Osborne..?

 

[Harlekin]

I want more '72 Chevy nominations, damn it!

 

[Byrd Man]

I want more '72 Chevy nominations, damn it!

Co-signed.

 

[Batman]

Contrary to what I said, I actually stupidly forgot generously kept the thread open for two days longer than a week. Needless to say, nominations are now closed. Here is the final ballot:

Overall MVP (In All Categories)

wiegeabo

Byrd Man

MVP (Marvel Games)

Eddie Brock

Andy C.

MVP (DC Games)

Batman

wiegeabo

Byrd Man

MVP (Misc Games)

NiteMare Shape

Hound55

trustyside-kick

RPG Lifetime Achievement Award

trustyside-kick

Harlekin

MST3K_4ever

Batman

Byrd

RPG of the Year

One Earth

Ultimate DC

Create-A-Hero

Best Game Master Award

wiegeabo

NiteMare Shape

Breakout Player of the Year

Carnage27

Erin

sabetoonth

Most Improved Player

sumowrestler

Carnage27

sabetoonth

Bounce

Best Newcomer

Erin

Nicodemus

Best Multiple PC Story Arc

DCU vs. Grodd (WOH)

'72 Chevy (ASM)

S.T.R.I.K.E. Strikes! (CAH)

Ultimate JLA/Dr. Destiny (UDC)

Best Solo Story Arc

Dick Grayson's Journey (Andy C., UDC)

The ****tastic Adventures of Howard The Duck (Rain Dog, ASM)

Frankenstein, Agent Of S.H.A.D.E (Watchman, WF)

Invisible Man's New Role (wiegeabo, CAH)

Suicide Squad (Byrd Man, UDC)

Lex Luthor's Journey (Andy C., UDC)

Best Hero

The Atom (MST3K_4ever, UDC)

Mister Fantastic (Byrd Man, All-Star Marvel)

Ultimate Batman (Batman, UDC)

Vigilante (Hound55, CAH)

Ultimate Flash (Byrd Man, UDC)

All-Star Spidey (Andy C., ASM)

Best "Walking The Line" Character:

Damian Wayne (Bounce, WOH/WF)

Superboy (Bounce, UDC)

Invisible Man (wiegeabo, CAH)

Edward Nygma (Byrd Man, UDC)

Howard The Duck (Rain Dog, ASM)

Best Villain

Gorilla Grodd (SuperFerret, WoH)

Bane (Spike, UDC)

Dylan Chambers (MST3K, CAH)

Director Anderson (NiteMare Shape, CAH)

Best Developed Character

Dick Grayson (Andy C, UDC)

The Atom (MST3K_4ever, UDC)

Icon (NiteMare Shape, CAH)

Pinup (Erin, CAH)

Edward Nygma (Byrd, UDC)

The Archangel (trustyside-kick, CAH)

Best Team-Up:

The Justice League (WoH)

Prophets of the Unknown (trustyside-kick, Carnage27, sabetoonth)

The Guardians (CAH)

Ultimate Justice League (Spike_x1, Batman, Andy C., Byrd Man, MST3K_4ever)

Best Fight

Bane vs. Batman II (Batman, Byrd Man, Spike_x1)

Jason Todd vs. Batman & Damian (trustyside-kick, Byrd Man, Bounce)

Guardians vs. STRIKE and Hazard (CAH)

Archangel vs. STRIKE (trustyside-kick)

Best Post

The Joker's Wild (Keyser Soze, WOH)

Damian Wayne Goes Ape-S*** (Bounce, WOH)

Vigilante Gets In Deep ***** (Hound 55, CAH)

The Bat is Broken (Batman, UDC)

- - -

Now, I'm not 100% sure if I'm going to do it exactly like Byrd did and have people PM me their choices, since people essentially had 9 days to throw up their own nominations.

I may try and PM people who didn't vote aswell and get more imput towards the winners, but I'm also hesitant to do that due to people's general annoyance for being sent stuff they didn't take part in.

(To which I say, **** you! You wanna play in these games, it won't hurt to take part! Self-serving bastards. )

Either way, I'm definitely not going to be able to get the list of winners to trusty before the 1st - and he's gone until Wednesday anyway, so there's that. But the winners will definitely be announced in the first half of January.

Thanks to everyone who submitted nominations! Since that period of the awards is now over, I'll throw up my own for fun later tonight. They'll have no bearing on the final ballot, I just want to dish out some well deserved props. t:

 

[Byrd Man]

PM them no-nomming *****es. Thy can still vote!

 

[Bounce]

Well, ****.

I feel terrible for not seeing this sooner. With the crappy wi-fi I'm working with here in Sandland, I typically go straight to the RP forums so that I can load the thread before the connection starts crapping out on me.

Thank you for all the props. It's genuinely appreciated and I wish I could have had the opportunity to dish out some of my own (I still might, like MB).

 

[Batman]

Well, you'll still be able to vote. I'm just gonna go ahead and send out the ballot to everyone who's still an active part of any RPG.

 

[Batman]

As promised, my non-effective-to-the-ballot awards

OOC Awards

Overall MVP (In All Categories): Byrd Man
Yeah, a pretty typical choice, but I stand by it wholeheartedly. It's actually hard to imagine an RPG forum that existed without that insufferable bastard around to kick our asses into posting, and it's harder still to imagine where the RPG's would be without his prescence. Whether they would have even survived this long is questionable, as Byrd puts his all into making sure that not only are we doing our absolute best to maintain consistency, but that he's doing his best to never fall prey to those same pitfalls. You'll never see Byrd slacking off, and you sure as hell won't ever hear him tell it anything less than how it is.

MVP (Marvel Games): Andy C.
What can I say? The guy was a powerhouse in All-Star. Never once did I ever give any thought to the decision to hand the reigns of that RPG over to anyone else, and I wasn't disappointed in the least. One could almost say that without Andy as a shining example of the RPG's potential, ASM would have never made it past it's first season. And even though it eventually went under, it only did so with Andy kicking and screaming along the way, fighting for the game's survival until it's dying breath. If any new game based on the House of Ideas ever gets launched, you can bet that Andy'll be there.

MVP (DC Games): MST3K_4ever
Is there anyone that honestly posts as much as this guy? Maybe Byrd, but the two just barely edge eachother out. And I think that I speak for most when I say that there's nowhere that MST shines more than when he's playing a DC game. Whether it's his quirky, yet charming and unique take on The Atom in Ultimate DC, his classic run as Lex Luthor in World of Heroes, or his soon to be revered take on everyone's favorite Clown Prince of Crime in World's Finest, no one can ever deny that MST brings a stark amount of character to each role he effortlessly wields under his arsenal of many interpretations lent to iconic roles.

MVP (Misc Games): wiegeabo
There's no one who can quite literally prove he's read every single scrap of text that we dole out in each and every IC thread than wieg. Whether he's playing in one of the unfortunately few games that he's actually portraying a character in or not, the man is second to none when it comes to writing up those damn activity lists. Sometimes it's the little things that go unnoticed, and I want to make sure that wieg's committment to weeding out the lazy ****ers among us is not one of those instances. Now start playing in more games, goddammit.

RPG Lifetime Achievement Award: twylight
You know what? I don't have any problem admitting it. twylight is lightyears ahead of writing than I'll ever be. She's far too modest to admit that herself, but when you look back on her long career as a fellow member of the Basement, you kind of start to feel yourself picking apart your own work in comparison to her expert characterization and attention to detail. In a section of the forums where members of the opposite gender are few and far between, twy stands apart as a fiercely respected and legitimately spectacular writer regardless of the fact, schooling us all in many ways on what it means to be a hardcore RP'er.

RPG of the Year: One Earth: The Marvel/DC RPG
I could have easily nominated Ultimate DC after what I considered to be a stellar second season, but wow, did One Earth manage to remind me of what I loved about the most basic concepts of a RPG. That feeling of limitless storytelling potential, the sensation of writing your first in-game post in a first season, choosing a big character that you had your first dibs on and getting to live out whatever tale you wanted with them. That's the excitement I felt in OE, a game expertly crafted after One Universe's unfortunate fall after many years of succession to be much more than a simple relaunch. The game, for all intents and purposes, feels different - hell, it even plays different - than OU ever did and manages to encapsulate a tone of it's own. I don't know how or why that is, but I like it. Here's hoping that this RPG stands the test of time and gives us many more future award-winning moments and characters.

Best Game Master Award: Carnage27
It's hard to nominate an award like this, because it's really vague in it's meaning. What classifies a great Game Master? What does a GM have to do in order to be eligible? Well, whatever it is, there's a good bet that this newly minted GM of One Earth and the former GM of One Universe: Independents fits the qualifications. In our interactions so far, Carnage has been nothing but kind and generous to his fellow players, weighing out each decision he makes with careful thought and regard to whatever or whoever he has to deal with. An adept leader is all that a game really requires to succeed, and I have faith that Carnage can be that for OE.

Breakout Player of the Year: Bounce
Last year, he was the new kid on the block that everyone was talking about. This year, and he's firmly ingrained himself as apart of each game that he participates in as apart of it's lifeblood. While it's true that he only really plays two characters (that I know of), both of whom happen to be very much two sides of the same coin, Bounce is anything but a pushover when it comes to writing characters. Because he doesn't just write characters, he builds whole universes around them. His Lor-Zod/Superboy has his own mythos around him, with goverment agents flanking his every move and dicating the poor kid's life like he's a puppet, and it makes for a very engaging read. Then you have Damian Wayne, who is every bit the spitting image of his relatively new comic book counterpart, and just as much a brat. Yet it's Bounce's authenticity that brings it all home, never one to pander down to his audience or failing to make his characters exciting to read.

Most Improved Player: Carnage27
You know, I don't recall the last time that a player made such a radical transition from fairly decent player to one of the mainstays of the forums. My first memories of Carnage come from his Nightcrawler portrayal from OU, which - while not at all bad, never really caught my attention. He knew how to write Nightcrawler, and that was about all that he played back then. Cut to now, and he's Captain freaking America! And one of the best that the forums have ever seen, infact. I'm actually happy that my brief flirtation with the idea of playing Cap in OE was dashed whenever Carnage put forth his app, because man, has he made it a fun read for these days of OE's infancy. The game's barely a month old, and he's already telling a tale that feels like it's been unravelling for months. That takes serious skill, and Carnage proved to us several times this year that he has it.

Best Newcomer: Erin
While I've yet to actually rejoin the game (I intend to one day), the talk of CAH has become about this one. Feeling curious, I once checked out the IC thread to get feel for all of the new blood that had come along, and one of the most shockingly good players in there was Erin. It's rare that a newbie comes along and manages to intergrate themselves in the game without tons of practice as a headstart and some fairly mediocre work before cutting their teeth, but Erin seems to be a natural. Here's hoping she can eventually branch out and become one of the premier players of these games, because I'd love to work with her on any basis.

IC Awards

Best Multiple PC Story Arc: Destiny's Wrath (Ultimate DC - Spike_x1/Byrd Man/MST3K4_ever/Batman)
You know, I'll admit that as much as I liked finally bringing together an Ultimate Justice League in the first season, there was this lingering feeling of emptiness whenever we had. I don't know whether it was the arc that felt off or the delayed pace in which it was accomplished, but whatever it was, it left me kind of jaded towards the idea of another big League arc so soon after the last. But holy crap, Spike delivered. Spike delivered beyond what I could have imagined, infact, at helping those of us playing as apart of the League live out our true potential as these iconic heroes by introducing such a sinister threat that made Star'ro look like a mild rash. There's no other villain that can effect a team like the League on such a personal note and get away with it, and depending on your point of view, Destiny certainly did. Who knows if she'll ever return to haunt the League again, but if she does - we're gonna have hell to pay.

Best Solo Story Arc: The Fall of Edward Nygma (Ultimate DC - Byrd Man)
You know, Byrd actually told me months in advance that he had an end in mind for his stellar run with the character of Edward Nygma. Once I got past my inevitable disappointment that he simply wouldn't play him forever, I began to wonder what that end would actually entail. Most of my speculation, based off of Byrd's hints, was that it'd end with Nygma either jailed or killed in suicide. I mean, he had done some pretty wicked things over the span of two seasons - killing several people, helping someone actually cover up a murder, setting fire to the home of Harvey Dent and severely burning the man's fiancee. It had to end badly for the guy. And sure enough, it did, but in a way I would have never expected. Yet in a way that was so beautifully fitting to Byrd's vastly different take on the Prince of Puzzles, capping off a reign of terror with an ironic fate that left his many victims more than vindicated. If you ever get the chance, I recommend taking some time out of your day to go back and read any of Byrd's posts in UDC with that Nygma banner over them. It's fascinating to go through the journey of seeing his rise and fall as the most unreadable bastard to come out of the Ultimate Gotham mythos.

Best Hero: The Question (UDC - Byrd Man)
Yeah, I'm a bit biased in giving so many nominations to UDC, sue me. But Byrd's Question is one of the many reasons that I love it so much. You take a guy like The Question, hardly diginified in any means of his long history in the DCU, and make him even less dignified than he already is and you have automatic comedy gold. I began the year in the midst of a team-up with Ult. Q as Batman, and it was the most fun I had all year. His comedic timing, his pension for screaming like a girl and cowardly leaping out of the way of gunfire, and his signature catchphrase - "I'm not Rorschach!" - are just a few of the many staples that I still reference to Byrd in private conversation even to this day. And yet even with his comedic elements, Question still manages to come out on top as a great detective and, at times, even a badass crimefighter.

Best "Walking The Line" Character: Damian Wayne (WF - Bounce)
One thing that always annoys me about current comics is whenever a writer takes on a character he's obviously fairly unfamiliar with, and tries to write them without any semblance of their mannerisms or character. It's happened a couple of times already with Damian Wayne, which is understandable, given his only recently minted status as Robin. Bounce has none of those issues. From every "-tt-" to the little insults he dishes out to anyone and everything he comes across, there's no truer to form, all-encompassing depicition of such a recent character than Bounce's Damian.

Best Villain: Bane (Ultimate DC - Spike_x1)
If this summer's The Dark Knight Rises is any indication, Bane's about to go through a bit of a regenesis. But I'll always be proud to know that way before Christopher Nolan ever selected him as the mainstay villain to follow the unfollowable act of Ledger's Joker, Spike was hard at work bringing Bane's potential as a menace to the forefront of the Ultimate DC Universe. For seasons on end, counting the first iteration of the game, he's patiently waited and hounded Batman from every corner of Gotham, and we finally managed to play out his righteous vengeance against Bruce Wayne for a great pain that was endured from beyond the far corners of the Earth. Spike's Bane manages to make even the comic book version of Bane look tame in both motivations and drive, and I seriously don't think that as much as Nolan will try to make Bane a credible villain to Batman's pantheon of movie foes, it'll match the sheer awesomeness of Spike's fantastic portrayal.

Best Developed Character: Ultimate Dick Grayson (Ultimate DC - Andy C.)
I mean, what hasn't been said already? Andy took a character that had already gone through three big players in their own right and turned it into his own, fleshing out Dick Grayson's character to a point that no matter how it happens, I'm positively giddy thinking about the idea of bringing together Batman and Robin as the team that they were meant to be. But what makes Andy's take so great is that he took what came before, and without negating a single instance of it, turned in his own interpretation of Dick that was rich with all of the quirks and teenage humility that he's made famous with his version of Peter Parker and enhanced it with an edge, a darker quality that's reminicent of the Batman mythos themselves, making this version of a character we all know and love seem almost counterbalanced. Without sounding trite, Andy's made us all want a little more Dick in our lives.

Best Team-Up: The X-Men (One Earth - Byrd Man, Carnage27, SuperFerret, Supergirl, Batman)
It'd be hard to ignore a great team when you see it, and One Earth already has the best of the year, in my opinion. Take everything you know about the X-Men and what makes them great, and I feel like you have it in this group of characters. We've only gone through one arc, but if the quality and fastpaced back-and-forths of that one was any indication, we're in for several more that I'd be very excited to be apart of.

Best Fight: Superman vs. The Justice League (Ultimate DC - Spike_x1/Byrd Man/MST3K4_ever/Batman)
A slight rehash of my Best Multiple PC nomination, this is where it all came to a head. The Man of Steel, blinded by his visions brought about by the villain of the piece, is on a rampage through a foreign nation and renders their defenses powerless to stop them. In steps the Justice League, freed of Dr. Destiny's control and willing to put their lives at risk to stop him at any cost, pushing themselves both physically and mentally to bring Superman back to his senses and make him realize that what he's doing is against everything he believes. If that premise doesn't get you excited, you have issues.

Best Post: Nygma Comes Clean
For me, this was the quintessential moment that brought one of the most epic runs on a WTL character to a head. And furthermore, it was also the easiest award to decide on. With Byrd's Nygma, all you ever had to do was sit back, relax, and let the master tell his tale.

 

[trustyside-kick]

Twy won the achievement award the first year. Tied with I think SF or something. Just saying.

 

[trustyside-kick]

And I know that for some reason what you posted isn't being considered. Though I don't understand why.

 

[Byrd Man]

His excuse is that he shouldn't nominate anyone since he's counting the votes. I just used that excuse in the pas because I was too lazy to nominate anyone!

 

[trustyside-kick]

I think everyone should vote. Just make your vote before they come in, and your conscience should be clear. Be the first to vote.

 

[Batman]

Right, so I've been busy lately, didn't mention it when I should have. But voting officially closed on the 6th. I'll be counting the ballots in both my PM box and in this thread before submitting the official tally to trusty for award-creations. Whenever those are done, I'll announce the winners.

Good luck to all.

 

[trustyside-kick]

Awards are ready.

 

[Batman]

It's showtime...