GAME MASTER AWARDS – HISTORICON
From the HMGS East www.HMGS.org Awards Committee

Convention Theme: “Empires at War” – Colonial Warfare, Imperialism and Gunboat Diplomacy, 1836-1937

The Historical Miniatures Gaming Society (HMGS) encourages all “Game Masters (GM’s) to demonstrate their “A Game!” at HISTORICON 2012 and support the GM Awards program. The GM Awards program is intended to recognize GMs who exemplify the highest qualities of Historical Miniatures gaming and encourage others to follow those examples. The GM Awards will be as follows.

• “Best Theme Event” Award: Selected from the top Theme games
• “Best of Show” Award: Selected from all PELA Winners (see below)
• ”Pour Encourager Les Autres (PELA)” Awards: Are for all historical based miniatures events, and selected morning, afternoon and evening each day
• “Battle Star Award”: All convention events, individuals, and activities are eligible to receive this award, which is presented by members of the HMGS Legion of Honor, who are always looking for a unique event to recognize

GM AWARD EVALUATION

Award recipients are selected by a judging team of their peers, led by a past award-winning GM. Normally, several teams of 3-5 judges cover the various time periods for each day, and report their findings.

HMGS PELA Awards are intended for traditional open Game Mastered, participation, Historical, Miniatures events, one each (i.e., if one GM gets two awards for the exact same event, then one other deserving GM cannot be recognized). However, one GM or club could receive multiple awards for varied events.

Since judging is inevitably subjective, teams are given general criteria for reference, and encouraged to see all events, and evaluate them based on the following.

• Appearance: Impressive terrain, figures or models
• Participation: Players are visibly enjoying the game, and if an award candidate, several are asked to comment on the game
• Innovation: GM talent, technique or other exceptional methods to produce a unique quality event
• GM Effort: For Large fun games or over a dozen people, or a GM going "above-and-beyond" to run multiple (4+) events

All HMGS GM’s are encouraged to volunteer as judges for one or more time slots. Sign up for a time slot (about a 1-hour commitment) on the Judging Schedule, at the Event/GM Desk at Registration (Main Level of the Convention Center).

To volunteer or for more information please contact: awards@hmgs.org

Note: The GM Evaluation Criteria is also posted in the Files Section of the GM Support Network Yahoo group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GMSN

Pictures from the HMGS East Web Site