{"id":6889,"date":"2026-07-06T11:22:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T10:22:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/?p=6889"},"modified":"2026-07-07T11:30:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T10:30:49","slug":"hot-streak-speakeasy-fate-of-the-fellowship-among-this-years-origins-awards-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/06\/hot-streak-speakeasy-fate-of-the-fellowship-among-this-years-origins-awards-winners\/","title":{"rendered":"Hot Streak, Speakeasy, Fate of the Fellowship among this year’s Origins Awards winners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Editor\u2019s note: GAMA is one of the sponsors of the BoardGameWire newsletter<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0Origins Awards<\/a>, one of tabletop gaming\u2019s longest-running prizes voted on by industry professionals, has crowned its latest group of winners after whittling them down from 120 nominees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jon Perry\u2019s\u00a0Hot Streak<\/a>\u00a0continues 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<\/a> wins, casual game of the year\u00a0in the American Tabletop Awards<\/a>, and a \u2018recommended\u2019 accolade in the Spiel des Jahres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matt Leacock<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship<\/a>, built on the DNA of his global hit Pandemic, doubled down on its own Golden Geek Award wins<\/a> by being named cooperative\/solo Game of the Year, while Vital Lacerda’s design Speakeasy<\/a> took the Heavy Strategy Game of the Year award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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Railroad Tiles<\/a>, designed by Hjalmar Hach and Lorenzo Silva<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

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Festus The Leech Lord<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

The awards, which are organised by\u00a0non-profit trade organisation\u00a0GAMA<\/a>,\u00a0came under fire earlier this year for failing to mention any of the games\u2019 designers for the third year in a row<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2013 with the make-up of those categories significantly shaken up from year to year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\u00a0those segments were quickly dropped again in 2025<\/a>, with categories cut including Best Media Production, Best Game Related Writing and Best 2D Artwork \u2013 although the miniatures segment was expanded from two categories to three, covering games, the miniatures themselves, and paint and accessories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Separate from the main slate of awards, the trade organisation also revealed its hall of fame entrants this year, awarded \u2013 like the Origins Awards \u2013 by its division the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AAGAD describes itself as \u201ca 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\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magic: The Gathering, Pathfinder RPG and Dungeons & Dragons artist Wayne Reynolds was also inducted into the hall of fame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Origins Awards 2026 – Full Results<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gateway Game of the Year<\/strong>
Railroad Tiles
Publisher: Horrible Guild
Designers: Hjalmar Hach and Lorenzo Silva
Artists: Francesco De Benedittis and Barla Tranquilli<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Party Game of the Year<\/strong>
Hot Streak
Publisher: CMYK
Designer: Jon Perry
Artist: C\u00e9cile Gari\u00e9py<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Light Strategy Game of the Year<\/strong>
Winter Rabbit
Publisher: Absurdist Productions
Designer: Will Thompson
Artists: Kindra Swafford and Jonni Ketcher<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heavy Strategy Game of the Year<\/strong>
Speakeasy
Publisher: Eagle-Gryphon Games
Designer: Vital Lacerda
Artist: Ian O’Toole<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Roleplaying Game of the Year<\/strong>
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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roleplaying Game Supplement of the Year<\/strong>
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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miniatures Game of the Year<\/strong>
Blood Bowl Third Season Edition
Publisher: Games Workshop<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miniature of the Year<\/strong>
Warhammer: Age of Sigmar – Festus, The Leech Lord
Publisher: Games Workshop<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paint\/Hobby Accessory of the Year<\/strong>
Goblin Hobbies Stampin\u2019 Plates
Producer: Goblin Hobbies
Designed by: Brent Amberger and Casey Alden<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fixed Constructible Game of the Year<\/strong>
Riftbound: Proving Grounds
Publisher: UVS Games & Riot Games
Designers: David Smith and Jon Moormann<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Randomized Constructible Game of the Year<\/strong>
Gudnak: Expansion Bundle
Publisher: Chaotic Great Games
Designer: Tim O\u2019Brien and Ian Oliver
Artist: Vittoria Pompolani<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fan Favorite Game of the Year<\/strong>
Shard Bugs
Publisher: Shard Bugs LLC
Designer: Luis Silva
Artists: Ray of Sand, Nelygibi, Julio E. J\u00e1come Paz, Mar\u00eda Ayuso, Alma Faustica, Pietro Desir\u00f2, Ninamarie, Steve Ozminkowski, Erick Mezart<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more stories like this direct to your email inbox, click here to sign up for BoardGameWire’s free email newsletter. \n\nAnd if you’ve found our reporting interesting or useful, please consider a paid subscription to help support our journalism!<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0awards, one of tabletop gaming\u2019s longest-running prizes voted on by industry professionals, has crowned its latest group of winners after whittling them down from 120 nominees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2093,16,6,135,1600,2108,2276,149,1586,2455,1111,2454,182,2088,30,2471,2473],"class_list":["post-6889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-2093","tag-award","tag-board-game","tag-board-games","tag-designers","tag-fate-of-the-fellowship","tag-hot-streak","tag-miniatures","tag-origins-awards","tag-origins-game-fair","tag-publishers","tag-railroad-tiles","tag-rpg","tag-speakeasy","tag-tcg","tag-winners","tag-winter-rabbit"],"blocksy_meta":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t