News Roundup: Ennies and Bankruptcies

Welcome to this week’s roundup of TTRPG news! The Ennies released their list of 2025 nominees, and publishers are facing some significant economic losses due to the bankruptcy of Diamond Comic Distributors.

Table of Contents

1. Ennies Nominees of 2025 Unveiled

2. Diamond Comics Liquidates TTRPG Assets With No Ben …

3. In Other News

4. Stories of the Week

Ennies Nominees of 2025 Unveiled

The Ennies have arrived! The award organization announced the nominees on July 4th and who is up for consideration. The Ennies, for those not following the industry, is one of the most significant awards for TTRPG creators. Creators submit their work and a panel of judges reviews the texts to determine what stands out amongst them all. It was created in 2001 by the news outlet EN World as an online award ceremony but has since become a full part of Gen Con.

The results are expected to be revealed on August 1, 2025, at GenCon (where TTRPG Insider will be covering the event in person.)

The awards that caught my eye and that I will be keeping a close eye on are the following:

Product of the Year

• Doomsong, Caesar Ink

• Land of Eem Deluxe Box Set, Exalted Funeral Press

• Memento Mori Deathless Edition, Two Little Mice

• Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme – Sensible Middle Class Edition, Exalted Funeral Press

• Mythic Bastionland, Bastionland Press

• Revolt!, Jason Price

• The Last Caravan, Mythworks

• The One Ring: Moria – Through the Doors of Durin, Free League Publishing

• Triangle Agency: Normal Briefcase Collection, Haunted Table

• Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast, Possum Creek Games

Best Writing

• Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme – Sensible Middle Class Edition, Exalted Funeral Press

• The Bird Oracle, Shing Yin Khor

• The Details of Our Escape, Possible Worlds Games

•  Triangle Agency, Haunted Table

•  Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast, Possum Creek Games

You can check out the full list of nominees below. Congratulations to all who were selected, and I wish them all luck.

I also want to highlight an interesting take from Emily Friedman, an English professor who studies actual play content, which makes a case that the Ennies need to rethink their approach to digital media.

Diamond Comics Liquidates TTRPG Assets With No Benefit to Publisher

Diamond Comic Distributors is one of the largest distributors in the TTRPG space, helping to move products and get them into stores for hundreds of comic book and gaming creators across the United States. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2025, and the ensuing legal process has been complex and messy, with auctions selling off parts of the company to competitors.

Things get complicated with a June 25 filing, where Diamond informed the bankruptcy court that it intended to liquidate all of the inventory held on consignment to help pay off its $41 million debt. This means that the company will sell the products provided by retailers and publishers to Diamond on a consignment basis, which were initially intended for distribution through larger channels such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The affected publishers (who include Paizo, Roll for Combat, and Green Ronin) will not be making back any money from these books and will essentially be losing money.

Roll for Combat, for example, will be losing an estimated $50,000 worth of books (15% of its inventory), the CEO said in a YouTube video. Attempting to reprint and redistribute these books will not be an easy experience, especially in the current state of the economy.

Paizo also echoed these concerns, noting in a July 2 blog post that consumers should note a delay in access to its newer games on Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

“We expect Pathfinder and Starfinder products to remain unavailable through book trade channels for several months as Paizo determines our next steps and this matter works its way through the bankruptcy court,” Paizo CEO Jim Butler wrote. “The best thing you can do to help Paizo and the 100+ publishers caught up in the Diamond bankruptcy is to order from them directly or go to your local game store and ask them to preorder upcoming releases so you’ll have them on launch day.”

The entire event will be pretty disruptive to the industry, so we’ll have to wait and see how it unfolds.

If you’re interested in the legal details of the case, Bleeding Cool has a fairly lengthy timeline for the bankruptcy’s impact on comic distributors so far.

In Other News

Humble Bundle went hard this week with two TTRPG bundles. First up was Monte Cook Games’ Numenara setting, which is like a post-earth sci-fi fantasy setting that I cannot stop hearing old-school gamers talk about how much they like. The second is the Roll Big or Go Home bundle, which features 57 titles from publishers such as Magpie Games, Cubicle 7, Mythworks, and Chaosium for $40. Essentially, if you're looking for a sampler of the rules for some of the most prominent TTRPGs in the industry, this is a steal.

Paste Magazine (which is secretly buying up the best parts of the culture news community) shut down its gaming section, only to relaunch it as Endless Mode. And this new website features TTRPG and board gaming news! I know this is a niche thing to get excited about, but providing support for more board gaming and TTRPG news is something I am desperate to see.

How do doctors utilize wargames and tabletop simulations to prepare for health disasters? Aaron Voigt wrote about it in a fascinating deep dive over at Rascal News.

The Australian clothing company Blackmilk is launching a second round of D&D-themed fashion items on July 8. We’re talking full-on dresses and outfits, not just graphic t-shirts.

Stories of the Week

This week, we spoke to The Ultimate RPG author James D’Amato about his approach to communicating TTRPG ideas to the common reader.

We also did some math and determined the top ten biggest crowdfunding campaigns of 2025 (so far.)

And that is all for this week! Feel free to send us tips or emails at [email protected].