User Choice Awards Voting: Best GSRP

Users' Choice Awards 2024 Best GSRP

  • Ordeal By Fire: An Avatar the Last Airbender GSRP

    Votes: 40 35.7%
  • The Shattering War - An Elden Ring GSRP

    Votes: 34 30.4%
  • STAR WARS: Ashes of the Empire V

    Votes: 50 44.6%
  • Turn-Alpha Gundam

    Votes: 35 31.3%
  • Shifting Tide: Universalism and Resistance, a 1596 GSRPG

    Votes: 25 22.3%

  • Total voters
    112
  • Poll closed .
User's Choice Awards Voting: Best GSRP
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This is the voting phase for the 2024 User Choice Awards. Look at the thread titles below to select Award categories to vote in, and help your favourite threads be crowned as UCA champions!
Hello!

Voting opens , and will remain open until . For those of you who are looking for more information on the Users' Choice Awards generally, you can find it in this thread!

In short, the Users' Choice Awards are about celebrating the best and most beloved quests, stories, and other creative wonderfulness on SV, as decided by SV users. The Awards take place in two phases. During the Nomination Phase, almost four hundred nominations were made across nine categories. These have been narrowed down to only five* in each category.

Now, in the Voting Phase, you get to vote to see which is crowned as champion!

*(In the event of multiple nominees tying, then the tied nominees will all go through to voting so long as the total number of nominees does not exceed ten. In this case tied or excess nominees will not be counted. We will adjudicate this so that no tied nominees are ever privileged any other tied nominees, and nominees with the lowest number of votes are always discounted first.)


How Voting Works

Voting will be done via the poll you see right at the top of this thread. You can vote for as many or as few of the nominees as you like, and you can also change your vote if you wish, up until the close of voting. It's just that simple!

Please try to take the time to read the nominees before voting. Each of them had to fight really hard to get here, and they are worth giving a chance!

At , the poll will be closed, and the thread with the highest number of votes will be the winner!

In the event of a tie, we will have joint winners.


Nominees

And now, without further ado, the User Choice Awards Nominee for Best GSRP:

Article:


This thread will serve as a discussion thread for the voting.

Please feel free to discuss the threads you are voting for, and why. Whether it's an impassioned argument for why people should vote for your favourite work, or just some great commentary and analysis, we love to see it, and this is the place for it!
 
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Well I'm going to shill for Ashes V.

It's been a great and long-lasting game, and the GMs are doing a great job keeping it going. I've had an amazing time playing as a total militaristic nutjob and would highly encourage anyone interested in Star Wars to give it a read!
 
It's insanely gratifying to be up on this list alongside everyone else. I've been playing in most of the other games on this list, and I want to encourage anyone who hasn't been to go and give them all a read. The writing for all of these games is incredible, and well worth reading even if you aren't looking to join.
 
Turn Alpha is a best-in-class GSRP in the strangely prolific genre of 'Gundam alt-timeline fanfic' games that pop up in Grand Strategy now and then. BiopunkOrtrera's game is a riff on the 1999 Turn A Gundam and explores similar themes of a post-apocalyptic world that has seen humanity revert from a spacefaring polity to one that has just barely gotten over the hump of early industrialization in its equivalent 1800s after 1000 years of recovery. Where it differs are emphases, with a matured Tomino emphasizing that actually the Earth is our best spaceship and we should stick to it, averting its eyes from the 1970s mysticism of Newtypism and generally just having a great time despite the nature of the conflicts in the series.

Turn Alpha is in contrast, completely insane. Its apocalypse, rather than a technology-shredding swarm of nanomachines, was a psychic one that resulted in a deluge of madness and mass violence who's cure was the mysterious affliction of mass amnesia. The technological detritus litters every inch of the Solar System, and the recovering human civilization was extraordinarily quick to take advantage of that in its warring. While the aesthetic is early 20th century (with a splash of vintage UCisms from the Spacian Groups), its politics harken to the great revolutions and uprisings of the 19th century, radical republican and the first whispers of socialism. The addition of giant robots, often easily recovered from battlefield wreckage or seemingly unending bunkers littering the ruined Earth Sphere serves to amplify and heighten the contradictions of that sort of politics.

BiopunkOrtrera's real oeuvre is the play by play of the various conflicts ongoing in the game, where interwar trench infantry found themselves meltered in their trenches by beam fire, where antique not-quite-Zakus tow cast iron mortars into positions and the late UC technothriller aesthetic of the Space-based factions increasingly intrudes into these battles. Catsuit-clad clone women with high-tech rifles ambush pith helmet-wearing imperialists in nighttime raids; warlords and rebels who previously had to make do with muskets and needle rifles find themselves given exoskeletons and anti-air laser cannons; and zeppelins, biplanes and fusion-powered VTOLs all share a hostile sky.

An eye-watering thirty-something-odd-strong (last I checked) player group and regular discussion keep the game lively, as does the game's apparently lurid reputation and the neverending femme fatale arms race between its players, many if not most vying vigorously to make the coolest, most evil girlboss.

It's been a delight of an experience and exceptionally, has managed something like 5 turns in as many months, a blistering pace of updates given the scope of the game and playerbase.
 
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Nearing 40 players at this point, I think. And applications are still open (wink wink nudge nudge). I'm not sure if I should be in awe or afraid.
 
I couldn't agree more with Exhack on every point.

Turn Alpha is unlike any game I have ever played, not only because of the pace of its updates, but because of the constant dedication and attentiveness of BiopunkOtrera as a GM. I have had excellent GMs, Steelwriter comes to mind, but BiopunkOtrera has managed to make handling an absolutely massive player base in a game with a ton of PvP look easy. She handles things with grace and patience, possibly more than we deserve.

The game is really a masterclass in writing and direction. Any problems I might have or flaws I may see are absolutely drowned out by the sheer brilliance of the design and the solid structure it is all built upon. I won't re-summarise the setting, because Exhack has done it better than I ever could, but from the position of a minor power the sheer array of possibilities and plays has felt truly endless, and every new addition or mechanic has felt better than the last. The concept has gripped me and inspired so much that this game has been close to all I can think about for months, and I can't help but plan out how to run my own variant.

If I ever do, I know it won't ever compare to the original.

A lot of the players have helped really elevate the game beyond the fantastic base given to us by our GM. In particular Nerdo and Fancy Face have done amazing work. That we are still learning and laughing and talking this much is a real recognition of the uniqueness of the game.

A special shout out has to be given to ArvisPresley, who has driven a lot of the most bombastic and exciting moments of the game and has recently ascended to take on the duties of a Co-GM, which she handles with incredible skill and speed. We are incredibly lucky to have her, and we are all very thankful that Penth is no longer doing this alone.

Through all the ups and downs, it has been a delight, an honour, and a privilege to be a part of it.
 
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honestly I couldn't have got anywhere close to this level of success without @ArvisPresley who has both supplied some of the game's most memorable ICs and also helped me deal with the massive amounts of admin that are generated by me throwing myself in the deep end of a game with no less than 6 distinct factions and almost 40 players.
 
I am torn between my Elden Ring shillage and my Turn Alpha shillage but given my massive emotional investment into Elden Ring, I'm gonna have to go with that. It's been exceptionally fun learning to let go of stats and growing power in favor of tragic character developments and cool character actions that all come together in unexpected ways and masterworks that I could've never have conceived of near game start.
 
GSRPGer's have been eating well this year.

Ashes of the Empire V has been the longest running of the whole genre on SV, and in my opinion the single best one. It's reminded me of part of why I love star wars, and it has been ever so much fun trying to survive the collapse of the Galactic Empire. Of watching other players weave of a story of scheming admirals, mysterious darksiders and grandiose generals all attempting to scramble for power in the wake of the demise of not one Emperor, but two. It's been fun watching the Rebel Alliance grow in strength, then transform into the New Republic, and to image what sort of tales all the heroes we love would be getting up to. With our own characters as the villains to oppose them. Julius and Skrevsi have put in a ton of work and dedication into this game, and it shows. Congratulations.

Ordeal by Fire had captured an energy I rarely see in GSRPG's, dragging people in and doing their best to decide the fate of the Fire Nation post Last Airbender. While I did, at times, find it frustrating I've had fun with it. From its take on the spirits to the drama between Zuko and Azula which remained the focus of the game, the twists and turns have been interesting. And I've had fun playing with people I don't see around so much anymore. While I have doubted my ability, I've had a lot of fun plotting and scheming with everyone on Team Zuko. And I've been delighted by the stories everyone's told.

The remaining three I have not played in---and of them, I'm most familiar with Shattering War---I have only heard good things. Passion is evident in not just the remaining three, but all of them. It's clear from all of them that effort and time has been put in not only by the GM's, but by the players themselves. All helping weave a tale of glory and triumph, woe and loss. Perhaps a bit pretentious of me to say. Yet its that storytelling, the twists and turns, the way everyone is drawn in and the community that is fostered around it that I think is why I keep coming back to it all. Creativity is on display by people constantly, as people take the time out of their lives to not only run these games---which can indeed be draining on a person---but to play in them, and keep this community not only going, but growing. I've had good fun with you all.

I think this has been a good year for GSRPG's. Each of the nominees deserves to be here, each of them deserves to win, and whoever wins has undoubtedly earned it.

Love ya, folks.
 
FOUL TARNISHED

IN SEARCH OF THE USERS CHOICE AWARD

EMBOLDENED BY THE FUNNIES OF AMBITION


Shattering War has been a delight to play and I cannot state how glad I am to be playing in it. Solid worldbuilding mixes with the backstabbing and scheming everyone here loves to bring about some genuine FromSoftware levels of tragic irony. It is, perhaps, Ax's only failing in that Godrick the Grafted did not instantly win the game turn one but nobody is perfect. Actively participating in the War to end an age has been a delight, and in many aspects I think we are leaving the Lands Between worse off than they were in canon. Overall I cannot recommend the game, or Ax's GMing skills more. 10/10 vote Shattering War!
 
Asking me to choose between Turn Alpha Gundam—its intricate plotlines, its delicate character work, its masterful use of the fog of war on an even OoC level—and The Shifting Tide with its rich depiction of history, its careful balance of power, and its absolutely delightful use of NPCs to create a living and breathing world that gives a one all the sense of inhabiting the world in the Early Modern, is an absolutely sadistic choice. Both of them certainly deserve the victory.
 
I'm a recent arrival to Turn Alpha and a man who knows less than nothing about Gundam, but there's already so much here to grab me. The complex geopolitical web underpinned by a tangle of salvage rights, technological advantages, economical power, military presence (literally hundreds of mobile suits, each with their own specialties and abilities), and infrastructure has got its hooks in me good. I'm so grateful to both Princess_Hex for roping me into this and BiopunkOtrera for acting as an incredible GM. There's few GSRPs that I've seen that deserve this win more than this.

But.

THE FALLEN LEAVES TELL A STORY

The Shattering War has consumed me body and soul. I was lucky enough to join during Turn 5, and right now we're finishing up turn 7. In the span of those two months, I've created murder plans for every character within the game, enacted old man yaoi with the ghost of a dead bird, attempted to reforge the Elden Ring using rat corpses, spent far too long figuring out the mechanics of colony dropping onto Leyendell, and set up the opening acts of a narrative about loss, loyalty, and diminishment. Alone, that's not special. Every GSRP has its share of wild things and crazy plans, and everyone's enacting their own insane bullshit. The point of these games, after all, is to tell a story that's greater than the sum of its parts.

And that's where The Shattering War exceeds every reasonable expectation to enter the realms of the absurd. If you'll pardon my dramatism, there's few things that describe this game's narrative better than a tapestry woven in real-time, where story threads and character moments are spun together into battles, betrayals, heartbreaks and losses that scar the Lands Between forever. Theaxofwar gets Elden Ring in a way that I didn't expect outside of Miyazaki, Martin, or a handful of loretubers, and the best decision he made when putting this game together was excising half of it for an entirely new character roster.

The only member of the Golden Lineage left from canon was Godwyn, and he met his canon fate. In their place, we have the likes of Gwydion, fey lord of Stormveil and false son of Godfrey, Drowned Raahlach, newly returned to the Lands Between to claim his birthright, Gwendolyn the Silver, dark shadow of her favored brother, and Roshan, who shoots down the stars. The Demigods, Servants, and Warlords of our new Lands Between are larger-than-life, conanesque in their melancholies and mirths, and their players gleefully weaponize that to create stories as biting as they are compelling. It's rare that any character achieves a lasting victory without taking a stinging loss as well, and every crushing defeat has a thread of hope that a player can clutch onto for the next turn.

This, along with the lack of any hard stats or power levels (Ax's second best decision) creates an atmosphere where the goal is still to win, but the focus is far more on character arcs and narrative throughlines than the cold calculus of military strategy. I can recite the storylines of all 20-30-odd PCs in this game basically by heart, not just because they're incredibly cool (even though they are) but because I need to in order to know how to deal with them. When conflicts are based on narratives rather than numbers and each character has a story, preparation and properly stacking the deck determines victory and defeat. A Demigod dies to mortal men in The Shattering War after they shoot a ballista through his heart, but it's the leadup to the battle as much as the bolt piercing his heart that kills him.

But he doesn't die.

Instead he's trapped inside Caria's manor, a brilliant mind in a feeble body desperately seeking a cure. When the madman who used a blasphemous blade to sever an Empyrean from her body was caught, he was bound in an Evergaol instead of killed. There he waits for a worthy successor to pass his weapon and deicidal mission onto. The peerless swordswoman who was felled by a ruthless sorcerer rises as an undead abomination, the last line of defense before you can bring down her new liege.

Because this is Elden Ring, and it's so much more interesting this way.

There's so much here I'm cutting for the sake of brevity (lmao) - setting changes and lore, Ax's monstrous update speed, special mechanics for armies and Tarnished - but that's the one point I want to hit above all else. The Shattering War's narrative bangs so hard because everyone - GM and player alike - is fully bought into the atmosphere of Elden Ring, a brutal world where life is cheap no matter how divine, heroes rise and fall at the point of their own sword, and hope is always over the next horizon. We all know how this is going to end, and more likely than not it's going to be with our bodies cooling at the feet of the Tarnished of No Renown. But this is Elden Ring, and everyone from the highest Empyrean to the lowest Servant is going to fight for a victory every step of the way, whatever that may be.

It's a fantasy, it's a tragedy, and it's created one of the best stories I've ever been a part of. I'm so excited to see where it'll go from here.

Please vote The Shattering War - An Elden Ring GSRP for the best GSRP of 2024.
 
What's the best way to read a GSRPG as a complete outsider to the game?
 
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