Here are a few interesting things I just noticed (yes, I am slow, this is news from May):
1. The Nebula Awards have a category for Best Game Writing, and have had since 2018
2. The last few years it was mostly video games in that category, with a steady increase of RPGs
3. This year not only a roleplaying game won, but from what I see nearly all other nominees also were roleplaying games.
4. The winner this year is Thirsty Sword Lesbians.
https://nebulas.sfwa.org/sfwa-announces-the-winners-of-the-57th-annual-nebula-awards/
Thirsty Sword Lesbians
by April Kit Walsh, Dominique Dickey, Jonaya Kemper, Alexis Sara, Rae Nedjadi, and Whitney Delaglio (Published by Evil Hat Productions)
Winner, Best Game Writing in 2021
Also Nominated
Wildermyth by Nate Austin, Anne Austin, and Douglas Austin, published by Worldwalker Games, LLC
Wanderhome by Jay Dragon, published by Possum Creek Games
Granma’s Hand by Balogun Ojetade, published by Balogun Ojetade and Roaring Lion Productions
Coyote & Crow by Connor Alexander, William McKay, Weyodi Oldbear, Derek Pounds, Nico Albert, Riana Elliott, Diogo Nogueira, and William Thompson, published by Coyote & Crow, LLC.
By the way the Nebula site is charmingly out of date. It doesn’t seem to know if it’s 2020, 2021, or 2022. Depending on which link you click you end up on articles for different years.
I find this interesting. The last few years definitely saw a rise in the popularity of roleplaying games as an art form. It’s not quite my favorite style of roleplaying (I am talking about those PbtA-inspired games where you have playbooks and specific moves which I never can wrap my head around), but if it helps the hobby grow, who am I to complain?