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Role-Playing Game Awards Canceled at Major Conference After Excluding Zionists
Participants at Gen Con in 2023. Photo: Screenshot
An annual awards event that recognizes outstanding achievement for tabletop role-playing games (TTRPG) canceled its ceremony at the largest and longest-running gaming convention in North America after receiving backlash for excluding Zionists from being eligible for nomination.
This year, the Creator Recognition in TTRPG (CRIT) Awards updated its code of conduct so that people who “identify as Zionists,” “promote Zionist material,” or “support Zionism” would be ineligible to be nominated for one if its awards.
Facing backlash, the CRIT Awards doubled down on its policy change earlier this month, announcing the decision on social media “so there is no confusion.”
Hello, we at the CRIT Awards would like to take a moment to publicly acknowledge this so there is no confusion.
Thank you, and happy voting! pic.twitter.com/xV5HtpUznY
— CRIT Awards – VOTING OPENED (@crit_awards) June 14, 2024
The process for awarding CRIT Awards is similar to an election for many democratic legislatures. First, members of the TTRPG community submit nominees who are subsequently vetted and voted on in a primary election. The winners of the primary then compete in a general election.
The ceremony announcing the winners of the vote was scheduled to be held at the Gen Con convention in Indianapolis, Indiana in August. However, the CRIT Awards announced this week that it would not be participating in the event, citing unspecified “safety concerns,” after receiving significant backlash for excluding Zionists from eligibility — a decision that critics argued was antisemitic.
This is extremely difficult on us, as we navigate the situation that we are finding ourselves in.
Updates as to what any physical event will look like will come at a later date, until then: pic.twitter.com/4UF4QKh7Zc
— CRIT Awards – VOTING OPENED (@crit_awards) June 25, 2024
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) lambasted the CRIT Awards for its new policy.
“Disqualifying individuals based solely on the fact that they are Zionist — aka they support the Jewish people’s right to self-determination and Israel’s right to exist — is antisemitic,” the civil rights group wrote on X/Twitter.
Neither Gen Con nor the CRIT Awards responded to The Algemeiner‘s request for comment for this story.
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Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi lays a wreath as he visits the burial site of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, on the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon, June 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
A member of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli air strike on Tehran alongside a member of an Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group, a senior Lebanese security source told Reuters and the Iraqi group said on Saturday.
The source identified the Hezbollah member as Abu Ali Khalil, who had served as a bodyguard for Hezbollah’s slain chief Hassan Nasrallah. The source said Khalil had been on a religious pilgrimage to Iraq when he met up with a member of the Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada group.
They traveled together to Tehran and were both killed in an Israeli strike there, along with Khalil’s son, the senior security source said. Hezbollah has not joined in Iran’s air strikes against Israel from Lebanon.
Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada published a statement confirming that both the head of its security unit and Khalil had been killed in an Israeli strike.
Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli aerial attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs in September.
Israel and Iran have been trading strikes for nine consecutive days since Israel launched attacks on Iran, saying Tehran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Iran has said it does not seek nuclear weapons.
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Hamas Financial Officer and Commander Eliminated by IDF in the Gaza Strip
Israeli soldiers operate during a ground operation in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, July 3, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), in cooperation with the General Security Service (Shin Bet), announced on Friday the killing of Ibrahim Abu Shamala, a senior financial official in Hamas’ military wing.
The operation took place on June 17th in the central Gaza Strip.
Abu Shamala held several key positions, including financial officer for Hamas’ military wing and assistant to Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’ military wing until his elimination in March 2024.
He was responsible for managing all the financial resources of Hamas’ military wing in Gaza, overseeing the planning and execution of the group’s war budget. This involved handling and smuggling millions of dollars into the Gaza Strip to fund Hamas’ military operations.
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Report: Wary of Assassination by Israel, Khamenei Names 3 Potential Successors
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei named three senior clerics as candidates to succeed him should he be killed, the New York Times reported on Saturday citing unnamed Iranian officials. It is understood the Ayatollah fears he could be assassinated in the coming days.
Khamenei reportedly mostly speaks with his commanders through a trusted aide now, suspending electronic communications.
Khamenei has designated three senior religious figures as candidates to replace him as well as choosing successors in the military chain of command in the likely event that additional senior officials be eliminated.
Earlier on Saturday Israel confirmed the elimination of Saeed Izadi and Bhanam Shahriari.
Shahriari, head of Iran’s Quds Force Weapons Transfer Unit, responsible for arming Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, was killed in an Israeli airstrike over 1,000 km from Israel in western Iran.
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