The inaugural Bobby Nunes Memorial Award in 2024 was presented to Liz Davidson’s Beyond Solitaire series of podcast interviews. At that time, Davidson had published 180 interviews with figures from across the gaming world, including 40 in 2023 (the year under consideration for the award). Some of her 2023 interviews included conversations with Maurice Suckling on design, games in academia and scholarly work, and post-colonialism in games, Alex Knight on his design Land and Freedom (which SDHist selected as the winner of the 2024 Summit Award this week), Emily Gray on serving as a civilian instructor at a military institution and creating historical roleplaying game on the Reformation, and Luis Aguasvivas on the state of game journalism.

Davidson herself drew particular praise as an interviewer for insightful, incisive, and well-developed questions, for allowing her guests to speak at length, and for addressing critical issues in gaming. And the judges cited many aspects of Davidson’s work, including the welcoming approach, the connection-building, and the willingness to address significant cultural issues, as reminiscent of Nunes’ work in the hobby over the years. Dan Bullock, chair of the award committee, said “Liz Davidson’s interviews highlight the contributions of designers and academics that examine the culture surrounding historical games. In Liz’s work, we see a lot of the shared enthusiasm Bobby had for this corner of the hobby as well as a kindred spirit and boisterous presence that welcomes players to their table.”

Beyond Solitaire was one of four 2024 Bobby Nunes Memorial Award finalists announced that November following a public call for nominations over a period of months. The other finalists were (in alphabetical order) Amabel Holland’s video essays challenging commonly-held ideas in gaming, Dan Thurot’s Space-Biff reviews and essays on critical gaming topics, and the We Intend To Move On Your Works series (on American Civil War game and their connections or lack thereof to the history portrayed and the Lost Cause movement) on the Homo Ludens podcast, from Stuart Ellis-Gorman, Pierre Vagneur-Jones, Fred Serval, and Alexandre Fontaine-Rousseau. The judges had high praise for each of those finalists, and noted how all felt connected to Nunes’ work in the gaming hobby.

The Bobby Nunes Memorial Award seeks to recognize exceptional gaming media each year in honor of former SDHistCon board member and Conflicts of Interest founder/editor Robert “Bobby Factor” Nunes. This media should reflect Bobby’s enthusiasm for and interest in discussing important cultural issues within the historical gaming hobby.