2026 DJA Finalists

DJA_Excellence

FINALISTS FOR THE 2026
DIANA JONES AWARD ANNOUNCED

Two games, a game designer, a game company executive, and a game store vie for hobby gaming’s most exclusive trophy

The committee of the Diana Jones Award is pleased to announce the finalists for its 2026 award. From a long and eclectic collection of nominees, the committee of the Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming selected four finalists that it believes best exemplified “excellence” in the field of gaming for the past year. They are:

  • Mischief Toy Store, a games store St. Paul, MN
  • Molly House, a board game by Jo Kelly with Cole Wehrle & Ricky Royal, from Wehrlegig Games
  • Price Johnson, a game company executive with Cephalofair Games
  • Rob Wieland, a game designer and journalist
  • Trench Crusade, a miniatures game by Mike Franchina, James Sherriff, and Tuomas Pirinen, from Factory Fortress

For more on each of these finalists and why they’re excellent, see the “Finalists” tab on 2026 Award page.

The winner of the award will be announced on Wednesday, July 29, at the annual Diana Jones Award ceremony in Indianapolis, the unofficial start of Gen Con.

SPONSORS

We’d like to thank the award’s key sponsors for this year, Best Hobby and Azora Law.

Our ceremony sponsors are:

  • Andrew Chesney
  • Anthony Gallela
  • Arc Dream
  • Chip Theory Games
  • Curtis Frye
  • DriveThruRPG
  • Dungeon Cocktail Experience
  • Dungeon Scrawl
  • Geoff Engelstein
  • Jim Kitchen
  • Lazy Wolf Studios
  • Onyx Path Publishing
  • Renegade Games
  • Ross Thompson
  • Shervryn Van Hoerl
  • The Corner of Story and Game
  • THE KRAKEN Gaming Retreat
  • The Yellow Hand
  • Wannabe Games.
  • What Box Consulting Group
  • Wide Pacific Horizon

We’d also like to thank our board members: Matt Forbeck, Michelle Nephew, and Camdon Wright, plus Aaron Trammell and Adrianna Burton, who coordinate the Emerging Designer Program with Camdon.

ABOUT THE AWARD

For the twenty-sixth year in a row, the Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming celebrates everything that’s the best about gaming. That can mean a game system or supplement, a magazine, a company, a designer, an event or convention, or any other entity that shows gaming at its absolute zenith.

The announcement of the Diana Jones Award winner is one of the first events at Gen Con Indy. During the months before the show, the Diana Jones Award Committee — a group of gaming professionals from around the world — begins discussions about the best and brightest from adventure gaming in the previous year. After discussion and voting, the committee’s nominations are whittled down to a list of finalists, which is the cue for more discussion and voting for a single winner.

At a private event held the Wednesday before Gen Con begins, winners receive the traveling Diana Jones Award trophy. The original has been lost, but a new trophy was made to be its stand-in.

The award was set up in the year 2000, with the first trophy given out at Gen Con 2001. To discover who’s won the twenty-sixth annual Diana Jones Award, stop by the Gen Con Info booth or visit DianaJonesAward.org after the convention!

CONTACTS

To contact the Diana Jones Award committee, email committee@dianajonesaward.org.