The awards were created in 2001 by Russ Morrissey of EN World in partnership with Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D Third Edition News.
[4] Author George R. R. Martin referred to the ENNIE Awards as "the most prestigious honors in role-playing" in 2010.
[5] The nominees are chosen by a panel of judges, and the winners are voted on by the public and presented at an award show done in collaboration between Gen Con and EN World.
[7] In 2015, the awards disqualified the unofficially licensed Mass Effect RPG for copyright violations.
In 2020, Massif Press withdrew its RPG Lancer from the competition over a 2017 controversy, where a game module for the Lamentations of the Flame Princess system, titled "Blood in the Chocolate", received a Gold award in the Adventure category, despite being widely described as 'offensive', 'particularly icky', and 'simply ridiculous' by press, industry members and the publisher itself.