The Honorary Otto

Since 1992, awards have been presented annually for the best premiere role-playing games at Fastaval, and since 2012 for the best designer board games. The award is called Otto and takes the form of a golden penguin, which is also Fastaval’s logo. The Otto competition is an integral part of Fastaval and has been a hugely important factor in developing the quality and creativity at Fastaval. The Otto is awarded every year on Sunday evening at Fastaval, at a show where we also pay tribute to the year’s organisers, players and Fastaval in general.

In addition to the awards for creative products, an honorary award is also presented to a person or group who has made an extraordinary contribution to Fastaval.

These individuals/groups have received an Honorary Otto

1992: Mads Lunau

1993: Paul Hartvigson

1994: Troels Chr. Jakobsen

1995: Cool Fish Delivery

1996: Søren Parbæk

1997: Rollespilsmagasinet Fønix

1998: Kristoffer Apollo og Mette Finderup

1999: Not awarded

2000: Peter Bengtsen

2001: Sara Hald

2002: Morten Juul

2003: Natural Born Holmers

2004: Peter Brodersen

2005: Merlin P. Mann

2006: Malik Hyltoft

2007: Landsforeningen for Levende Rollespil

2008: Brian Rasmussen

2009: Jesper Wøldiche

2010: Vi Åker Jeep

2011: Lars Andreasen

2012: Klaus Meier Olsen & Kristoffer Rudkjær

2013: Jesper Heebøll Arbjørn

2014: DirtBusters

2015: Claus Raasted

2016: Simon James Pettit

2017: René Bokær Pedersen

2018: Peter Lind

2019: Joan Zenia Juhl Hansen

2020: Not awarded

2021: Andreas Ravn Skovse

2022: Alex K. Uth

2023: Maya Krone & Mette Finderup

2024: Otto’s Coffee Inn

About the Honorary Otto
The Honorary Otto is a pat on the back and a tribute to a person, group or organisation that has made an extraordinary contribution over time to making Fastaval and the gaming community what it is today.

Alea, the organisation behind Fastaval, awards the Honorary Otto, and it is a tradition for Alea to ask the previous year’s winner to present the award. It is also traditional for this person to assemble a jury and listen to the opinions of the Fastaval community. However, there are no fixed criteria for how to earn a nomination or award. The Honorary Otto is a dynamic entity that is adapted by each year’s jury.

Who do YOU think?
This year’s jury has decided to follow tradition. To gain a broader overview of the Fastaval environment than we ourselves have, we would like to hear from all of you who also love Fastaval: Who do YOU think deserves special recognition?

Send us your nomination suggestions via the online form, which will be published here on the website and on Fastaval’s social media channels in the months leading up to Fastaval. The nominations will be used as inspiration and guidelines. Ultimately, it is the Honorary Otto jury that decides who is officially nominated for and receives the Honorary Otto, but we appreciate each and every one of your nominations.

How the Honorary Otto is awarded
The Honorary Otto is awarded every year on Saturday at Fastaval at an open reception. Here you can enjoy a glass of bubbly and applaud all the nominees. The Honorary Otto will also be awarded from the stage on Sunday evening at the Otto Party, where the recipient of the Honorary Otto will have the opportunity to give an acceptance speech.

This year’s Honorary Otto Jury at Fastaval 2025

Head Judge

Bo Thomasen

Bo rolled his first D20 at Fastaval ’93 and has been here ever since (with the exception of a year or two around the turn of the millennium, when he mistakenly believed that life outside Fastaval was more interesting). Since 2004, Bo has greatly enjoyed being part of Fastaval’s organising team in a number of different areas – everything from Bunker, Info, Set-up/take-down, Safety Host, Coffee Shop and Board Games.

When Bo is not at Fastaval, he runs three board game cafés in Copenhagen (Bastard Café) and generally tries to get people to meet up over games, geekery and fun.

Sebastian Nemeth

Sebastian has been a regular at Fastaval since he was persuaded to go in 2017. And he hasn’t looked back since. Together with Kathrine Abel, he has been the headmaster of the Orkerne Kommer Summer School, where a number of Fastaval scenarios have been hatched. He has also drawn penguins for Fastaval for a number of years.

Sebastian is always busy, eagerly writing his next screenplay idea, doodling on other people’s projects and screenplays, and otherwise he can easily be challenged to a board game if it involves terraforming something, preferably on Mars.

Selina Foli-Andersen

Although Selina has been role-playing since third grade, she only attended Fastaval for the first time last year. There, she stood in the coffee shop and heard all kinds of inspiring stories from volunteers and authors, and then started as the Youth and After-School Programme Manager. In her daily life, she attends secondary school and spends all her free time volunteering elsewhere, such as at the Game Laboratory and its committee, Bifrost’s Prize Committee, and at the Epos boarding school’s student association, Epos Epoke.

At this Fastaval, she hopes to meet lots of cool young people who get involved in the convention, some seasoned organisers who continue their awesome work, and some mystifyingly cryptic scenarios.

Torbjørn Erik Japp (Han/ham, hen/hens)

Torbjørn has been a regular Fastagænger since 2019, and since then has tried to get involved in as many areas as possible – Kaffekroen, Oasen, Kiosken, Opstilling/Nedpilning and, this year, Æresottoen and Debutforfatter.

Outside Fastaval, Torbjørn volunteers at many of Østerskov’s various events, and can now probably also be found as a technician at the nearest black box event. Tabletop role-playing games, on the other hand, are still his favourite activity, especially those involving neon lights and laser guns.

Nynne Søs Rasmussen

Nynne Søs Rasmussen took her first steps in role-playing in the live role-playing community, where she has been one of the driving forces behind the role-playing conventions Forum and Knudepunkt, organised children’s role-playing games and participated in everything from Nordic Larp to Krigslive. Fifteen years ago, she fell in love with Fastaval’s unique scenario tradition, and since then she has been both a scenario judge and a writer. This year, she is trying her hand at the role of scenario manager.
With a broad taste in role-playing games, Nynne enjoys both rolling dice in her Warhammer campaign and getting carried away by social-realistic Fastaval scenarios.

On a daily basis, Nynne works as a teacher at an independent school, where her students are regularly introduced to role-playing, board games and other forms of playful learning – an approach she also cultivated as a teacher at the role-playing boarding school Epos.

Be considered as a judge at Fastaval

Every year, the Head Judges appoint their team of associate judges to the juries. It is entirely up to the sitting Head Judges to appoint their team, but they are always open to suggestions and input. Perhaps you are just the person they need?
Send an email with your name and whether you are interested in being a board game judge, scenario judge or sitting on the honorary jury, and Alea will compile a list that we will share with the Head Judges as soon as they have been appointed.

You cannot expect to hear anything from the judges, but they may reach out to hear more or to invite you to participate. Alea updates the list regularly, so you only need to send an email with your name once, and otherwise write to us if you would like to be removed from the list.

Write to alea@fastaval.dk with your name and your preference for judging duties, and possibly a few keywords about what you can offer as a judge.

We look forward to hearing from you!
– Alea’s board (the organisation behind Fastaval)