Front Page DJA Winner MULTI-YEAR

DJA_Excellence

THE WINNER OF THE
2026 DIANA JONES AWARD
IS MISCHIEF TOY STORE

The Diana Jones Award committee is pleased to announce the 2026 award goes to Mischief Toy Store.

Mischief Toy Store, a friendly local game store St. Paul, MN

Mischief Toy Store made headlines in 2020 for requiring masking and then distributing free Black Lives Matter lawn signs during the George Floyd riots in the Twin Cities. They got nationwide attention again in 2025 for joining a lawsuit against US tariffs. Then, just hours after criticizing ICE in that national TV interview, they were targeted with a surprise audit but resisted turning over their employee records to DHS. They started printing ICE OUT posters to distribute as fast as they could, and organized a network of 3D printing hobbyists to distribute thousands of ICE alert whistles. Amid the chaos in Minnesota, they had to suspend online ordering, and their website directed folks to support local immigrant rights organizations instead. They’ve worked exceptionally hard to make space at the gaming table for everyone, in the midst of upheaval.

Find out more about Mischief Toy Store.

In the committee’s opinion, Mischief Toy Store exemplify excellence in gaming.

The committee would also like to congratulate our finalists for this year’s award:

  • 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 the 2026 Award page.

The winner of this year’s award was announced at the annual Diana Jones Award ceremony in Indianapolis, the unofficial start of the Gen Con Indy convention.

SPONSORS

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

Our other 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

The Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming was founded and first awarded in 2001. It is presented annually to the person, product, company, event, or any other thing that has, in the opinion of its committee, best demonstrated the quality of “excellence” in the world of tabletop gaming in recent times. The winner of the award receives the Diana Jones trophy.

The finalists and eventual winner are chosen by the Diana Jones Committee, a partially anonymous group of tabletop gaming industry luminaries that includes designers, publishers, cartoonists, convention organizers, and more. 

Past winners include industry figures such as Peter Adkison, Jordan Weisman, and Eric Lang, the roleplaying game books Sorcerer, Nobilis, My Life With Master, The Great Pendragon Campaign, Grey Ranks, Fiasco, Hillfolk, The Guide to Glorantha, and Star Crossed, the board games Dominion and Ticket to Ride, the book Nordic Larp, the website BoardGameGeek.com, the web series Tabletop, Gen Con, Irish games convention charity auctions, the Actual Play movement, Black excellence in gaming, the publisher NIBCARD Games, and Ajit George. This is the twenty-fourth year of the Award.

CONTACTS

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