Indie role-playing game

An indie role-playing game is a role-playing game published outside of traditional, "mainstream" means. Varying definitions require that commercial, design, or conceptual elements of the game stay under the control of the creator, or that the game should just be produced outside of a corporate environment. The validity of the "indie" label is disputed as discussed below.

Self Publishing

Indie RPGs can be self-published by one or a few people who themselves control all aspects of design, promotion and distribution of the game. An independent role-playing game publisher usually lacks the financial backing of large company. This has made forms of publishing other than the traditional three-tier model more desirable.^[1] A simple form of publishing is making the game available online for free in a digital format. Usual formats are in HTML, text, blog, or PDF form.^[2] Desktop publishing technologies have allowed indie designers to publish their games as bound books. The advent of print on demand (POD) publishing has recently lowered the costs of producing an RPG to the point at which role-playing games can be produced and distributed with minimal financial investment.

Distribution is often achieved via e-commerce or in-person sales at gaming conventions. However, there are some fulfillment houses and small-scale distributors who deal in indie products. Indie Press Revolution distributes games that it labels as independent, but do not always jibe with other communities' definitions of the term. RPGNow and DrivethruRPG are two companies that sell such small press offerings (as well as mainstream products) as downloadable PDFs. RPGNow has created a separate storefront for low-selling or new entries to this market. Initial plans called for this storefront to use the "indie" moniker, but it was eventually decided to call the storefront RPGNow Edge instead. All of the above sites include creator-owned content, as well as other products that are not readily identified with the role-playing game industry mainstream.

Some publishers have no interest in financial success; others define it differently than most mainstream companies. The division between what is technically profitable and what would be considered financially viable for a business is another oft-debated element of independent role-playing publishing.

Indie Communities

As indie roleplaying game publishers are often not professionally trained or experienced publishers, a number of communities have developed over time where designers and publishers can share experiences, collaborate, and support each other.

The Forge

One of the most influential self-identified indie RPG communities is centered on Ron Edwards' and Clinton R. Nixon's site, The Forge. This community generally defines indie games as those where the creator maintains control of his or her work[3] and eschews the traditional publishing and sales model, though there are exceptions. The Forge is strongly influenced by Ron Edwards' essay System Does Matter.

In the Forge community, indie RPGs often represent a more Narrativist school of game design, focusing on strong characters confronting difficult moral choices. These games may be strongly tied to a very specific setting; in this respect, they can be seen as the antithesis of generic role-playing game systems. This is not always true however, since many games from that community instead focus on play dynamics that can be transplated to a number of settings. For example, a game might focus on the moral question "What will you do to get what you want?" but is not tied to playing the question out in any particular fictional world. No matter the strategy, tightly focused designs are traditionally a hallmark of this community.

Games of note from the Forge community include, in roughly chronological order:

• Sorcerer: An Intense Role-playing Game
• Donjon
• Dust Devils
• My Life with Master
• Dogs in the Vineyard
• Primetime Adventures

Other Communities

Many other groups produce games outside of the mainstream. Many of these primarily sell PDFs, with some supplementary print sales at specific venues. One example is Wicked Dead Brewing Company. This imprint includes games by a number of designers. Game designer Greg Stolze has produced games using the Ransom model, without resorting to traditional publishing and sales. Others, such as the Free RPG Community, pursue self-publishing without any intent to make a profit. Self-publishing sites such as Lulu.com also have a number of RPGs available from publishers unaffiliated with any formal community.

Disputed Status

Some contend that the term "indie" applies to members of a self-defined "indie" RPG community. The definition of indie in the context of role-playing games is difficult, because the role-playing game industry operates with a different organization and scale than the computer and video games, publishing or music industries. The dynamics that inspired well-known independent movements in these industries are not necessarily present in the role-playing game industry. Even prominent role-playing game companies often publish on a comparatively small scale. In this fashion, the industry is unlike the larger creative industries, whose indie communities formed to react to an elaborate bureaucracy. The question of whether indie role-playing games can be defined precisely, abstractly or not at all sparks ongoing discussion among RPG hobbyists and creators.

Footnotes

1. ^  The three-tier model is a distribution model with three levels: publisher, distributor and retailer.
2. ^  Example formats are: The Shadow of Yesterday first edition (HTML) and revised edition (text), Legends of Alyria (blog), and FATE (pdf).

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