Indie role-playing game
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An indie role-playing game is a role-playing game published outside traditional, "mainstream" means.[1][2] 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 a corporate environment.[3] Indie role-playing game designers participate in several development communities and game distribution networks. Indie games also grant their own awards committees.
Independent publication of role-playing games
Indie role-playing games (RPGs) can be self-published by one or a few people who themselves control all aspects of design, promotion and distribution of the game.[3] 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 to the independent publisher.[4] Indie games are often conflated with small press games, because of the great overlap between creator ownership and small press publishing.
Formats
Independent publishers may offer games only in digital format, only in print, or they may offer the same game in a variety of formats. Common digital formats include
Distribution methods
Disintermediation is a key concept in indie game distribution;[citation needed] independent publishers typically lack established business relationships with distributors and retailers. Indie distribution is often achieved directly by the game's creator via e-commerce or in-person sales at gaming conventions. However, some fulfillment houses and small-scale distributors do handle indie products using the traditional three tier system of publisher, distributor and retailer.
Several organizations specialize in sales of indie games using a two-tier system of publisher and retail outlet.
Business models
Some publishers have no interest in financial success; others define it differently than most mainstream companies by emphasizing artistic fulfillment as a primary goal.[5] 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. Some independent publishers offer free downloads of games in digital form, while others charge a fee for digital download.
Awards
There are several annual awards given to indie games for excellence in multiple categories of design.
The Golden Cobra Challenge grants the
Disputed definitions
This section needs additional citations for verification. (March 2023) |
Some contend that the term "indie" applies only to members of a self-defined "
Indie communities
This section needs additional citations for verification. (March 2023) |
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 self-identified indie RPG community was centered on The Forge. Overseen by Ron Edwards, this community generally defined indie games as those where the creator maintains control of his or her work[18] and eschews the traditional publishing and sales model, though there are exceptions. The Forge was strongly influenced by Ron Edwards' essay "System Does Matter".[19] The Forge was started in 1999 by Ed Healy[20] as an information site,[21] with Ron Edwards serving as the editorial lead. In 2001, Ron and Clinton R. Nixon recast the site, centered on the community forum that existed until 2012.
William J. White, a professor at Penn State Altoona, highlighted that the Forge went through several eras. During the Spring era (2001–2004), the Forge experienced massive growth; "by the end of 2004, there were eight general forums comprising 7,977 threads encompassing 94,733 individual posts—an expansion of almost 400% in thread volume since April 2001. The most active was the RPG Theory forum, with 28,322 posts in 1,639 threads, a thread density of 17.3 posts per thread. The next most active was the Indie Game Design thread, with 23,318 total posts and a thread density of 11.0".[22]: 89 However, a decline in the quality of posts and other moderation actions led many people to leave the Forge for other online communities and this collective group became known as the "Forge diaspora".[22]: 90 In 2005, Edwards closed the "two theoretical discussion forums [...] on the premise that the Big Model was fundamentally complete".[22]: 91 White states that the Autumn era (2007-2010) was impacted by disagreements between Edwards and others who ran the community, such as Nixon who at the time was the Forge's technical expert. In May 2010, there was a "major server crash" and the recovery split the site into a read-only archive (2001 to mid-2010) and active forums (" beginning with January 2008").[22]: 93 The Winter era (2011–2012) featured a much "pared-down forum structure" and the five remaining forums had "relatively low thread densities for all but the Actual Play forum".[22]: 93 In 2012, Edwards announced the forthcoming closure of the community.[22]
In the Forge community, indie RPGs often represented a more
Games of note from the Forge community include, in roughly chronological order:
- Sorcerer: An Intense Role-playing Game (2001) by Ron Edwards
- The Burning Wheel (2002) by Luke Crane
- Donjon (2002) by Clinton R. Nixon
- Dust Devils (2002) by Matt Snyder
- My Life with Master (2003) by Paul Czege
- Dogs in the Vineyard (2004) by Vincent Baker
- Primetime Adventures (2004) by Matt Wilson
- Shock: Social Science Fiction (2006) by Joshua A.C. Newman
White commented that the Forge "served to champion creator-owned 'indie RPGs' and game design innovation. After an initial surge of conceptual discussion and design experimentation on the forum itself from 2000 to 2004, [...] it inspired a panoply of blogs and forums where further discussion took place [...]. Thus a 'prominent member of the Forge' could be anyone who posted there frequently and so was regarded as an authoritative presence".[23]: 39
Story Games
Story Games was a discussion forum dedicated to role-playing games that focused on shared story creation. A majority of the games discussed and created on Story Games were indie and/or small press games. While the site did not offer any games for sale, several creators used it to discuss design issues, report progress, and promote their games. Some games were hosted on the Story Games site. The wiki section hosted information on over 80 story games as well as a variety of related resources. The story-games forum ceased operation on August 15, 2019. The site intended to remain up in a read-only form until August 2020. Two sites that emerged to support the story-game community include The Gauntlet Forums and Fictioneers.
Other communities
Many other groups self-identify as producing games outside the mainstream. Many of these primarily sell PDFs, with some supplementary print sales at specific venues. One example is
References
- ^ Hernandez, Gab (2022-08-19). "The 10 Best Indie Tabletop RPGS, According To Reddit". ScreenRant. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
- ^ "Indie Games Get the Spotlight During Zine Month". Yahoo News. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
- ^ a b ""FAQ: 1a. What is an "Indie" Role Playing Game (RPG)?"". Indie RPG Awards. 2006. Retrieved 2010-04-11.
- ^ Hall, Charlie (2023-02-06). "D&D's OGL controversy turbocharges sales of virtually every other tabletop RPG". Polygon. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
- ^ a b Cha, Ed; Taylor, Brennan. "Help Zone/About Our Site". Indie Press Revolution. Retrieved 2010-04-11.
- ^ "RPGNow & DriveThruRPG Merge". ICv2. October 26, 2006. Retrieved 2019-07-09.
- ^ Gerber, Meredith (2018-11-21). "OneBlogShelf: RPGNow Merging with DriveThruRPG on February 2019". OneBlogShelf. Retrieved 2019-07-09.
- ^ Birsner, Chris (2021-11-14). "30 Best Games On Itch.Io, Ranked". TheGamer. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
- ^ Allen, Joseph (2022-11-25). "Itch.io Black Friday Sale Gives Creators All The Revenue". TechRaptor. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
- ^ Faulkner, Cheri (2022-06-06). "Queer Games Bundle is back for 2022 with 500 items for £47". NME. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
- ^ "$10 Bundle Includes Hundreds Of Games, Helps Fund Access To Abortion". Kotaku. 2022-07-05. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
- ^ "IndieCade – IndieCade is an international juried festival of independent games". Retrieved 2023-03-27.
- ^ "Indie Game Developer Network". Dicebreaker. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
- ^ "Indie Groundbreakers Awards". Indie Game Developer Network. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
- ^ "Indie RPG Awards". www.indie-rpg-awards.com. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
- ^ "Golden Cobra Challenge". www.goldencobra.org. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
- ^ "200 Word RPG Challenge". 200wordrpg.github.io. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
- ^ About the Forge
- ^ "The Forge :: System Does Matter".
- ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
- ^ Forge'99
- ^ a b c d e f White, William J. (2015). "'Actual Play' and the Forge Tradition". In Bowman, Sarah Lynne (ed.). Wyrd Con Companion 2015 (PDF). Costa Mesa: Wyrd Con. pp. 94–99.
- ISSN 2434-9682.