Online Markets
Devon Oratz:
Has anyone around here ever compiled a list of websites that sell indie RPGs? (The emphasis here isn't necessarily as much on "sell" as it is on distribute.)I looked around here a bit but I couldn't find anything like that.
Where are people who want to buy/play RPGs going to shop and look at new releases? Restricting the answer, of course, to markets that will "stock" products from virtual unknowns. A "big list" kind of response is what I'm looking for.
Ron Edwards:
Hi Devon,
The sites which come immediately to mind are: Indie Press Revolution, The Un-Store, RPGNow, Drivethru RPG, Lulu.
If by "indie" you mean self-published, creator-owned (which is what it means to me), then IPR mostly accords with that; only the Un-Store is exclusively about that kind of independence; and Lulu sort of ends up being mostly independent publishing by default. I'm not sure what you mean by distribute vs. sell. None of these sites are distributors in the sense that bookstore retailers use the term. Or do you mean free downloads? Some of the above sites include those too.
A number of on-line retailers include independent RPGs, such as Noble Knight Games for one. See Hooray retailers! at Anyway for a list of stores carrying Vincent Baker's games, and if they have his, they have a lot of what you'll find at IPR or by perusing here or Story Games.
I'm sure people will add posts with more links to more venues too.
Is this helpful, or were you looking for something else?
Best, Ron
Eero Tuovinen:
I run a pretty funky indie rpg store here in Finland myself. The selection is about 95% indie, I think - there's some stuff there that I'm not sure about and some things I'm selling because they're culturally important and out of print elsewhere; basically the store concept is not exclusive, I'll sell anything that I find good and that's not thoroughly available through conventional gamestores. My understanding is that except for the occasional shortages we suffer due to infrequent refill orders we have the best European selection of indie games, if not the widest anywhere.
Although the store is in Finnish, I'm happy to take money from other Europeans as well; I'm sort of planning to set up an English version of the store this year if I have the time at some point.
Ron Edwards:
Boink! My apologies, Eero.
Also, I have never been quite able to understand whether Graham Walmsley is doing something similar or not. If someone could clarify, I'd appreciate it.
See as well Narrativa and Janus Design, which publish Italian versions of many independent games.
Best, Ron
Eero Tuovinen:
I understand that Graham's dabbling (not in any bad sense) in selling stuff here in Europe, but he's self-limiting it to a narrow selection of his favourite games, and it's pretty informal so far; as I understand it, he just brought extra copies of some of his favourite games from Gencon and is selling those. It'll be interesting to see where he takes that particular project.
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