Indie role-playing games

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.

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. 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.

Independent publishers may offer games only in digital format, only in print, or they may offer the same game in a variety of formats. Some major RPG publishers have abandoned PDF publication, probably as a counter-piracy effort. Common digital formats include HTML, text, blog, or PDF form.Gamers may print the game documents, use a in electronic form on a laptop, or use an eReader.Desktop publishing technologies have allowed indie designers to publish their games as bound books, which many gamers prefer. 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. Indie games are often conflated with small press games, because of the great overlap between creator ownership and small press publishing.

Disintermediation is a key concept in indie game distribution; 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.

Several organizations specialize in sales of indie games using a two-tier system.Indie Press Revolution distributes games that it labels as independent. RPGNow and DrivethruRPG are two companies that sell such small press offerings (as well as mainstream products) as downloadable PDFs. RPGNow 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. As of 2007, RPGNow Edge is not operating. RPG Now and Drive-Thru RPG were consolidated into a single company OneBookShelf, which still maintains both sites. In August 2007, the two sites were rebranded, with RPG Now bearing the subtitle: "The leading source for indie rpgs". 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.

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