Small Press RPGs -- is there a market? From: "Rob Harper" <stateofmind@breathemail.net> Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 00:00:00 +0000 There is discussion in progress on the "ukrpgsoc" mailing list (mail ukrpgsoc-subscribe@onelist.com if you want to subscribe) about the possibility of setting up a new RPG organisation, but this has started to throw up side issues. In recent mails, it has been mentioned that the UK RPG industry doesn't look particularly impressive, and someone else (John) noted that Wargame rulesets are generally published by small press outfits, and he believes the circulations are comparable to many RPGs. He suggests that maybe RPG writers could adopt a similar attitude to publication. (I hope I haven't misrepresented you there, John.) Anyway, this got me to thinking. I've seen plenty of small-press RPGs, although many of them haven't found their way into the distribution network. Most of those that have appear to be lightweight, "beer & pretzels" or "blood & guts" games, with little potential (or need) for expansion, while others are simply someone writing down a game he has been running in an attempt to earn a few quid, a bit of fame, and "just to see what happens". However, maybe this doesn't need to be the case. Would it be viable for a firm to make an assault on the market by keeping their production costs down, producing small, simple books rather than large, flashy ones with loads of artwork and suchlike? A couple of years ago I would have said that the market has gone too far in the direction of high gloss gaming products for anything along these lines to work. However, recently we've seen the rise of Cheapass Games, a company producing really great board and card games with extremely basic production (mono print on 160gsm card for the components, packaged in an envelope. And these games sell in sizeable quantities -- two of the range won Origins awards last year, and you could buy both of them in the UK and have change from a tenner. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Can a well thought out RPG with basic production make any impact in today's market? I'd like to think so... -- Luv&hugs, Rob. State of Mind Games (http://www.homestead.com/stateofmind) Referenced By Up