Why are 90% of indie RPGs shit?

>>47130875
90% of everything is shit.

>>47130875

Spaghetti method. To design something new, throw stuff at the wall until something sticks. Not everything sticks.

Also, most indie games are designed with pretty specific genres or modes of play in mind, meaning they can't necessarily handle play outside that quite limited scope.

Filtering and selection bias. If it's not shit, it eventually stops being an indie.

>>47130901

>they can't necessarily handle play outside that quite limited scope

Also, players who don't want to play "that sort of game" (say, the indie is It Was A Mutual Decision, which is about a couple breaking up, and Steve doesn't want to play pussy drama relationship games) is inevitably going to see it as shit just because of the category it sits in.

>>47130889
This.
90% of non-indie RPGs are shit, too.

>>47130948
Unfortunately, most people are used to playing (pseudo)simulationist games with rule bloat for everything. And can quickly get into situations that are outside the scope of the game. I'd wonder why I don't just use GURPS for everything I run, but then I realize that nobody is willing to learn the damn system despite it being easier and more well organized than most games they are likely used to (you don't even need multiple types of die for it).

They're written for idiosyncratic tastes because they don't have to appeal to a broad market.

In fact, they might appeal to no one but the writer.
>see every overwrought D&D heartbreaker ever

>>47130971
This too.

Because you're too contrarian to enjoy anything.

I thought 90% was a generous estimate.

>>47130875
Because 99% of everything indie is shit, no the virtue of being made by people with on idea what they are actually doing.

>>47130875
Because "LOOK AT HOW DIFFERENT AND UNIQUE MY SETTING AND RULES ARE I SUBVERT SO MANY TROPES" doesn't make for good game design.

>>47130875
Sturgeon's law.

And in the case of anything indie it's more like 95-99%.

Because a lot of indie rpgs (and actually a good proportion of rpgs in general) are made as a reaction to something else. They take another game the designer like and try and emulate ideas from that whilst trying to be as different as possible to other systems the designer didn't like. The trick to designing stuff well is to remove any baggage you may have with a system, look at the pros and cons of that mechanic unbiasedly, and design accordingly.

Also as other people have pointed out good indie rpgs tend to stop being indie quite quickly so there's that.