Indie Games

>>49999885
Unknown Armies, Talislanta, Feng Shui, Remember Tomorrow.

What's the definition of "indie rpg" again?

>>49999885
I'll go first.

Played
> Apocalypse World (1e)
> Dogs in the Vineyard
> Fate
> Burning Wheel
> The Riddle of Steel
> Blades in the Dark
> Sorcerer

The favorite of the pack thus far has been The Riddle of Steel, though BW is a close second. I'm a big sucker for the character-driven mechanics (Spiritual Attributes and Beliefs, respectively). It's changed the way I've GM'd ever since.

>>49999947
I'm going with "small press publishers outside of mainstream gaming." I listed a bunch of stuff >>50000004 from my experience.

Shadowrun, D&D, GURPS, Savage Worlds, etc all have big-time publishing companies behind them.

>>50000038
Except FATE and *W publishing has gotten pretty big too.

>>50000077
I'll grant that. But I'd reckon their sales numbers are nowhere near the scale of what, say, Peter Jackson Games or the like does.

>>49999885
Legends of the Wulin, Dogs in the Vineyard, Mouse Guard, Ryuutama and Blades in the Dark are great games. Belly of the Beast is shaping up to be good too.

If you're looking for something less campaign-oriented, try Lasers & Feelings, Lady Blackbird or Fiasco.

>>49999947
I think about this a lot. Anything by WotC, Paizo, CGL, SJG or FFG definitely doesn't count. FATE and Savage Worlds probably straddle the line of becoming professional products due to their popularity.

>>50000077

I'd say numerous, not big. They're still mostly 1 or 2 man operations being self-published with kickstarter funds, which is indie as hell.

>>50000133
>I think about this a lot. Anything by WotC, Paizo, CGL, SJG or FFG definitely doesn't count. FATE and Savage Worlds probably straddle the line of becoming professional products due to their popularity.
Maybe the line is "how many people are involved in the project?"

Burning Wheel, Blades in the Dark, and Apocalypse World were all games written by a single dude. They had editors and playtesters, but they didn't have a "Creative team" per se.

Pathfinder had a Lead Designer, a consultant, 3 additional designers, and then 6 "additional contributors."

Apocalypse World's credits are basically just.. Vincent Baker.

If we want to try to come up with a way to quantify it, then it's going to be a combination of "How many copies did they sell?" and "How many designers were on the project?"

Imperfect fuzzy-logic kind of things.. but the more designers, the more you're talking about a professional company, and not an indie dev.

>>50000220
I don't know if that's entirely accurate. There are Kickstarters where it's just a group of four 20 somethings making a game together - are they less indie?

We have to account for the difference between people on the payroll to design a game and people doing it as a labor of love.

>>50000272
> There are Kickstarters where it's just a group of four 20 somethings making a game together - are they less indie?
Hence the "imperfect fuzzy logic" disclaimer, and why it's a combination of "how many copies do they sell" and "how many people are designing it?"

If we're going down this line of thought though, when does an indie game cease to be an indie game?

If I released a game tomorrow called Drunks & Dice, it would clearly be an indie game. If I kickstart it and it earns 7th Sea money (like. $1.3 million) is it still an indie game? What if I use the money to hire a couple friends to help me handle the logistics of distributing the thousands of copies? What if I use those friends to help me dev an expansion that I promised as a pledge goal?

When do I stop being an indie dev? When does it stop being an indie game?

>>50000322
>When does it stop being an indie game?

When it gets printed by a major publishing house.

>>50000904
as well as when people are paid full time by a large company to design the mechanics

>>49999885
Protip: there are maybe four big name publishers in RPGs. All the rest is indie.

>>49999885
My personal favorites are Fiasco and Primetime adventures.
That said, I've often seen "indie" in RPGs associated with narrativist games of the school of the Forge, and to me it's a decent shorthand for games that are difficult to put in a single category. Honestly most games are indie, even the latest World of Darkess are nothing of not indie (freelancer work, kickstarters and so on).