The Indie Press panel at I-CON
After having breakfast with my parents, I was off to ICON. The first hurdle was my badge -- not unexpected, considering the usual mass chaos that is a con. Next was finding the room, which was complicated by the fact that the panel was listed in two places, ESS01 and ESS69. ESS01 was the right room, but attendees faced a further hurdle in entering the building. The main doors were locked. Fortunately I made my "secret door" roll and discovered another way in...only to face more locked doors. Add in the early morning start and it's not surprising that there weren't many attendees.
The panelists included Jess Hartley, SlugFest Games, Miskatonic River Press, Dilly Green Bean Games and several freelancers. This was the Indie RPG panel, so it took awhile for all twelve of the gaming guests to arrive. As one panelist put it, the best way to sum up the indie industry is "running late."
Q: Now that the glut of the D20 Open Game License (OGL) has passed, do you think it's easier for independent games to be seen by prospective consumers?
A: Aaron Rosenberg was quick to point out that there's a difference between the OGL and d20. As Wikipedia explains:
The Open Game License (or OGL) is an open content license designed for role-playing games. It was published by Wizards of the Coast in 2000 to license their Dungeons & Dragons game as the System Reference Document, or SRD, in a move spear-headed by Ryan Dancey. It is commonly used with the d20 license to allow individuals, amateur and professional companies and groups to publish the SRD and derivative works under the d20 System trademark. It has also been used to license content unrelated to the d20 System and/or the SRD.
Q: With the advent of the Chaosium license being released, do you see that as new era for independent game publishers?
A: Oscar Rios of Miskatonic River Press explained that Wizard of the Coast's revival of Gamma World, repackaging Dungeons & Dragons as a boxed set, and the "old school" movement in general made Chaosium's Basic Role-Playing (BRP) system cool again. BRP has changed very little over the years and the expansion of the Call of Cthulhu license means more indie publishers can benefit from Chaosium's legacy.
Q: How has White Wolf been affected by this movement?
A: Jess Hartley explained that White Wolf has moved in a different direction by embracing the world of electronic gaming. White Wolf was acquired by CCP Games, a massive multiplayer gaming company that created Eve Online, but White Wolf's focus goes beyond online gaming to include PDF and print on demand products. Another panelist pointed out that in the same way that the OGL movement made the Dungeons & Dragons system ubiquitous, the Old World of Darkness transitioned to the New World of Darkness by streamlining and standardizing the game line.
Q: How much of an original idea is lost in creating an indie game?
A: It depends on the system constraints. If you're focusing solely on mechanics, you may have to modify what you write for a game due to the rules framework.
Q: How do you know if what you've written works?
A: Writing a game for a particular set of rules is only as effective as its playtesters explained Jason Libby of Dilly Green Bean Games. Conventions are particularly good at testing if a concept comes across as planned. Convention gamers are a particularly useful focus group because they aren't friends or coworkers. "Yes men will kill you." Designers must learn to take criticism. "Learn to take criticism. If you are being criticized, always assume that it's constructive. Your opinion doesn't matter. Your market does." Another panelist added that it's critical to recognize playtesters, who aren't usually compensated any other way.
Q: Are indie games more accepted now?
A: One of the benefits of the OGL passing is that there's more acceptance of other games. The reason publishers dumped the product line is that 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0 Dungeons & Dragons had a spread of a few years between them, requiring distributors and game stores to dump their stock. Stockpilng is bad for business, which is what make PDFs so appealing because the products don't have a shelf life.
Q: How are PDFs and Print On Demand (POD) changing the industry?
A: A company like Borders doesn't know where books come from, so POD is a great source. POD has improved tremendously over the years so that it's nearly indistinguishable from a regular print book. The per unit cost has been plummeting. There were trimming issues, but now they do all kinds of things that a regular printer can do. Quality has gone up, costs have gone down.
Q: Fantasy Flight Games has moved to packaging games like Warhammer Fantasy in boxed sets. Will indie games follow?
A: Brandon Osorio of Dark Refuge Games explained that he disliked mixing board games with role-playing games. "I like to use my imagination, not pieces. The fact that the GM can fudge the universe and a shift to strategic board game means the board game becomes the focus. Story has less significance. Pathfinder is an alternative to D&D for this reason." Aaron explained that boxed sets are gateway games. Boxed sets combine the appeal of board games, miniatures, role-playing games all in one box.
Q: Do game mechanics matter?
A: Mechanics are there to facilitate -- Palladium gets this with Rifts. Rifts has an amazing concept but the mechanics are meant to be houseruled. They don't matter nearly as much as the imaginative world in which they take place. Nearly every player of Palladium games houserules the system. Oscar Rios even managed to run an entire Rifts game using Dread's Jenga system.
Q: How will technology change gaming?
A: Gaming over Skype and online interactive virtual tabletops allow players to game from all over the world. The Microsoft Surface shows a lot of promise as an interactive gaming experience, especially because dice rolls are handled within the system. On the other hand, technology can be irritating. Oscar told a story of how one player rolled his dice on an iPod, making everyone wait while he stared intently at the screen.
Q: What's the future of indie gaming?
A: Indies are in a better position than they've ever been thanks to POD and PDF. Costs are cheaper than ever. There are now more brand choices and licensees, including Call of Cthulhu for BRP and Fringeworthy for Savage Worlds. This is truly an indie publishing renaissance.
Comments