Best of Many Worlds: Indie+

Role-playing games let people tell stories. At their best, RPGs encourage imagination and open us up to new experiences that we tailor to our own needs and desires.

This is strengthened by the recent trend of “indie” RPGs, many of which include in-game rewards for moving the story forward and otherwise making things complicated for the characters.

Indie RPGs have always had a fundamental problem: exposure. Tabletop RPGs are already a niche market, with indies huddled in a small corner.

Along comes Indie+ to pull indie RPGs out into the limelight.

Indie+ is an online convention planned for the week of July 9 through July 15. Hosts will run a variety of indie RPGs, from the space marine game 3:16 to the Tarantino film simulator Fiasco to the classic dungeon crawl system Searchers of the Unknown. There’ll even be panels about defining “indie,” art from the buyers’ and the makers’ perspectives, and depictions of women in RPGs.

Since it’s entirely online, all you need is a microphone of some kind (and a Google+ account) to attend. We’ll even run everything through Google+ Hangouts on Air, so video should be available afterwards of all games and panels.

Yes, I wrote “we;” I’m helping to organize the con. I think this is a great chance to broaden one’s horizons, and I hope you’ll sign up for a game!