Shopping for Indie RPGs

[Yokiboy]

Hello,

This might be the wrong forum for this topic, but I'm having a hard time purchasing the many indie RPGs that I want to add to my collection. Is there anywhere online where I can order a lot of indies from the same place?

I'm in Sweden which complicates matter as relates to PayPal, or other non-credit card payments, and shipments of single books across the pond add a lot of overhead.

I'm currently after the following games:

My Life with Master
Dust Devils
Universalis
Dogs in the Vineyard
The Nopress RPG Anthology
Dread
The Riddle of Steel
Soap
InSpectres
Primetime Adventures
and all Sorcerer mini-supplements

Does anyone know of a good source where I can pick up the majority of these titles in one go?

TTFN,

Yokiboy

[LordSmerf]

I do not really know of a place where you can get all of them, but it might be possible for you to get someone in the US to order them and then put them in one big box and ship them to you...

Thomas

[Valamir]

Hey Yoki, I've shipped numerous copies to Sweden without any problem at all using pay pal.  There are now numerous ways to set up a paypal account, so if you haven't tried using it in a while, give it another go.

I know that Universalis and No Press are available at Key20.com

Universalis is also available at RPGmall.com

Both of those take credit cards.

I don't know of any place where you can get all of these titles at once.

[Yokiboy]

Hey Yoki, I've shipped numerous copies to Sweden without any problem at all using pay pal.  There are now numerous ways to set up a paypal account, so if you haven't tried using it in a while, give it another go.

Okay Valamir, you called me on the Pay Pal thing, and you're right, yet I'd still prefer using a credit card. I'd also like to get all books in one go if possible, but it seems unlikely.

I can't even figure out how to order some of the games, such as Primetime Adventures where I can't find any info on ordering the title at the publisher's site.

TTFN,

Yokiboy

[Valamir]

Also check out http://www.arkkikivi.net

I know Eero picked up a number of indie titles to distribute at various Finnish cons.  I don't know which he has, and I don't know if shipping from Finland to Sweden is any great savings.

[Eero Tuovinen]

This might be the wrong forum for this topic, but I'm having a hard time purchasing the many indie RPGs that I want to add to my collection. Is there anywhere online where I can order a lot of indies from the same place?

I've got some of those, and there's more to come. If you're in Stockholm, just hop into a boat and come get 'em from Helsinki (don't know if you've done it, but it's cheap and only takes the night to cross). Or I can send them in mail, if you'll pay postage. Let's see what I have in my self...

My Life with Master - don't have it, but I have the Finnish version ;)
Dust Devils - coming soon
Universalis - got it
Dogs in the Vineyard - coming soon
The Nopress RPG Anthology - coming soon
Dread - don't have, isn't it PDF only?
The Riddle of Steel - you really don't get this from your FLGS?
Soap - don't have, can it be ordered in bulk?
InSpectres - tried to get it, but got octaNe instead. Friggin' Jared.
Primetime Adventures - don't have, can it be ordered in bulk?
and all Sorcerer mini-supplements - they're not in print

Summa summarum, we have three of the articles on your list, with three coming before Christmas (hopefully). I anticipate that we'll be getting some of the rest too, but that'll wait for next summer's convention season. We're after all just a convention retailer, no sense in filling my bookself before I can actually sell the stuff.

So I'd say that you should try to get your list straight from America; just get somebody to collect your books and send them in one packet. Promise to buy them pizza the next time they come to Sweden, or buy their game while you're at it.

Alternatively, get at least the PDF games by asking somebody else to use Paypal. At least MLwM, Sorcerer mini-supplements, InSpectres and DiV are available, and likely some of the others as well. Heck, if you'll send me the money (cheap between Sweden and Finland, I believe), I'll buy them for you.

Still alternatively, use Paypal. Really. It's not complex, and you don't even have to use their credit account or whatever it is. Actually, you cannot use it from outside America, I believe. You'll have to pay with a credit card, which is what you're anyway willing to do. I don't see any difference in straight credit card payment and Paypal, really.

Still alternatively, if this is a long-term plan that's already been simmering a while, you can just wait about half a year for me to get all those games (and possibly others as well, like the constantly saturnine and hilarious kpfs). I try to generally fulfill the dreams of the customers, so if those games can be got, I'll likely be getting most if not all of them for the summer conventions. Why not make a holiday of it? Come to, say, Conklaavi in Turku in April and get all the games there. Finns come from just as far away, and spend the weekend anyway, so it's not really any different if you come from Sweden instead...

[Matt Wilson]

I can only answer with regards to Primetime Adventures. The reason there's no buy info up yet is I still haven't got the books to sell.

I should have them in a day or two and will have the info up then. For now my site will be the only place to buy the book.

My Paypal account should accept credit cards.

[Thunder_God]

I also agree with the sentiment; having numerous Indie RPGs one can get in one shipment is very helpful when shipping is so costly. I dislike PDFs but paying shipping for one book at a time is a big no-no when it costs (almost) as much as the book.

Any chance for an "Indie Warehouse"?

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

One of the very, very recent developments is here: Indie Press Revolution, run by Brennan Taylor.

His terms include a 15% commission, a shared website (although you may put the buy-button anywhere else), POD only, direct-to-customer fulfillment only. The shipping costs are interesting: for sales under $25, the cost is borne by the customer; for sales $25 and over, the cost is borne by the publisher ... notice that few if any of our games are $25, which means that cost would typically be split/shared.

It seems to me to be literally what I've been calling for for over two years now: effectively a very competent "here, go mail this" service highly specialized to the independent grass-roots publisher.

I might as well disclose that I've just transferred all my direct fulfillment to this company. Therefore I'm a little uncomfortable talking more about what I see as the major benefits, as there's a little conflict of interest at work. So check it out and maybe Brennan'll come by and discuss it some.

Best,
Ron

[Brennan Taylor]

Thanks for the intro, Ron. Indie Press Revolution is brand-new and not quite ready for prime time at the moment, but we are doing our big release later this month. I already have several indie publishers on board, including Keith Senkowski of Bob Goat Press and Ron, as he mentioned in his post.

The history of this site was a conversation I had at this year's I-CON on Long Island with another small press publisher. We both had the same complaints about our difficulties with the current game distribution system. I had gone POD with a very small run, and the other publisher, Ed Cha, really liked the idea. This led to a discussion of how we might be able to make better money with direct web sales, because as most folks on the Forge realize, the three-tier distribution system just isn't feasible for small publishers like us. The distributors take a massive cut, and many times they won't buy except through consolidators, who take a skim off what little is left. Ed and I decided to put together a web store for precisely the kind of products we were creating.

The goal of the site is to create a nice one-stop shop for indie games, just like Yokiboy was asking about at the top of this thread. Since we are all really small, a sort of co-op concept is a great way to spread some of the expense as well as promote each other's products. The idea is that together indie press publishers can gather some clout that no one company is going to muster on their own unless they hit it really big.

Postage is covered by the publishers for orders over $25. We are offering free shipping for precisely the reason Ron mentioned. All of the products we're selling have price points under $25, and one of the main purposes of the site is the cross-sell. People may have heard about another game on the site, but not yours, and this will help raise awareness for everybody's products, and encourage larger orders which really helps everyone. Also, even though the publisher picks up the shipping tab, you will usually be sharing it with another publisher (since the customer ordered one product from both).

If anybody wants to talk to me further about this, I would be happy to give many more details. Just send me an e-mail or private message.

[Ed Cha]

We're really excited about having Ron on board! His highly-acclaimed "Sorceror" series is something we're very proud to have in our line-up. So I'm glad to see that Ron is also enthusiastic about our budding project!

The 15% commission rate is only for inaugural clients. That means those who sign up in this initial phase. I don't know how how long we'll keep this rate going forward, but it will likely go up as soon as we get a dozen or so clients together. So if you're a quality publisher, sign up now.

Thus far, we've had an invitation-only policy. That means we've recruited clients by judging the quality of their product, the reviews they have received, looking at manuscripts/PDFs, etc. One of our biggest selling points is that we only carry the best of the best. Customers visiting our site and distributors or retailers ordering from us know that we're giving them quality products.  

We see this not only as a business venture, but also an artistic endeavor. Indie Press Revoluton is taking a cooperative approach to advertising, shipping, etc. So you only pay for what is being paid for in these aspects. We offer FREE storage unlike other fulfillment houses which charge per book each and every month. We also offer unlimited networking possibilities in which members of our little co-op can share artist recommendations, viewpoints, and ideas in a secure and confidential forum.  

Indie Press Revolution expects to have at least 8-9 clients signed on by the time of official launch which should be in the coming weeks, probably sooner than you'd think. This is going to be a very exciting project. Stay tuned!

Oh, and the free Priority Mail shipping within the U.S. is for orders $25 AND over. That means an order of $25.00 or more will get you free shipping. I keep telling that to Brennan! :)

[woodelf]

Dread - don't have, isn't it PDF only?

Either you're mistaken, or you're thinking of the wrong game. Dread: the First Book of Pandemonium is hardcopy and, i think, only hardcopy. Dread will be PDF only, initially, and should have the quickstart on our website any day now (possibly within the hour, if the rest of the guys approve my design decisions), with the actual thing available hopefully for Halloween.  I include this partly as shameless plug, partly on the off chance you're actually thinking of our game (though, realistically, i doubt it), and partly to clarify the name issue: we were already using "Dread" as the title for the RPG for a couple of years when Dread: the First Book of Pandemonium came out, and we talked to the author and he admitted he hadn't even thought to do a websearch before choosing his game name, and that the specific name wasn't particularly central to his game. And, after much discussion, we've decided that (1) actual confusion isn't all that likely (sadly, i've yet to meet anyone at a convention (outside of the Forge booth) who's heard of Dread: the First Book of Pandemonium), (2) the name is the best one for our game--we've discussed and rejected a great many others, and (3) there's too much name recognition already built up from 4-5 years of heavy convention presence, and we risk the game getting missed if we change the name at this point--everybody's looking for "Dread" to come out.