There are some great bigger publishers in the RPG industry but also
there are many wonderful small one-man-show-publishers (yes, it’s more
men than women but we have more men than women in this industry,
right?). My favorite “indie” publisher is Paolo Greco/Lost
Pages. It’s a small firm located in
the UK. Paolo concentrates on old school role-playing but isn’t
content to re-hash what’s been done before but creates new things.
He wrote Adventure Fantasy Game, a
simple game which only uses 1d6 and has a unique task mechanism.
Also, Cthonic Codex, a setting book
for AFG (here is a great review by
Oliof).
You can also get this as a boxed set or a coptic bound hardcover. And
more. He uses his own printing
services and makes stuff in manual labor. No Onebookshelf and you can
really see the quality difference! (Nothing against Lightningsource but
the books often don’t reach the quality of a good “traditional” printer.
Still, it’s a good way to go for small publishers.) Furthermore, he
lately pulled in other excellent writers: Chris McDowall, who wrote
Into the
Odd,
an OSR horror-survival game with a unique theme and a great ruleset, and
Brendan Strejcek’s Wonder &
Wickedness, a new magic
supplement. So, if you’re looking for fresh ways of looking at old
school role-playing you should definitely check it out. Paolo is also
very responsive on G+ and via email and all my packages have arrived
without problems neatly packed.
Links: