What is the Indie Game Reading Club?

The Indie Game Reading Club is a blog written by me, Paul Beakley. I’ve been writing long-form essays, reviews, and resources for RPGs for more than a decade. Go read for yourself at indiegamereadingclub.com. You’ll know right away if this is the voice and the content for you.

Read my 2019 End of Year wrap-up for an overview.

Okay but what does “small press” mean?

Honestly? The wide, weird world of roleplaying outside of Dungeons & Dragons. It’s storygames, OSR, trad and trindie games, freeform, experimental, larp, and so on. It can even include D&D sometimes, when it comes to applying lessons learned from the rest of the roleplaying universe. But I propose that every gamer is happier with the games that give them the experience they want. I want to help you find that game.

What does your patronage pay for?

First and foremost, editorial independence. That means I purchase games from publishers, and don’t rely on review copies. And when I do take review copies, publishers have a better grasp of where I’m coming from. I do long-form, long-play, in-depth work. I do not hate-play. I don’t make sport of unpopular designers. My mission is to meet games and the culture where they are.

Games I’ve discussed in 2019 include (in no particular order):

• Band of Blades
• Invisible Sun
• Apocalypse World
• Cartel
• Goblinville
• The King is Dead
• Masks
• Urban Shadows
• Zombie World
• Blades in the Dark
• Scum and Villainy
• Dungeon World
• Primetime Adventures
• Root: the Roleplaying Game
• King Arthur Pendragon (really!)
• Hack the Planet
• InSpectres
• Torchbearer
• Dust Devils
• Night Witches
• Fiasco
• Burning Wheel
• Montsegur 1244
• Mutant (Year Zero, Genlab Alpha, Mechatron, Elysium)
• The One Ring
• Fate
• Legacy
• Free From The Yoke
• The Veil
• Free Spacer
• Godbound
• Hot Springs Island
• Diaspora
• Coriolis
• Spirit of the Century
• Stars Without Number
• The Clay That Woke
• Forbidden Lands
• Burning Empires
• Psi-Run
• Witch: the Road to Lindisfarne
• Good Society
• My Life With Master
• Sorcerer
• Swords Without Master
• Dictionary of Mu
• Sagas of the Icelanders
• Space Wurm vs Moonicorn
• 3:16

That was in one year, as of mid-November. If you want a broad perspective across a lot of small press gaming, you’d be hard pressed to find a more in depth source of information and honesty.
Your patronage also helps cover my attendance at indie-friendly RPG conventions throughout the year. I facilitate a vast array of games and I love to talk about games. Does your convention want a panel from outside the designer/publisher pool? That’s the Indie Game Reading Club.

Where do I want to grow the Club?

I have ideas!

• Paid guest bloggers
• Complete tagging of back content (before 2019, my work appeared first on Google Plus)
• A print collection of the best essays, with updates and notes.
• Design and development consultation
• Custom-designed one-shot and reference materials for a variety of small-press games
• Sharper design of physical assets I create: reference sheets, one-shot materials, aids of all kinds
• A monthly online game for high-tier supporters