If you don’t know game designer and writer on things conspiratorial and alternately historical Ken Hite, you’re missing out. His exuberantly polysociative Suppressed Transmission column is what keeps me subscribed to Pyramid (the Steve Jackson Games online ‘zine). Sixty-eight of the ST columns have been anthologized into Suppressed Transmission and Suppressed Transmission 2, both of which are lovingly annotated and bibliographied with all varieties of high-quality weirdness. (There’s a sample column available, if you’re not willing to pony up without seeing the goods.)
Hite’s other, more conventional column, “Out of the Box“, is freely readable at GamingReport.com. In the most recent (January 25, 2007) edition, he announces the “Out of the Box Awards” (a.k.a, the “Outies”) for 2006. The list is a mouth-watering assortment of new gaming goodness, and it really makes me wish I had the time for role-playing. Over the past few years there has been an explosion of small and indie RPGs, some indifferent, some superb.
There’s good stuff going on at indie game design site the Forge . . . this isn’t the D&D you played in college. There’s experimentation with every aspect of play, concept, and mechanics. If you’re interested in some vicarious views into new indie (and some mainstream) RPGs, check out the Actual Play forums.
Anybody up for some Dogs in the Vineyard?