RPG A Day 3: How do I find out about new RPG’s?

This question just makes me sad.  Two years ago I was swimming in the knowledge of what was coming, what had just been released and what was being talked about.  Then I opened a game store sure that this knowledge would be ultimately useful and brilliantly enhanced by my focus.  Instead it got subverted into new lines, numbers surrounding a business and could I afford the next release of Magic or not.  The time that this all took up moved me away from the sources I had about new games and the conversations around them.

Google Plus

That one place in the inter-web sphere that most trendies claim was a never was is in fact the best place for these conversations.  It is a place that fosters community – not click bait.  Because of this many of the designers that are brilliant openly have discussions there.  Communities like G+ Tabletop Roleplaying Games is constantly filled with these discussions.  It is a great place to begin your search, forever expanding out and circling those that are at the heart of this creative, thankless hobby.

Sure, there may be few actual announcements from the big companies out there.  But if you are reading my blog you are probably a bit more into the different, the alternative.  That is where the changes in the industry are actually hammered out in the long term anyway.

Tweeters

I never really got the hang of Twitter.  It is a much more American thing longer term but I have followed the bigger names on there.  I do notice that anytime I look at it (which is rarely) my feed is dominated by a bunch of information from all of the RPG players around the world.  In particular I like to keep an ear out for what Shanna Germain and Vincent Baker is up to.  There are a bunch of other people that I follow whose opinion I respect – Moe Tousignant, Monte Cooke Games and others.

Sad but true is the fact that I am not as aware of games as I should be.  I rely on distributors to my store to keep me up to date now.  I spend most of my time running a store and designing the events for that store that I am sadly distant from all of those conversations I used to revel in.  Every time I get a chance I go back and look and see the conversations still going so check out Google Plus 🙂  It is where everyone seems to talk about the important things.