Answer: Today’s question is pretty straightforward and
has a relatively easy answer. Thirty years ago my answer would have been that I
found out about new games from Dragon magazine, my local game shops, and friends’
older brothers.
Now I chiefly find out about games from YouTube channels
I subscribe to: Runeslinger, Dark Age of Role Playing, Ivanmike1968, Questing
Beast, Eric from Bloat Games, Old Man Grognard, Samwise Seven RPG, among
others. As lame as it sounds, Amazon’s algorithm has also helped me find the
kind of games I’ve been excited about. I found out about Basic Fantasy and
Labyrinth Lord just trolling for old modules. The fact that I find out about
new games chiefly through YouTube, Amazon, and Facebook has given me pause.
Since I’ve come back to the hobby I’ve noticed the kind
of games I’m interested in are not often stocked at the local shops. The couple
of game stores I’ve been in recently seem to feature shelves full of the two
big heavyweights (5e and Pathfinder) like Coke and Pepsi in a convenient store.
A lot of the small press OSRs I want to check out are usually available only
through print on demand which I guess means it’s not profitable for my local
brick and mortar to carry it because not enough people are interested in it.
Even though I’m getting information through these large
corporate platforms (YouTube, Amazon, Facebook), it’s being disseminated by the
RPG community itself. This online community has made me realize that I’m not the
only person looking for something outside the standard Coke and Pepsi choices
and that’s made a huge difference.
Here are some of my favorite YouTube videos that have turned me on to new games recently. Thanks guys!
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