Our hobby has always been a small-press thing. Even now, with modern, corporate D&D, the pastime remains in the capable hands of the hobbyist, empowered as they are to add or otherwise change anything. Tabletop roleplaying games are a set of written rules where the action, from battle to negotiation, takes place inside the participan't heads. And what can houseruling tell us the about small press? Everything, or so it appears, because the referee, so commisioned, carries a game designer's power in their dice bags...
Why buy Second Edition when you can house rule the first? And even if we published the slickest game known to man, it still wouldn't be 100% of what gets played at the table, meaning the actual participants are always, and necesarily, closer to the action than the rules being utilized. Bonus point: since these players can self publish original content, to include original rulesets, small press is likewise (again, necesarily) closer to the action than anything the big names could possibly achieve. Small press rules the tabletop roost.
And, of course, the hobby began as small press (by the gamers, for the gamers) and, barring a few notable exceptions, remained so. Nothing embodies this ethos more than fanzines, where house rules (by the fans, for the players) rise to the forefront. A perfect example of this is Bitterblossom, a fanzine for Mydwandr. This digital volume contains...
1) New kindreds, bound to specific regions of the setting. From mechanical dwarven bottle gnomes to lizard folk from the swamplands around Cornyth, these races deliver!
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2) Added abilities. Speak with the recently dead or wield a whip Indiana Jones style, with several lending a real strategic element to the right campaign, maybe yours.
3) Original guilds and gods. Famous taverns and house rules galore from Biz, Tim Fox, Serra Marbol Mordan, Jon Salway, and James Hook, ready to incorporate into your game!
4) Stylish illustrations (by Luke Ryan Herbert), with an easy to access layout.
5) Tools for referees in a pinch, including sample parties and hirelings to get the party going in convenient and seamless fashion. It's a fanzine that doubles as a supplement...
Like any fanzine, this one puts power in the hands of the players, offering a buffet of content to pile high on their plates. Mydwandr itself is an eponymous setting fully customizable by whoever's at the proverbial helm. Our Mydwandr is different from Jon Salway's, different from yours, but no less valid, because gaming means power to the players. But publication, like parenting, means inevitably surrendering our creations, however beloved or deeply personal, to the people actually playing the game, underscoring small-press supremecy.
Players (read: fans) put the fan in fanzine. And no one's closer to the games being played than the participants. Rulebooks aren't games. Rulebooks are tools. Raw materials for others to bring their worlds to recreational life. And next up from these actual participants are the small press publishers, because while gaming doesn't (necesarily) need a cash economy, if economies have to exist, they're absolutely best kept closest to the bottom, no offense to Wizards. Anyway, we recomend Bitterblossom to the fans, and zines to everyone...