Library Information

2020-03-30 IPR Operations During Pandemic

Libraries - Bring Indie Press Role Playing Games to Your Shelves!

What is a table top roleplaying game?

Table top roleplaying games, or TTRPGs, are exercises in collaborative storytelling. They're a lot like playing pretend, but with more structured rules. A group of people get together, sometimes facilitated by a game master (GM), to embody characters, create worlds, make friends, solve problems, and tell stories.

The game master's role is to adjudicate the rules, set the stage for the players, and play the role of the minor characters and antagonists. Usualy the other participants then play as the protagonists, or player characters, of the story.

Some games don't have a GM, and instead distribute the responsibilites of playing the minor characters and setting up the world amongst all the players.

There are all kinds of TTRPGs out there, covering all genres and types of play. Some use dice, some tokens, some even use tumbling block towers or decks of cards. A usual play group for a TTRPG involves around five people, but some games can be played solo, or with two or three players.

Sometimes a game is played over several sessions, with each session being 2-4 hours long. Some games are built to be played in one session, and some are meant to be played for much longer, with some groups meeting weekly for months or years.

Why do you want them in your library?

TTRPGs are a great fit for libraries, as they bring groups of people together to be creative and stretch their imaginations, along with encouraging cooperation and helping to build social and emotioonal skills.

They also encourage patrons to take full advantage of your library's facilities. Many players say their biggest barrier to playing games is not having a place to meet up, whether it's once a week or for one session.

Additionally, many TTRPGs require preparation time from the game master in a quiet, non-disruptive environment, with plenty of materials available that they can use for research. Your library could be that place.

For more details on how to facilitate games for children and teens, we recommend Jaclyn Lewis' Rolling With the Youth, a 64 page guide to running inclusive, safe, and fun roleplaying games for all ages, with insights from years playing games with youth 12-24,

Who is Indie Press Revolution?

Indie Press Revolution (IPR) is a distributor dedicated to bringing you the best of small press tabletop roleplaying and storytelling games since 2004.

We work directly with over 200 independent publishers to get their games into the hands of players. Currently our catalog has over 600 games, covering a variety of genres and playstyles.

Questions? Ready to sign up?
We want to hear from you!
Contact [email protected]!

Why Carry Indie Role Playing Games?

Indie games are quick starters.

Many indie games are shorter than your typical RPG. With rules that are quick to read and easy to learn. A game from IPR goes from checkout to play much faster. When people play the games they read, they come back for more.

Indie games make great one-shots.

Because they're fast reads and quick to start up, indie games make for ideal �one-shots� where players can enjoy a satisfying game in one session without having to schedule multiple times to get to the good stuff.

Indie games have grown up. With more cost-effective printing options available today, indie publishers have been producing high-quality, attractive game books that rival the best of the big guys.

Indie games don't go out of style.

Great indie games like Dread, Fiasco and the Quiet Year stay in style longer than �traditional�, big-press games. Dread has been enjoying constant, steady sales every year since its 2006 debut, Fiasco since 2010.

What Can Indie Press Revolution Do For You?

IPR finds you the good stuff.

IPR screens the products we offer for quality and value. And we gather it all into one place, saving the time you'd spend hunting these games down. By working with IPR, you'll connect with 200+ publishers—but with all the convenience of a single company. IPR's one-stop shop takes the hassle out of ordering indie games.

IPR watches out for everyone.

As a library, school, or university, you get 25% off anything at IPR. Why 25%? It's a discount that looks out for both the small press publisher and you—everyone involved gets the margins on the sales they need. IPR doesn't leave anyone out in the cold.

IPR makes shipping affordable for orders of all sizes.

IPR gives you variety

IPR offers you the opportunity to diversify your roleplaying and storytelling game line, bringing you an in-demand sector of games that you and your patrons have been missing.

About IPR

Who We Are

Indie Press Revolution (IPR) is a network of creator-publishers devoted to bringing you the latest innovations in independent roleplaying and story telling games, since 2004. We connect more than two hundred high quality small-press game companies direct to buyers with maximum convenience and minimum hassle.

IPR Means Quality

IPR sees this kind of success by building its catalog exclusively from the Indie RPG scene. All products in IPR's inventory are screened for quality by us, taking the guesswork out of buying small press games. Games like Polaris, Fiasco, Dread, and Microscope have shelf appeal, and there are many more like them in IPR's growing catalog. Better yet, most indie games don't buy into the outdated �parade of supplements� publishing strategy. These are stand-alone games that your patrons will be happy to check out, try, and come back for more—never left feeling like they got something incomplete, but with their appetites primed for more.

Also, we have a solo journaling game about being The Librarian's Apprentice in an endless magical library.

IPR Brings You the Best

IPR's games are built from a foundation of passion and love for the hobby. They are produced with a dedication that is unique to creator-owned products. Many of IPR's products have received awards nominations and rave reviews from critics and fans alike.

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How to Set Up a Library Account with IPR

To set up a library, school, or university account with IPR, create an account using the "Register" option in the "Log In" box on the upper left, and include your Library name, Web site, and (if relevant) Tax number. Set "Sign up for membership" to "Library", then use the "Contact" button at the top of the page or under the "Help" box on the left to send us your library name, location, website, and answers to these three questions:

1. Would you like to receive our weekly spreadsheet with all products available for sale, highlighting best sellers, new products, and restocked products? You can unsubscribe any time.

2. Would you like to receive our monthly newsletter about new games we've added? You can unsubscribe any time.

3. Would you like us to list your library on our web page listing libraries that carry games from IPR? (Not set up yet, but we'll put you on the list to add once it's set up.)

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How to Order

Nearly all products available from IPR are available to libraries.

IPR offers free shipping on library orders of $200 or more using UPS Ground in the US lower 48 states and USPS Media Mail to Alaska and Hawaii. That includes to freight forwarders if you're an international library.

UPS comes by Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Orders that arrive by 7am PDT on weekdays are usually pulled that day, packed the next weekday, and shipped the next Mon/Wed/Fri. So orders placed Monday or Tuesday typically ship Friday, orders placed Wednesday ship Monday, and orders placed Thursday through Sunday ship Wednesday. That's what we try for, but if there's a lot of orders or weather iss bad or people are out it can take a bit longer. Once shipped, here is a map of typical business days in transit via UPS Ground:

You can order from our website (do not order products tagged [PDF] or [Print+PDF], those do not apply your library discount). You can pay with PayPal or credit card. You may find the following three pages helpful. Click on the Product ID link to take you to a product page with more information and a buy button.

List of all IPR products available to libraries, updated every weekday morning.

100 newest IPR products with most recent at the top, updated every weekday morning. If it has been a while since you've ordered this page is convenient for seeing what we've added since then.

Bestseller, New, or Restocked IPR Products lists products that were best sellers last quarter, added in the last 90 days, or restocked in the last week. Updated weekly on Monday morning.

OR you can order from the weekly Monday spreadsheet by filling in the quantities you want to order, delete the items you're not ordering, and mailing it back as an attachment to [email protected]. Please name the attachment file with your library name and the date of the order like this: "anytownlibrary-2024-07-16.xls". The spreadsheet calculates the total for your order at the bottom of the page. Mention in the mail whether you would like us to send you a PayPal funds request (and what address we should send that to) or what number to call for a credit card number, or you can keep a credit card on file for us to charge.

Sorry, we do not offer terms.

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�Freight Forwarding for International Libraries

While we can ship directly anywhere in the world the cost is very high, so libraries outside the USA are probably better off using a freight forwarder. Here are some we've had good reports on, and we welcome hearing about others you've had good experiences with.

To United Kingdom/Ireland:

• Map Cargo http://www.mapcargo.com/
• Woodland Global http://www.wwodlandgroup.com/

Continental Europe:

• Rim Logistics https://www.rimlogistics.com/
• Hellmann Worldwide http://www.hellmann.net/en/united-states/
• Woodland Global http://www.wwodlandgroup.com/

Southeast Asia:
We hear Borderlinx http://www.borderlinx.com/US/en/ closed so please tell us if you know of another freight forwarder for southeast Asia.

last updated Wed Oct 1 04:24 PDT 2025