RPGNow, a leader in sales of PDF games, has announced a print distribution deal with Alliance Games, Blackhawk Hobby Distributors, Inc., and Centurion Hobby Distributors, Inc.  The distributors will select products from RPGNow publishers and will make printed versions of these games available at brick-and-mortar game stores. The agreement, which should benefit both publishers and retailers, should also provide game store customers with a larger and more varied selection of products.

But the primary benefit of this agreement could be the way in which it bolsters an infusion of talent into the declining (in sales at least) world of role-playing games by extending the reach of PDF and print-on-demand publishing, which have lowered considerably the barriers of entry for new talent/self-publishers, who will no longer have to finance the publishing of core rulebooks and supplements, which in many cases in the past ended up as expensive insulation for the garage or basement if the game failed to sell.  Some of the best RPGs of recent years including, to name just a couple, Paul Czege's award-winning My Life With Master and D. Vincent Bakarian's Dogs in the Vineyard, have been published in the PDF format, and this agreement between RPGNow and three leading game distributors could bring innovative and individualistic RPGs additional exposure to the gaming communities that form around hobby stores.