Horror in Lovecraftian RPGs often isn’t
There's a "Cosmic Horror" sale on at DriveThruRPG. I was curious to see whether Bookmark Cthulhu made it on the list and am happy to see that it did.

As a designer, I fall into the camp that Lovecraft's protagonists seldom go insane. Instead, their dread grows toward a breaking point. His secondary characters may be insane. Hi
https://lestersmith.com/2023/08/horror-in-lovecraftian-rpgs-often-isnt/
#BookmarkNoHPRPG #Cthulhu #GameDesign #Horror

#RPGaDAY2023 Day 8: Favorite Character
At last! A fairly easy topic!

Back in the 1980's, when I worked in a factory, had no children, and the future was far distant, I actually had time to paint miniatures for my characters. (I'm not saying they were very good, but at the time they seemed so.)
Raedel Pinehaven
That guy in blue up front i
https://lestersmith.com/2023/08/rpgaday2023-day-8-favorite-character/
#Announcements #BookmarkNoHPRPG #D6xD6RPG #Horror #RoleplayingGames #Writing

BNHP Dragon Dice RPG will be at Gen Con
SFR, Inc, publishers of the Dragon Dice battle game (designed by yours truly), today received copies of the Bookmark HP Dragon Dice RPG (also by yours truly) from their printer, in time for Gen Con!

As you can see in the photo, to adapt BNHP rules to the unique dice of the tabletop gam
https://lestersmith.com/2023/07/bnhp-dragon-dice-rpg-will-be-at-gen-con/
#Announcements #BookmarkNoHPRPG #DiceCardGames #DragonDice #GameDesign #RoleplayingGames

PPM-LSG Bundles
I'm happy to say that Parts Per Million (Peter Ruding-Burgess) and Lester Smith Games (me) now have four bundles of titles on DriveThruRPG:

Cut Up Solo "Hour of the Dragon"/Swords & Spellbookmarks
Cut Up Solo Carnacki/Paranormal Wordbookmark
Cut Up Solo Dracula/Dracula's Get
Cut Up Solo Lovecraft/Bookmark Cthulhu

In case  you're not  familiar wi
https://lestersmith.com/2023/06/ppm-lsg-bundles/
#Announcements #BookmarkNoHPRPG #GameDesign #RoleplayingGames

Bookmark Dragon Dice: Shirrah’s 1st Adventure!
For a couple of decades now, I've been telling SFR, Inc. that a Dragon Dice role-playing game was in the offing. I dipped my toe in the water back in 2014, with a setting chapter in the D6xD6 RPG launch, but I was hoping to expand that further. But too many
https://lestersmith.com/2023/04/bookmark-dragon-dice-shirrahs-1st-adventure/
#Announcements #BookmarkNoHPRPG #Dice&cardgames #DragonDice #GameDesign #Oldgamedesigns #Role-playinggames

Kindle Fire RPG Adventure Contest
Through an ordering error on my part, I’m in possession of an unneeded, Woot refurbished, 16 GB, red Kindle Fire HD 8 Tablet (7th gen). The OS is fresh, ready for connection to a new owner’s Amazon account, but I’ve preloaded the tablet with PDFs of every published Lester Smith Games RPG title: D13, D6xD6, D
https://lestersmith.com/2023/04/kindle-fire-rpg-adventure-contest/
#Announcements #BookmarkNoHPRPG #D13RPG #D6xD6RPG #GameDesign #Role-playinggames

“Make 100” 2023 – Limited Edition Bookmarks
As you'll see in the sidebar, I've launched a Kickstarter project to make a limited-edition set of Bookmark HP RPG bookmarks, hole-punched for a ribbon or chain. At the moment, it's been live for about 10 hours and is 71% funded, with 53 of the 100 sets pledged.

As with most things nowadays, I launch
https://lestersmith.com/2023/01/make-100-2023-limited-edition-bookmarks/
#Announcements #BookmarkNoHPRPG #GameDesign #Role-playinggames

Role-Playing Dracula’s Kids sans GM
Today the Cut Up Solo Dracula/Dracula's Get bundle went live (undead?) on DriveThruRPG.

So what is Cut Up Solo Dracula? Published by Parts Per Million, it's Stoker's novel cut up into 5-word snippets in a programmed spreadsheet. Every time you hit F9, the spreadsheet delivers a set of random snippets as a prompt to
https://lestersmith.com/2023/01/role-playing-draculas-kids-sans-gm/
#BookmarkNoHPRPG #Dracula #GameDesign #Horror #Role-playinggames

GM-Less Cthulhu et al
You may have seen my mention of the "Cut Up Solo" oracle series by Parts Per Million. Each oracle is an automated spreadsheet of 5-word snippets from a public domain novel (such as Dracula) or series (John Carter of Mars, for example). It outputs a group of four 5-word snippets with each press of F9, and you browse the list to see what role-pl
https://lestersmith.com/2023/01/gm-less-cthulhu-et-al/
#Announcements #BookmarkNoHPRPG #Cthulhu #GameDesign #Horror #Horror

No, Virginia . . .
"You can't fool me. There ain't no sanity clause!" Chico Marx
Bookmark Cthulhu is now live, just in time for the holidays! And in a break with RPG tradition, it has no sanity rules. What it does have is a system for steadily rising dread. That, and a way to rank his classic monstrosities and create new ones of your own by using Lovecraft's own most common
https://lestersmith.com/2022/11/no-virginia/
#Announcements #BookmarkNoHPRPG #Cthulhu #GameDesign #Horror #Horror

The World Is Your Bookmark
"The world is your bookmark," Joel Brooks
I've no idea what Brooks meant by that statement, but it makes a decent lead-in for this post. And if you'll allow me to paraphrase, "A bookmark can be a world." At least in tabletop role-playing game terms.

About a year ago, on a whim, I did a weekend thought experiment in role-playin
https://lestersmith.com/2022/11/the-world-is-your-bookmark/
#Announcements #BookmarkNoHPRPG #GameDesign #Role-playinggames #Writing