Lester_W._Smith

Lester W. Smith

Lester W. Smith

Role-playing game designer

Lester W. Smith is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.

Quick Facts Nationality, Occupation(s) ...

Career

Early work and GDW

Lester Smith began his game-design career in 1984 with Mind Duel, a science-fiction board game submission to Space Gamer magazine.[1] In 1985, he joined the staff at Game Designers' Workshop.[1] Marc Miller, Frank Chadwick, Lester Smith, and Timothy Brown of GDW designed the new game Traveller: 2300 (1986) as an expansion of the original Traveller role-playing game.[2]: 58  He designed the Temple of the Beastmen board game.[1] Smith designed the role-playing game Dark Conspiracy (1991) which used the new GDW "house system" of rules originally created for the second edition of Twilight: 2000.[2]: 60  Smith designed the Minion Hunter board game.[1]

TSR and Dragon Dice

Smith later left GDW to work for TSR.[2]: 63  He was hired by TSR in 1991, and contributed to the AD&D and Amazing Engine role-playing game lines.[1] Smith and Wolfgang Baur co-designed the Planes of Chaos boxed set.[3] He designed the Origins Award-winning Dragon Dice.[1] Smith designed Chaos Progenitus (1996), also marketed as Demon Dice.[4] Smith then worked for Imperium Games.[2]: 63  Smith later worked for Archangel Entertainment, and then helped Don Perrin design the Sovereign Stone role-playing game.[2]: 351  He has also done work for FASA, Flying Buffalo, West End Games, and others, acquiring two other Origins Awards in the process.[1] Along with Timothy Brown, James Ward, John Danovich, and Sean Everette, Smith co-founded the d20 company Fast Forward Entertainment.[2]: 351 

Later work

Smith worked as an educational writer and technologist for a Houghton Mifflin design house and for a time served as the president of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets.[1] As of 2018, Smith is officially retired.[5] Since 2011, Smith has launched 13 successful funded campaigns on the crowdfunding platform kickstarter.[5] These projects include books, role-playing games and card games that Smith has designed himself.[5]

Personal life

Lester Smith is an alumnus of Illinois State University.[5] He married his wife Jennifer and they had four daughters together.[5] In 2015, Smith and his wife moved to Loma, Nebraska to live closer to family.[5]

References

  1. [1]
    Smith, Lester (2007). "Kremlin". In Lowder, James (ed.). Hobby Games: The 100 Best. Green Ronin Publishing. pp. 168–171. ISBN 978-1-932442-96-0.
  2. [2]
    Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
  3. [3]
    Swan, Rick (February 1995). "Role-playing Reviews". Dragon (#214). Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: TSR: 39.
  4. [4]
    "Chaos Progenitus".
  5. [5]
    Schucht, Eric (September 27, 2018). "Loma resident thinks outside the box to design game masterpieces". Columbus Telegram. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
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