Lester W. Smith is a

game designer Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...

who has worked primarily on

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

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 Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consid ...

'' magazine. In 1985, he joined the staff at

Game Designers' Workshop Game Designers' Workshop (GDW) was a wargame and role-playing game publisher from 1973 to 1996. Many of their games are now carried by other publishers. History Game Designers' Workshop was originally established June 22, 1973. The founding m ...

. Marc Miller,

Frank Chadwick Frank Chadwick is an American multiple-award-winning game designer and ''New York Times'' best selling author. He has designed hundreds of games, his most notable being the role-playing games ''En Garde!'', '' Space: 1889'' and '' Twilight 2000 ...

, Lester Smith, and Timothy Brown of GDW designed the new game '' Traveller: 2300'' (1986) as an expansion of the original ''

Traveller Traveler(s), traveller(s), The Traveler(s), or The Traveller(s) may refer to: People Generic terms *One engaged in travel *Explorer, one who searches for the purpose of discovery of information or resources *Nomad, a member of a community withou ...

'' role-playing game. He designed the '' Temple of the Beastmen'' board game. Smith's game ''

Dark Conspiracy ''Dark Conspiracy'' is a near-future horror role-playing game (RPG) originally written by Lester W. Smith and published by Game Designers' Workshop (GDW) in 1991. Several newer editions have been published. Setting ''Dark Conspiracy'' is set i ...

'' (1991) for GDW used the new "house system" of rules originally created for the second edition of ''

Twilight: 2000 ''Twilight: 2000'' is a 1984 post-apocalyptic military tabletop role-playing game published by Game Designers' Workshop (GDW). Set in the aftermath of World War III (the "Twilight War"), the game operates on the premise that the United States/NATO ...

''. Smith designed the '' Minion Hunter'' board game.

TSR and Dragon Dice

Smith later left GDW to work for TSR. He was hired by TSR in 1991, and contributed to the ''AD&D'' and ''

Amazing Engine ''Amazing Engine'' was a series of tabletop role-playing game books that was published by TSR, Inc. from 1993 until 1994. It was a generic role-playing game system - each publication employed the same minimalist generic rules, as described in th ...

'' role-playing game lines. Smith and Wolfgang Baur co-designed the ''

Planes of Chaos ''Planes of Chaos'' was a boxed set for the Planescape campaign setting of the '' Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game. Contents ''Planes of Chaos'' is an expansion set for the Planescape campaign setting which details the five chaot ...

'' boxed set. He designed the

Origins Award The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so (for example) the 1979 a ...

-winning ''

Dragon Dice ''Dragon Dice'' is a collectible dice game originally made by TSR, Inc., and is produced today by SFR, Inc. It is one of only a handful of collectible dice games produced in the early 1990s. The races and monsters in ''Dragon Dice'' were creat ...

''. Smith designed ''

Chaos Progenitus Demon Dice, originally published as Chaos Progenitus, is a collectible dice game for two or more players created by Lester Smith (designer of the better-known Dragon Dice) and Tim Brown. Publication history The original ''Chaos Progenitus'' ga ...

'' (1996), also marketed as ''

Demon Dice Demon Dice, originally published as Chaos Progenitus, is a collectible dice game for two or more players created by Lester Smith (designer of the better-known Dragon Dice) and Tim Brown. Publication history The original ''Chaos Progenitus'' ga ...

''. Smith then worked for

Imperium Games Imperium Games was an American game company that produced role-playing games and game supplements. History Marc W. Miller partnered with Sweetpea Entertainment to license his science-fiction property ''Traveller'' in exchange for funding to ge ...

. Smith later worked for Ken Whitman's Archangel Entertainment, and then helped

Don Perrin Don Perrin (born 1 October 1964) is a Canadian writer and former military officer. Early life and education Born in Iserlohn, Germany, Perrin grew up in Kingston, ON, Canada, McMasterville, QC, Canada, Bromley, Kent, England, and Ottawa, ON, Can ...

design the ''

Sovereign Stone The Sovereign Stone series is a trilogy of fantasy novels: ''Well of Darkness'' (2000), ''Guardians of the Lost'' (2001), and ''Journey into the Void'' (2003), set in the same universe of the '' Sovereign Stone'' Role-playing game. Both the books ...

'' roleplaying game. He has also done work for

FASA Fasa ( fa, فسا, Fasā, also Romanized as Fassa) is a city and capital of Fasa County, Fars Province, Iran. At the 2016 census, its population was 110,825, in 33,379 families. Fasa is the fourth most populous city of the province. The city dat ...

Flying Buffalo Flying Buffalo Inc. (FBI) is a game company with a line of role playing games, card games, and other gaming materials. The company's founder, Rick Loomis, began game publishing with ''Nuclear Destruction'', a play-by-mail game which started the p ...

West End Games West End Games (WEG) was a company that made board, role-playing, and war games. It was founded by Daniel Scott Palter in 1974 in New York City, but later moved to Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Its product lines included ''Star Wars'', ''Paranoia'', ...

, and others, acquiring two other Origins Awards in the process. Along with Timothy Brown,

James Ward James Ward may refer to: Military *James Ward (Medal of Honor, 1864) (1833–?), American Civil War sailor *James Ward (Medal of Honor, 1890) (1854–1901), American Indian Wars soldier *James Allen Ward (1919–1941), New Zealand pilot and Vic ...

John Danovich John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

, and

Sean Everette Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Irish English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name ''Yohanan'' (), Seán ( anglicized as '' Shaun/Shawn/ Shon'') and Séan (Ulster variant; angli ...

, Smith co-founded the d20 company

Fast Forward Entertainment Fast or FAST may refer to: * Fast (noun), high speed or velocity * Fast (noun, verb), to practice fasting, abstaining from food and/or water for a certain period of time Acronyms and coded Computing and software * ''Faceted Application of Subje ...

Later work

Smith worked as an educational writer and technologist for a

Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vo ...

design house and for a time served as the president of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. As of today, Smith is officially retired. Since 2011, Smith has launched 13 successful funded campaigns on the crowdfunding platform

kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, K ...

. These projects include books, role-playing games and card games that Smith has designed himself.

Personal life

Lester Smith is an alumnus of

Illinois State University Illinois State University (ISU) is a public university in Normal, Illinois. Founded in 1857 as Illinois State Normal University, it is the oldest public university in Illinois. The university emphasizes teaching and is recognized as one of th ...

. He married his wife Jennifer and they had four daughters together. In 2015, Smith and his wife moved to

Loma, Nebraska Loma is an unincorporated community in Butler County, Nebraska, United States. As of the 2000 census, the community had a population of 54. History Loma was named by the railroad, and it is possibly derived from a Spanish name meaning "little h ...

to live closer to family.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Lester Dungeons & Dragons game designers Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people)