Hey, gang!As I write this, we're about nine hours away from the Kickstarter's close, and at 272% of the funding goal. Your enthusiasm for the Children of the Elder Sign premise has been both heartenin...

Image by bafritch from Pixabay In my head are two horses. One is a creative force, prone to enthusiasms, award-winningly clever, easily bored, easily dispirited. The other a disciplined adult, clear-eyed, trained as an editor and educator, tempered by experience. Faithful, honest, enduring. As a writer, I've learned to nurture the first when starting a project. After all, it's the one that came up with the idea in the first place, the one with a view beyond the horizon.

This "Children of the Elder Sign" idea has been rattling around in my head for a few years. The success of The King of Elfland's Daughter bundle, and Kickstarter's October "Witchstarter" promotion, inspired me to finally tackle the project, and to do it for all four Lester Smith Games role-playing systems. The premise is simple. Imagine you're a demigod like Hercules, except that your supernatural parent is one of the Lovecraftian deities, like Cthulhu or Nyarlathotep.

We're all familiar with the "fight or flight" concept: Our early ancestors, when faced with danger, instinctively either fled or fought that danger, depending on the situation. It's easy to think that we've somehow outgrown those instinctive impulses. We're more civilized, and life is less perilous for most of us than it was back then. Although I think of myself as a cerebral guy, I can say from personal experience that the genetic instinct remains—red flags that flash before the danger becomes consciously evident.

What with the end of support for Windows 10, and a bit of self-publishing windfall a few months ago, I bought a brand-new HP ENVY x360 laptop for a move to Windows 11. Didn't want to, but it seemed a necessity. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I discovered that Windows 10 security updates are extendable for another year. (See my earlier blog entry.) So my old workhorse of a ThinkPad still has life in it.

The Battle Bookmark has reached Silver Best-Seller status on DriveThruRPG! This is the Bookmark HP RPG supplement that adds tactical options—including range, movement, ambushes, outnumbered foes, cover/concealment, and deadlier damage—while still retaining the game's storytelling focus. To celebrate, here's a discount link to get it for just 25¢ through Thanksgiving: Battle Bookmark 25¢ sale!

It isn't yet the apocalypse, so there's still time to have some escapist fun Borderlands style, or Mad Maxish, or Twisted Metallic, or whatever brand of ruined wasteland you prefer. Speaking of which, Larcenous Designs released a new apocalypse-themed GameMaster's Apprentice oracle deck on DriveThruRPG today; I released a Bookmark the Apocalypse! sourcebookmark for the Bookmark HP RPG; and they're…

Most of my actual writing nowadays is done in Google Docs on a Chromebook. But most of my graphic design and layout over the past several years has been done on a robust Lenovo ThinkPad running Windows 10. As you probably know, Windows 10 support is ending in a few days, but my workhorse of a ThinkPad isn't upgradeable to Windows 11.

My horror-themed card games have joined the role-playing games in celebrating Halloween! Through the end of the month, these card games are just 66¢ for the print-&- play PDFs, and 31¢ above my cost for print decks. Here are direct links to those card games: Wolf Man's Curse! PDF: $4.95 66¢ / Print: $9.95 $6.87 Monster Con! PDF: $4.95 66¢ / Print: …

Through the end of October, all Lester Smith Games horror RPG titles on DriveThruRPG are on sale for 1/3 off! Including all four best-selling core rules titles! Here's your chance to score something new to celebrate your Halloween on the cheap. Dare I say, "monstrously" so? And here are direct links to the items on sale: Bookmark No HP RPG…

Way back in April, I started reading Lord Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter, due to its reputation as a fantasy classic before there were fantasy classics. (The Hobbit wasn't published until 13 years later; Lord of the Rings fully 30 years later.) Having read less than half of it, I was already in love and knew I'd want to role-play in this world myself.

Back in February of this year (2025), I mentioned here, in "Fey and Fedoras, Nixies and Noir," that my old college buddy Tim Ryan and I were using the Fairyland Confidential solo mystery game by Teapot Dome as a GM-less framework for play-testing the d4ce rpg.  Before I go any further, let me repeat that the biggest crime here is that Fairyland Confidential has gotten so little love on DriveThruRPG.

Image by Constance Kowalik from Pixabay I have been told by a European buddy that I fret too much about being impolite to objectionable friends and family. And honestly, yeah, before posting, I take a lot of time to think things through, craft my words, and research and reevaluate my position. Then after posting, I wrestle for days with guilt about having been impolite—but always coming back to the same conclusion: "Somebody had to say it."

I just came back from a session with a behavioral therapist I see on and off. Last time was months ago, before my autism/ADHD evaluation. I Iet her know the phyciatrist's conclusions (forgive my summarizing them here if you've seen an earlier post), which were: (1) lots of autism markers, but he sees kids who are worse; (2) lots of ADHD markers, but he sees kids who are worse; (3) the lifetime of feeling "odd man out" is from being bright and well educated and (4) probably also because of childhood trauma.

Last night I filled a hole my Gamehole Con schedule—things I'm running—so I'm good to go. Some of those events are sold out, others have a slot or two left, and the newest one is wide open, of course. Click the banner or link above to see what all is on the list. The first seven are my own events; the next three are by my friend Kurt LaRue, two with the…

I won't try to defend the randomness of Slay the Spire. Honestly, in general, I don't much care for deck-building games. But this one has me hooked. As frustratingly unpredictable as the card- and artifact-drops can be, I'm finding ways to maximize the potential of individual characters. It's a deceptively strategic game masquerading as a tactical one. If you let yourself get too caught up in flashy effects along the way, your deck won't be tuned for the two final battles.

Okay, if I'm going to be brutally honest -- and today I need a little pressure release -- this Trump worship has taken me from respect for religious faith, to skepticism about religion overall, to outright disgust for American Evangelical Christianity and dislike of the human impulse to worship of any kind. Caveat: The only thing keeping from a combative style of atheism is the good hearts and humble sincerity of my many Christian friends.

So he said, "You have a lot of autism characteristics, but I have young patients who can barely communicate. And you have a lot of ADHD characteristics, but I see young kids who run around this office touching everything." He said a couple of other things I can't share about why a lifelong feeling of not quite fitting in. But my takeaway is, "You're too old and accomplished for autism and ADHD, no matter what the test results say."

Why is "front yard" two words, but "backyard" one? "Front seat" two words, but "backseat" one? 😛 Having spent most of my life (post factory decade) writing, editing, and teaching, I'm just grateful that such arbitrariness gives me iconoclastic stones to throw at pedantry. 😀

It only took 714 plays to accomplish this. 😛 Done with the Ironclad. Time to try it with the Silent, the Defect (my favorite), and the Watcher (2nd fave). 😀 IYKYK

I just noticed that crowdfunding ends today for the GameMaster's Apprentice Post-Apocalypse deck, which includes my Bookmark No HP RPG card and new Post-Apocalypse Sourcebookmark. It's the cheapest way to score a GMA deck at all, let alone with the BNHP cards included. Stick these in your pocked with a pencil and scratch paper, and you're good to go for portable role-play; the