iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

much to think about

I am dogsitting today which means two little goofballs stand watch while I sit outside with a book. it's a good way to pass an afternoon

over the shoulder of two dogs, one in a chair one in the grass, there's a book here too

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 23/09/2026

Save the date: The Locked Room Murder Mystery Game is coming to kickstarter on October 20th! Follow along so you don't miss it: www.kickstarter.com/projects/adamebell/the-locked-room-murder-mystery-game

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 15/09/2026

brain continually doing laps around what I can only assume is the business 101 slalom track

too expensive fewer sales smaller print run lower margins
too cheap more sales larger print run higher margins

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 04/09/2026

here is a useful punnet square on how people will react to your work's relationship to its inspirations, especially if you take the name right from the thing that inspires you

audience aware of inspiration, cited inspirations: i like the same thing as the author, i'll definitely give this a shot!

audience aware of inspiration, uncited inspirations: this is clearly inspired by the thing i like, but it's not mentioned anywhere. what a ripoff! weird!

audience unaware of inspiration, cited inspirations: this thing is cool, i'll have to check out the thing that inspired it!

audience unaware of inspiration, uncited inspirations: this thing is cool,

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 27/08/2026

typesetting tragedy occurring in the locked room rulebook

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 26/08/2026

working on what I think is the final page of writing for The Locked Room Murder Mystery Game - guidance on campaign play

Playing a Campaign
Poirot wasn't built in a day.

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 28/07/2026

now I got six square games

six square zines on the table

Quy Serra Serra
Into A Warm Sun
The Way Out
my brain is a stick of butter
Grasping Nettles
Hungry Out of Habit

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 28/07/2026

The first two print copies of the Endtimes Trilogy have arrived and they look great.

eight square zines stacked on each other

Two copies of Quy Serra Serra, one showing the cover with its title and skeletons sits on the other, open to a spread about situations and scenes.

Two copies of Into A Warm Sun, one showing its cover with the foreboding staircase sitting on top of the other open to a spread about rolling dice.

Two copies of the Way Out, one with its cover showing the sun and the ouroborus sitting on top of the other open to a spread about starting a chapter of play.

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 17/07/2026

my thought is. what if it all happened in our mind, like we're at the theatre

person imagining someone fighting a slime, as doodle

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 17/07/2026

nope, Metlife is about as open aired as you can get

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 01/07/2026

i've never published an adventure but yet the appendix N jam is calling to me. here's my assigned title, The Thing Outside the Walls

a stack of fake books called The Thing Outside the Walls by Edmond Boutros. there's a knight in armor inside a frame

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 25/06/2026

itch summer sale! get all my paid games for $45! That includes all 5 brand new releases from 2026 itch.io/s/193202/sum...

screenshot of my itch summer sale page. $45 for ten games

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 25/06/2026

I would have had to send an email like this, there were a few of these circular frames with game critical text missing. woke up in a total panic

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 24/06/2026

I added a bit of an explainer to the Endtimes Trilogy bundle on itch, which you should pick up at itch.io/s/191249/the...

What is this?

The Endtimes Trilogy is a set of three roleplaying games about the end of the world. Each game is standalone, but they are linked by their themes and read best as a set.

Do I need all three games?

Not at all! Each one plays completely standalone.

Then why are they bundled as a "trilogy"?

The whims of creativity led me to bundle them together. From my perspective as the designer, they feel like a cohesive whole and I wouldn't feel right releasing one without the others. They each play with a bleak notion of the end of the world. I feel like the messages of the games combine into something a bit more complete, so I published them as a trilogy.

If I just get one, which one should I get?

The Way Out is my favorite of the games to play. It's the game most targeted to my personal tastes as a player of games. I'm very happy with the way the game plays with narrative agency. Every time I play, somebody activates a move in a way that hits in a way I didn't expect, and I love that.

Quy Serra Serra is the funniest one to play. And maybe the bleakest one if you spend time thinking about it. And maybe the most approachable? I really love the situations this one creates because players constantly surprise me with the things they add to the world, and then again with the ways they destroy those things at the end of the world.

Into A Warm Sun is the one I'm least likely to play ever again, but is probably the most interesting of the set. The way it plays with authority at the table is gnarly, and I wasn't very good at running it in my playtests. Despite that, the game still worked, so grab this one if you want to be challenged by a roleplaying game.

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 23/06/2026

perhaps this is not a tenable way to do the bulk of your game design

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 21/06/2026

Just finished reading Dubliners, the first I've read of Joyce, and hey: that's a good book

modern library printing of Dubliners by James Joyce

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 18/06/2026

The Endtimes Trilogy is available now on itch! itch.io/s/191249/the... Pick up three standalone, single-session roleplaying games about the end of the world! Ignore the apocalypse with Quy Serra Serra, get stuck in a bunker with Into A Warm Sun, and live many lives with The Way Out.

the Endtimes Trilogy. three standalone roleplaying games about the end of the world.

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 16/06/2026

damn I forgot the mayor in the printer

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 16/06/2026

progress on the itch release for the ENDTIMES TRILOGY continues with the character sheets for game 1, Quy Serra Serra who are you playing as to ignore the end of the world?

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 16/06/2026

progress on the itch release for the ENDTIMES TRILOGY continues with the playsheets for game 2,Into A Warm Sun

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 15/06/2026

progress on the itch release for the ENDTIMES TRILOGY continues with the reference sheet for game 3, The Way Out

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 11/06/2026

one down [kind of, i still need to make the printable character sheets]

the draft of the itch page for quy serra serra

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 02/06/2026

r/rpg mods will tell you it's not hard to meet the participation minimums for self promotion eligibility and then their users will post like this

ah a non gamer wife, perchance? I know the struggle.

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 29/05/2026

hell yeah we're doing it, printed em out for one last read through

three home printed zines from the Endtimes Trilogy. Quy Serra Serra, Into A Warm Sun, and The Way Out

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 26/05/2026

another day another draft spread for the Locked Room Murder Mystery Game's rulebook. if you follow the kickstarter, we might even break 400 followers: www.kickstarter.com/projects/ada...

A spread from a rulebook. Lots of text, orange background, boxes, cards.

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 26/05/2026

the new cover for Quy Serra Serra is almost done, here's the title treatment:

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 24/05/2026

if you're in Pittsburgh, you should swing by Games Unlimited and get a demo of Uneasy Lies the Head today!

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 18/05/2026

More work on the rulebook for The Locked Room Murder Mystery Game. This is the most important thing in the game, so it's going to be the first thing you see when you open the rules.

The Killer
Learn the most important rule first!

The game decides the murder victim and the culprit.

The killer visits a different suspect each round during the Lead-Up and Investigation phases of the game.

At the end of the Lead-Up, the suspect visited by the killer is declared as the murder victim.

At the end of the Investigation, the suspect visited by the killer is revealed as the culprit.

All suspects in the game are equally as likely to be the victim as they are the culprit, and nobody knows who is who until the game reveals it.

At the end of the game, it's up to the players to piece together all the clues they've left behind and explain how the revealed culprit commited the crime.

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 18/05/2026

in this case I'm toying around with a solo journaling time loop game after finishing On the Calculation of Volume I

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 14/05/2026

serving up another bunker for you for the interior of Into A Warm Sun

the thinking man's bunker!
order before it's too late!
• sleeps ten
• supplies for ten manyears
• entertainment center
• modern kitchen
• master bedroom suite
• safe from nuclear blasts, alien invasions, pandemics, climate events, and so much more!!

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 13/05/2026

here are the example spreads. If you missed the campaign, you can still pre-order to get 3 very good games about the world ending the-endtimes-trilogy.backerkit.com/hosted_preor...

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 10/05/2026

it's a a max planck discovering quantum mechanics situation

max planck in 1878 is a distinguished lad. in 1901 he's a peaky blinders side character

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 05/05/2026

ran a playtest of Into A Warm Sun today in this bunker. poor Bob was wrong about the end of the world. he kidnapped the mayor for no reason.

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 29/04/2026

i get to toy with board game style rulebook design for the locked room and i dare say it's fun to do ( don't forget to follow along: www.kickstarter.com/projects/ada... )

setup diagram for the locked room murder mystery game. It's a 3d mockup of all the components on a table, labeled by the setup step

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 28/04/2026

The new glasses are in and I feel a thousand times less tired! The sale is on until May 1 to help me cover the hefty price of astigmatism correction and lenses that aren't comedically thick. Use code VISION for 20% off and pick up some award nominated roleplaying games at shop.adambell.games

NEW GLASSES ARE IN
Use the discount code VISION for 20% off your order!
https://shop.adambell.games

Wow it's nice to see clearly again
code valid until may 1

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 19/04/2026

Uneasy Lies the Head received Indie Groundbreaker nominations in two categories! ☛ Best Writing ☛ Most Innovative Check out this award-nominated GMless royal court roleplaying game here: shop.adambell.games

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 19/04/2026

easy deluxe version of this game that comes with an OTA tv antenna

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 16/04/2026

I went for a browse on the shelf and think most of these would apply. I left out some obvious stuff like For the Queen, The Quiet Year, & Fall of Magic. It's been a while since I've played the zone, but the web version was pick up and play (author bias alert on the three rightmost games)

games on a table:

Better Strangers
Desperation
Keep the Faith
Craterboys
The Zone
A Perfect Rock
A Land Once Magic
Beak Feather & Bone
A Road That Knows Your Name
Hungry Out of Habit
Grasping Nettles
Legend Has It

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 15/04/2026

first draft of the foyer is coming along nicely, with a bonus peek of how these might look in layout if I got through with it

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 15/04/2026

hey foxit this is getting a little ridiculous

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 15/04/2026

rough draft but i'm thinking about modeling a full bunker for the interior art of Into A Warm Sun

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 11/04/2026

sometimes the MLB cooks up a truly terrible alternate jersey. they're saying this is a milwaukee brewer

baseball player with the Wisco jersey on

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 08/04/2026

web analytics folks... is this a good trend

conversion 1.1% down 80$ from prior 7 days

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Adam Bell @adambell.games · 07/04/2026

Good glasses: broken Cheap glasses: killing me New glasses: quite expensive Want some tabletop roleplaying games? Head on over to shop.adambell.games with code VISION to get 20% off and help pay for my new glasses. The code will work with anything I have in stock, including Uneasy Lies the Head!

Adam Bell looks in on in surprise at a receipt. The text reads...

It's the Wow Glasses Sure Are Expensive If YOur Eyes Are As Bad As Mine sale!

Use the discount code VISION for 20% off your order!

https://shop.adambell.games

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