Jonathan Rigsby
@ridetrips.bsky.social
Author.
DRIVE: Scraping by in Uber's America, now in paperback!
Get your copy at https://bookshop.org/p/books/drive-scraping-by-in-uber-s-america-one-ride-at-a-time-jonathan-rigsby/20429413?ean=9780807016718&next=t
DRIVE: Scraping by in Uber's America, now in paperback!
Get your copy at https://bookshop.org/p/books/drive-scraping-by-in-uber-s-america-one-ride-at-a-time-jonathan-rigsby/20429413?ean=9780807016718&next=t
As a Floridian, I can accept this. There is a large ocean surrounding Australia because it is one of Earth's boss zones. That's endgame content.
December 1, 2025 at 11:37 PM
As a Floridian, I can accept this. There is a large ocean surrounding Australia because it is one of Earth's boss zones. That's endgame content.
Earthdawn also features an unconsciousness threshold before you die. You (usually) pass out rather than just dying.
It's a really good system, but it's a bit slow until everyone at the table gets the hang of it. It's high fantasy but also can be run as more horror-oriented.
I ran it for years.
It's a really good system, but it's a bit slow until everyone at the table gets the hang of it. It's high fantasy but also can be run as more horror-oriented.
I ran it for years.
December 1, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Earthdawn also features an unconsciousness threshold before you die. You (usually) pass out rather than just dying.
It's a really good system, but it's a bit slow until everyone at the table gets the hang of it. It's high fantasy but also can be run as more horror-oriented.
I ran it for years.
It's a really good system, but it's a bit slow until everyone at the table gets the hang of it. It's high fantasy but also can be run as more horror-oriented.
I ran it for years.
If you're far away from a town, you might choose to avoid a fight if everyone is already injured and talk through it instead. It's a soft way of discouraging bad player behavior.
December 1, 2025 at 11:30 PM
If you're far away from a town, you might choose to avoid a fight if everyone is already injured and talk through it instead. It's a soft way of discouraging bad player behavior.
Wounds make great drama because they're not bleeding. There's no steady drip of damage that can result in dying without being acted upon (not fun).
Wounds are a way that players can hack at a dangerous foe until they lose most of their threat level. They also discourage repeated or extended combat.
Wounds are a way that players can hack at a dangerous foe until they lose most of their threat level. They also discourage repeated or extended combat.
December 1, 2025 at 11:26 PM
Wounds make great drama because they're not bleeding. There's no steady drip of damage that can result in dying without being acted upon (not fun).
Wounds are a way that players can hack at a dangerous foe until they lose most of their threat level. They also discourage repeated or extended combat.
Wounds are a way that players can hack at a dangerous foe until they lose most of their threat level. They also discourage repeated or extended combat.
Earthdawn gives a player a wound when they take damage above their wound threshold. Each wound gives you a universal penalty to any action, reflecting that it's hard to fight with injuries. Wounds persist after combat and take time to heal, making even simple tasks harder because you're injured.
December 1, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Earthdawn gives a player a wound when they take damage above their wound threshold. Each wound gives you a universal penalty to any action, reflecting that it's hard to fight with injuries. Wounds persist after combat and take time to heal, making even simple tasks harder because you're injured.
I bought every one of my Earthdawn sourcebooks for a crisp $14.99 apiece.
December 1, 2025 at 2:57 PM
I bought every one of my Earthdawn sourcebooks for a crisp $14.99 apiece.
The entire industry has shriveled under the this colossus's shadow, and Hasbro is more than happy to keep pumping out pricy sourcebooks and eye-wateringly expensive Magic: The Gathering collabs.
But you, dear player, deserve better. Take your eyes off their false god, and get the game you deserve.
But you, dear player, deserve better. Take your eyes off their false god, and get the game you deserve.
December 1, 2025 at 2:14 PM
The entire industry has shriveled under the this colossus's shadow, and Hasbro is more than happy to keep pumping out pricy sourcebooks and eye-wateringly expensive Magic: The Gathering collabs.
But you, dear player, deserve better. Take your eyes off their false god, and get the game you deserve.
But you, dear player, deserve better. Take your eyes off their false god, and get the game you deserve.
There are tons of games with better systems and cheaper rulebooks that give players far more agency, but they are blotted out by Hasbro's might.
If your local game store even bothers to carry other games, that section will be dwarfed by rows of $40 D&D books (plus your subscription to D&D Beyond).
If your local game store even bothers to carry other games, that section will be dwarfed by rows of $40 D&D books (plus your subscription to D&D Beyond).
December 1, 2025 at 2:14 PM
There are tons of games with better systems and cheaper rulebooks that give players far more agency, but they are blotted out by Hasbro's might.
If your local game store even bothers to carry other games, that section will be dwarfed by rows of $40 D&D books (plus your subscription to D&D Beyond).
If your local game store even bothers to carry other games, that section will be dwarfed by rows of $40 D&D books (plus your subscription to D&D Beyond).
Earthdawn is a high fantasy game that features not just physical and magic defense but social defense, a measure of your character's ability to navigate social settings without being tricked, goaded, or humiliated. Some of its most powerful player jobs are non-combat classes like the Troubadour.
Earthdawn – FASA Games, Inc.
fasagames.com
December 1, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Earthdawn is a high fantasy game that features not just physical and magic defense but social defense, a measure of your character's ability to navigate social settings without being tricked, goaded, or humiliated. Some of its most powerful player jobs are non-combat classes like the Troubadour.
Shadowrun is a cyberpunk RPG that only needs a pile of D6s. Players work as underworld criminals in a neon, chrome-and-magic filled dystopia.
Mages put their bodies on the line to power their spells. Hold onto that illusion you've created for too long and you'll black out when you let it go.
Mages put their bodies on the line to power their spells. Hold onto that illusion you've created for too long and you'll black out when you let it go.
Shadowrun Getting Started
The official store for games such as BattleTech, Shadowrun, Dragonfire, Leviathans, Valiant Universe, Cosmic Patrol as well as other card, dice, and tabletop games.
store.catalystgamelabs.com
December 1, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Shadowrun is a cyberpunk RPG that only needs a pile of D6s. Players work as underworld criminals in a neon, chrome-and-magic filled dystopia.
Mages put their bodies on the line to power their spells. Hold onto that illusion you've created for too long and you'll black out when you let it go.
Mages put their bodies on the line to power their spells. Hold onto that illusion you've created for too long and you'll black out when you let it go.
Call of Cthulhu is a horror RPG with a sanity-loss mechanic that makes players less powerful as they encounter more of the arcane. It is an excellent way to explore ideas of trauma and the fear of the unknown.
Call of Cthulhu RPG - Call of Cthulhu Rules - Chaosium Inc.
www.chaosium.com
December 1, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Call of Cthulhu is a horror RPG with a sanity-loss mechanic that makes players less powerful as they encounter more of the arcane. It is an excellent way to explore ideas of trauma and the fear of the unknown.
But there *are* other options. Better options. Cheaper options. Games with systems that let you model things D&D only dreams about.
December 1, 2025 at 2:08 PM
But there *are* other options. Better options. Cheaper options. Games with systems that let you model things D&D only dreams about.
This is part of the runaway success of games like Baldur's Gate 3, a curated D&D experience that can't get derailed because the DM didn't plan for you to talk to that background character and turn Fuzzbottom the one-legged goblin into your party mascot.
December 1, 2025 at 2:07 PM
This is part of the runaway success of games like Baldur's Gate 3, a curated D&D experience that can't get derailed because the DM didn't plan for you to talk to that background character and turn Fuzzbottom the one-legged goblin into your party mascot.
A good friend of mine encounters this problem at his local game store. He runs introductory games, and it often takes a long conversation before someone will even think about playing something besides D&D. They want the brand, with all its Mercer-inspired baggage, more than they want the experience.
December 1, 2025 at 2:07 PM
A good friend of mine encounters this problem at his local game store. He runs introductory games, and it often takes a long conversation before someone will even think about playing something besides D&D. They want the brand, with all its Mercer-inspired baggage, more than they want the experience.
When new players try the game and find it doesn't meet this standard, they are inevitably disappointed, but they're often stubbornly opposed to trying anything else. They've spent good money on expensive books, flashy dice, and tchotchkes like rolling trays that they don't actually need.
December 1, 2025 at 2:06 PM
When new players try the game and find it doesn't meet this standard, they are inevitably disappointed, but they're often stubbornly opposed to trying anything else. They've spent good money on expensive books, flashy dice, and tchotchkes like rolling trays that they don't actually need.
You and your friends do not have a professional production studio to design your sets, paint your miniatures, and review your story drafts. Their show is to tabletop gaming what pornography is to actual sex.
December 1, 2025 at 2:06 PM
You and your friends do not have a professional production studio to design your sets, paint your miniatures, and review your story drafts. Their show is to tabletop gaming what pornography is to actual sex.
Mercer and the rest of the Critical Role crew deserve both praise and scorn for making the experience accessible to new players and setting the expected standards impossibly high.
December 1, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Mercer and the rest of the Critical Role crew deserve both praise and scorn for making the experience accessible to new players and setting the expected standards impossibly high.
Professional presentations of tabletop gaming have only worsened the problem. Tabletop RPGs, at their heart, are about collaborative storytelling, a way of exploring a creative space together. If your walk into your local store expecting every DM to be Matt Mercer, you're going to be unhappy.
December 1, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Professional presentations of tabletop gaming have only worsened the problem. Tabletop RPGs, at their heart, are about collaborative storytelling, a way of exploring a creative space together. If your walk into your local store expecting every DM to be Matt Mercer, you're going to be unhappy.
D&D lacks strong mechanics for social interactions, a glaring oversight that spawns from the game's origins. Most abilities in D&D are at least combat-adjacent, dominated by a "rule of cool" that lets you throw fireballs but can't figure out a way to describe how you'd address a crowd.
December 1, 2025 at 2:05 PM
D&D lacks strong mechanics for social interactions, a glaring oversight that spawns from the game's origins. Most abilities in D&D are at least combat-adjacent, dominated by a "rule of cool" that lets you throw fireballs but can't figure out a way to describe how you'd address a crowd.
Other game systems have ways of scaling a player's abilities to a challenge, making it clear that there are times when partial success is the best you can achieve or that sometimes, a task is flatly impossible. Flexible systems create more player agency, and they invite more excitement.
December 1, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Other game systems have ways of scaling a player's abilities to a challenge, making it clear that there are times when partial success is the best you can achieve or that sometimes, a task is flatly impossible. Flexible systems create more player agency, and they invite more excitement.
TTRPG combat could be it's own discussion, but I'm not the first person to note that D&D will let you drag a person who should be dead back with a single HP. Said player is then perfectly capable of doing anything, regardless of how injured they might be. It's cartoonish.
December 1, 2025 at 2:03 PM
TTRPG combat could be it's own discussion, but I'm not the first person to note that D&D will let you drag a person who should be dead back with a single HP. Said player is then perfectly capable of doing anything, regardless of how injured they might be. It's cartoonish.
There are other, more dubious choices in D&D that deserve scorn, particularly its ridiculous magic system.
("Oops, I threw 4 fireballs, I couldn't possibly throw a fifth until I took a nap.")
("Oops, I threw 4 fireballs, I couldn't possibly throw a fifth until I took a nap.")
December 1, 2025 at 2:03 PM
There are other, more dubious choices in D&D that deserve scorn, particularly its ridiculous magic system.
("Oops, I threw 4 fireballs, I couldn't possibly throw a fifth until I took a nap.")
("Oops, I threw 4 fireballs, I couldn't possibly throw a fifth until I took a nap.")
Because the game is reliant on a single D20 for randomness, it's forced to inject artificial modifiers. Things like Advantage and Disadvantage are ham-handed ways of dealing with the inability to set dynamic difficulty ranges for a task.
("You missed? Uh... just roll again...")
("You missed? Uh... just roll again...")
December 1, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Because the game is reliant on a single D20 for randomness, it's forced to inject artificial modifiers. Things like Advantage and Disadvantage are ham-handed ways of dealing with the inability to set dynamic difficulty ranges for a task.
("You missed? Uh... just roll again...")
("You missed? Uh... just roll again...")
D&D's mechanics are... poorly suited to what it's trying to achieve. To put it more bluntly, the game system sucks. What happens around the table is hampered by what's under the hood.
December 1, 2025 at 2:02 PM
D&D's mechanics are... poorly suited to what it's trying to achieve. To put it more bluntly, the game system sucks. What happens around the table is hampered by what's under the hood.