Ben Riggs

YouTube video by Reading D&D Aloud Let’s talk about Uncle Gary: A conversation with Gygax’s biographer, Michael Witwer Ep. 72

Let's talk about Uncle Gary: A conversation with Gygax's biographer, Michael Witwer.

youtu.be/--xDib5iDY4

YouTube video by Reading D&D Aloud The Ring Knight Honors the Weeping Seer-with Jeremy Bent & Chris McDowall Ep. 71

This week, brilliant Bastionland creator Chris McDowall & Comedy Central veteran Jeremy Bent talk improvisation & art on D&D Outloud!

youtu.be/pyxt_y9oV5I

I wish I got to talk to him about the Saga edition of Star Wars. He was also one of the guys working on Project Sigil for Wizards until it was essentially strangled in its cradle by the company earlier this year. Now please behold a brilliant designer and a real mensch, Andy Collins!
!

He’s a designer, a worldbuilder, and a relentless innovator in tabletop roleplaying games.

Joining us as well is Andy Collins, a multi-tour veteran of the Wizards of the Coast. Andy, along with Rob and Jim Wyatt, was co-creator of D&D 4th edition, but his design credits don’t stop there.

First up, we have Rob Heinsoo, one of the leading minds behind Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. He’s also the co-creator of 13th Age, a system that blends narrative freedom with crunchy mechanics in amazing ways.

YouTube video by Reading D&D Aloud "D&D is Not in the Innovation Biz" A Conversation with Two 4th Ed Designers- Ep 70

Does 4E D&D have the best combat? The question leads us to a conversation with two of the game's three lead designers.

youtu.be/CZhJBoki3qk

My podcast has evolved into a conversation between TTRPG luminaries, and it's awesome. But it needs a new name. Current possibilities:

Dungeons & Discussions

Tabletop Team-Up

The Riggscast/The Ben Riggs Show/Something else with my name in it.

OR:

Something else.

Thoughts?

These two were on the team responsible for taking the words of the writers and the art of the artists and turning them into a physical book. What do they have to say about where Wizards was and where it’s going?

YouTube video by Reading D&D Aloud "All of the $ should be coming to Wizards-" an interview with the former WotC Book Team Ep. 69

Wanna know what the hell is going on at WotC? Let’s ask people who used to work there.

youtu.be/lRRBZi6VtVY

Jesus Christ!

I have 71 pages written and revised on the development of D&D 3.0 that have never seen the light of day?

What the hell am I doing here?

And don’t sleep on Steve Winter — a living D&D legend. From sneaking into TSR through a second-story window to shaping 2e, 3e, and beyond, Steve has been part of D&D’s DNA for decades.

Tune in. Nerd out. 🎲🔥

He’s the mind behind Knave 2e and the force behind Questing Beast, your portal to the wild, weird wonders of old-school RPGs. If you like sharp rules, deadly dungeons, and freedom at the table, Ben’s your guy.

YouTube video by Reading D&D Aloud D&D Designer Meets the Questing Beast! Ep. 61

This one’s a banger: D&D designer Steve Winter meets Ben Milton of Questing Beast! Ben Milton is a game designer, YouTube sage, and sorceror-king of the OSR!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRyV...

Let’s recognize that, and arrange the government around counties and not around states.

What that looks like though, I have no clue.

And of course I could be wrong about all this, but I hope I’m not, because every other version of the future I look at is worse than this one.

I think the next constitution needs to keep money out of politics and probably have a looser federal union based on your county not your state, because the great divide in America today is rural-urban.

Right now, I only have two thoughts about a new American constitution. (I’m just a teacher and a writer after all.)

This is a road to authoritarianism, perhaps even a leftist one depending on 2028, and eventually civil violence.

Or we jump to the end of that road and make a new constitution.

You may think the Supreme Court will stop her, but courts do not have a strong track record of curbing kings (or queens).

This new presidency is much more like an elected king than a chief executive.

Now if you like Trump, you may love all this. But imagine these powers in the hands of President AOC. Imagine what she could do.

Congress could impeach and remove the president, but the past half century has proven that to be a hollow threat.

If the president breaks the law, but does so in the course of doing their job as president, the Supreme Court has ruled they cannot be prosecuted for it.

Look at the checks on the president.

Apparently, the president does not need to follow the instructions of Congress when it funds an agency the president doesn’t like, such as the Department of Education or USAID.

The American Constitution died in the past six months, so we are going to need a new one.

You may say that’s an exaggeration. I would ask then that you look at our constitutional system of checks and balances, ‘cause right now the checks don’t balance.

YouTube video by Reading D&D Aloud Mike Mearls + Kelsey Dionne = An Hour of Happy Ep. 50

Hey, if you can get messages on here, I'd love to have you on my podcast. Email me at riggsbl@gmail.com if you're interested, and here's a sample episode:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRPJ...

and he followed D&D from Wisconsin to Renton, Washington where he continued to produce work for D&D through 5th edition.

He was a vital voice on 2nd edition AD&D. He was one of the first people to work on 3rd edition D&D, even though that project then passed on to other hands,

He began working on D&D back at TSR in downtown Lake Geneva, and once even broke into the offices by climbing in a second storey window.

It is possible that Steve has the longest D&D career of anyone in the history of the game. (Fact check! He's probably #2.)

And Blades, which is itself an epochal piece of design, birthed an entire universe of games using its system.
Second, we have D&D icon Steve Winter.

Blades in the Dark creator John Harper said that the origin of Blades in the Dark was a Stars Without Number campaign.

Stars was what I ran during the pandemic, and Worlds I read, and since the birth of my son, I read about one RPG every six months, but I had to put Worlds in that rotation just to see what Kevin did in it. To give just a taste of Kevin’s influence,