September 22, 2025: Drivers Can Just Be Terrible!

For some reason, Facebook thinks I really like watching terrible drivers – and no matter how many terrible-driver videos I watch, they just keep coming.

While I try to figure out why that's happening, I can't help but remember folks making illogical turns across multiple occupied lanes of traffic, blazing through red lights to disastrous consequence, or crashing full-on into vehicles – probably because they were on their phones, watching Facebook "terrible driver" videos.

Which leads me to this tip for tabletop gamers (and Car Wars games): Drivers can just be terrible! You don't even need a plot reason; it's no problem at all.

Is an otherwise straightforward chase getting a bit too predictable (or is the bad guy getting too far ahead)? Have someone decide they really need to get off at the next exit – six lanes over – to get a milkshake.

Looking for a different scenario for Car Wars? Figure out how to have a neutral car or two driving as much on "autopilot" as possible . . . then allow for the possibility that they just do something bone-crushingly foolish (say, roll a pair of six-siders each turn, and on double 6s, the driver does the most-chaotic thing imaginable).

The idea came to me because – as a writer/editor – I'm often trying to make things as logical as possible. But as the Internet has shown me, it's perfectly acceptable to do something completely illogical . . . like continuing to watch an endless stream of "terrible driver" videos.

-- Steven Marsh