Also you might want to consider the size of the printer itself. I bought a open-box new printer off ebay and the seller's photos didn't give any sense of scale. I was surprised how big this "mini" printer is. It's about the standard size of a printer you'd see at a grocery store, so I don't think I'll be keeping it on my desk.
There are many similar models from other companies; however, while Bluetooth is advertised as its primary connection, this one also has a USB port, which works with Linux!
Bluetooth also works, but it was too unreliable for me. I ended up using Claude to write a small CLI tool which prints via raw USB: rock solid and simple.
Search "58mm usb thermal receipt printer esc/pos" on Amazon and you will find various generic models
https://www.koehlerpaper.com/en/products/Thermal-paper/TH_Bl...
Maybe someone sells this where you live? I have found a shop in the US: https://www.ncco.com/blue4est/
Searching for blue4est was the key.
It’s pretty uncontroversial that the paper is hazardous. And when you’re sweating the BPA absorbs into the skin more readily. The issue is more about the dose curve; according to the FDA and other regulators, it’d be impossible to hit the upper limit on exposure by just handling receipts, while there’s plenty of evidence that there is no harmless threshold. Kinda like lead, albeit without a doubt BPA is less harmful than lead.
Also instead of meta-progression through stats you have increased difficulties through the puzzles, but you improve your puzzle-solving skills.
The core of hand-to-hand combat is feinting - persuading you are going to hit your opponent in one place, so they move their defences to that place, and then hitting them in another place. That's a simple mechanic that could be translated easily into cards or any other bluffing format.
It gets more interesting with animals (who don't feint much) and large monsters (who don't need to feint because their attacks will overwhelm your defences), so dodging and armour come into it then.
But that brings up hit points, which are a ridiculous mechanic for modelling all of this. Stabbing someone in the arm or in the gut is completely different, it has very different effects, and should be modelled differently.
And this is where the rabbit-hole takes over and it gets too complicated ;)
What do you want from your experience?
I see a TTRPG as a story telling game and the fights have a probability of outcome. Most of the time, the fights in the story goes as you'd expect. Sometimes it doesn't. Kinda like life. And keeping it simple means you get on with your overall story telling.
But I would never stoop so low as to tell you how to enjoy your time. A different approach to fighting could be cool!
I remember I enjoyed the simple typewriter behavior of connecting them to a computer db9 cable and using the terminal that used to come with windows to type out directly in the paper something short. I think this app had a red phone as icon or something like it (and there was a reimplementation later with a donkey on the icon).
> If you must give paper receipts, look for “phenol-free” paper, which is safer for human health and has fewer environmental effects. Three types that do not contain BPA or BPS and are competitively priced contain either ascorbic acid (vitamin C), urea-based Pergafast 201, or a technology without developers, Blue4est. The latter uses a coating that reveals an underlying dark layer when heat is applied.
> Companies that offer phenol-free alternatives: ...
Alas, that never materialized as the in-person campaign I was DMing fizzled out.
I shared with my ttrpg folk
[1]: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
