Hah! What an idiot.

Definitely I would check out Grim Dawn and Last Epoch.

Grim Dawn is an insanely sprawling game with tons of class combinations and builds, made by the people who made titan quest. The graphics are dated as hell but it never stopped me from loving it. I also find the lore very fun.

Then there is Last Epoch, which is coming out on the 21st. I've been playing it for 3 years, even done some testing for them. Personally some of the more casual friendly things that you can't find (like the crafting actually being amazing, seasons giving content to non-season characters, etc) just are unmatched and give the game a very good flow. It will be out in 1.0 in ~ a week and I definitely think it's worth a glance because I find it is a great middle ground between diablo's dumbed-downness and Path of Exile's sweatiness.

It's hard to extoll the virtues of my chosen system (Pathfinder2e) without comparing it to the issues of where I find 5e lacking.

That said, what I love about 2e is the great encounter balance, almost every single "build" for a class is viable, and when you say "I'm playing a rogue" there are like 4 major types of rogues that all feel like they play differently instead of just some tacked on homebrew class. Adding free archetype rules (supported by the system creators themselves in their books) adds even more customizability.

One of my favorite things is that PF2e makes it feel like it makes encounter design fun again; martials actually have more options than just walk up and attack repeatedly, spacing matters, defenses matter. Most classes have some sort of gimmick that makes them play differently. Been working with my girlfriend to make a swashbuckler for the game I am DMing, and the panache/bravado/finisher mechanics really excite us from a roleplay and gameplay standpoint.

The three action system is way more flexible than the action/bonus action system. You can spend all 3 actions on a huge spell and burn your entire turn. You can move away from enemies to force them to burn an action or flank them to gain bonuses to attack for yourself and allies. You can apply debuffs using your main stats with actions like Demoralize, and still attack or move on your turn.

You constantly gain feats, and they are what defines your character so much. No longer do you get a "choice" of an ASI or feat. You get ones every level. There are ancestry tests from your race, class feats, skill feats, archetype feats. They don't just make you stronger, they instead give you more possible actions, give you unique traits, like being able to fight while climbing or use deception to detect when someone is lying instead of perception.

Also, you can find every rule for free online @ Archives of Nethys. No more being gated by purchases outside of adventure paths.

I could keep going, and I really want to extoll how awesome Golarion is, and the pantheon of gods, and everything. But I will stop here. Would happily answer anyone's questions about the system, I love it. It gave me true passion for tabletop RPGs while DnD5e made me feel really mildly about it.

I would see if you have a Unitarian Universalist (UU) Congregation near you.

It IS technically a religion, but it doesn't feel like anyone is trying to make you believe anything, is aggressively LGBTQIA+ friendly, and is also welcoming to all races and cultures (it is literally in their commandments to respect people regardless of creed or views, and respect their individual search for truth and meaning).

While people there are incredibly nice, welcoming etc..the big downside is that most people at UU churches are usually older. It's got a lot of "old hippie" energy, which is great but they might have less younger people if you're looking for people in your age group. You won't really know until you visit your (hopefully) nearby congregation.

They do have traditional church services, with sitting at pews and singing hymns (a select hymnal with a lot of pagany hymns) and a sermon, but the sermon is always about philosophical things and thought provoking stuff, or more recently about current events. For example, when I went for my first time to a nearby church, the reverend spoke about her life growing up queer and everything the world did to make her feel like she didn't belong.

If you can give the church format a chance, I can't recommend it enough. A lot of the greatest most loving people I have met have been UU, and I still love and cherish them to this day.

Sorry if this is too churchy for what you are looking for. I would say if you're pretty liberal/leftist and you want to find groups that do/talk about stuff like that you can often find those connected to UU churches in some way and they'll never pressure you beyond "oh we hope you will stay, we love to have you" and things like that.

Sounds like the weirdly happiest car crash ever. /j

But seriously That's about as affirming as they can get lol

Big fan of this. I rarely actually contribute just because who has the time to do 3+ missions back to back? I usually only do 1 per every few days, now I can actually help.

It's true, some of them ARE empty by design...but the problem is, a world with life on it in Starfield is barely more interesting than the barren rock. It is still almost ALL randomly generated, there just happens to be more wildlife to scan while you run across the boring landscape, and maybe an animal will try to kill you.

Oh, and the pointless radiant quest you get will be from a solar farm on the nice planet, instead of a mining platform on the barren one. There is very little difference.

Counterpoint: I will immediately skip the rock on the first body of water I find, losing it instantly. Stick I will treasure forever.

Slightly off-topic: might be alone in this, but I actually really enjoyed Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. It's nice, self-contained, has some fun action, some cool scenes, and it turned me on to Jake Gyllenhaal and I've liked his work ever since. It's Generic and schlocky but it's better than the usual videogame movie garbo.

It fits nicely into that B-movie slot IMO.

Honestly since the original artist(s) left, I wasn't interested in a follow-up anyway. A second disco Elysium without the same art and story direction would have little to no relation to the game that came before.

For me, I think the difference is that I have the means and opportunity to reduce (an incredibly minor amount, I know) the suffering of animals everywhere by not eating meat, so I feel somewhat an obligation to do so.

Whereas a cat does not have the knowledge or information or desire to make that sort of decision making. So I love them anyway...I just don't let them outside so they can't murder every living thing nearby for fun.

To each his own, that's just my personal impetus to be meat free.

No sir, you are not alone. The horrendously weak opening combined with bullet sponge gunplay, so many loading screens, a horrendous UI, boring worlds with little to nothing to do on them...I managed to make myself play for 12 hours before I gave up for good. It simply didn't catch me at all, despite multiple attempts. Maybe in 2 years with mods, but for now it's just time to move on for me.

The reality is that it's been 20 years since many of those "best games ever". 20 years is a huge chunk of your working life. It's just not realistic to keep the same people that whole time, or even a percentage of them.

People don't want to think about the reality of it, they just want content to devour.

Outer Wilds and subnautica still trigger all my phobias so effectively. It's terrifying

Having previously lived in Philly...I remember when my work forbid us from using public transit during the pandemic. Driving in there was awful as sin and it's going to get twice as bad at least because of this. This is insanity.

Insulting to all the beautiful bearded dragons out there!

Yes, thank you Ada for all your hard work! I knew choosing this instance was the right move and they haven't proven me wrong yet ☺️ much love!

I'm in this picture and I don't like it :(

Honestly still one of my favorite shows, maybe my favorite ever. It can be campy and unrealistic sometimes, it stays within the realm of "I guess that's possible" that you will still be curious about how they will beat the monster of the week. It's a lot of fun.

Then you have games that do space travel so well that I'm beyond scared shitless in them, like Outer Wilds. So many games have already managed to convey some of these feelings.