Muslim Gamer

How to see whether a Chinese handmade teapot is well done or not - quality of the spout is an important standard. 

Metro Man was not loved growing up in a way that mattered. His adopted father was clearly very absent, and while we don't know much about his family, their relationship seems superficial. Because of this, his sense of duty to the world is also superficial, hence his boredom.

Hal wasn't raised with power. He gained it and was shown how to use it by a 'space dad' who only taught him power and not love. Hence, he sees it only as a grasping means to an end.

I think it handles goblins beautifully; goblins discourse could be a whole other post but this game actually engages with what a subjugated, genocide-survivor population looks like as a sizeable minority in a city. Snell is incredibly well written (frankly, while the politics of Esoteric Ebb are much more simple and, well, fantastical than the much more explicitly political Disco Elysium, I would argue Snell engages with the specific concept of being a minority more so than Kim Kitsuragi does).

I think it does a lot of very fun stuff with D&D class and what leading with a particular stat would mean; pure intellect unmediated by other stats does tend towards egotism, whereas wisdom tends towards insight and caring but not necessarily brutal practicalities, and strength can be both protection and subjugation.

I think that while I was a little frustrated navigating the Questing Web as a video game player, it was a really accurate way to map out a complex TTRPG plot (to the point that I am going to be taking some cues for the next game I'm running) and watching the connections grow and build upon each other. The handful of loose threads also felt very comfortable and D&D-like, as did the ending bit about future sessions.

Hilariously, I think this game is a really good option for people who are weird about combat in D&D proper, because there were only a few encounters and your build was heavily skewed towards utility (and I went pretty standard cleric, ie, I was not good at physical things). You do better running or talking your way through most encounters, especially since you are trying to get information and it's harder and more limited to question a dead person.

I think it actually provided lore for a megadungeon which can be thin on the ground, and like, I think it's fine to just be like Here's A Cool Dungeon but having it be an archaeological experience with a rich history is much more satisfying.

I think it engaged well with the idea of character races as nation-states in past eras (something Araman also does well) since a lot of D&D lore is oddly essentialist in a way that makes no sense in a diverse melting pot but does in a world with very rigidly defined boundaries, especially when the deities are involved.

Moving into really spoilery territory below the cut:

Dover:

Manchester:

London:

Newcastle:

Nottingham:

Portsmouth:

Leeds:

Liverpool:

Sheffield:

Bristol:

Hull:

Birmingham:

Old York:

Leicester:

Stoke:

Blackpool:

Norwich:

Middlesbrough:

Bournemouth:

Cambridge:

Milton Keynes:

The Jurassic Coast:

The Peak District:

The Plague Village of Eyam:

Coventry:

Southend:

The Holy Island of Lindisfarne:

Doncaster: