Still a problem for me. But I think cholesterol levels are like, 80% genetic. I've known people with terrible diets and excellent cholesterol.

I'm also allergic to nuts, so I might be missing some of the 'plant based diet' benefits by not getting those oils.

Yeah, I'm holding off for a sale on this one. I liked Elden Ring well enough, but the performance issues are infuriating. Baffling that it still isn't fixed.

If you're looking for cheap, dried beans are about 1/2-1/3 the price per serving over canned.

They are more work, needing either a long boil, overnight soak in water, or a pressure cooker. But the cost saving is enough for me to buy mostly dried beans.

Also, article skips over the chemical part of this: Vitriol, the name for the impure sulfuric acid they used, was green (due to some iron and cupper sulfates). You can use sulfuric acid to purify gold; it'll dissolve the silver and copper in a gold alloy, but not the gold itself, giving you 100% gold.

However, the green lion can also 'ascend' by combing with nitric acid to make aqua regia, where it can dissolve gold, "devouring it".

Mmm, psionics, Shadow Weave Magic, Initiate of Mystra.

A min-maxed character is one with dumpstates and weaknesses. A powergamed character is one with fewer weaknesses than a 'normal' character. Anything that can challange an OP build will wipe the floor with a party of 'standard' characters.

Overall, a good video. I'm definitely opinionated about rpgs and editions of DnD, and don't share his blanket love for each edition, but he's right that the vitriol over edition wars are silly.

I don't really agree with his WoW take; of just, being able to hop from DnD to WoW for a few months to have fun. I hate WoW, from a personal enjoyment level. I don't knock anyone for enjoying it, but I'd rather do just about anything else. My friends jumped onto it on launch in highschool, and I joined them for a week or so, and I genuinely do not see the appeal. I'm not trying to be bitter or anything, so much as saying I am not able to just, go and have fun with WoW, or frankly any MMO I've tried.

But, there's no RPG I've ever touched that I feel that way about. I don't really like 4e for several reasons, but overall, if my group otherwise really wanted to play more of it, I know I could have fun playing or running it. Outside of truly dogshit 'games' like FATAL, I'm sure I could have fun playing just about any RPG, and even a FATAL one-shot could be fun, despite the rules (though, it'd veer awfully close to just laughing at a live-reading of the rules than really 'playing the game')

Still, I have no real interest in 5.5. Frankly, I currently have no real interest in 5e at the moment, though that's more from 'edition fatigue'. Like, I have many complaints about 5e (I'm not sure if you could play a lot of 5e and not notice it's mechanical flaws), but I played it enough to get tired of it, which is a compliment in a lot of ways.

But I love playing new games. I've fallen in love with PF2e recently (though with 2 campaigns hitting level 14-ish, some fatigue is creeping in), and we've giving ICON a run. I'm looking forward to trying Exalted Essence and the new WoD stuff when a rpg slot opens up (running 3 games right now as it is). And I'll probably return to DnD at some point, but nothing from 5.5 feels like it really 'fixes' the issues I have with 5e, or otherwise 'sparks excitement' in me. But also, it looks fine.

Though, if the really do centralize it to an official platform, I definitely won't be touching it; I hate DnD beyond as it is, and how there are no PDFs for the 5e books (officially), which is a bummer but able to be worked around. And, even if they try to centralize 5.5 digitally, there will definitely still be books, and probably still be PDFs able to be found, though I'll probably want to avoid the edition on principle anyway if that is the case.

I've read all of cosmere, and I don't care for Hoid in general, though there's a lot about his books I do love. But I tried a few of his YA books (the chalk one, and reckoners) and didn't especially care for them.

I actually really hated the book, which was a big surprise to me, since I love Princess Bride and most of Sanderson. But man, the narrator was way more grating and unfunny to me than Princess Bride's.

Sanderson usually isn't funny for me, which is usually fine, but Tress relied on humor too much imo

Where's 'turning the music off and driving in silence'?

Sticky tofu is hands down my favorite. Something like this: https://veganonboard.com/sticky-lemon-tofu/

Soy Curls is honestly my favorite 'meat replacement' (though, I'm not too hot on 'replacing meat'). They work for doing things like mongolian beef, or just lightly frying after marinading for 'chicken strips' to top salads or sandwiches. https://thevietvegan.com/vegan-mongolian-beef/

Soups are of course, pretty easy. I like Lentil Chilli, heavy on the seasonings and beans aside from lentils. Minestrone or lemon orzo are both also great. Thai curry or pho are both more work imo, but amazing (though, both broth bases can often have chicken or shrimp in them).

Burgers, and while impossible meat et. al. are fine I guess, they're a bit pricey. I honestly prefer a good chipotle black bean burger over them 9/10 times. They're pretty cheap to buy, but also not very hard to make, with most of the ingredients being cheap.

I personally like seitan, but I know quite a few other vegetarians don't, so it might be divisive. BUT, in terms of cheap protein, its damn near rock bottom in price. It is some work to make stuff out of it from scratch, but 'indian mock duck' is usually seitan, and can be bought from indian stores if you just want to try it. But seitan works to replace burgers, chicken tenders, steaks, sausage, etc. Tons of recipes out there.

I'd say the key difference between a 'spotlight hog/main character syndrome' and 'a player who RPs a lot in a group full of quiet people', is does the player also start talking/engaging whenever the spotlight is on the quiet player.

Because I think that's the real rub; that difference between a player 'dragging' the less engaged players behind them (good and fine), and a player who can't allow themselves to step back and let someone else be the main character for a single scene.

Eh, I've seen it cut both ways (as someone who GMs 90% of the time).

Had a player I was friends with, and roommates for a while, who was a huge 'spotlight hog'. Since some players are quieter and less assertive, I try to make sure each player gets at least one 'spotlight moment' each arc. And this player was real bad for always kinda muscling into other player's 'moments'.

After having multiple talks, eventually just had to kick him (cause he didn't stop), which has pretty awkward considering 'roommate'.

So I'd take players that need to be coaxed into RP over players that have main character syndrome any day (though, of course, ideally all the players just RP readily but politely).