I played D&D for 10 years before I seriously tried DMing. I’m now a year and a half into a 5e game with 4 other players and it’s been great. It helped that YouTube kept sending me Matt Colville videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8
The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin has a similar vibe to Our Flag Means Death, maybe a little goofier. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19516036/?ref_=ext_shr
I loved the first two, but I had a hard time getting through the third. It has interesting concepts but it takes a long time to make its point. Plot structure spoilers:
The main reveal should have happened half way through, not at the end.
Apologies for mobile formatting
The Children of Time books by Adrian Tchaikovsky have a lot of those themes. Half of the first book is about an ark ship sent out to find a habitable planet because earth is dying. It spans hundreds of years as key crew members go in and out of hyper sleep. Relationships and political factions form and dissolve as the ageing ship continues its mission to find a new home.
The second book focuses on a terraforming crew that was sent to another star system to prepare a planet for humans. However, the planet’s ecology is so alien it proves very difficult to gain a foothold.
I’ve got a playlist, “Everything sucks but that’s ok”. This Year by The Mountain Goats is usually a solid pick. It’s wistful and defiant without being too sweet.
Misanthropic Drunken Loner by Days N Daze is bleak with a wry smile.
Nausea by Jeff Rosenstock.
I got so tired of discussing my future I started avoiding the people I love Evenings of silence and mornings of nausea Shake and sweat and I can’t throw up
And if things are starting to get a little better Good As It Gets by Little Hurt is great. It is incredibly catchy.
Remnant 2. I watched Iron Pineapple’s review back when it released and got excited. It went on sale a couple weeks ago and I convinced several friends to get it. It’s been great. I’m just getting to the point where I can play around with different builds. The set pieces look great and the writing and lore has surprising depth, especially for a co-op shooter.
Shitshow by Peter McPoland.
Mostly Inkbound. 2 friends suggested it on the same day a couple weeks ago so I gave it a shot. It kind of feels like turn based Hades. There’s enough RNG to keep things interesting, and enough choice to let you explore different builds.
Also playing KeyWe with my girlfriend. It’s a series of mini games where you play as kiwi birds in a post office. Some of the tasks can feel tedious and the mechanics could use some polish, but overall it’s a good co-op game with cute animals and outfits.
I’m not big into matching band music, but I went to a MarchFourth concert on a whim and had a fun time. Lots of juggling, hula hooping, dancing. They even had a guy doing yo-yo tricks to a saxophone solo.
https://youtu.be/8x9Cv-dLw9E?si=1Zh8kC_Q8X0SSI6W