Been away for years, are the old posters still around?

[Chaospread]

17 hours ago, Vasvary5050 said:

So, I’d love to hear from others: what are you playing now or recently? What games do you consider spiritually or mechanically similar to PoE 1 and Deadfire?

I'm playing Deadfire, now I'm going to decide wether to start another run with a modded class, play the ultimate on PoE1 and 2 or move to other games.
BG1 and BG2 are the spiritual ancestors of PoE, you know: isometric, party, fantasy, real time with pause, but above all the companion deep characterization is the similar feature that "lives" in Poe1 as it was "born" in BG.

[Boeroer]

It's not really similar to PoE/Deadfire (pixel graphics, turn-based), but it's a party CRPG:

Skald: Against the Black Priory

I did enjoy it a lot. It doesn't have the replay value like PoE/Deadfire have, but it was a great experience for me nonetheless.

[thelee]

These days I have way less free time than before, but I'm currently still running Deadfire.

I also play BG3... been meaning to start a completely evil Durge honor mode run after my current Deadfire run. I also am planning on a second Avowed run when that's wrapped up (and some new content patches have come out in the meantime).

Beyond that though, it's honestly a little bit of a blur. I tried picking up D2 again, but I have so much less free time than in my 20s that I feel like I should be a lot more consequential with how I spend it (instead of mindlessly grinding for mid/high runes in D2r hell difficulty), so I'm also curious how other Eora fans are spending their time. BG3 scratches a particularly party-based CRPG itch pretty well, but it's a little sad that RTWP is functionally dead again.

I've taken to running a family D&D session to keep scratching the party-based RPG itch from a different angle.

On 5/20/2025 at 8:07 AM, Boeroer said:

Skald: Against the Black Priory

the retro style looks fun, reminds me of Ultima, I might have to give it a shot.

[Vasvary5050]

Replying to Boeroer: Skald does look interesting. I do enjoy fantasy that blends with Lovecraftian horror, though one has to be in the mood for it. Can be a bit depressing to get attached to characters that you know will probably end up going totally insane and/or being doomed.

Replying to thelee: I do find Pillars 1 and Deadfire to be very re-playable in a way that somehow BG3 hasn't (for me) replicated. I think I prefer the RTWP style combat in Pillars/Deadfire to BG3, and I also prefer the dual-classing in Deadfire to the multi-classing in BG3 (mathematically more options in BG3, but I find the strongest builds in BG3 tend to be most levels in one class with a shallow dip into one or two other classes, whereas I enjoy the more balanced dual-classing in Deadfire). With BG3 I tend to end up running 4 quite similar builds to the previous runs (albeit I might have changed which companion is the fighter or the bard or whatever this time compared to last time). If I'm going to play BG3 again I really will need to start using modded classes I think. But the actual characters in BG3 are very engaging (watching the interactions in BG3 is a bit like watching a movie).

I have bought Avowed, but my progress is slow. Its nice to see Eora from a first person perspective, and to see some new post-Deadfire lore, and I enjoy the combat a lot (dual-wielding pistols with magic feels good), but its not the same as Pillars 1 and Deadfire. I'm sure I'll complete it but I don't think it will be one that I return to repeatedly. That said, even if Pillars 3 is a pipe dream, I would enjoy seeing the world of Eora expanded in other formats.

Family D&D sounds great. I'm a bit envious. I miss the old days of playing D&D but I don't know anyone near me that still plays any tabletop RPGs anymore.