ColdSilenceAtrophies

Tory originally came from an Irish word meaning robber/outlaw. 350 years on and they seem to be attempting to live up to it.

My issue with it is that it really doesn't feel like morrowind in space to me. Morrowind had some interesting environments, and most places you found had some environmental storytelling going on. I loved morrowind because exploring felt interesting (but combat was bad)

Here I'm finding the environments uninteresting, with a few exceptions there seems to be little in the way of environmental storytelling and exploration doesn't seem that compelling. I'm enjoying the combat more than the exploration, which is unexpected for a Bethesda game. It feels like they've gone for quantity over quality with environments, and things are so far apart in fairly uninteresting planets that I feel like it's just a bit of a chore.

Maybe I've just been unlucky with the world's I've explored, and I'm enjoying it enough to keep playing a bit more in the hope it improves, but so far, it's not what I was hoping for.

The core rules of d&d (mechanics but not settings) are available under a free license (it was the Open Gaming License, or OGL, although I have a feeling it's a different license (Creative Commons , maybe?) now following the backlash from earlier this year when Wizards tried to scrap the OGL and replace it with a worse license)

Pathfinder was originally based on the d&d 3.5e ruleset. I'm not sure how far it has diverged from that, as I've played neither. Solasta is based on d&d 5e (the latest version of the rules), but is in a non-d&d setting of their own creation. BG3 is also based on 5e (although less strictly than Solasta), but also has the D&D license, so can use the Forgotten Realms/Sword Coast setting

Personally, I enjoyed Solasta, and think it's a great representation of combat on 5e. The writing and story aren't amazing, and it lacks the crazy amount of freedom/choices of BG3, but mechanically, it's a great implementation of 5e rules.

This might not be exactly what you're looking for (as it can be a little rogue-like), but it's a game that when I looked for similar things, led me to Dredge: Sunless Sea

You're a ship captain trying to survive in Victorian era London, after London was stolen by bats and taken to the shores of the Unterzee, an underground sea filled with some very strange creatures, people and locations. This means exploring and finding new trade routes or ways to survive while uncovering the stories of the islands you find, those of your crew, and the larger world.

There's a sequel, Sunless Skies, where you command a space going train exploring the heavens. It's a bit easier and has some good quality of life improvements, but I prefer the setting of Seas.

My original plan was to get both at release. I've played an amount of Baldurs Gate that is possibly best described as unhealthy, and I think I might hold off on Starfield until I'm done with it. It's Bethesda, a bit of delay will hopefully give them time to patch some of the worst of the issues it's bound to have.

If you read the article (or even the text in the post), it's mostly about letting app developers test that the update doesn't break their apps, and giving them time to fix things before the full release. Sure, some people will want to try out the new features ahead of time (and potentially report bugs to Google), but that's only part of why they release betas.

You're undead, and use magic and guns to fight aliens and gods in defence of a big ball. The big bad is made of ghosts (but not the kind you're friends with).

Still fairly old, but newer than B&W: From Dust . Replace trainable animals with fluid physics and light hearted songs with didgeridoos, and it's kind of similar.

In the UK, yes (mostly). In our system, we've got further education (sixth form or college) which sits between high school and higher education (university). As well as providing A-level courses, colleges often provide more vocational courses that don't necessarily lead into higher education. For example, my local college has hairdressing and bricklaying courses.

Confusingly, some universities are also made up of colleges. I think this is a minority of universities, though, and anecdotally, seems to be the older ones (Oxford, Cambridge, etc)

DREDGE is great, and does overlap with Sunless Seas in some ways, but is nowhere near as story driven (or weird). That said, it's a lot easier/more forgiving, and has a simpler (and potentially more engaging) main gameplay loop.

I love the Sunless/Fallen London setting, and really wish Seas had some of the improvements of Skies, as I think I prefer the setting of Seas, but I've found it hard to go back to, having played Skies.