Lots of great tips here, but one that works pretty well for my group, is to think of myself less as an actor playing a character, and more like a narrator. Which is to say, I’ll often describe the actions and/or thought process of my character before saying what I think they’ll say (in my normal voice).

This is easiest for mages since cantrips like Prestidigitation become powerful roleplaying tools, but even something like holding a Fire Bolt in the air over the person you’re trying to intimidate can have an interesting affect on the mood of the scene.

Y’all seem to have reached an impasse here in the realm of pure morality, so lets try something a little more grounded (and surely less controversial!) Political application. I won’t even slippery slope, I promise.

Lets suppose your favored political party has gained power (however briefly) and is able to push through legislation banning the consumption of any media depicting an immature person in a sexual context, regardless of whether it involved an actual child.

What would enforcement look like? You can’t simply follow the traffickers or CPS reports, as criminals could simply create the media for themselves on a private harddrive (say by drawing a picture or writing erotica) so law enforcement would need some way to investigate any citizen’s home and private spaces for potential contraband.

Do you think that there is a government currently on this planet clear enough of corrupted elements to avoid abusing this power to target their own political enemies?

Up to now, you’ve been following the track your society has laid out for you, growing and building yourself into a useful and civilized adult. Unfortunately, this where the tracks end.

No one will blame you if you fall into the perpetual cycles of materialism and let the world grind you up in exchange for occasional pleasure of increasingly empty quality.

The only escape I have encountered is to find something that calls to you, and to treat it as more important than yourself. The hard part about that is that other people, your friends and family and strangers online, who do not themselves worship the same, will criticize your choice. And you’ll have to decide which you can afford to do without.

Oh man, I’ve been looking for one of these. Does it let you customize the homepage as well? I can’t stand being blasted with eye-catching recommendations whenever I browse, it often makes me forget what I was going to look up in the first place!