I've got some decent smithing skills, I'd go looking for bog iron and skip the bronze age.

I've never met anyone who doesn't pick up a stick or a rock during a hike. We've been gathering our own tools for hundreds of thousands of years and that curiosity and ingenuity is bone deep for us as a species.

A lot of your questions depend on what game you're playing. The first question I would ask is, what genre are you interested in playing? D&D is the biggest out there right now and it's medieval fantasy-ish but it has a lot of it's own baggage mixed in. There's a free version of the rules you can download, feel free to do that and give it a quick read through just to get a feel for the tone.

Finding a group to play with is tricky. The best thing might be to get some friends together and all try the game together. Barring that, local game stores might help you find a group, or some places in the Internet have "Looking for Group" (LFG) communities.

You don't need to buy dice just yet. Some TTRPGs use weird dice shapes and not all use the same dice so it's best to decide on a game before spending money on it. If you want to try a game before getting dice you can always use a dice rolling app. If it's D&D you want to play then feel free to find a standard set of seven polyhedral dice. They're not too expensive and collecting pretty dice is a hobby into itself.

How a game is played depends on which game you're playing. With actual D&D it depends whether you're in a combat scenario or not. If you aren't the rules are a lot looser: the DM describes a scene, then you and the other players tell the DM what your characters would like to do. The DM will determine if dice need to be rolled or if an outcome isn't possible, and repeat. Combat is a lot more complex, you have a specific turn order and a much smaller selection of actions based on your character build.

On a larger scale, a bunch o adventures strung together is what makes a campaign. Most groups play this way, but especially if you're new finding (or starting!) a group running a one-shot is a good way to learn how to play. A single adventure you can complete in a single session is great for learning and the story stakes are much lower.

Roleplaying looks different depending on the group you're with and what you're comfortable with. I usually speak in third person at all times, no funny voices or anything like that. I have a friend who comes up with a voice for every character to use when speaking for said character in first person.

That was a pretty big info dump but let me know if I can answer specific questions. I've been playing TTRPGs for nearly 20 years and I've dipped my toes into a lot of different games so if I can help I will.

Rereading Lockwood and Co. I like reading YA books when I'm stressed and Stroud is quite clever.

If you like JRPGs Golden Sun is the bee's knees.

I'm sure there's a LoRa somewhere, self-hosted is always the answer.

So in the back of your eyeballs are special photo receptive bits called cones that you use to see color. There are three different kinds and they each detect red, green, or blue light. Using those three sets of wavelengths and the overlap between them your brain combines which cones are receiving light to make up all the other colors.

You might notice that pixels use those same colors. Once you back up enough it looks like each set of three pixels is actually a single point of light, so your brain combines the wavelengths into a single color.

French press, yo.

Canned chickpeas are one of our staple proteins. Mash them into something resembling tuna, roast them to get them crunchy and toss them over couscous or rice, etc.

Shallots are great if you're cooking for one or two people and don't expect to use an entire onion. We sometimes cut up a shallot and a tomato and saute them in some olive oil before dumping some pasta into the pan for a quick meal.

Also +1 for potatoes and gourds. They're in season and keep well on the counter.

That's the thing with natural selection though, as long as a trait isn't deleterious and it's common enough it'll generally stick around. There's no pressure for males to not have nipples.

Chickpeas. We usually have them toasted with veggies and couscous at least once a week, and if I need a quick lunch I'll mash a can's worth to make something similar to tuna salad and toss that on some toast.

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