Yeah, I found that one interesting as the Sawbutcher.
Gunslinger gets quite a few mobility based skills, but you start off with quite a low ammo shot pouch and your range is only 5. I was doing reasonable damage before I died but I was taking too much damage and the paladins had too much health so I couldn't outlast them, and I got hit by two at once and killed. It could do with some kind of extra healing or defence skill to use while you attempt to escape enemies...

The base game and the first DLC are 75% / 66% off at the moment here, so if you really want to and don’t mind, you could get them again ;-)

I'm considering grabbing TOME, and maybe the first DLC. I don't have much experience with roguelikes (only one I can think of that I played is Risk of Rain). I have played a lot of RPGs though. Is this game any good for a roguelike-noob? And of course, is it easy to learn? :)

It's easy enough. Just expect to die again and again and again...

This guys videos are old, but can give a general idea of the game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ajF8PRCNWg

This guys videos are more recent. It's a bit slower, but also good.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw2L04beHwWDQ7PoA60InuMlNSC-52aZk

And the base game is free on the website if you want to give it a whirl. But the price of admission for the new few days isn't exactly steep at the moment so if you end up hating it you wouldn't be out a lot of money.

The TOME message board on te4.org isn't super active. But the game also has a chat system and the people there are usually more than willing to answer questions and help out where they can. The TOME board here is willing to help if needed too.

And as trickles go, Puddle is here already. Maybe it's Wetrix...

Sweet.

Bought, installed, gonna go die until Stardew Valley is released.

Yes. For an RPG fan, it may seem kinda empty at first, but there's actually tons of delicious lore to discover, and the writing is better than in many AAA titles. The main draw for me is setting design -- off the top of my head, I can't even name another RPG which does high magic this well.

Yes. There are, however, several must-know quirks.

First, zeroth even: you can dodge some slow attacks by leaving the square they're targeting. If there's a (e.g.) void blast flying at your face, dodge it! -- it's actually flying at your square, and if you step back or aside, it will automatically miss. (Took me three dead characters to figure it out.)

First, for realz this time: items on the ground disappear when you leave the level. This means you can't explore at your leisure -- if you enter a difficult dungeon and have to retreat without clearing a level, you'll lose the loot it generated. ToME has no infinity engines, so loss of loot is a permanent setback (not too severe, though -- anything which doesn't kill a low-level character straight away is obviously not endgame content and the lost loot will be eventually superceded by quadratically better stuff). I strongly advise to read up on the recommended dungeon order. And watch your encumbrance.

Second: the majority of classes and some races are unlockable. This is a feature: these classes are really difficult to play for an absolute beginner. They're not necessarily "the bestest" -- some aren't particularly strong, some are powerful but fragile and require experience with the game to not die straight away. (You can unlock them manually if you want to try them anyway or just hate locked content.)

Third: there is a weird semi-randomized character customization system. These can make or break a character, and since some of the extra abilities are actually core abilities of other classes, figuring out the most complementary (oh-exploitable) options by yourself requires hundreds of hours of experience. If you don't consider it spoilery (I certainly don't), look up what stats or abilities to pick when you are offered a reward.

Fourth: there are trap options. It can't be helped. If you dont' want to deal with them, look up winning character builds on the game's website. Filter by class and version and it will give you a general idea of what's hot and what's not, and suggest the best customization options.

Finally: learn controls! Auto-explore saves time, and manual targeting is indispensable.

I don't know. All the lore and back story felt to me like the usual who is who of high fantasy tropes. All the stuff you have heard before, only randomly thrown together in a new constellation. The only interesting thing to me were the "short story" parts of the collectable lore, but only so much. If I want really gripping and engaging stories, I usually look to books anyway instead of games.

For a setting to really feel "true" to me, there are so many individual things that have to fall into place and intertwine in a dense, sensical, and consistent way, that it's really hard to please me in that regard. Off the top of my head, on of the best games regarding setting in my opinion is Morrowind. Tales of Maj'Eyal has an OK setting (to me).

Funny, I find Morrowind's setting and lore to be shit-tastically troped and done overall and ToM'E's to be refreshingly well done and unique for a game. It is better than the BG story+lore, imo! The humor and variety add a lot too it, though, and it definitely isn't a game that you play for the story, but the lore is fun and well done and adds a lot to it (I wouldn't like it as much as I do if it didn't have it, certainly, even though the gameplay is great, the lore kicks it up a level of enjoyability.)

I never got far into the Morrowind main story because I was doing side-quest after side quest after side quest (I'm a completionist), exploring the world, running from here to there to there to here to there, and at a certain point, just became utterly bored by it all. God this and god that that I've been exposed to the likes of all before, and I didn't like how it was all just plopped there in front of me to consume, it wasn't delivered very well, as far as I got, anyway.

I really couldn't get into the gameplay after 2 attempts to play the game (30 hours each time, over the past 20 years or whatever.) If I'm not grabbed 30 hours in, I am giving up, and did, twice. I just don't think the gameplay is for me, more than anything.

Fair enough. I, too, needed several attempts with Morrowind until it finally made click for me and I finished the game, side quests and all. The only advice I can give to people taking on the beast that Morrowind is: Try to stay with the main quest as much as your character and exploration progress allow and you might hit the same point that I did where the game suddenly opens up to you and you don’t want to leave this place anymore.

Thank you for the confirmation, Judas. :)