What I Look For In A Roleplaying Game

First, I look for an agreeable setting. I want an escape; not a survival game. I struggle every day to survive in real life. Do I want starvation to be a possibility? Yes, but I'm an adventurer. My life is about survival and risk. Making sure I have food & water is second nature to me. If I am captured or somehow overcome, then it makes sense for basic necessities like food to become a concern. If I strike out into a desert when my normal travels are through areas where water is easily found, then I need to concern myself with provisions, but those are all special circumstances. I don't want such menial things to be a spotlight feature. I want adventure. Whether that's saving the fairy princesses, defending my homeland, saving the world, or standing for right in a difficult situation, I don't care, but I want good to prevail and be the focus of the setting, though not necessarily of every game session. That's why I don't enjoy Vampire or Dark Sun. They've been presented to me as back-stabbing, nitty-gritty, climb your way to the top & who cares who you step on enroute worlds. I don't enjoy that.

Granted, those settings can be run in the heroic manner I am trying for, but they don't lean toward such a style of play. I do enjoy the Realms. Yes, Toril has its dark side, but it's largely a world that is made up of good people. Are there evils to face? Aye, aplenty. But they don't dominate or rule everyone. The world isn't run by an evil Dark Lord. I'm more likely to be overcome by a wandering monster than become the focus of the Church of Cyric's ire. Can I make myself their target? Oh yes, but if I do, I'm doing so by butt-kicking for goodness.

So I want a sense of heroic in the setting, but on the flipside of that, I'm not looking for a world run by Paladins that follow the "Lawful Stupid" alignment. My every turn shouldn't be halted by some goody-two-shoes going "there's a law against that, citizen;" or "there's only one right way to do that - go through the proper channels or be imprisoned." I may encounter a town or village where that's the way things are run, but not all the time.

Again, the Realms provides that for me. That's what I look for in a Campaign Setting. What I look for in a rules set is detailed simplicity.I look at combat and  I look at skills.
I want to be able to be very good at a variety of things; not just a one-trick pony. Just because I'm a Mage shouldn't dictate that I can't be very good at Stealth. Just because I'm a Rogue shouldn't dictate that I'm not good at being a Charismatic, Bard-like character, capable of playing the crowd, but disappearing in an instant. Just because I'm a Fighter shouldn't mean that I'm a numbskull, incapable of sounding intelligent on anything but war and tactics. I want to be able to be that fighter that is the charmer, wooing at court, but a juggernaut on the battlefield. I don't want my perception and social skills tied to my race or class. Skills might be enhanced by Class or Race, but not limited.
Combat should provide for variety. It shouldn't be a "one roll is the end-all." If I'm making an overhand, finishing blow, it should be different from grabbing the foe by his throat. Marshall proficiency shouldn't be limited to Class, either. If I'm a mage, there's no reason I'm not practicing fencing to get away from the books for awhile. I'll never be as good as a master swordsman, but that's where my Art balances the equation.

Easter is far from pagan.

This time of year, I see a lot of people proclaiming Easter as a Pagan holiday. I call bullshit. Yes, bullshit.

In name, and a few of the "traditional" symbols, yes. The time of year that Christ's historical ressurection took place corresponds to many pagan equinox and first rites of summer celebrations. And the birth of new life is definitely a theme of the season. But it celebrates Christ's Ressurection in Christianity. That ressurection took place after the Passover week, as Christ was Cruicified during Passover. Passover takes place near the spring equinox. The exact date has been argued and debated throughout history, but the general timeframe remains the same.
If you have a problem with celebrating the equinox itself, see my post on Christmas for why an astronomical event is made by God, and stated in Genesis that its purpose is to mark the passage of time. Celebrating that time is not a problem. It was Created by God for that observance.
If you have a problem with the pagan trappings; the name and the fertility symbols, fine. Don't use them, call Easter by another day.
But this Spring, by all tradition and Biblical fact, is the anniversiary of the event that rocked the ancient world, this spring is when the Jews were given the sign of Jonah, when more than 500 witinesses saw a living, risen Savior, and when the "New" Religion was born.
In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son. The stars given for signs, seasons, and years proclaimed His birth, and those same heavens marked His death, and the world was changed by His ressurection. He is risen, indeed.

Christians in a transient culture

In my personal experience, most "Christians" who scream, "don't conform to the world's culture" don't mean it. What they REALLY mean is, "make sure you're conforming to the culture of days gone by, regardless of the wrongs it contained."
Where is the discernment? Are we content to look at past cultures through rose-colored glasses and always be a generation removed from the current culture that surrounds us?
What benefit is that? Is all the church stands for merely a throwback culture; a place people sick of dealing with trends and fashion waves can go and make themselves feel better because they now have a "moral" reason to not follow what's going on in the world around them?
Such an attitude won't last. Eventually, people will wake up. Eventually, they'll realize they don't need a moral reason to not conform to the prevailing social trends. They'll realize that they only need to have a different preference and enough backbone to stand out because they want to.
Such an attitude is happening today.
Such a wake-up call is making pastors sound like fools and Christians who hold to yesterday's trends and cry that it's "for moral reasons" look like idiots.
Why? Because it wasn't too long ago that anything below a woman's neckline was too much skin to show. Because now the same church that said a piano was of the devil, only fit for bars and pleasure halls is screaming that a church without a piano is sinful.
Because the church has set its foundation on a base that is as transient as the next social revolution, not the truths of Scripture.
You can cry, "thou shalt be modest," "thou shalt be above reproach," but any thinking individual will look at you and say, "that two-piece suit was grossly immodest a few generations back, and in twenty years, my jeans and turtleneck will look just as over dressed as you," and walk away; justifiably so.
The church is holding people to a standard that is changing, and yet preaches that we serve a God who never changes.
Such a double-standard will not win a generation that can think.
So are we to do away with standards? No. But we must make sure our standards are not transient. Rather than concern ourselves with whether a modest neckline is four finger widths below the collarbone or a span, maybe we should set standards that are more immutable. If I journey to the jungles of Africa where the women typically run around topless, suddenly my five-finger width below the neckline standard is grossly over-the top.
What is the solution? Admit we're wrong. Admit that not every "standard" is absolute. Yes, God does give us standards that are absolute. But there are some things, like what is modest, that He left to our disgression. If He wanted to give us standards for modesty, He could have easily given us the pattern for the garments He made Adam and Eve after the Fall.
He didn't.
In His Wisdom, He left some things undefined. Why He did so is a subject we can debate from now until eternity, but there is no point to it. We might as well debate how many angels fit on a pinhead for all the good it will do.
He did define this: "I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father but by me." That coming gives us plenty to work on without worrying about such transient things as culture.