I always ended up wanting to use plastic minis to avoid situations like this.
I think it is a solid game. Sunk about 30 hours into it a few months ago, but life got busy and I what free time I’ve had I sunk into Pokemon infinite fusion.
If you want the gist of what it is like to play without sinking in the money “Real Civil Engineer” on YouTube has a Timberborn playlist with hours of content with him just fucking around. Unless you find your own way to build a narrative or make your own challenges you may find that you have done it all by around 60 to 80 hours of gameplay.
My gnome warlock got their power from getting married to a fae lord after a drunken night of revelry. Their pact was the divorce settlement and their familiar was their lawyer.
It is so fun to play the straight person around random bedlam.