So, you’ve yet to do the Paladins of Tyr, both hyena encounters, harpies, owlbear, skellies in the dungeon, spider, goblins on the outpost just outside the temple, goblins outside the temple, Auntie ethel, and the woads. Not to mention all the goblins in the Blighted Village. Those net some XP as well. That’s for the coast. All of that should get you 5th level, maybe even a quarter of the way into level 6.

As others have mentioned, the Risen Road and the Underdark are both still Act I. Act II is the shadowlands, and everything therein.

Depending on your builds, especially if you have a wizard in your party, I would check the traders who are still alive. Their inventory restocks every long rest, and they get new items every couple level ups. I just reached level 5 and I’ve found some of the lower level armors at a +2 variant. You might also find some spells and useful potions.

If you’re on Honor, I’d suggest doing Underdark first and Risen Road second.

Or america. Non specialty shops sell the worst cups I’ve ever had, and I’ve been to bottom of the barrel shops where I live.

Pretty much, lol

That’s… Probably not a bad idea, lol. I got too used to good things.

Oh I needed it for college. I was impatient and pushed myself too hard during my last 2 years, some weeks I slept fewer than 10 hours collectively.

I’ve since cut it almost entirely, and because of that my usual cup gives me the jitters. I still love coffee and would like nothing more than having one in the morning and one in the afternoon, but my body can’t take it anymore (nor can my mental health honestly). Aging sucks, lol.

Coffee. I used to be a coffee fiend, I drank up to 12-13 cups a day, and only stopped because it was worsening my anxiety. I live in a coffee producing country and learnt how to make a good cup in an espresso machine, even got all the doodads to make the process standardized and get the exact same cup every time.

I can only drink coffee made by select hands now. Everything else tastes like jet fuel, and it’s worse when travelling.

Pirate it is the usual recommendation. Iirc profits will go to a bad dude who stiffed the workers. Been a while since I read that info though, so might be worth to read further.

Yeah. I’ve recently been getting my M&B kick satisfied through the Calradian Kings mod for CK3.

Obviously no combat, but it has diplomacy and intrigue, which is nearly non-existent in Bannerlord. I have almost 1000h on Bannerlord and at this point, I think I’d need an overhaul for it to interest me again.

I wish there was another way to make money besides war (through selling high tier weapons of making them yourself). Workshops don’t make near as much as they did in Warband, and caravans are a crapshoot. Not taking part in smithing feels like gimping myself.

Even making the entire experience as easy as possible (setting smithing to 100+ and installing a mod for virtually infinite stamina) it still feels like a chore.

Do you have spots available still?

Hey, is this still happening?

Not in the US, but won’t overall card prices increase with the tariffs?

Yup. I spend twice the amount of time laying down groundwork for potential future campaigns than planning for the one I’m DM’ing in any given moment.

Rn I’m planning three and DM’ing one.

1. Remnant is a coop soulslike shooter, if that’s up your alley. Fun bosses, some puzzles with unique rewards if you get the clues (some are really hard and you’ll definitely end up looking up guides for most of them), and build variety is okay. Haven’t played Remnant 1, but Remnant 2 is fun.

2. Outward is an indie open world RPG with survival mechanics. With mods, you can play with more than 2 people. It’s janky, but it has an old school approach to game design that feels refreshing. For instance, the ingame map is just a map, not a gps. You orient yourself with the on-screen compass and landmarks off in the distance. The levelling system is completely non-standard compared to modern rpgs, as it is classless, has skill trees (with passives and actives), and uses money, not XP, to level. So every red cent counts. The story is honestly not impressive. Not because of the presentation, but because there really isn’t much there. If you end up playing this, is because the exploration and builds are fun. Having to deal with environmental threats while you’re low on resources (e.g: can’t see but you ran out of lantern oil, freezing but don’t have a campfire, starving or dehydrated but have no food) adds a lot to the game, because combat is not easy until you get a good build going.

3. Valheim could work if you’re up for it. Though not much of an RPG, it can be played like one with the right mods and world settings. You can tone down the survival aspects and increase the combat aspects. Nearly 0 story though. My only gripe in this regard with the game is that build variety only comes online in the latter half of the available content. Before Mistlands, everyone is either melee or range. Once you get Eitr, you can combine melee or range with magic. With mods though, you can get classes and unique enemies to hunt down.

4. Same as before, Project Zomboid can be played like an RPG with the right mods, but you won’t find much of a story besides the ones you shape yourself in-game. There’s a lot to building a character, and you will get attached to them since infection is certain death, and then you have to roll up a new character. B42 just released on the unstable branch, but is only single player atm. B41 can be played multiplayer, and it has thousands of mods for you to tailor the experience. I’ve had a lot of fun playing on private servers with my friends. I treat it as a survival game, and they treat it as an RPG.

5. Return to Moria might work? It’s not much of an RPG, but it has a loose story to egg you on. No builds, however.

6. Wasteland 3, though its similar to BG3 I think. Haven’t played it online, and I think it’s limited to 2 people. Build variety is up there though, and the story is great.

Not really much to offer, now that I realize. If BG3 wasn’t your cup of tea you might not have a lot to choose from.

I’ve been gaming and streaming most of my life with sub-30mbps download and sub 15 upload speeds, didn’t have symmetrical 50+ until a year ago.

As others have said, you have to plan ahead. If you need to download something large, let it be and go do something else while it does its thing. Streaming high quality on two screens or more is doable but you’ll buffer eventually.

You can probably set up some rules on your router to prioritise whatever device you deem most important, however. Although, if its important enough to warrant a rule on your router, it would probably be better to just plug an ethernet cable in anyway.

Oh I’n not running either system, lol. I’m taking the lore of both and implementing cybernetics and the various supernatural types as closely as I can get it into Savage Worlds. I wanted to run either but my table doesn’t want to learn another system, so, I’m running it on SW.

The lore bit about Jersey and Manhattan sounds interesting!

Ooh, I might be able to help. I was going to set up a campaign set in NYC in a custom setting combining Cyberpunk and VTM. I feel like the movie The Warriors might help flesh out the groups/factions. All of them themed around 1 thing or two (feels consistent with fallout faction design). Escape from New York might also help nail down the vibes of the setting. That brings the dilapidated-but-alive vibe you’re going for.

NYC being a crater infested with mutants and ghouls also makes me think that regular folks would group on the outskirts of the city, so, I don’t know if you’ve thought of the map and stuff, but I’d imagine southern manhattan being the crater (being the economic centre), with most folks fighting for Jersey or Brooklyn, maybe looking to set up a good FOB around the bridges (if they still exist), assuming there’s still something of importance in southern NYC. You could bring in the NYC metro system as the one thing left standing south of Grand Central, and there could be vaults connecting directly to the metro with valuables/plot relevant items. Makes sense the wealthy would be the ones with access to the vaults.

Music-wise, maybe The Ramones and Detroit Cobras could help, though I’m not sure if they’re too recent.

Definitely. The most interesting part of the gameplay loop once you’re familiar with the mechanics was the very start of a playthrough. Going from absolutely nothing to having a decent stash of food, weapons, an okay car and a safe place to sleep is where you have to leverage risks the most. Once settled, the only goal you had left is keep things running.

You couldn’t really rebuild. This patch gives a reason to grind skills other than carpentry 9, electronics 1, and mechanics 3, and I’m all for it, honestly. B43 and B44 (where I assume NPCs will be added) are going to be amazing if this patch is a sign of things to come.

And that’s the single player side of it. Getting a commune going with friends, with this much variety of important things to do, is going to make for interesting long term playthroughs.

Yeah. I kind of want to fast track blacksmithing ngl. Hopefully someone eventually puts up a medieval-ish server with the new additions in mind. I want an apocalypse knight build, lol.

I like it so far. Went from the new starting town down to Rosewood, and I’ve just begun clearing out the area immediately around the fire station. The first time I ran into the new animals was when a deer crossed the road and fucked up my truck. The second time, a group of wild rabbits. I like most of the changes, with the exception of muscle soreness while shooting.

It makes the very start kinda rough to level aiming. I assume you’re meant to start it earlier now, given that you start with a 9mm, but the low aiming plus fast onset of pain makes levelling it very hard. Maybe a way to balance it would be to make it scale with caliber, or more attachments that make weapons more ergonomic (recoil pads are already in, though I’m not sure if those do anything against the pain).

I understand this is meant to make you think twice before engaging a large horde or to make you fall back and recuperate, but it kinda reinforces the idea that guns are absolute last resort.