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Baldur's Gate III released into Early Access

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  • BallpointManBallpointMan Member Posts: 1,659
    Sjerrie wrote: »
    IThe bad: It will likely reinforce 5th edition as being the most popular system. Design choices going forward are going to appeal more to the masses and less to long time DnD fans.

    The danger of DnD becoming so watered down as to resemble nothing of what I and many others originally liked about it, which 5e already comes close to, is pretty real.

    All I'll say is this is pretty much true for each edition. My brother played and taught me 2.5, and I remember there being a lot of complaining and grousing at how newbie friend BAB was relative to Thac0.

    5e is popular. It is well liked. It is the reason why D&D has had a major resurgence. It's certainly not everyone's favorite and for everyone - but these arguments arent new. The D&D community has survived 5 separate editions, many of which are very much unlike any others (3 is much further away from 2.5 than 5. 1 and 4 are both fairly unlike all the others).

    TSR/WotC have always used their current ruleset for DnD videogames though. They will likely not deviate from this, so if we're going to get an upsurge in DnD videogames (yes please) they will be using 5e for as long as they don't have a 6e.

    There could be differences in how a developer translates PnP to their videogame of course, but that'll be the extent of it.

    Yeah - I'm not really sure where we disagree. I think this is absolutely true. In fact, it's my understanding that WotC was adamant that any BG3 made was to be made using 5e, and this was a requirement since before Larian was given the opportunity to make it.

    Which I think is a reasonable starting point, by the way. I think 4e wasnt a total train wreck, but was clearly inferior to 3.5 and 5e. I would have completely understand BG3 being in 4e if the game was made back when that edition was the current edition.

    On the subject of dnd editions - it's useful to remember that we have 5e precisely because longtime D&D players rebelled against 4e's changes. They didnt like it, and so WotC made a new edition that sought to recapture the old magic. For everyone who thinks 5e is a major departure from old editions, it's viewed as a throw back to an extent to placate the established D&D fanbase that hated 4e.
  • LemernisLemernis Member, Moderator Posts: 4,318
    edited October 2020
    Well, it looks like I'll need a new computer to run this game. The HP desktop I bought at Walmart about five years ago was perfectly fine just to play BG EEs and for everyday home office use. I'm not really into gaming anymore and haven't even played BG in a long while. But in any case this game's video demands are just to high for it. The lag makes it unplayable.

    Soooo... any suggestions for a relatively inexpensive desktop that can run this game just fine?
  • scriverscriver Member Posts: 2,072
    edited October 2020
    Arvia wrote: »
    mlnevese wrote: »
    Well I do not like either Divinity games. I didn't even leave the first city in I or the prison in 2.

    I never played 5th edition, I stopped playing P&P shortly after 4th came out.

    Decided to try the early access after getting tired of the endless war between the lovers and haters. So i wanted to form my own opinion.

    So here it is:

    1) The game is fun.

    2) Sound is strange the notebook I'm playing it on... it's just too low, no matter how I set it in options

    3) Vulkan should be fast in a GeForce card. It's so slow that I had to force close the game and switch to DirectX 11

    4) There are obvious graphical and other kinds of glitches in the game. It's expected in EA. BG II EE looked like the Frankenstein monster during beta test...

    5) Turn based works well in the game. I would like a RT option for when you are fighting trash enemies. Like what Pathfinder did with turn based being a toggle you could use even in the middle of combat.

    6) NPC introductions were not in any way worse than in BG 1 & 2

    7) I have no opinion about whether it should be named BG 3 or not. I'm more worried if I'll have fun with it or not.

    8) I have no idea yet of character development along the game. Some characters in BG took a little while before their story would get interesting. I expect this will happen in BG 3.

    9) I like how dice rolls are being done in the game. Throwing the dice gives me a nice P&P sensation.

    10) I like the fact they added dialogue options depending on your race, religion, and class.

    11) The game has some violent scenes. If you are sensitive to strong scenes, then be warned. A toggle to show this kind of scene should be added to the final game.
    I certainly wasn't expecting to be removing brains with my bare hands early in the game.

    12) I usually play the good guys because they have the better story and rewards in most cRPGs. The fact the game is being tested for the evil path first is interesting and gives me hope you can be good or evil in the game and still be rewarded.

    These are my early impressions after restarting the flight from the ship 4 times and having just added the 4th member to my party. Playing evil is kind of strange considering I normally like to play the good guy in games but it's actually fun.

    Thanks for sharing these details.

    The level of gore in the first trailer had me worried, and now that you mentioned it, I'd like to know if it's just at the beginning, or generally a rather detailed depiction of... things throughout the game. I'm a bit on the sensitive side in that matter and don't know how much I like to see close up in high resolution. I never heard people mention it much in their comments, but then, not everyone is as squeamish as I am. (And I know that's weird because I've seen pretty much in real life, but somehow it's different on a screen).

    An option to switch off the worst scenes would be most welcome.

    There's some gore. The video with the guardsman going calamari was a fair bit darker than the game is, mostly because the tone/atmosphere is different. I'm going to list the biggest/most common examples I can think of so I should probably give you a heads up. This is the heads up.

    Illithid ship:
    The beginning takes place of an Illithid ship where pretty much everything is brain themed. It's a bit cartoonishly over the top, but depending on the specifics of what you feel is too much it could probably count.

    Blood:
    There's a lot of blood. You mostly view things from afar so there's no anime style "blood spraying from wounds" blood but every fight leaves pools of blood on the ground that don't go away. It's a bit ridiculous at the moment.

    Body parts:
    There's quite a few places where you will find body parts or unrecognizable piles of gore. Most of these are just vaguely body part shaped objects with red textures or just clumps of red on the ground. I'm not how bad they count.

    If you want me to I could take some pictures from the zoomed out perspective you spend most of the time in so you can judge for yourself.
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    edited October 2020
    Lemernis wrote: »
    Well, it looks like I'll need a new computer to run this game. The HP desktop I bought at Walmart about five years ago was perfectly fine just to play BG EEs and for everyday home office use. I'm not really into gaming anymore and haven't even played BG in a long while. But in any case this game's video demands are just to high for it. The lag makes it unplayable.

    Soooo... any suggestions for a relatively inexpensive desktop that can run this game just fine?

    It depends where in the world you are and how much you want to spend
    Post edited by mlnevese on
  • ArviaArvia Member Posts: 2,101
    scriver wrote: »
    Arvia wrote: »
    mlnevese wrote: »
    Well I do not like either Divinity games. I didn't even leave the first city in I or the prison in 2.

    I never played 5th edition, I stopped playing P&P shortly after 4th came out.

    Decided to try the early access after getting tired of the endless war between the lovers and haters. So i wanted to form my own opinion.

    So here it is:

    1) The game is fun.

    2) Sound is strange the notebook I'm playing it on... it's just too low, no matter how I set it in options

    3) Vulkan should be fast in a GeForce card. It's so slow that I had to force close the game and switch to DirectX 11

    4) There are obvious graphical and other kinds of glitches in the game. It's expected in EA. BG II EE looked like the Frankenstein monster during beta test...

    5) Turn based works well in the game. I would like a RT option for when you are fighting trash enemies. Like what Pathfinder did with turn based being a toggle you could use even in the middle of combat.

    6) NPC introductions were not in any way worse than in BG 1 & 2

    7) I have no opinion about whether it should be named BG 3 or not. I'm more worried if I'll have fun with it or not.

    8) I have no idea yet of character development along the game. Some characters in BG took a little while before their story would get interesting. I expect this will happen in BG 3.

    9) I like how dice rolls are being done in the game. Throwing the dice gives me a nice P&P sensation.

    10) I like the fact they added dialogue options depending on your race, religion, and class.

    11) The game has some violent scenes. If you are sensitive to strong scenes, then be warned. A toggle to show this kind of scene should be added to the final game.
    I certainly wasn't expecting to be removing brains with my bare hands early in the game.

    12) I usually play the good guys because they have the better story and rewards in most cRPGs. The fact the game is being tested for the evil path first is interesting and gives me hope you can be good or evil in the game and still be rewarded.

    These are my early impressions after restarting the flight from the ship 4 times and having just added the 4th member to my party. Playing evil is kind of strange considering I normally like to play the good guy in games but it's actually fun.

    Thanks for sharing these details.

    The level of gore in the first trailer had me worried, and now that you mentioned it, I'd like to know if it's just at the beginning, or generally a rather detailed depiction of... things throughout the game. I'm a bit on the sensitive side in that matter and don't know how much I like to see close up in high resolution. I never heard people mention it much in their comments, but then, not everyone is as squeamish as I am. (And I know that's weird because I've seen pretty much in real life, but somehow it's different on a screen).

    An option to switch off the worst scenes would be most welcome.

    There's some gore. The video with the guardsman going calamari was a fair bit darker than the game is, mostly because the tone/atmosphere is different. I'm going to list the biggest/most common examples I can think of so I should probably give you a heads up. This is the heads up.

    Illithid ship:
    The beginning takes place of an Illithid ship where pretty much everything is brain themed. It's a bit cartoonishly over the top, but depending on the specifics of what you feel is too much it could probably count.

    Blood:
    There's a lot of blood. You mostly view things from afar so there's no anime style "blood spraying from wounds" blood but every fight leaves pools of blood on the ground that don't go away. It's a bit ridiculous at the moment.

    Body parts:
    There's quite a few places where you will find body parts or unrecognizable piles of gore. Most of these are just vaguely body part shaped objects with red textures or just clumps of red on the ground. I'm not how bad they count.

    If you want me to I could take some pictures from the zoomed out perspective you spend most of the time in so you can judge for yourself.

    Thanks for offering, but since this forum is rated Teen I doubt you can post screenshots that would receive another rating. I'm okay with blood and wounds, I'm a doctor and see surgery or accidents every day. I'm more worried about the brain stuff or things like torture. If you say that the trailer was worse than most details in the game, that's a relief. I just saw a few pictures recently with
    a devil (I think?) standing over a human on a rack who had the skull opened, and that had me wondering if that's representative for the general atmosphere
    . I will probably look at some more detailed gameplay videos once the game is finished, because my GPU doesn't meet the requirements for the Early Access version anyway, so I don't need to decide now.

    Thank you for the information!
  • PsicoVicPsicoVic Member Posts: 868
    Mindflayer stuff is... let´s call it explicit, yes. Maybe not if you´re used to it but not Disney channel material, definitively.
  • SorcererV1ct0rSorcererV1ct0r Member Posts: 2,176
    So far, my greatest problem with the EA is the ultra low AC for goblins and HP bloat. For Larian missing is not fun, for me, spell/blow sponge enemies aren't fun... I saw some goblins with about 40 hp. That is ludicrous. My epic level necromancer on BG2 when I din't maximized hp on rolls, nor re rolled his stats had about it...
  • scriverscriver Member Posts: 2,072
    edited October 2020
    The devil was likely a Tiefling. The scene sounds like it was the brain extraction one mentioned above.

    Spoilered explanation:
    It's one of those Intellect Devourer monsters being born. They're basically brains on four legs. You help one get out of it's incubator's head because it's gotten stuck.

    It probably looks worse in pictures than I felt it came across ingame. Animation is kind of off (but many animations in the game currently feel very below the quality of the rest of the graphics or in some cases completely lacking during conversation so it might be an area that is not yet finalised -- but then again this is in the absolute first moments off the game that you'd expect them to finalise before EA release since it's the first thing players see and will judge the game on) and as I said above... The whole part on the Nautiloid is very over the top.
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Cue the return of a turn based, an incredibly old system, being the standard for crpgs for the next 6-10 years. I never doubted the game was gonna be popular, but I'm not convinced that it being popular is a good thing for RPGs. I'm pretty sure turn based video game systems predates graphics.
  • megamike15megamike15 Member Posts: 2,666
    ThacoBell wrote: »
    Cue the return of a turn based, an incredibly old system, being the standard for crpgs for the next 6-10 years. I never doubted the game was gonna be popular, but I'm not convinced that it being popular is a good thing for RPGs. I'm pretty sure turn based video game systems predates graphics.

    there seems to be some very anti rtwp people out there. like this guy.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYHiGn76HP0&t=1154s
  • SorcererV1ct0rSorcererV1ct0r Member Posts: 2,176
    Turn based = ok

    Turn based + large scale battles + ULTRA ridiculous hp bloat where spiders can have 138 hp and goblins 50 hp + slow animations = not ok.
  • MirandelMirandel Member Posts: 526
    Lemernis wrote: »
    Well, it looks like I'll need a new computer to run this game. The HP desktop I bought at Walmart about five years ago was perfectly fine just to play BG EEs and for everyday home office use. I'm not really into gaming anymore and haven't even played BG in a long while. But in any case this game's video demands are just to high for it. The lag makes it unplayable.

    Soooo... any suggestions for a relatively inexpensive desktop that can run this game just fine?

    My truly old computer (i5-3450, 3.10Ghz (no overclocking), 16 GB RAM, GTX 960 with 4GB) runs the game on Ultra with Vulkan (default settings) without problems (so far).
    I do not believe you can buy these days a lower configuration. So, whatever you choose - should be fine.
  • PsicoVicPsicoVic Member Posts: 868
    edited October 2020
    megamike15 wrote: »
    ThacoBell wrote: »
    Cue the return of a turn based, an incredibly old system, being the standard for crpgs for the next 6-10 years. I never doubted the game was gonna be popular, but I'm not convinced that it being popular is a good thing for RPGs. I'm pretty sure turn based video game systems predates graphics.

    there seems to be some very anti rtwp people out there. like this guy.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYHiGn76HP0&t=1154s

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp7BTICebCQ

    Roughly the same number of people who hate Turn-based games, and they´re always lashing at each other over stupidities, sadly.
    Post edited by PsicoVic on
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    Mirandel wrote: »
    Lemernis wrote: »
    Well, it looks like I'll need a new computer to run this game. The HP desktop I bought at Walmart about five years ago was perfectly fine just to play BG EEs and for everyday home office use. I'm not really into gaming anymore and haven't even played BG in a long while. But in any case this game's video demands are just to high for it. The lag makes it unplayable.

    Soooo... any suggestions for a relatively inexpensive desktop that can run this game just fine?

    My truly old computer (i5-3450, 3.10Ghz (no overclocking), 16 GB RAM, GTX 960 with 4GB) runs the game on Ultra with Vulkan (default settings) without problems (so far).
    I do not believe you can buy these days a lower configuration. So, whatever you choose - should be fine.

    Saw your post and decided to try Vulkan once more. Whatever was causing the near freezes is gone and the difference in image quality is quite visible.

    izmpf671o1z1.png
  • WarChiefZekeWarChiefZeke Member Posts: 2,651
    edited October 2020
    Turn based = ok

    Turn based + large scale battles + ULTRA ridiculous hp bloat where spiders can have 138 hp and goblins 50 hp + slow animations = not ok.

    The HP bloat wouldn't be necessary if they didn't shoehorn in Larian mechanics. Enemies with appropriate hp would die in single turns with how the battlefield becomes an ocean of fire, ice, and acid within seconds. At the earliest levels!

    Don't even get me started on how goblins employ sophisticated battle tactics. I appreciate the a.i and all, but I didn't realize most goblin tribes have The Art of War by Sun Tzu as required reading.
  • LemernisLemernis Member, Moderator Posts: 4,318
    edited October 2020
    mlnevese wrote: »
    Lemernis wrote: »
    Well, it looks like I'll need a new computer to run this game. The HP desktop I bought at Walmart about five years ago was perfectly fine just to play BG EEs and for everyday home office use. I'm not really into gaming anymore and haven't even played BG in a long while. But in any case this game's video demands are just to high for it. The lag makes it unplayable.

    Soooo... any suggestions for a relatively inexpensive desktop that can run this game just fine?

    It depends where in the world you are and how much you want to spend

    I'm in the U.S. Looking to keep it under $300.

    The game needs 16 GB RAM for optimal performance. Mine has 5.45 GB available which is below minimum specs (8 GB).
    Post edited by Lemernis on
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    edited October 2020
    Lemernis wrote: »
    mlnevese wrote: »
    Lemernis wrote: »
    Well, it looks like I'll need a new computer to run this game. The HP desktop I bought at Walmart about five years ago was perfectly fine just to play BG EEs and for everyday home office use. I'm not really into gaming anymore and haven't even played BG in a long while. But in any case this game's video demands are just to high for it. The lag makes it unplayable.

    Soooo... any suggestions for a relatively inexpensive desktop that can run this game just fine?

    It depends where in the world you are and how much you want to spend

    I'm inn the U.S. Looking to keep it under $300.

    The game needs 16 GB RAM for optimal performance. Mine has 5.45 GB available which is below minimum specs (8 GB).

    It will be hard to find something in this price range... let me do some research...

    As i thought it all starts around US$ 950,00...
  • WarChiefZekeWarChiefZeke Member Posts: 2,651
    Can't help but think WoTC shot themselves in the foot by making the really foolish decision to revive Bhaal and hence make the entire Bhaalspawn Trilogy meaningless. Could have made an entire game about his next resurrection plot.
  • PsicoVicPsicoVic Member Posts: 868
    They did the same with Mystra and the entire Mulhorand pantheon and stuff like that: an entire plotline to kill them with world-wide events and new lore tied to it, so they can undo that the next time in a back-and-forth cycle.
    It´s kind of their signature move.

    As said before in this thread, most of the lore in the newest edition is based on reset the changes in previous editions. heck, even Amaunator is alive now and has a god portfolio.
  • megamike15megamike15 Member Posts: 2,666
    PsicoVic wrote: »
    megamike15 wrote: »
    ThacoBell wrote: »
    Cue the return of a turn based, an incredibly old system, being the standard for crpgs for the next 6-10 years. I never doubted the game was gonna be popular, but I'm not convinced that it being popular is a good thing for RPGs. I'm pretty sure turn based video game systems predates graphics.

    there seems to be some very anti rtwp people out there. like this guy.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYHiGn76HP0&t=1154s

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp7BTICebCQ

    Roughly the same number of people who hate Turn-based games, and they´re always lashing at each other over stupidities, sadly.

    yeah i remember around the 7th gen was when " turn based games are out dated real time is the way to go." happened around the time mass effect was out. now the tables turn and everyone even journos that called turn based out dated want all games turn based.
  • MirandelMirandel Member Posts: 526
    Lemernis wrote: »
    mlnevese wrote: »
    Lemernis wrote: »
    Well, it looks like I'll need a new computer to run this game. The HP desktop I bought at Walmart about five years ago was perfectly fine just to play BG EEs and for everyday home office use. I'm not really into gaming anymore and haven't even played BG in a long while. But in any case this game's video demands are just to high for it. The lag makes it unplayable.

    Soooo... any suggestions for a relatively inexpensive desktop that can run this game just fine?

    It depends where in the world you are and how much you want to spend

    I'm in the U.S. Looking to keep it under $300.

    The game needs 16 GB RAM for optimal performance. Mine has 5.45 GB available which is below minimum specs (8 GB).

    There is always e-bay for a shabby but working solution.
  • SjerrieSjerrie Member Posts: 1,235
    edited October 2020
    PsicoVic wrote: »
    They did the same with Mystra and the entire Mulhorand pantheon and stuff like that: an entire plotline to kill them with world-wide events and new lore tied to it, so they can undo that the next time in a back-and-forth cycle.
    It´s kind of their signature move.

    As said before in this thread, most of the lore in the newest edition is based on reset the changes in previous editions. heck, even Amaunator is alive now and has a god portfolio.

    They resurrected Mystryl/Mystra about the same amount of times they changed editions. And was Lathander not an alias of Amaunator at some point? And now they both exist..?
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Sjerrie wrote: »
    PsicoVic wrote: »
    They did the same with Mystra and the entire Mulhorand pantheon and stuff like that: an entire plotline to kill them with world-wide events and new lore tied to it, so they can undo that the next time in a back-and-forth cycle.
    It´s kind of their signature move.

    As said before in this thread, most of the lore in the newest edition is based on reset the changes in previous editions. heck, even Amaunator is alive now and has a god portfolio.

    They resurrected Mystryl/Mystra about the same amount of times they changed editions. And was Lathander not an alias of Amaunator at some point? And now they both exist..?

    According to BG2, they are separate. So I guess it depends on how faithful that detail is to P&P.
  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    ThacoBell wrote: »
    Sjerrie wrote: »
    PsicoVic wrote: »
    They did the same with Mystra and the entire Mulhorand pantheon and stuff like that: an entire plotline to kill them with world-wide events and new lore tied to it, so they can undo that the next time in a back-and-forth cycle.
    It´s kind of their signature move.

    As said before in this thread, most of the lore in the newest edition is based on reset the changes in previous editions. heck, even Amaunator is alive now and has a god portfolio.

    They resurrected Mystryl/Mystra about the same amount of times they changed editions. And was Lathander not an alias of Amaunator at some point? And now they both exist..?

    According to BG2, they are separate. So I guess it depends on how faithful that detail is to P&P.

    Amaunator (pronounced: /ɑːˈmɔːnɑːtɔːr/ ah-MAWN-ah-tor[15]) was the Netherese solar deity of order, the sun, law, and time. He was viewed as a harsh but fair deity,[17] revered by many rulers, soldiers, and powerful wizards in ancient Netheril.[6]

    It was eventually claimed, following the Spellplague, that Lathander, the Faerûnian god of the sun, was an aspect of the long-dormant Amaunator.[18] By the Year of the Ageless One, 1479 DR, Amaunator was worshiped both as Lathander and by his own name.[19]

    6. Faith’s and Avatars
    17. Lost Empires of Faerun
    18. Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide
    19. Forgotten Realms Player Guide.

    Forgotten Realms Wiki.
  • PsicoVicPsicoVic Member Posts: 868
    It seems Amaunator was worshipped in the old Netherese empire, then he disappeared, then Lathander and him were worshipped as different aspects of the same deity, and now they are two different beings.
    You know, the usual... :D

    https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Amaunator
  • ArviaArvia Member Posts: 2,101
    ThacoBell wrote: »
    Cue the return of a turn based, an incredibly old system, being the standard for crpgs for the next 6-10 years. I never doubted the game was gonna be popular, but I'm not convinced that it being popular is a good thing for RPGs. I'm pretty sure turn based video game systems predates graphics.

    I'm not sure that means all other cRPGs will be turn-based in the near future. I think developers see how divided the community is. My guess is there will be more cRPGs in the future, which is great, and there will be something for both sides. At least I hope so.
  • scriverscriver Member Posts: 2,072
    What actually happened was that they used to be two individuals, and then 4th ed they were changed into being just one, and then 4th ed went back on those changes and now they're two again. It's easier to explain these things with the real world actions that changed the setting than with the messed up history of the setting itself ;)

    4th ed had a real big hard on for removing gods. Having more deities than you could count on your fingers was a mortal sin to the designers or something. So practically every pantheon or deity got killed off or merged into another god. Some of these mergers were more reasonable -- Lathander literally took up the mantle of Sun god when Amaunator died/disappeared and there were already established Lathanderite heresies believing them to be the same god. Other mergers less so, such as the stormlord Talos being merged into Orclord Gruumsh because... Like, they're both evil. That makes them the same right?
  • byrne20byrne20 Member Posts: 503
    ThacoBell wrote: »
    @deltago So a lot people in-universe think they are the same, but no direct confirmation. In BG2, you can awaken the long dormant avatar of Amaunator. So in order for the church of Lathandar to be able to operate, they'd have to be separate. But again, that's BG2.

    I always just assumed in BG2 that Amaunator was like a really early version of what eventually turned into Lavender, and that maybe the reason that Amaunator was dormant was because all of his/her worshippers had kinda slowly over time converted to Lavender without even realising it was actually different lol

  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Arvia wrote: »
    ThacoBell wrote: »
    Cue the return of a turn based, an incredibly old system, being the standard for crpgs for the next 6-10 years. I never doubted the game was gonna be popular, but I'm not convinced that it being popular is a good thing for RPGs. I'm pretty sure turn based video game systems predates graphics.

    I'm not sure that means all other cRPGs will be turn-based in the near future. I think developers see how divided the community is. My guess is there will be more cRPGs in the future, which is great, and there will be something for both sides. At least I hope so.

    I think its very possible, since most already are. For D&D games, its a foregone conclusion.
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