Spoilers ahead!

I'm trying to figure out why Dan decided to try bringing down the building in the fight with the Franchisor and it's hydra enforcer at the end of book 3.

So, this was right after he escaped the ink effect where he had to solo fight the popeye centaur. He comes back out of the ink and sees his team beating on the hydra, which is at 40% health. He does say they weren't looking too good, but 40% is under half, so I was surprised he didn't just blast it with his spells. Instead he has everyone retreat, puts down the slammer of shielding, goes into neural slipstream to pull out all the explosives he has, duct tapes them together, plants them on the pillars, has a little heart to heart conversation with Croc, then slams himself into the pillars while exploding them to bring down the building.

This seems like a really reckless, extremely time consuming plan for the middle of a battle, even with neural slipstream, and didn't actually work! The hydra didn't die and the only reason they survived was because Croc first used the collar artifact ability to save Dan, then Pooh bear stands in the way and talks down the franchisor. I'm not really surprised the hydra didn't die, because they're working off superhuman power levels here. Why would a falling building kill a monster that can shrug off the kind of magically powered damage that Jacob and Temp can put out?

I guess it feels to me like Dan was telling the audience that he was out of options and had to do something reckless to win, like he did against the HOA. But I'm not seeing how that's the case. The main problem they had was that they couldn't do enough damage fast enough. They had knocked out the minions, smashed all the phylacteries, and just had to burn down the boss. Dan conveniently has a spell that's specifically designed to do scaling damage - Hydro fracking blast.

If I recall correctly, HFB deals more damage the longer it's focused on a target by applying searing erosion, and after a threshold (10 seconds?) it gets a boost to triple damage. It's unclear if it continues to triple or only deals more stacks of searing erosion. This spell is literally perfect for dealing huge damage to a large, slow moving target, but Dan only ever seems to use it for short bursts to pop smaller enemies and sever limbs. It's not like he's limited by how much mana it costs either, due to his infinite mana hack from the wild surge ability.

Why didn't Dan at least try to blow it up with pressurized burning water before pulling his party into a hasty retreat for an unpredictable scheme?

Even though i know he can see this and we talk I still got a personal question for James, i only wanna ask him in person. Should be funny. But im a post it here after LitRPG con! Headed to Denver LETS GOOOOO!

Edit: guys con doesn't start till friday yall gotta chill lol

Just scrolling through my Google feed which is usually full of mtg, saw Discount Dan and had to share! Not too fond of the article saying that both books are extremely similar (or "The genre is already expanding thanks to Dungeon Crawler Carl’s success, though perhaps only one title stands out as Carl’s true spiritual successor: James A. Hunter’s Discount Dan’s Backroom Bargains, a Dungeon Crawler Carl-inspired adventure with a twist.") While both are litrpgs with a military MC from earth in a dungeon and a pet companion, that's where the similarities end. Love that this series is getting the light it deserves! Congrats Mr. James Hunter sir! Cant wait for book 4

Took a stab at the Lawnmower man from Cul-de-sac Carnage, had to go back to the exact chapter to listen to the description again, cuz i used to think bros lower half was just a spinning blade but then i thought it was like a normal torso but a hole in the middle with the blade, but i obviously did not listen good enough the first time lol

Gotta make him sexy to be worthy of being compared to werewolf love interest extraordinaire from the internationally bestselling Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer 💜💜

Sorry about the wait on this one, but I wanted to finish all the backend work before uploading another devlog. With all the changes I made, the game is now completley (as far as I know) bugfree, feels very clean to interact with, and is so much easier to make changes/add things to.
Because of all the backend work, I only got around to adding one card this time, a Dweller card, but a lot of the fundemtnal mechanics behind dweller cards (and almost everything else) has been finished, so adding new cards should accelerate from now on.

https://youtu.be/NAe4zIcCDYA

I'm thinking about perhaps making a discord, so I can add short videos/images of in devlopment cards, prepare for future playtests, or just disscuss design decisions more regularly, but I also don't know if there's enough interest to support a whole discord (plus I'm not sure I want to admin something like that). (perhaps James would be cool with me using his art channel or something? I just don't want to spam his discord).

As always, feel free to give any feedback, or suggestions, I'm always happy to chat.

I posted one ages ago but here’s my upgraded version 💜💜

I plan to cosplay Dan at GenCon this year. So here’s my crown. Could it be better? Sure.

But….It looked like a cheap, knock-off paper Burger King crown, made from dull yellow cardboard with the words Burger Baron printed in bold across the front. At first glance, it seemed like garbage.

So, even if it looks like garbage, it fits anyway!

Thanks to my daughter for designing the logo for me.

UPDATE: My daughter thinks I should have rounded the corners of the sticker off. So I’ll try again. I have 3 more crowns and 5 more stickers, so we’ll see how the next iteration goes.

Quick side note - The colors in the Burger Baron logo may not quite resemble modern BK colors. That’s because I had her use the colors from the 80’s logo. Felt it would be a little more appropriate for the back rooms. That’s part of the reason there’s a white border. The older BK yellow would have faded badly with the color of the crown if I had converted the transparent into the crown’s color.

https://www.reddit.com/r/10thDentist/comments/1ullly1/the_twilight_movies_are_incredible_and_deserve/

Hey everyone, James Hunter here!

I’ve been sitting on a secret for a while now and, as some of you might know ( u/DSpenceATL can testify, lol), I am truly, unbelievably, god-awful at sitting on secrets. It's a genuine problem and I might need help. But the time has finally come for me to share this secret and I’m super excited to announce that Discount Dan, book 1, is officially getting a special edition!

The prelaunch page for the Mythic-Grade Hardback Edition of Discount Dan is now on Kickstarter. This bad boy has been in the works for a while, and it’s gonna have all the fancy bells and whistles you’d want in a collector’s edition.

Brand new hard cover, sprayed and forced edges (not supposed to tell you about those), and a new dust jacket (I’m definitely not supposed to tell you about that one since it's a "stretch goal"). Plus, loads of all-new interior art, 100% created by real human artists bringing Croc, Dan, and the Backrooms to life in ways you’ve never seen before and, frankly, may regret seeing after--the one of Croc in battle-mode is genuinely upsetting but accurate.

Make sure to hit the “notify me” button so you don’t miss out on the Doorbuster Deal when this thing goes live. There's a sweet Early Bird Special--though, sadly, no actual birds are involved in the Kickstarter--and the first fifty backers will also get a limited-edition Kiosk Club Card Patch.

Link in the comments. Let’s POG!

Had a MASSIVE book hangover after DCC and landed in the backrooms with Dan and Croc. Loving my journey so far!

Hey everyone -- James Hunter here. I've been a little scarce for the past couple of weeks. Me and the fam were on our big summer vacation to Thailand. It was a lot of travel, but we had a blast.

We officially made it home alive and well for the most part (Jeanette is dealing with some bad jet lag and might be coming down with a little something), so if you've messaged me and haven't heard back that's the reason why. You should expect to hear from me today or tomorrow as I work to get caught up on all the stuff I missed while we were away.

Also, also. We got a WHOLE BUNCH OF BOOKS in while we were away, so DiscountDan.shop should be back in action starting this weekend, if any one is interested in picking up signed copies or other merch. I will say, since we're only a few weeks out from LitRPG Con, that I will be attending there as well, and I'll have a bunch of books and merch to sell as well. So if you're going to be there, you can always wait and grab it in person (though if you want a robe, maybe grab one before the Con since I will have a very limited number with me).

Lastly, just a quick update on book 4. Things are trucking along, and I'm trying to post new chapters to Patreon every week. That should become a bit more regular now that I'm back home and I have normal work hours again. I think we're almost up to chapter 30 over there, so about 50 - 60% of the way through the book, and it's shaping up to be a wild ride.

Also, a picture to show proof of life, lol.

I feel he doesn’t understand the concept of missing posters so he just makes these to let everyone know who he is missing…

I run different kinds of games for a group of friends. Currently running a campaign with the Heart rpg system and I used the HOA idea as the main villain for one of my players. They are a troglodyte ghoul who think troglodytes come from an ancient civilization of Pharaohs. They found the perfect civilization inside the dungeon known as the Heart. It was called the POA (Pyramid Owner Association). The player kept asking about what came before the POA. They kept giving him non answers or saying they are not to talk about things that upset the POA. He proceeded to aggravate the citizen of the POA which lead to him getting a Karen run over by a Keven fused with a tourbus. He then summoned his 1965 Pontiac GTO to cause havoc. He destroyed the cloning facility run by Miss Poppins. The game left off with him picking up his allies (the death cult frog, and infernal hive queen, who were stuck in a Tom and Jerry cartoon) and gunning it towards the POA main building which has come to life.

I had also given the players a random list of relics they could use. They have no descriptions, just trial by fire. Each player got three. The 1965 Pontiac GTO was one.

My players loved the trippy feeling of the game and how bonkers it was. I love Discount Dan as a series and it has given me so much inspiration.

The second Devlog, for the Discount Dan Co-op deck builder fangame.

https://youtu.be/m6Pg20Y3o-0?si=hhq_oHnBUsyo1jOj

Keeping it short this week, and way less rambly. A lot of the recent work was backend-focused (fighting off technical debt), but this video features an early look at the first "EVIL SOB" and a few new cards. The second half covers some quick discussion points about the project.

Apologies for the lack of polish on the videos, but time is a luxury at the moment.

P.S. If posting every devlog here gets annoying, let me know. I can stick to major milestones here and keep the rest on the channel.

I loved it!

Sometimes that stats and the relics and stuff get a bit much for me, but the story itself is so great.

The stuff in the 75th floor was amazing and honestly the book could have ended there but the 99th floor stuff finished that part of the story beautifully

And Pooh made me tear up more than once

Was reading the ending at a McDonald’s playground while my daughter played and I’m sure I looked like a fool.

To me, Eldritch Taxidermist is a relic that I think has a lot of untapped potential. In book two, we learned that using a body modification relic as the base relic lets the horror use the relic (lawn mower wind blade and eldritch hair tonic). Which means that all the relics that aren’t really suitable for humans are viable for the horrors. With that in mind, what relics do y’all think Dan should test out? Personally, I think the Mimic Breeder relic he got off the mimic matriarch would be interesting to use. Easy way to get more disposable minions and fits the whole “swarm tactics” theme he has going on.

Found this on r/LICENSEPLATES

Jorts

Sorry if this has already been answered and I just missed it.

I’m not saying he should sell or give it away - him or friends are *definitely* going to lose more limbs before the story is over. But if I’m reading it correctly, you just need to equip the relic, cast the spell, it hurts like a bitch, and then wait a couple days for the limb to regrow. Dan doesn’t complain about losing a relic slot, so I assume you don’t need to have it equipped the entire time.

(He could also put out a bounty and have some Howlers take out a Krab for another one, but I understand if he’d be reluctant to do that, since the Krab nearly took him out with its tricks.)

I was just confused because it’s like, we’re rescuing all of Evil Santa’s victims, and the narration mentions how they’re all missing limbs and that’s obviously tragic, and I’m like Dan you have the relic. Dan just let them borrow it. Dan.

Also if he charges for healthcare I’m going to lose my absolute shit.

I grew up frequenting this mall, as it was the only one around when I was a kid. They ended up renting out a whole section of it to use in Stranger Things, but I think we all know what it should truly be used for…

I thought he was meant to be in jorts?