Matt, welcome to the game and to the forums!
Matt Robisch wrote: As an observation - as a new player at GenCon 2018, one of the obvious problems I saw with the token system in general was that there is a pay-to-win element to the game, and that power creep means the barrier to entry is only going to get higher. Whether that problem is real or perceived is another matter entirely - we ended up running a sealed quest with no problems on normal, then the rest of our runs were relatively smooth as well. I've heard from a few friends that the 2018 dungeons were a jump in difficulty over previous years, so if our group of <40 tokens to our name - mostly commons at that - was able to stumble through with just a couple people in better gear, maybe there's less paywall than it seems.
Glad to hear you had a good experience with normal sealed quest; that's definitely the way it should be.
It is interesting that TD's paywall perception may be substantially worse than the reality (well, aside from the event ticket price paywall which unfortunately is quite real).
the vagueness of what constitutes "enough" gear is problematic. Where am I bringing the party down? Where am I trivializing this for someone else? I would personally advocate stat caps, down-sync'ing, or some system to that effect, but in their absence I would strongly request clearer guidance on recommended gear levels.
I agree! It would be super cool if TPTB were willing and able to offer quantitative guidance for calibration based on stats, i.e. "when tuning modules for Hardcore, we assume characters typically have somewhere around X HP, Y saves, Z to-hit bonus, deal ZZ damage per round of combat, etc." Of course these would be rough ranges, and would also vary between classes, but anything of this form would allow you to throw your build into an online character generator and check your stats against the rough guideline to see if you're near, way below, or way above the notional median. Maybe the format could be as simple as publishing a sample party card for a hypothetical Hardcore group?
In case you haven't seen it, "Pick a Difficulty Level" in the Players' Handbook available at
truedungeon.com/resources
does attempt to offer some guidance, though many people feel that Hardcore especially has become significantly harsher than its current PHB description:
Hardcore: This is for people who have some TD experience and at least three bags of tokens. Monsters hit harder, have more health, and are more likely to resist your spells.
The "TD experience" aspect of this is extremely important. But on the equipment side, three bags of tokens isn't much at all: just 3 rares, 6 uncommons, and 21 commons. By contrast, I've seen people on the forums suggest that maybe HC is for people who have a full rare build with "just a few" URs and/or transmutes including something to gain 5th level, and I've seen other people advocate for pushing HC even higher than that (I strongly disagree with those people).
How it should be calibrated (based on equipment), in my opinion:
* Normal should be comfortably playable as sealed
* Hardcore should be comfortably playable using a good rare+uncommon build -- achievable simply by playing for a few years, drawing from the treasure box, and trading around to get the specific rares you need. Hardcore should NOT be calibrated to assume even a single high-dollar (UR+ or transmute) token; it should be a good place for experienced players who love the game and spend their money on tickets but don't have extra money to spend on tokens. I was such a player for many years.
Once you do own some UR+ gear, you can choose between continuing to play HC and having an easier time of it, or starting to think about Nightmare. I won't try to offer any specifics for that because I only just got there last year myself.