TOPIC: My Feedback for Puzzle Runs

Hawk Fingle wrote:

haplo wrote: You were not supposed to take fail damage in the blacksmith's forge puzzle. You should have only taken push damage for 6 pts on normal. Your DM was incorrect.

If that's true, then all the DMs read the adventure wrong. Which is unlikely.

And speaking as one of the DMs for that room, it could be argued either way from the way it was written. I checked and rechecked the room write-up several times the first day, and then confirmed with an AC that damage was for each failed attempt AND push damage, and did as I was instructed. I didn't agree with it, but that is what we were instructed to do. We continued to tweak the difficulty as best we could from Thursday through to Saturday, but there just wasn't much that could be done since the puzzle was flawed and not well written up.

Speaking as both a DM and a player, that puzzle was pretty garbage and poorly designed. Which is a shame since it had such a cool atmosphere and effects. I'm with y'all on how bad the forge puzzle was.

I am not trying to start an argument, but I also DM'd this room and I only doled out push damage. There was no mention of any damage other than push damage in the module, also verified by my AC. As my groups were free to try multiple combinations without damage, the success rate was closer to 30%. It definitely still comes down to a lot of luck in rune placement.

haplo wrote:

Hawk Fingle wrote:

haplo wrote: You were not supposed to take fail damage in the blacksmith's forge puzzle. You should have only taken push damage for 6 pts on normal. Your DM was incorrect.

If that's true, then all the DMs read the adventure wrong. Which is unlikely.

And speaking as one of the DMs for that room, it could be argued either way from the way it was written. I checked and rechecked the room write-up several times the first day, and then confirmed with an AC that damage was for each failed attempt AND push damage, and did as I was instructed. I didn't agree with it, but that is what we were instructed to do. We continued to tweak the difficulty as best we could from Thursday through to Saturday, but there just wasn't much that could be done since the puzzle was flawed and not well written up.

Speaking as both a DM and a player, that puzzle was pretty garbage and poorly designed. Which is a shame since it had such a cool atmosphere and effects. I'm with y'all on how bad the forge puzzle was.

I am not trying to start an argument, but I also DM'd this room and I only doled out push damage. There was no mention of any damage other than push damage in the module, also verified by my AC. As my groups were free to try multiple combinations without damage, the success rate was closer to 30%. It definitely still comes down to a lot of luck in rune placement.

My group got the 6 or 8 damage per failure penalty as well, this also lead to us abandoning the puzzle in favor of push damage. Definitely had some miscommunication here.

Seems like maybe everyone running a given room should be present for a 12 minute overview of said room with all the specifics like that spelled out for them? Inconsistency kills the experience.

haplo wrote:

Hawk Fingle wrote:

haplo wrote: You were not supposed to take fail damage in the blacksmith's forge puzzle. You should have only taken push damage for 6 pts on normal. Your DM was incorrect.

If that's true, then all the DMs read the adventure wrong. Which is unlikely.

And speaking as one of the DMs for that room, it could be argued either way from the way it was written. I checked and rechecked the room write-up several times the first day, and then confirmed with an AC that damage was for each failed attempt AND push damage, and did as I was instructed. I didn't agree with it, but that is what we were instructed to do. We continued to tweak the difficulty as best we could from Thursday through to Saturday, but there just wasn't much that could be done since the puzzle was flawed and not well written up.

Speaking as both a DM and a player, that puzzle was pretty garbage and poorly designed. Which is a shame since it had such a cool atmosphere and effects. I'm with y'all on how bad the forge puzzle was.

I am not trying to start an argument, but I also DM'd this room and I only doled out push damage. There was no mention of any damage other than push damage in the module, also verified by my AC. As my groups were free to try multiple combinations without damage, the success rate was closer to 30%. It definitely still comes down to a lot of luck in rune placement.

It said very clearly in the room book on-site that if the party attempted to turn on the forge with the wrong runes in place, they would take damage. I read it over and over on Thursday to be sure and double-checked with my AC to be sure it was correct.

OK, but were you supposed to take damage for the blower?

I just checked my copy of the module, and there is no mention of failed attempt damage, only push damage.

That being said, the room description that is outside the room is the most up to date version of the module - there may have been a change. I did not check it.

ACs and DMs did meet with every group in every room during training. We do the best we can, but problems always come up. Our apologies.

Lodestone (KH) wrote: OK, but were you supposed to take damage for the blower?

The blower is part of the forge, so according to what info was on site, yes.

Forge consists of both the blower and the furnace.