TOPIC: VTD Newbie questions

After having so much fun with True Dungeon last summer at GenCon, I'd really like to do it again. However, due to my daughters wedding happening in 2026, timing and budget constraints will keep me from travelling to Indianapolis this year. So, I thought I'd like to try a VTD event. That said, I've got a few questions:

1) If I see a TD Events listing for a time that works (with slots available), how can I tell what difficulty the run is? Should I assume "Normal" unless specified in the Notes From Ticket Holders?

2) For someone who has never done VTD, would the lowest difficulty be best to try it out? I'll definitely prepare the best I can, and watch/read instructional info including "How Virtual True Dungeon Works (updated Sept. 7, 2022)" on the truedungeon youtube channel. But I'd really hate to be the newbie that ruins a run for an experienced group.

2a) Is the 2022 video mentioned above the latest on how VTD works?

3) After picking a time slot with an opening and buying a ticket, is there any pre-event communication with the other people in the group? Do you even see the contact info on TD.Events, or get an email, or anything else like that?

4) If the answer to #3 is no, would it be better to try to find a group here on this forum? Are there other places to ask (ie Discord?)

5) I did buy some tokens and have a (hopefully) decent red/purple tanky Dwarf Fighter to use. Is there a such a thing as being a little "too" buffed to be fun in a Normal group with strangers?

And finally...

6) Does any group of intrepid adventurers here want to take on a fledgling player such as me?

Thank You in advance!

Greg

Hello, Greg F! You've come to the right place to ask your questions.

1) As with in-person TD, the default difficulty level of any run is Normal unless the party unanimously decides to do something different. That said, each VTD run typically has a handful of Normal Only slots that can literally only be run on Normal (even if the party wanted to do something else). If you absolutely want to be sure you run Normal, you could buy a ticket to one of those runs. People seeking to do higher difficulty often buy out the entire run and coordinate in advance to be sure everyone agrees to the desired difficulty level. I don't know how often people buying some but not all tickets to a given run use the Notes From Ticket Holders function, but I don't think it would be binding even if they said "we want this to be a NM run." If you want to declare a difficulty other than Normal, you have to hold all 10 tickets. One nice thing about VTD is you can see which classes are taken and can select your class immediately after purchase.

2) Normal is a great place to start. But what difficulty do you usually play in person? If you've been playing for years and are comfortably HC/NM in person, you can probably handle HC/NM in VTD. The experience is pretty similar in terms of monster AC and HP, and the damage they dish out, at any given level. Maybe don't start with Epic, though, unless you join a group willing to lend tokens and happy to take on a VTD newb.

The key to being ready to play VTD is to make sure you have your character ready in the most recent version of the character builder app or website before the run starts. (Note: the IOS app is available from the App Store, but if you want to use the Android app, you have to sideload it from Trent's website; also, casters seem to prefer using the website, but I main melee characters so I don't speak from experience.) You'll have 36 minutes once the run starts to test out the features of the app or website.

2a) Dunno.

3) The best way to coordinate with a VTD group is to post in the [Event] Adventuring Groups Form Here thread in the forum for the relevant VTD. In that thread, LFO will mean looking for others (I have 1-9 tickets and am wondering who has the rest) and LFM means looking for more (I have all 10 tickets and have X left for folks who want to play in the manner I intend for this run). If you buy a ticket, you can check that thread and either respond if someone else has started a post for your run time, or start such a post asking who else is on the run. There is also an unofficial True Dungeon Discord group. Some folks like to link to their forum post in the Discord to reach a wider audience.

4) See above. This is a good place to check for LFO/LFM threads to see if there's a group you might like to join.

5) What might not be fun for strangers on a Normal run is if your Dwarf Fighter does "too much" damage and can basically kill the monster by itself in a round or two. For example, if you are doing 70+ damage a round, that's likely too much. That said, having really high AC and taunting the monster is probably fine, since you're drawing fire away from the rest of the party once per combat. And having high HP is also probably fine, so a newbie cleric/druid can focus on healing other people. So if you are running normal, don't load up on damage.

6) Dwarf Fighter is claimed in my usual groups, but I wish you luck in your VTD adventures!