TOPIC: Thanks and Thoughts on True Dungeon GENCON 2018

Many thanks to Jeff and the entire True Dungeon crew for an incredible 2018 GENCON! The Dungeons were great (especially N1), we really enjoyed the larger rooms and the bonus items in the hallways like the pools. All of the volunteers, including all of the Coaches, NPCs and DMs were all outstanding! We really enjoyed the sets and props in the Dungeons, with the real standouts being the Astral room design with the lighted walls, mirrored floors, and closed ceilings and many of the monsters including the Dragon, the Ice Dragon head, and the Frost Giants.

Some thoughts on the Dungeon:

* We really enjoyed the puzzles as a whole, although N1 and N3 were a lot better for us than N2. There were several puzzles in N2 that we weren't sure how to solve, like the 9 Realms (we knew that you had to put the crystals down in some order, but we didn't see any hints as to how to do that other than randomly). Of course, it may be that there were obvious clues that we missed. In general we don't really mind not solving puzzles if we figured out how to do it and just couldn't execute in time, but it is less enjoyable if we weren't able to figure out the solution. One of our favorite puzzles was one guiding the ship through the harbor, the DM said we tied the fastest time on that one.

* The combats were also great, with the DMs and NPCs doing a wonderful job. We were OK with the various combat restrictions, the only one that tripped us up was the invisible monster. We did figure out that we could blow the ashes from the fireplace on him (another nice bonus from a hallway), but didn't manage to hit with the ashes. Which was fine, we still enjoyed the room. We were OK with "ranged only" restrictions in at least one combat, as I've designed the group to be able to handle both melee and Ranged.

* I really liked that the DMs asked to verify tokens far less than in past years. I do understand the need to verify if we have certain tokens, but it does interrupt the flow of the room if done too often, so I really appreciated that token verification was held to a minimum - probably less than in any previous Dungeon.

* One thing that I hope can be improved on in the future is the sound system. Our group quite often couldn't make out what was being said on the speakers, which was unfortunate as I'm sure that there was great info being relayed. In one room two of us stood right next to the speaker and still couldn't make it out. Maybe the info from the loudspeakers could also be written down somewhere for those that can't hear it?

* The treasure boxes seemed much lighter in higher value tokens this year. Out of nearly 600 pulls from our group, the only standout tokens we got were one Ultra Rare (Lotus Blossom Bowl), three Blessed Tempest Glove transmutes, one Charm of Transmutation token (#1), and a few Trade Item Tokens including an Aragonite and Oil of Transmutation. But, in accordance with my pre-Dungeon aspirations, I'm intentionally not comparing what I pulled with what anyone else pulled (I'm not even reading any other token pull threads), so I'll be happy with what I pulled instead of unhappy with what I didn't pull. I'm grateful that Jeff is allowing so many bonus treasure pulls, it's just icing on the cake of great Dungeon experiences.

* The Dungeons were great for veteran as well as new players. We had a brand new player on each of our runs, and they all loved the experience. One of them was asking me afterwards how he would go about coordinating a whole group of his own for a future Dungeon.

* The big price increase this year did cause a couple of members of our group to quit True Dungeon, but we still have enough to do one run of all three Dungeons. I do hope that future price increases are much smaller, because I'm concerned that my group will quit True Dungeon completely if the prices keep increasing way above inflation.

So - thanks again to everyone that had anything at all to do with putting on one of the best True Dungeon experiences at GENCON yet! We're already looking forward to next year!

I went through N2 twice and solved the 9 Realms puzzle both times. The first time we did it randomly and had no clue how we did it.

The Second time through we were more organized. We assigned each person a stone and they memorized what realm their stone turned on and which one it turned off. There was one stone that turned on two realms. If you started with that stone, then placed the stone to the left of the starting stone. Whichever realm Loki turned off we had the person with the newly off realm place their stone. It ran us through a sequence where each stone was placed and finishing by placing the starting stone again. I am uncertain if it mattered which stone was placed second. I did hear a rumor that there was a sequence that would work with only using 5 stones.

As for clues, I am unaware of any that lead to this solution. It was just organization and trial and error for us.

I ran N2 Saturday and overall it was a fun time. I run with a friend that has done this with me for years, but there were a few newer players in the group from the looks of it. One guy had brought a few people and was equipping the newer players and didn't need anything from what they said.

I thought the layout of the rooms was cool, but not overall functional. It is hard to have 10 people in the "cross the river room" be able to talk to each other. Two of us got across by dumb luck but the room felt crowded.

The giants about wiped the party. The giants were doing 10 points a round to each player except me with my AC. If you go through 3 rounds, most of your party is toast.

The arrow room was really cool again, but the layout was difficult with the 11 people in the room. After having lost a chunk of the party, we had people that basically just stood in the corner watching us do badly.

The realm puzzle was great, with 4 people we brute forced it and survived the dungeon.

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Summary: I liked the dungeon but the push damage/giants about wiped a party on normal. Room layout was pretty, but not functional. The DM's running the room were great and the NPCs were wonderful as always. I mean, dancing with the Troll Shaman was fun!

Davoruk wrote: I went through N2 twice and solved the 9 Realms puzzle both times. The first time we did it randomly and had no clue how we did it.

Here is how the 9 realms puzzle worked:

a. The "true ice" - e.g. the only crystal with no LED in it (I think also it's pedestal was different), reset the whole tree to off. There was a clue on the wall that explained this.

b. Every other crystal interacted with exactly two bulbs, in a set order of 1st bulb, 2nd bulb. This you had to figure out experimentally.

In particular, when a cystal was socketed it:

1. Turned on its 1st bulb.
2. Toggled the on/off value (or maybe it wasn't toggle but rather "turn on only if off") its 2nd bulb.

Snuble wrote: The giants about wiped the party. The giants were doing 10 points a round to each player except me with my AC. If you go through 3 rounds, most of your party is toast.

All of N2 was pretty tough combat wise! We have a group that is often geared for nightmare and we didn't beat both the giants on Hardcore.

If you helped the prisoner escape the giants, they would give you a clue that if you made ranged or spell attacks you could hide in the prison cage and the Giants wouldn't attack/damage their own cage.

The fact that the reset had it's bulb out was a coincidence, not design A Happy coincidence

Matthew Hayward wrote:

Snuble wrote: The giants about wiped the party. The giants were doing 10 points a round to each player except me with my AC. If you go through 3 rounds, most of your party is toast.

All of N2 was pretty tough combat wise! We have a group that is often geared for nightmare and we didn't beat both the giants on Hardcore.

If you helped the prisoner escape the giants, they would give you a clue that if you made ranged or spell attacks you could hide in the prison cage and the Giants wouldn't attack/damage their own cage.

We helped the prisoner escape and did not get that clue. Our party played on normal and went into room five pretty beat up and disheartened. Having our entire party killed in room five on normal was one of the most un-fun moments I've had playing TD. The DM tried to hide is delight at his TPK and the prisoner giggled awkwardly as we barely cared to try to solve the last two puzzles rooms. That clue could have been the difference between N2 being my worst TD run ever and just not making my favorites list. If that had been my first run, I don't think I would have ever played again.

N2 Room 7 puzzle had 10 crystals and from what we did (place one then used the reset) we found that one crystal toggled 3 if you waited long enough, all the other 8 toggled 2. We tested it out on our first run that if you placed and then replaced a stone it would turn off both orbs. By luck we placed most of the stones and had 3 out. We placed the 3 toggle stone and got that down to 2. Once there we found out what players had one of those worlds, and placed their stone and did this a few more times until we hit a combo that one person had that turned the last two on. This was a really cool design for a puzzle.

The giants were pretty rough. Never got the clue that ranged could hide in the cage. If you busted the NPC out (which required 2 rounds on nightmare) your party would win initiative. The best we did when our wizards weren't dying in the first round was to maze one and focus the other down then focus down #2. We did do it without deaths the second time, but the third was a bit rougher as no one told the wizards to maze.

I have to say this year was the most fun I've had (and my group) at True Dungeon in years! Really enjoyed the theme, the costumes, the puzzles, combats, etc. The only puzzle that was a bit of a let down was the engine room - other than that we loved it!

Michelle wrote: We helped the prisoner escape and did not get that clue. Our party played on normal and went into room five pretty beat up and disheartened. Having our entire party killed in room five on normal was one of the most un-fun moments I've had playing TD. The DM tried to hide is delight at his TPK and the prisoner giggled awkwardly as we barely cared to try to solve the last two puzzles rooms. That clue could have been the difference between N2 being my worst TD run ever and just not making my favorites list. If that had been my first run, I don't think I would have ever played again.

Sorry to hear that, Michelle - I've made a note to add "Check that the NPC in Room 5 remembers the cage hint" to the adventure coordinator's rounds for N2 so that we can make sure this doesn't happen again.

Mike Naglee wrote:

Michelle wrote: We helped the prisoner escape and did not get that clue. Our party played on normal and went into room five pretty beat up and disheartened. Having our entire party killed in room five on normal was one of the most un-fun moments I've had playing TD. The DM tried to hide is delight at his TPK and the prisoner giggled awkwardly as we barely cared to try to solve the last two puzzles rooms. That clue could have been the difference between N2 being my worst TD run ever and just not making my favorites list. If that had been my first run, I don't think I would have ever played again.

Sorry to hear that, Michelle - I've made a note to add "Check that the NPC in Room 5 remembers the cage hint" to the adventure coordinator's rounds for N2 so that we can make sure this doesn't happen again.

We got the hint from the prisoner after we let her out, but we didn't trust her enough to step into the cage, we've had NPCs turn on us before. She was wonderful though, as were all the Volunteers.