TOPIC: What’s Your Most Memorable True Dungeon Moment?

For me:

The few buzzer beater moments of solving a puzzle where everything comes together just as time runs out. There have been a few but notably I remember an early room in one of the Rothfus dungeons where there was a large chest with stencils of adventurers and I think it turns out they were representations of clock faces.

Also a later room in the same dungeon where we had to match alchemical reagents with their containers, which was destructive and involved multiple senses - things that are cold to the touch, magnetic, bounced/deformed differently.

Other stand outs:

- Seeing Smoak for the first time and the DM throwing our consumables into his hoard.

- Early dungeon with detect secret doors / secret writing / comprehend languages giving UV light source and a ghost / wight rising in a graveyard

- the cup and ring puzzle where the answer was the cups are really bells and organized by sound

- first run with some friendly tokenaholics who had healing buffs for everyone

- seeing the War Maul of the Ancients in action on a run with Smakdown

- see the Hammer of Foss Altus special token at the first TDC

- completing / surviving a two man nightmare dungeon after surrendering all gear but one token to a troll who you could bribe that way to avoid a fight in TDC

- all the forum greats of yesteryear who I got to talk with any don’t post much anymore - too many to list but Henwy, Chad, Master Ed, Arcanist Kolexia, Adela, Hawk Fingle, Eversuede, George, Brad Mortensen, valetutto, Steve, harlax, Incognito, Dennis Burdick, Widseth, Druegar all come to mind.

I think my first run ever in 2009 was the most memorable.

I will add that in 2024 I was playing the Tomb of Terror, which was sealed, and our group was up against Battarak in the final room. I was playing Cleric and I was the last person standing when I cast Spiritual Hammer and slid my puck to do the final damage to kill him. It was pretty awesome.

This past Origins had two:
1) Smash the smash-talking Ogre. Incredible voice. Every time I hear the word "smash" I still think of him.
2) True Grind. A HUGE thank-you to Fred K for giving us the tickets!
Knight at the bridge: "None may pass without my permission!" Me: "May I have your permission?" Knight: "No!" Me: "How may I get your permission?" Knight: "Fill out these forms." So I start filling out a multi-page form in crayon -- deep inside of which was an oath that would have gotten me to fight my party -- while the rest of the gang sneaks past to the goblin village. Fred convinces the goblins to fight *for* us, and as each goblin agreed we chanted "One of us! Two of us! Six of us!" We all died anyway but had a GREAT time!

Several come to mind:
Pun gun run this last GHC - I believe it was room 5 of Eldest Ice where the NPC could join the party in a combat. The puns were pretty dialed in where everyone was laughing non-stop (including both the NPC and the DM.) The DM kept adding more hp to the monster just so we'd keep going. I doubt I ever laughed so much in TD runs in my life as that run.

True Grind - Paul/Picc has been incredible. Him breaking Joust out as part of the run was legendary. Special thanks to him for playing along with my Goblin King outfit this year.

Seeing Kresimir one shot a draco-lich in Grind with a longspear of dragonslaying - pretty impressive.

Orion and Shawn, as part of a "Land of Og" run (you only get 3-7 words to use for the entire run - drawn from a hat) solving a math puzzle using only the words "duck" and "rock."

The first Grunnel Holiday run failure cut scene!

Lorigorgon wiping us out

Seeing first time players draw a legendary token in their first draw (I've seen it twice.)

Jeff, dressed as Odin, having us slide beer steins on the slider board.

Fred K wrote: Orion and Shawn, as part of a "Land of Og" run (you only get 3-7 words to use for the entire run - drawn from a hat) solving a math puzzle using only the words "duck" and "rock."

As a fellow appreciator of Land of Og, this is amazing.

GenCon 2024 for me. We had played the game casually at GenCon since 2018, but that was the first run we played with regulars who kitted us out with full TEs, legendaries, etc.. I was already enjoying Bard a lot, and someone lent me a Widseth's to use. I thought it was nuts that I got to buff the party like that AND do other stuff.

I remember Abbie and I walking out of there talking about how deep the game really went and how fun the possibilities were.

It was that moment that hooked us, and what prompted us to really dive in this year.

Iross wrote:

Fred K wrote: Orion and Shawn, as part of a "Land of Og" run (you only get 3-7 words to use for the entire run - drawn from a hat) solving a math puzzle using only the words "duck" and "rock."

As a fellow appreciator of Land of Og, this is amazing.

It was a difficult puzzle as well - they managed to work out a system where rocks were 1's and ducks were 10's. Rock, Rock, Rock duck meant 13. That gave them the ability to communicate numbers - then they had to figure out how to communicate multiplying, adding, subtracting, and dividing them. Watching them argue about which way to go on the puzzle was one of the oddest TD things I'd ever seen. It says a lot about both of them that they solved it.

Some of the early ones have held up. The room where you fashioned a crossbow to retrieve keys on the other side of metal bars where one run we had zero idea what we were supposed to do. The room based off of a commonly played computer game that is not likely played a whole lot anymore as computer games have advanced that was projected on the floor in a Drow themed dungeon. Some features of the medusa room from I guess 2007.

More recently: First time doing TG and coming out of doing the Maze puzzle from Eric's puzzle book, asking how the party was doing against the gazebos, and casting Lightning Storm to finish off the last of the gazebos.

There are more recent memorable experiences where it helps that they are more recent, but some of them would be hard for the typical player to relate to. Then, I'm not sure I've had a favorite run, where teammates would likely put last TG run as best experience ever.

Fred K wrote:

Iross wrote:

Fred K wrote: Orion and Shawn, as part of a "Land of Og" run (you only get 3-7 words to use for the entire run - drawn from a hat) solving a math puzzle using only the words "duck" and "rock."

As a fellow appreciator of Land of Og, this is amazing.

It was a difficult puzzle as well - they managed to work out a system where rocks were 1's and ducks were 10's. Rock, Rock, Rock duck meant 13. That gave them the ability to communicate numbers - then they had to figure out how to communicate multiplying, adding, subtracting, and dividing them. Watching them argue about which way to go on the puzzle was one of the oddest TD things I'd ever seen. It says a lot about both of them that they solved it.

Sounds about right, one of my players had this to say last time I ran Og:

Hairy thing thing thing thing thing. Stick, stick, stick, stick, stick? Me me me me me me me me me me go stick Big Shiny Go Thing. Stick. Stick.

To get back on topic, a few of mine would be:

• The time when we were attacked by a cat beast and I distracted it with a cat toy hastily made from a crossbow bolt and a feathery plant growing in the room.
• Encountering a giant Francis as an enemy and spending the entire combat using gear tokens to pour him drinks and polish his shell.
• The time the GM allowed me to steal a Gnomish Flytrap seed and use 1 Day's Hard Ration and a Waterskin to grow it as an ally in the final combat.
• Fighting a vampire at Skull Con. The Monk stunned it, the Rogue flanked it to set up the slide, the barbarian broke a 10ft wooden pole in half, and the fighter slid the newly-created stake directly into the heart below the flank puck.
• Fighting Lori as an enemy in the Gen Con realm.

Lots of options to choose from but I guess the winner by a hair probably has to be the time I proposed to my now wife.

Fred K wrote: Several come to mind:
Pun gun run this last GHC - I believe it was room 5 of Eldest Ice where the NPC could join the party in a combat. The puns were pretty dialed in where everyone was laughing non-stop (including both the NPC and the DM.) The DM kept adding more hp to the monster just so we'd keep going. I doubt I ever laughed so much in TD runs in my life as that run.

True Grind - Paul/Picc has been incredible. Him breaking Joust out as part of the run was legendary. Special thanks to him for playing along with my Goblin King outfit this year.

Seeing Kresimir one shot a draco-lich in Grind with a longspear of dragonslaying - pretty impressive.

Orion and Shawn, as part of a "Land of Og" run (you only get 3-7 words to use for the entire run - drawn from a hat) solving a math puzzle using only the words "duck" and "rock."

The first Grunnel Holiday run failure cut scene!

Lorigorgon wiping us out

Seeing first time players draw a legendary token in their first draw (I've seen it twice.)

Jeff, dressed as Odin, having us slide beer steins on the slider board.

Sliding the steins with whatever liquid was in them was awesome. Memorable for me because I got lucky and hit the 20. Love that I still get to slot a UR into the medallion that was given out.

Back around 2009 I saw a middle-aged "accountant-looking" dude literally skip down the Marriott hallway with unbridled joy after exiting his TD run. His friends laughed...but I teared up.