TOPIC: General Suggestions for Next Year

I know we already have a few threads for feedback and critiques for the various dungeons, but I thought it'd be useful to have one specifically for general (not dungeon-specific) suggestions, like the following:

*More gradual lighting in the common area (especially near the doors) - just entering from the bright hallway, I couldn't even identify the gender of the greeter until they spoke. It wasn't so bad once my eyes adjusted, but the transition needs to be more gradual.

*I loved the streamlined Epilogue/XP rooms, but a tad more flavor wouldn't go amiss. Also, specific redemption codes based on XP gained might quiet some concerns about cheaters claiming more than they earned. Also, great job on putting treasure bins in the XP room too. I bet that really streamlined a bunch (and cut down massively on the number of Treasure Pull tokens needing printed).

*The photo op areas were great, but needed a bit more signage and/or more outgoing staff. I know many had no idea.

*Merging the shops into the ticket desks was wise as well, but (again) more signage would've been great. I was sad to see the TD badge holders weren't being sold too.

And a couple things I realized while coaching in the Training Rooms:

*The wizard is the only one that can easily practice w/ a blank skill test. Adding a bead bracelet, leaf flashcards, & bardic rune flashcards to each training room would be immensely useful & much appreciated by players.

*While in the training room, I always made sure I had a couple card holders, a small stash of paperclips, and 1 extra (working) light stashed away to avoid having to run off myself or requesting some brought. Enough players came in without these that having my own stash was a huge time-saver.

Christian Kleman wrote: I know we already have a few threads for feedback and critiques for the various dungeons, but I thought it'd be useful to have one specifically for general (not dungeon-specific) suggestions, like the following:

*More gradual lighting in the common area (especially near the doors) - just entering from the bright hallway, I couldn't even identify the gender of the greeter until they spoke. It wasn't so bad once my eyes adjusted, but the transition needs to be more gradual.

*I loved the streamlined Epilogue/XP rooms, but a tad more flavor wouldn't go amiss. Also, specific redemption codes based on XP gained might quiet some concerns about cheaters claiming more than they earned. Also, great job on putting treasure bins in the XP room too. I bet that really streamlined a bunch (and cut down massively on the number of Treasure Pull tokens needing printed).

*The photo op areas were great, but needed a bit more signage and/or more outgoing staff. I know many had no idea.

*Merging the shops into the ticket desks was wise as well, but (again) more signage would've been great. I was sad to see the TD badge holders weren't being sold too.

And a couple things I realized while coaching in the Training Rooms:

*The wizard is the only one that can easily practice w/ a blank skill test. Adding a bead bracelet, leaf flashcards, & bardic rune flashcards to each training room would be immensely useful & much appreciated by players.

*While in the training room, I always made sure I had a couple card holders, a small stash of paperclips, and 1 extra (working) light stashed away to avoid having to run off myself or requesting some brought. Enough players came in without these that having my own stash was a huge time-saver.

By the time I realized they HAD shops in the starter areas and went to get a shirt they were completely sold out of my size (3x) really upsetting since the shirt was great and I really wanted to get one

Christian Kleman wrote: *The wizard is the only one that can easily practice w/ a blank skill test. Adding a bead bracelet, leaf flashcards, & bardic rune flashcards to each training room would be immensely useful & much appreciated by players.

Problem is they'd probably go missing after a few runs.

Maybe if they found a way to securely attach them so they could not be easily stolen.

Wouldn't be hard to secure a booklet of flashcards to a scenery pole like with the Wizard test, while the bead bracelet could be attached (by zip-tie or light chain) to the board.

It's a trivial thing I guess, but I had real troubles with my character card falling off of the lanyard. The little metal things wouldn't stay open enough to hold it on there. I ended up tying some knots but that impacts re-usability I'm sure.

Kirk Bauer wrote: It's a trivial thing I guess, but I had real troubles with my character card falling off of the lanyard. The little metal things wouldn't stay open enough to hold it on there. I ended up tying some knots but that impacts re-usability I'm sure.

I put the end thru the hole, wrap over the top of the card and stick it through again, and snug it up. It acts like a knot but it's easily removed.

Kirk Bauer wrote: It's a trivial thing I guess, but I had real troubles with my character card falling off of the lanyard. The little metal things wouldn't stay open enough to hold it on there. I ended up tying some knots but that impacts re-usability I'm sure.

The worst was the Prestige character class cards, which had noticeably bigger holes. No way it was going to be able to be secured through the standard lanyard....

Yeah, the holes on the sub-class cards were way too big. After three attempts to get mine to stay on during coaching, I stapled the metal thingy to the card and in room 6 one side fell off anyway.

Druegar wrote: Yeah, the holes on the sub-class cards were way too big. After three attempts to get mine to stay on during coaching, I stapled the metal thingy to the card and in room 6 one side fell off anyway.

This year I stopped using the lanyard completely. I used the pins on my badge holder to hold the card. A little dragon on one side and a Guild Wars spell pin on the other.

Something needs to be done about the hit point tracking. I always lose the non-light clip by the third room. I just stopped using them and started keeping track of my hit points in my head this year.

Alligator clips! I want to use little alligator clips for HP tracking next year

Unfortunately, they would cost a LOT more than the current paper clip method


For reference, I lost my paper clips so often, that I started using my personal clips instead - those little bull-dog clips, which hold pretty tight. I'm sure they are also more expensive than paperclips, but probably much less than alligator clips.

After a bit of Popeye style swearing, I gave up trying to get the prestige class character card to stay on the lanyard with the holes given and just wound up poking new holes in the card with the metal tip, which worked fine.

If somebody can find an online source for good health clips and a lanyard I'd be happy to bring my own with me next year!