TOPIC: Thoughts on 5 rooms

Beertram wrote:

Ryan wrote:

David Zych wrote: Hi Ryan, welcome to True Dungeon and to the forums!

...

Have you heard about Virtual TD? ( td.events/faq ). It's a different kind of experience than playing in-person, but it is 7 rooms and typically calibrated to be a bit harder at each level, so damage still matters but things like to-hit and saving throws also matter a lot more than they did at GenCon. If this sounds at all intriguing, there is one coming up at the end of August ( td.events/conventions/FearAndFog ) that might be worth a try!

Thank you for the warm welcome! I have heard about Virtual TD, as an organizer at GenCon was kind enough to answer some of my questions prior to one of my runs, and one of the veteran players steered me towards TD Character Creator. Hearing that they're seven rooms makes me even more interested. I'm deeply intrigued by the idea, but I have some questions as a new player that I haven't been able to find reliable answers for yet. Questions like

-What kind of stat benchmarks are a reasonable estimate for moving up to Hardcore/Epic from Normal? I neither want to accidentally trivialize a normal run nor prove a liability in higher play.
-Is it taboo to buy a ticket for an event with people already signed up, but that isn't sold out yet? I know a lot of groups will coordinate ahead of time through the forums.

I don't want to bog down with off-topic conversation a thread for feedback, though. Is there a good place to post questions like this on the forums? The closest I've seen would be the "General Info for All TD Cons," but I'm not sure if that's maybe more for planning or if there's a questions subthread that I've not found yet.

Ryan, Welcome to TD. It is a great community!

It is NOT taboo to buy into a run with players already in it. In fact, I highly recommend it. If it is an organized run, then they would have bought all the tickets.

I am not an expert on the current needs for each level of play, but I think if your character is +5-10 on to-hits, damage, and saves; then you are fine on hardcore. NIghtmare is probably +15-20. If the group really wants to play a certain level, then they can probably bump you up to that level. Don't be talked into Epic or Mythic unless someone is providing you with an appropriate build. The point is to have fun while not ruining other's fun in the process.

Ryan, also if you buy a ticket on a run with other people on it, you're under no obligation at all to play any difficulty level other than Normal. It takes a unanimous vote from all party members to play anything other than Normal, so if you have a normal level build and want to play Normal, you can certainly do that.

So I have not read all the comments yet but here are my thoughts.

I like the lower price, it makes buying the tickets less painful, that said I do also prefer the 7 room dungeon.

I do wonder if vets were over represented in the poll in the epilogue room since the same people kept on voting.

I am kind of fine either way, but would like to see the price point kept at a level it doesn’t scare off new players with sticker shock.

My 2 cents for GenCon -

If 3 adventures - Make it a trilogy.
Adventures 1 and 2 are 5 room dungeons with room 3 being a 7 room experience with appropriate pricing

Do a 3 room new player experience as an intro to true dungeon with pre-generated builds of 10 tokens meant as a pre-adventure for the trilogy instead of a random 10 pack. Maybe 1-3 treasure with no TEs. Tokens builds would have to be fairly generic so that most classes can use what's in the build for their first full dungeon in case that class is taken. I'm very sure we have people willing to volunteer to help cultivate these.

Kusig wrote: My 2 cents for GenCon -

If 3 adventures - Make it a trilogy.
Adventures 1 and 2 are 5 room dungeons with room 3 being a 7 room experience with appropriate pricing

Do a 3 room new player experience as an intro to true dungeon with pre-generated builds of 10 tokens meant as a pre-adventure for the trilogy instead of a random 10 pack. Maybe 1-3 treasure with no TEs. Tokens builds would have to be fairly generic so that most classes can use what's in the build for their first full dungeon in case that class is taken. I'm very sure we have people willing to volunteer to help cultivate these.

If you did something like that, it should be pretty doable to have designated token packs for the various classes. I've long thought it would be ideal to have the party card and character sheets pregenerated for the intro Dungeon, and the predesigned token packs would be incorporated into that, with a few consumable tokens added in. One big bonus would be that coaching time would be drastically cut down, and possibly eliminated completely.

The Dungeon could be designed so that the consumable tokens in the token packs would all be useful in the Dungeon, and the DM could prompt them to use them at the right times.

Ideally the same 10 characters would be used every time, so that party cards would be identical and the set of 10 token packs would be the same every time. Maybe leave the Elf Wizard and Dwarf Fighter out.

Mike Steele wrote:

Kusig wrote: My 2 cents for GenCon -

If 3 adventures - Make it a trilogy.
Adventures 1 and 2 are 5 room dungeons with room 3 being a 7 room experience with appropriate pricing

Do a 3 room new player experience as an intro to true dungeon with pre-generated builds of 10 tokens meant as a pre-adventure for the trilogy instead of a random 10 pack. Maybe 1-3 treasure with no TEs. Tokens builds would have to be fairly generic so that most classes can use what's in the build for their first full dungeon in case that class is taken. I'm very sure we have people willing to volunteer to help cultivate these.

If you did something like that, it should be pretty doable to have designated token packs for the various classes. I've long thought it would be ideal to have the party card and character sheets pregenerated for the intro Dungeon, and the predesigned token packs would be incorporated into that, with a few consumable tokens added in. One big bonus would be that coaching time would be drastically cut down, and possibly eliminated completely.

The Dungeon could be designed so that the consumable tokens in the token packs would all be useful in the Dungeon, and the DM could prompt them to use them at the right times.

Ideally the same 10 characters would be used every time, so that party cards would be identical and the set of 10 token packs would be the same every time. Maybe leave the Elf Wizard and Dwarf Fighter out.

I’m not sure preconstructed packs are not going to be more trouble for TD to create than they are worth to help.

That said I like the idea of premade characters on a 3 room low cost run. I still think they should get a 10 pack for future use. Maybe just the base 3 pulls and no XP if you are below level 6 to take the incentive of playing it away for veterans.

Wayne Rhodes wrote: I’m not sure preconstructed packs are not going to be more trouble for TD to create than they are worth to help.

That said I like the idea of premade characters on a 3 room low cost run. I still think they should get a 10 pack for future use. Maybe just the base 3 pulls and no XP if you are below level 6 to take the incentive of playing it away for veterans.

Or no treasure pulls and you get the current year 10 pack + the Premade. We also wouldn't change the premades every year so whatever gets made should remain useful. I would also say no XP at all.

Kusig wrote:

Wayne Rhodes wrote: I’m not sure preconstructed packs are not going to be more trouble for TD to create than they are worth to help.

That said I like the idea of premade characters on a 3 room low cost run. I still think they should get a 10 pack for future use. Maybe just the base 3 pulls and no XP if you are below level 6 to take the incentive of playing it away for veterans.

Or no treasure pulls and you get the current year 10 pack + the Premade. We also wouldn't change the premades every year so whatever gets made should remain useful. I would also say no XP at all.

There is something special about pulling treasure, I would not want to remove that part.

I think the big bonus to a pre generated characters is it means we don’t need a skilled coach in the rooms, just a good training coach. The only downside to pre generated characters is possibly logistics on TD HQs end. Premade party cards would be easy, premade packs might be a nightmare.

It is important for new adventurers to be able to pull treasure. It is also important for them to open their 10 packs and trade amoung the group for the classes that can use tokens.

When I was in a new group at GenCon I gave away most of my 10-pack to help the other adventurers. They appreciated it. It also helped get the sharing of tokens going.

Pre-generated token packs would be a lot of work for TD to pull off. They don't usually deal in commons except to sell in 10 packs.