TOPIC: Strategies for forming an Adventuring Group

Welcome Chris,
You have indeed gotten some sage advice from so many excellent and admirable folk. I can’t believe I have anything to add other than salutations at this point but.....
One other way to meet people to determine which groups you’d like to join is to Volunteer. Yes get to meet many of the people who are passionate about this game. There are full and part time options. There are many more benefits including a cool volunteer only token but you can check out all the benefits elsewhere on this website.

Again Welcome, Welcome thrice times Welcome I say to you.

Welcome to the forums!

Although some of the other vetetans have already filled you in with relevant information... I also second the idea of coming out to volunteer! All the True Dungeon volunteers are amazing people who put forth hours of work to make this event possible, and we're always welcome to new volunteers! The people participating in this community are what makes this experience amazing.

I hope you find a group, and I hope to slay your character in the future!

Welcome, Chris!

You've received many great answers in this thread. I just wanted to add that another reason to re-run an adventure is that they are often tweaked a bit from con to con. For example, an entire puzzle room might be switched out for something else entirely, or the mechanics of a combat could be changed. The organizers may also make smaller changes that improve the player experience. My guild played N2 and N3 at GenCon and then again at Gamehole Con. We liked them at GenCon, but loved them at Gamehole Con. All the little kinks had been worked out. Plus, as others have mentioned, we got a chance to test our theories about what we had done wrong the first time around in rooms where we didn't solve a puzzle or had more trouble killing a monster than we thought we should. And then there's the extra treasure . . .

I'll put in a plug for Gamehole Con. Its a great little Con and TD tickets are much easier to get than at GenCon.

BeLinda Mathie wrote: Welcome, Chris!

For example, an entire puzzle room might be switched out for something else entirely, or the mechanics of a combat could be changed. . . .

What?! That is amazing. I thought all they would do is maybe change the HP of some of the creatures (ie did too many teams get wiped out, or was it way too easy compared to what the creators had envisioned). It sounds like you could actually have a completely different experience!

As a noob, I will say, I was discouraged from trying TD at a different convention because it was advertised that players would not get any XP for runs they already did at Gencon. I only have 3000 XP so I figured why spend hundreds of dollars to fly out, visit another convention, and then not even get any XP. I wanted to get to level 5 so I could have the extra abilities, HP, and stats that come with it. I re-read the players handbook and I understand *now* that Player Level is different than Character Level, but for some reason, I thought the only way I could get one of those handy-dandy Level 5 cards was to gain XP. Maybe all the pro's already realized all that, but I literally thought I would have to show the Dungeon Master my XP and they would take away my standard level 4 sheet and upgrade me on the spot

I didn't realize it and re-read the handbook until I saw the new 2019 purple tokens and one of them says right on it "+1 level"

Anyway!! This is all fantastic info, I really appreciate the insight so many of you have contributed to my question

Welcome to True Dungeon addiction!

As for being discouraged, if you know any friends that may be discouraged because of the same reason let them know there is a TD101 class that explains TD. We do go into Character Levels vs Player Levels in there. Also there is a TD201 all about tokens that we are trying to formalize and get into the books for GenCon this year (Shout out to Laz for this)!.

Chris Foster wrote: What?! That is amazing. I thought all they would do is maybe change the HP of some of the creatures (ie did too many teams get wiped out, or was it way too easy compared to what the creators had envisioned). It sounds like you could actually have a completely different experience!

Indeed! The organizers do tweak things like monster HP within a con when necessary, but there can be big changes between cons. There was a puzzle in one of the N-series adventures that went over, uh, poorly, at Gen Con. It was replaced by a totally different (and much better) puzzle at Gamehole Con.

Another reason to re-run a scenario is if you didn’t make it alive to Room 7. If you do it again and at least make it to room 7, you’ll get full XP for the second run. (The partial XP you got for the first run will be wiped out.)

As for your initial confusion about player level vs. character level, welcome to the club! You aren’t the first, and won’t be the last, person in that boat. Congrats on figuring it out. The player handbook and the forums will always be good places to seek clarification on any other questions you have.

Another thing that helps is to enter your tokens for your class into a TD character generator.
There is a spreadsheet version: www.davidallenkrause.com/TrueDungeonCharacterGenerator.aspx/
and an app name TD Character Generator in the app store of your choice.

If you have these filled out when you come to the event, it will help the Coaches get the correct stats--and you get +1 HP as a bonus!

Chris,
As a newbie myself I would extend the hand of TD gamer friendship and offer for you to throw your lot in with my fledgling group. I have, like many on this forum, fallen in love with this game. I am approaching 40 consecutive years of Gen Con attendance with only one regret. THAT I DIDN'T DISCOVER TRUE DUNGEON FASTER! Rant over. Feel free to private message me if interested. And as many in the group have said, welcome aboard to the most addictive game played. ...... Spud ....

Hey, Chris! I'm new to the forums as well and you won't believe how helpful people are. You're going to have a great time here! I don't know much myself, and I'm sure they're already linked elsewhere in the thread already, but I'd bookmark these links immediately:

tokendb.com/
tdcharactercreator.com/
truedungeon.com/files/PHB.pdf (or just download it!)

Great to have you with us! We're all part of TD now!

Jeffrey "Spud" Lunsford wrote: I am approaching 40 consecutive years of Gen Con attendance with only one regret. THAT I DIDN'T DISCOVER TRUE DUNGEON FASTER!

Wow! This year I will be approaching my 2nd year of GenCon. Ironically, the only reason I went to GenCon was to play True Dungeon, so I wish I had discovered Gen Con Faster! In 2018 I was a full time volunteer in N2 playing one of the Frost Giants. After my shift I did runs. I am hooked!

Strym wrote: Hey, Chris! I'm new to the forums as well and you won't believe how helpful people are.

The folks on the forums have been amazing to me! I have learned a lot, read the entire player manual twice now, and have downloaded an app for my iPhone called the True Dungeon Char Gen or something like that. It doesn't have the 2019 tokens but its been helpful to show me what goes into each slot.

I built myself a Ranger character but I'm also afraid of showing up and someone else wants to play the ranger, and that's all I have built??

Chris Foster wrote:

The folks on the forums have been amazing to me! I have learned a lot, read the entire player manual twice now, and have downloaded an app for my iPhone called the True Dungeon Char Gen or something like that. It doesn't have the 2019 tokens but its been helpful to show me what goes into each slot.

I built myself a Ranger character but I'm also afraid of showing up and someone else wants to play the ranger, and that's all I have built??

The app should have the 2019 tokens if you update it. Or at least most of them.

You'll find nearly everything a ranger uses can also be used by a bard, and most by a rogue.
Try making one of each of those as backups, if you're so inclined.

Ranger is a popular class because of the double sliding.