darkangel866 wrote:


Corrected!



I think it was useful to have the option of switching up monsters, depending on how the party is doing. If they were piled separately, that would make it extremely difficult.

I found that after a couple of runs, it was pretty easy to get the hang of quickly sliding off the boards to get the right ones. The only time it became an issue (costing valuable time) was when the boards were not in board (which mainly happened after the Thursday night Golden Ticket run when they moved everything out and then moved everything back in). As long as the boards were in the right order, things tended to go pretty smoothly (IMHO).

It was also good to ask a few of the players to help put the boards back on after the run.


Xavon wrote:


That was pretty creative as well. You seemed awfully attached to your weapon!

True Grind was GREAT!! I went on two runs and both were very enjoyable. First run was just my group of 4 and the DM adjusted to make it difficult but not impossible. Second run was 9 and he adjusted so we fought different monsters which was awesome. The DM made the difference and took the experience to the next level with his enthusiasm and creativity. THANK YOU!!! Bring back True Grind!!

On a side note...at noon Saturday there were only 2 of us until half way through and then we were joined by 2 brand new people who have never played anything with TD. We still won on normal and would have even without the 2 new people....cause we are that good....LOL

As someone who does not go through TG, its because to me it appears to be a resource sink. Lots of crucial tokens going into something that gives nothing more than Bragging rights, which for the right group of people is cool, but not my bag.

If it has a "button" or gives XP or Treasure, then its not a complete token drain. But that was not announced prior so I never considered the event.

greyseer wrote:


That's actually half of the reason I like TG so much; normal fights are either too easy, or simply over too fast to use any of the nifty consumable tokens that we have.

Here we can actually use some strategy and off-the-wall thinking tends to be rewarded more.

I was in Raven's Friday Night Nightmare Run. I really enjoyed True Grind even though we had a TPK. Thanks for your hard work putting it together!

Aside from healing, I didn't use that many consumables and maybe that was the difference?


The Aboleth was brutal though. The melee characters who had the best chance to hit his very high AC were the most vulnerable to his Domniate ability due to low Will saves. It was easily the hardest creature we fought.

I refused servitude. Who wants to be a Skum? lol

it was nice to see the different effects used, but it was very frustrating to get knocked out of combat for 3 rounds when hit by one of those effects. in an all-combat event, getting set aside for 3 full rounds is brutal. and if you get hit by those effects more than once, you are spending a significant amount of time on the sidelines. on the flip side, i think 'out of combat until a teammate spends a round rescuing/waking you' is fully acceptable (ie. effectively knock two people out for one round).
and that said, grind was awesome this year. thank you for all your work on this.

kurtreznor wrote:


I think I failed the fear save 5 rounds in a row! LOL

#1. If you did NOT play True Grind, why not? Was it because of the initial lack of tangible reward? Do you dislike combat? Did you simply not have enough time in your schedule? Or have you had poor prior experiences?

A. Essentially, TD is expensive enough as it is with buying tokens and tickets. Add the fact in that that using a consumeable item means that it is lost combined with no tangeable reward (XP, Treasure, etc) makes TD Grind a no-can-do event. Considering I did a nightmare run this year as well, I would not even consdier a TD Grind until that was over as I knew I had to save my consumeables.

Overall, I love the idea of it, but the economics of scale do not make sense for a TD Grind.
-Fizzikx

Why not do True Grind? I love seeing the different rooms, interacting with NPCs and DMs, having a variety of puzzles and combats, getting experience and treasure, etc. Nothing against it, I would just rather do a dungeon run.

Oh! Right! One additional question that I'd like answered -

Were True Grind attendees supposed to receive the standard 10-pack of tokens at the beginning of the adventure?

I didn't think so, and so thought it was as normal for my first two runs. After that, however, I (and the rest of the group) did get a bag of tokens for the runs that were later on in the weekend.

Thanks for the post - I enjoyed my run of True Grind this year ... now onto your questions ...

1. I'll be honest, I don't care for a straight ahead combat experience ... so if it wasn't for a few people in my group who really like "tank and spank" - I wouldn't have played it ... also, it doesn't award any TD xp ... so I don't really see the "need" to play it ...

2. My fav moment during True Grind was Blackbeard cutting off the arm of one of our players ... (ironically enough it was the arm of the most annoying guy so I guess the DM was paying attention) ... but I thought it was cool becoz it didn't really take him out per se - coz he still had the other arm to fight with ... lol ... also, there was the mimic - which the evil DM tempted us with ... I think he made a comment that there was a "treasure chest" in the corner ... the other girl I was running with and I couldn't resist and so she opened it and got stuck!

3. I think TD is complicated enough not to have to have 3 settings of difficulty ... I believe this year, they had "easy, normal and nightmare" which I think is more than enough ...

Thank you to the DMs who created and ran this event ... you did make it a very special and enjoyable experience for me ... I think it would be cool if your combats were "puzzles in disguise"? - like last year, there was an Ogre who could be bribed not to fight ... so perhaps to have things like that again?