TOPIC: Riddle Reveal Videos Online!

Matt Perez wrote: Watching these videos makes me feel like I was cheated . Our group was mostly first timers going through early on Thursday morning. We did not hear ANY audio clues in the first room that we could discern from the ambient background noise. And in the shield room we had the black light on for about 5 seconds of every minute so we couldn't even be sure we had the letter side up on the table, let alone try to figure out what they said.

I know that there is a huge following for this event and our group was really looking forward to the True Dungeon experience, but we got is not anything I could recommend. The experience and puzzles make way too many assumptions for a group of new players to have fun without guidance. I doubt we'll be back.

I hate to hear you had such a bad time. Sadly Thursday morning tends to be the worst as they're still trying to work out the bugs. I hope you give it one more try.

Alex Duplessie wrote: Great videos.

Question though - how did the rogue's clue in the last room of Into the Deeperdark indicate that you needed to use the names? I believe it said "A shortsword is handy to have around." My group took that to mean hands as in length

We found the "Handy to have around" clue to be worse than useless. A few players were talking about using the names until the Rogue read the clue then everything shifted to hand span length of the weapons. The spider clue would have been much more helpful.

Matt Perez wrote: Watching these videos makes me feel like I was cheated . Our group was mostly first timers going through early on Thursday morning. We did not hear ANY audio clues in the first room that we could discern from the ambient background noise. And in the shield room we had the black light on for about 5 seconds of every minute so we couldn't even be sure we had the letter side up on the table, let alone try to figure out what they said.

I know that there is a huge following for this event and our group was really looking forward to the True Dungeon experience, but we got is not anything I could recommend. The experience and puzzles make way too many assumptions for a group of new players to have fun without guidance. I doubt we'll be back.

The audio clues were pretty subtle - periodically there would be a series of clinking sounds that went on for 30 seconds or so.

The room with the lights on the shields was adjusted later in the weekend as it became clear 5 seconds was too difficult. As much as they try to get everything right the dungeon gets some tweaking as the week goes on.

But - my party of experienced players had no clue on the "O Stone Be Not So" puzzle. I wouldn't chalk up your inability to solve puzzles to being inexperienced, or somehow think experienced players have a particular edge.

I would estimate there is 1.25 puzzles per year per dungeon my group doesn't get. It's rare we get them all.

Chris Von Wahlde wrote: I hate to hear you had such a bad time. Sadly Thursday morning tends to be the worst as they're still trying to work out the bugs. I hope you give it one more try.

They can also have other detriments based on timing, as I've seen concerns/complaints from reading previous years of posts that sometimes the sets/items/tools on hand can begin to flag as the convention goes by (and reasonably enough; having a couple hundred or thousand people handle/manhandle things, general wear and tear, things being active/on for days on end, all adds up).

Probably a sweet spot in the middle somewhere, but not everyone can fit a run into that, and while I get that reality has to set in, it'd be unfortunate to find out that a run was less than optimal based on nothing more than the time slot Gencon happened to provide during the ticket rush.

Obviously the TD staff can't have an entire second set of backup gear sitting around (space and cost considerations), but it seems to be a fairly regular concern on both ends; early runs are still perfecting things, and later runs risk issues of wear/tear adding up.

Note; this isn't intended as a complaint so much as seeing a comment and recalling some other issues that have arisen in the past.

Forar wrote:

Chris Von Wahlde wrote: I hate to hear you had such a bad time. Sadly Thursday morning tends to be the worst as they're still trying to work out the bugs. I hope you give it one more try.

They can also have other detriments based on timing, as I've seen concerns/complaints from reading previous years of posts that sometimes the sets/items/tools on hand can begin to flag as the convention goes by (and reasonably enough; having a couple hundred or thousand people handle/manhandle things, general wear and tear, things being active/on for days on end, all adds up).

Probably a sweet spot in the middle somewhere, but not everyone can fit a run into that, and while I get that reality has to set in, it'd be unfortunate to find out that a run was less than optimal based on nothing more than the time slot Gencon happened to provide during the ticket rush.

Obviously the TD staff can't have an entire second set of backup gear sitting around (space and cost considerations), but it seems to be a fairly regular concern on both ends; early runs are still perfecting things, and later runs risk issues of wear/tear adding up.

Note; this isn't intended as a complaint so much as seeing a comment and recalling some other issues that have arisen in the past.

You are correct. It's one of the main reasons I like less mechanical based puzzles or sets. Too many things to go wrong during the event. Complicated is not always good.