TOPIC: Volunteer Should Not Play What they Run

Horrible experience this year at Gen Con due to people playing rooms they've helped support or GM and then lose focus when they start to offer too much info then ignore to converse with a GM or other that knows the room.
Got left in the lerch by a player that said she knew the rainbow bridge and was telling a couple.others where to step - but during my turn decided to talk to a GM Instesd of participante.
Same one agreed on strat to have folks each memorize a fee and call out colors.. then changed and just walked across.
Really selfish and taught me never do a TD unless you have your own group
Very disappointed people care so little when playing as experienced players that know from volunteering..

Are you able to tell us when you ran to narrow things down a bit, also sorry for your bad experience

First, it is unfortunate that happened.

Some players play events many times, so it may or may not have been a volunteer. These frequent players also often know the DMs and chat with them.

My point in all this is that it is unfortunate that you had a negative experience, but dont assume it was due to volunteers.

Also, I have never had a bad group from one I found on here.

I am sorry you had a bad experience. I am a volunteer and as Wade said I would not assume it was a volunteer. There are lots of different players out there and all the volunteers I know (I don’t know them all) but the ones I do know are especially sensitive to players that have not played that run and are very respectful of others experiences.

Again I am truly sorry for your experience. I’ll offer this:
If you want to try again next con, contact me to run with my group and hopefully change your mind.

Well we found after we wondered why I was ignored after a promise of assistance... I assume cooperation not give away.. at the end.. that she was the volunteer for the final room of Bliss -- rainbow bridge.very disappointed she didn't take it seriously enough to be a useful team mate but others distracted her in other rooms so perhaps she was done.
In the end you are right - bad group.
Very happy to know it's not the norm.

Sorry - that sounds like it sucked.

That kind of spoilery / unhelpful behavior is a bummer no matter who does it, be it a volunteer, or simply someone whose done the run before.

If you think you lilked TD enough to try again, I strongly encourage you to try to find a group here in the forums that you can run with - you can get a much greater likelyhood of a fun time that way.

Oh wow didn't consider that.
We did run into poor cooperation in other rooms due to others just focused convo or feeling they did it before so didn't want to interrupt.. but it meant distraction and your solution is one I didn't consider.
In the end it's the group and seeing such positive responses I'm encouraged to try again next year and wortk with folks here first.
Thanks again.

It’s hard to figure out the right balance when playing with a pick up group that doesn’t know the puzzles. On one hand you want to be helpful and on the other hand you are trying not to spoil it for anyone. When I’m on a run I know all the answers for the puzzles, and the mode is normal I tend to play the rogue and get the party the clues, also I do anything they ask me to in a puzzle room, except give them the answers. It’s a hard balancing act but I discuss it in the training room and try and set the expectations.

I’m sorry that it seems that the person running with you promised help and didn’t deliver, but I have also read a lot of people mad that people doing the same dungeons several times give too much info. That is why I get the rogue box clue and get out of the way.

The times I struggle with how much extra help to give is when half the party or more knows the answer and there is only 1 to 5 players trying to solve a puzzle meant for a full group.

Either way I hope you give the game another chance and hope you have a better experience next time.

Actually had the concern about too much when we had a plan to help each other and then she said I can just tell you what to do and ran across which I thought was lame
After two of us had the first part memorized three people on the other side seem to have the second part memorized so I figured that was ok
just that the two most knowledgeable decided to start conversing and ignore the rest of us for some reason.
The one guy who had just done it was really trying but forgot one and I don't blame

taught me a lesson that I could have stopped and memorize the second half before moving on
Got caught up in the teamwork aspect because that is the most fun
But I can see it's easy to arrange a group with that mindset here which is awesome

I got killed the first 2 times I did that puzzle. The second time got killed I understood the puzzle but could not keep the order straight in my head. So on that one is hard even when you understand it. It is a example of one I don’t think I’m messing up the puzzle to tell the party how since it’s easy to figure out what to do. That one is about execution more than anything. The first time I did it the NPC basically told us what needed to happen and I still got killed. Short term memory isn’t always my strong suit.

I would agree except my plan was awesome - so I thought. One person memorize 3 colors and call out as they go. This gets a little harder to see further but provided you watch closely you know to call out. We all agreed then our experienced player/GM decided to just wing it and swear to help - since we had to plan I had to rely upon it.

All the ones I did years ago we would get through since 3-4 of us together would help keep some sense of cooperation and focus going.

Comes back to get that good group ahead of time it seems.