TOPIC: Biggest TD change?

How about?

• No more Death taking dead players out of the event
• Introduction of the Barbarian -- then the Paladin, Monk and Druid -- then the Elf and Dwarf
• Introduction of NPCs and animatronics/props to represent monsters (I think the Drow in room 7 2006 was the first NPC). For a few years players were asked to imagine the monsters.
• Introduction of Party Card
• Introduction of the "Pick Your Purple" URs with each $250
• Introduction of the BORG spfx systems (audio, lighting, video, spfx in one)
• Introduction of Build/Dismantle Crew made a huge difference to health and sanity of the volunteers
• Treasure no longer being pulled in rooms, but instead at the end of the event
• Introduction of professional token dealers
The True Realm event (and its issues) in 2009

Does ANYONE want to volunteer to try to make up a text-based TD timeline for the TDC event? If you can get me the file by April 1st, I can make a cool time line with graphics. I'd make a cool display at TDC.

I knew the barbarian was the first to be added but I wasn't sure the order of the rest. My guess was going to be monk second.

Jeff Martin wrote: How about?

• No more Death taking dead players out of the event
• Introduction of the Barbarian -- then the Paladin, Monk and Druid -- then the Elf and Dwarf
• Introduction of NPCs and animatronics/props to represent monsters (I think the Drow in room 7 2006 was the first NPC). For a few years players were asked to imagine the monsters.
• Introduction of Party Card
• Introduction of the "Pick Your Purple" URs with each $250
• Introduction of the BORG spfx systems (audio, lighting, video, spfx in one)
• Introduction of Build/Dismantle Crew made a huge difference to health and sanity of the volunteers
• Treasure no longer being pulled in rooms, but instead at the end of the event
• Introduction of professional token dealers
The True Realm event (and its issues) in 2009

+1

The most significant changes for me personally:

1. Becoming an AC a few years ago

2. Local build and tear-down crews meant I don't have to worry about that - they do an awesome job!

3. The growth of the forum and the year-round TD community.

Overall, I would say either the TEP or the NPCs/animatronics.

Jeff Martin wrote: How about?

No more Death taking dead players out of the event

That one *almost* made my list. It's tied into so many things, though - like having players track their own HP, the introduction of "ghosts" , lowering the overall difficulty of the event so fewer people died (and thus fewer complaints about being escorted out, and having to wait half an hour for the rest of your friends to finish), and the creation of various difficulty levels.

I do miss Death, tho : )

Introduction of the Barbarian -- then the Paladin, Monk and Druid -- then the Elf and Dwarf

I could have sworn the Druid came first.

The original TD party was a 6-man group. Druid became the 7th class shortly after.

Barbarian wasn't introduced until TD moved to the Marriot, and it was an optional class - offered to players in the WaitList, but only if the whole party agreed to have an 8th player follow them through the crowded dungeon. Man - those Marriott dungeons were *tight*!

Introduction of Build/Dismantle Crew made a huge difference to health and sanity of the volunteers

YES!!!!!

Treasure no longer being pulled in rooms, but instead at the end of the event

I remember the time Evan/JLionheart was moving the Treasure Box after the players had taken their loot, and the bottom fell out of it. Tokens *everywhere!!!* Players had to jump in to help clean up the mess so the next group could come into the room!

The True Realm event (and its issues) in 2009

I loved True Realm, and am glad it happened, but understand it was an extremely difficult undertaking for your family at that time.
I really hope True Dungeon Celebration is a lot more of, um, a celebration!

Does ANYONE want to volunteer to try to make up a text-based TD timeline for the TDC event? If you can get me the file by April 1st, I can make a cool time line with graphics. I'd make a cool display at TDC.

I bet the TD history thread would be a great starting place for that... if I could find the link. :/

Raven wrote: Okaaaay ... my own (biased) view of the changes:

#1 - The shift from TD being a small crowd of people who got really excited about the event *once a year*, to being a huge community of enthusiastic addicts whose lives are touched by TD on a daily basis.

It's been a slow, constant change, so it's hard to see - kinda like the frog in hot water - but the community right now is the biggest (and in my not-so-humble opinion) the very best part of TD's growth and change over the years.


#2 - The Token Economy.

Not just the presence of tokens (which were a hit from the beginning) but the amount of money which is spent on them, the variety of tokens (yay for trade mats & transmutes) and the whole collector's market including eBay shops and online stores. It's given a completely different flavour to the event, and to the way people interact - even in the physical space surrounding the event.

To give it some perspective: remember that Jeff once offered to dress up as Patsy if someone wanted to buy $1000(?) of tokens. The prevailing attitude was "who seriously needs that many tokens?!?"
Contrast with nowadays, where we essentially have a mini-con just to do all our Transmutes, so it doesn't take up as much time at GenCon.


#3 - The shift from One-DM-per-Party to One-DM-Per-Room.

I'll admit I kinda miss the days when your DM would follow you from room to room, because you could develop a certain rapport with them, and they could really build up the story narrative. In a sense it felt like table-top... where the DM laid out an entire world for you and your friends to share.

Now it feels a bit more like a haunted house, were you are handed off from station to station, and the narrative often gets lost.

On the plus side (and it's a significant plus!) the DMing is a lot more consistent. It was beyond frustrating if you ended up with a DM who seemed bored, or didn't know the module well, or who was slow as molasses at every. single. combat.


#4 - Coaching.

As a DM, I can not describe the difference it made to the game when Coaching and Party Cards were included as a standard component of the adventure. For the players, it may be just an extra 24 mins of paperwork, but to the DMs, it was a godsend! Can you imagine trying to run combat and keep players' bonuses in your head? Or having to ask them to show you their combat-relevant tokens at the beginning of every fight? Or springing a trap in a puzzle room and then having players dig out any of their tokens which would give them immunity to Surprise?


#5 - Party size.

Other folks have addressed the change in group dynamic, and the frustrations of larger parties. But for me, it's been (recently) mitigated by the ability to just run with fewer people.
So, in a sense, I'd consider it a big change that there are now rules in place to allow - and *support* - players' choice to run with smaller parties. It's a real game-changer for me, and the way I play TD.

Raven, I agree with all of those. I also think the change from wooden tokens to chip tokens was huge. I think the printing of the Horn of Plenty was one of the big developments, it and subsequent treasure enhancing tokens have driven huge amounts of token sales and passionate token development debates.

Jeff Martin wrote: How about?

• No more Death taking dead players out of the event
• Introduction of the Barbarian -- then the Paladin, Monk and Druid -- then the Elf and Dwarf
• Introduction of NPCs and animatronics/props to represent monsters (I think the Drow in room 7 2006 was the first NPC). For a few years players were asked to imagine the monsters.
• Introduction of Party Card
• Introduction of the "Pick Your Purple" URs with each $250
• Introduction of the BORG spfx systems (audio, lighting, video, spfx in one)
• Introduction of Build/Dismantle Crew made a huge difference to health and sanity of the volunteers
• Treasure no longer being pulled in rooms, but instead at the end of the event
• Introduction of professional token dealers
The True Realm event (and its issues) in 2009

Does ANYONE want to volunteer to try to make up a text-based TD timeline for the TDC event? If you can get me the file by April 1st, I can make a cool time line with graphics. I'd make a cool display at TDC.

Jeff, I've already developed a text-based True Dungeon timeline, I'll be happy to shoot it over to you.

I agree that the introduction of token purchasing incentives like PYPs has been huge, and has driven much of the token sales and enabled many of the True Dungeon improvements.

Raven wrote:

Jeff Martin wrote: How about?

No more Death taking dead players out of the event

That one *almost* made my list. It's tied into so many things, though - like having players track their own HP, the introduction of "ghosts" , lowering the overall difficulty of the event so fewer people died (and thus fewer complaints about being escorted out, and having to wait half an hour for the rest of your friends to finish), and the creation of various difficulty levels.

I do miss Death, tho : )

Introduction of the Barbarian -- then the Paladin, Monk and Druid -- then the Elf and Dwarf

I could have sworn the Druid came first.

The original TD party was a 6-man group. Druid became the 7th class shortly after.

Barbarian wasn't introduced until TD moved to the Marriot, and it was an optional class - offered to players in the WaitList, but only if the whole party agreed to have an 8th player follow them through the crowded dungeon. Man - those Marriott dungeons were *tight*!

Introduction of Build/Dismantle Crew made a huge difference to health and sanity of the volunteers

YES!!!!!

Treasure no longer being pulled in rooms, but instead at the end of the event

I remember the time Evan/JLionheart was moving the Treasure Box after the players had taken their loot, and the bottom fell out of it. Tokens *everywhere!!!* Players had to jump in to help clean up the mess so the next group could come into the room!

The True Realm event (and its issues) in 2009

I loved True Realm, and am glad it happened, but understand it was an extremely difficult undertaking for your family at that time.
I really hope True Dungeon Celebration is a lot more of, um, a celebration!

Does ANYONE want to volunteer to try to make up a text-based TD timeline for the TDC event? If you can get me the file by April 1st, I can make a cool time line with graphics. I'd make a cool display at TDC.

I bet the TD history thread would be a great starting place for that... if I could find the link. :/

Raven, here's the link: truedungeon.com/forum?view=topic&catid=590&id=193775&limitstart=0

Let me know if I'm missing any key (or even non-key) items.

Thanks!
Mike

Fairly new to this but before there yo used to be just one dungeon story runs but now there are two if I'm not mistaken.

jon wrote: Fairly new to this but before there yo used to be just one dungeon story runs but now there are two if I'm not mistaken.

With the additional division into combat and puzzle runs!