TOPIC: Why did you do more than 5 runs?

Jim Auwaerter wrote:

jedibcg wrote:

joshua baessler wrote: I disagree - if repeating the same dungeon is your idea of fun, go for it so long as you're not ruining anyone else's fun. What I do think we need to get away from are these "challenge" runs where one or a handful of people buy out an entire run and "ghost" the other characters. If a real person is using a ticket, awesome. If one person is buying out 9 additional tickets for the challenge and/or the treasure - I think that's a little wrong. Those are spots that could have gone to other people.

And I disagree with this. If you want to buy all 10 tickets and die in the first room it is your prerogative. It doesn't affect how I play. Yes tickets sold out faster than ever but from looking at the forums it seems because more people our buying out entire runs or as many as they can so they can have better control of the run.

Everytime someone was looking for tickets on the forums there were people that had tickets available.

From the perspective of "Does Jeff make the money", a ticket sold is a ticket sold.

From the perspective of bringing new players into the game, tickets being sold via the GenCon event system are better than tickets being re-sold via the forums because there's a higher barrier of entry. While most of the folks on the forums know one another and trust one another, I could understand someone who has never done True Dungeon hesitating to hand over 50 or 100 bucks for tickets for a run. There's also the need to know to go to the forums, rather than seeing "Sold Out" on the registration page and taking it at face value.

Let's convince Gen Con to allow us to return tickets without a fee up to a certain point. The ONLY reason I organized a run for 10 random people on the forums is so that I didn't take the ($52?) hit. If I could have returned it AT COST, it would have showed back up for newbies to take.

I did not have more than 5 runs, plus Grind.

joshua baessler wrote: What I do think we need to get away from are these "challenge" runs where one or a handful of people buy out an entire run and "ghost" the other characters.

I suspect this happens a lot less than you may think. I worked four eight-hour shifts in the coaching areas and I know of three instances when parties were deliberately comprised of less than 10 people. But let's say 10 times that many "challenge runs" (as you put it) actually went through. That's a drop in the bucket compared to how many runs there were.

For the record, I was not on any of the "challenge runs".

I guess this reply could have been placed under several current threads. I am a 4th year player. I was always intrigued by TD but the high cost and uncertain expectations prevented me from trying it earlier. A friend told me about his runs with his wife so I decided to try it 4 years ago. Of course he hasn't been to GenCon in that time frame. I made friends from a group from California. They honestly look like the Firefly crew, but they aren't them. We are all probably geared for hardcore and hopefully close to NM. This year the LA cop bought the tickets but was on special assignment so the California crew had to bail and they over-nighted me the tickets the Monday before GenCon. I had 2 back-up tickets and I was in the Green with Envy group and the Greedy Sealed Pack group.

I tried my best to get the tickets to those who wanted them. I started with my other friends who were going. My one friend bought a trio for his wife and 2 sons. Another bought a pair for him and his son. A third friend's son said he would take one but either over-slept or decided the $30 I was asking was too much. That was what I called the silver ticket run. I had 3 of the tickets and someone else had the rest. We both ended-up with 1 missing so we ran with 8. Someone above asked how to ghost. I guess that info would have been good for us both as the 2 tickets just went to waste. All of my 6 standard runs went as normal as there were multiple new players in each. I played my nice barbarian in this one and I didn't feel bad doing better than the others since 3 had forgotten their tokens and we were not a very effective fighting force as a whole.

For my second run right after, DarkAngel +1 had bought the 2 extra tickets I had and they seemed more in-tune with the newbie concern than I was. I was loaning the nice items I had to the newbies and trying to make sure they were effective, but I could see where they might not feel like they were equals. DarkAngel was even sliding with no weapons in his ranger pucks (punching?) to no 1-round kill monsters. 1 DM seemed to appreciate this. Another did not.

The 3rd run was with my friend's wife and 2 sons. We all had a blast!!! I let his wife play my barbarian, I played my rogue, and his sons played a pally and a druid (he was almost an Eagle Scout, so I hoped he knew a few leafs). It was a great group and I had NO idea how well this mild-mannered house wife could slide. She would go first and often hit that natural 20. At least once everyone else declined to slide after her so her +20-something damage would go through. I don't know if this pissed-off anyone, but everyone seemed to be having fun. The 1 son was so effective with the druid I decided to play it myself.

I played the druid for the rest of the standard runs. I feel a support character is not as intimidating as a brute damage-dealer. I loaned out tokens when I could. Giving a random newbie a roll on the Amulet of Wonder die was always fun. I only lost one +1 Cestus in all the loans, so not so bad.

I did want at least a couple hardcore or NM runs and I was lucky enough to get into one of Smack's runs. I was even happy playing a mildly effective paladin. I kept the wizard from being hit 3 times and used the sacrifice to save another character. By then I knew the puzzles. We had a troubadour, so I didn't really worry about spoiling the puzzles (it WAS Saturday night!!). I just jumped across the stones on the lava pit without explaining what I was doing. They weren't perfect, but they figured it out. In the last room I was 95% sure about the eggs and did it for them. There were no secrets about how to do that one. You were either paying attention to the houses & colors or you weren't. Trying to pull the clues out was suicide. One gentleman in the group thanked me afterwards for pointing out the houses & colors to his son's friend in one of the early rooms. He was helpful in getting them all right!

So I did 9 runs. I have no regrets. I paid my money and will probably end up paying for the friend and son who haven't paid me yet. It was all fun. If you just show up as Boba Fett and you can't keep up with Gardakan and Mordok, then make your own fun. "The boots... they work???"

quip wrote:

Incognito wrote: <snip>some newbie players see TD as more of a haunted house experience, so getting the experience at a reduced cost would be beneficial for them.

However, there is also an additional dimension. An 8 person party has a better claim at wanting more space ("10 is too crowded"). That argument is weaker with 5 people. And is disingenuous with one person.

Has anyone made any claim of wanting more space with double down or fewer number of people? I have heard that for 7 (the original number in the party from the early days) or 8 person runs. Certainly I make no claim of wanting extra room for wanting to do a solo run. It was the challenge, wanting to be the third to do it, and establishing other firsts. Pure and simple.

I think Raven made a good point in that she purchased the same number of tickets, but had more fun, had more time to do other things she enjoyed, and was less likely to be "the rude" veteran (although I have a hard time imagining Raven in that role, since she has enhanced the fun of anyone who has met her in TD).

I have cut back on runs over the last few years, since I enjoy running the token trader as well.

I could go on, but I'll leave my last comment at:
Perhaps anyone who has extra spots in a run should consider offering them up at least for spectators for those who haven't been able to get a run.

I make that claim a lot actually. I first started buying multiple wrist bands so that there would be just my friends in the runs and there would be more space. The physical space is nice but I actually enjoy having a larger slice of the DMs time.

With fewer players they can spend more time calculating and they forget my fancy tokens less. Its also more personalized and there is a larger chance they interact with you. For example, what good does a high AC do if they never target you? with fewer players they have fewer choices and eventually have to interact.

One of the many perks to a smaller run.

Matt wrote: Honestly thought i was covered when I told/asked Raven if it was okay being 10min late as i was able to waitlist into an immediate run and got the okay.

Sorry, man. Hadn't meant to steer you wrong... and I honestly did tell Incognito that at least one player was running late from a run (though I couldn't remember you by name) ... but it was more than 10 mins, and once we hit 15 or 20 mins late, we need to look for people to fill the run fast, or there won't be time to get their stats done in time for the run.

Steve wrote: Wait. So how does that work. officially? I'm hoping to book a pair of 10 slots next year .. and if people don't show .. could be in the situation where I'm 1 or 2 down.

Is there an official post on 'ghosting'?

There is an official rule. It's posted somewhere on this forum (can't find it off hand) but it's also in the Coaches Guide, which I can point you at:

Coaches Guide

The explanation is on page 14. It's kinda long, but I'll pare it down it here. (Follow the link if you have questions or want examples about how it works in more detail):

Groups with Less Than 10 Players

Some groups prefer to play their adventure with less than 10 people. That’s permissible as long as all of these parameters are adhered to:

• All 10 hard tickets must be purchased by one or more players in the group. They may not pay for the runs with generic tickets. (A hard ticket is a single ticket that specifies the exact date and time of the event)

• All 10 hard tickets must be turned in.

• All 10 wristbands must be put on members of that group.

• 10 bags of tokens will be distributed to the group, as determined by who is wearing the extra wristband(s).

• No matter how many wristbands a player is wearing, no person may play more than one character.

• Only treasure-enhancing or synergistic tokens may be “equipped” on phantom characters.

• At the end of the adventure, TREASURE CHIPs will be awarded as if a real person had played. Treasure-enhancing tokens only affect one wristband per token.

• 6th-level (or higher) players get one extra TREASURE CHIP for each wristband they’re wearing.

Raven wrote:

Matt wrote: Honestly thought i was covered when I told/asked Raven if it was okay being 10min late as i was able to waitlist into an immediate run and got the okay.

Sorry, man. Hadn't meant to steer you wrong... and I honestly did tell Incognito that at least one player was running late from a run (though I couldn't remember you by name) ... but it was more than 10 mins, and once we hit 15 or 20 mins late, we need to look for people to fill the run fast, or there won't be time to get their stats done in time for the run.

Understood, knew i was cutting it close. Didn't help myself when i ended up bringing in a dang near new player (right after his first run i gave him the grind ticket for free). I live and learn and if this was the only issue i really had or caused for a dm/coach can't say it went too badly.

I remember the raven fun time run later anyways as an interesting time. Never use a hallowed oasis water during a grind.

Raven wrote:

Matt wrote: Honestly thought i was covered when I told/asked Raven if it was okay being 10min late as i was able to waitlist into an immediate run and got the okay.

Sorry, man. Hadn't meant to steer you wrong... and I honestly did tell Incognito that at least one player was running late from a run (though I couldn't remember you by name) ... but it was more than 10 mins, and once we hit 15 or 20 mins late, we need to look for people to fill the run fast, or there won't be time to get their stats done in time for the run.

I recall being told about someone being late when there were less than 8 players around.

But then at a later point there were 8 players and no one seemed to know what happened to boc_mage (Matt), even when I inquired about you by name.

No worries though. As I said, it all worked out!

Matt wrote: I remember the raven fun time run later anyways as an interesting time. Never use a hallowed oasis water during a grind.

Yes, death by Hallowed Oasis Water was my second favorite Grind death this con.

tokendb.com/token/potion-hallowed-oasis-water/

I even specifically asked if you were *sure* you wanted to use it....

My favorite Grind death would definitely have to be Kent's death by Golden Apple (rolling two consecutive 1's):

tokendb.com/token/golden-apple-of-eris/

I totally got to see Kent die. He just dropped dead right there.

We went on to win the grind by the slimmest of margins. Only the bard survived the final attack outright. (We rezzed a few for badges.)

Lode

Incognito wrote: My favorite Grind death would definitely have to be Kent's death by Golden Apple (rolling two consecutive 1's):
tokendb.com/token/golden-apple-of-eris/

Incognito gets a cookie!
[img size=200,200] www.dantasyland.com/td/Cookie_of_Gratitude.png [/img]

persolo wrote: I gotta end up on a run with you sometime. Have heard they are memorable.

Yeah my friend and I did our first ever run with Raven a few years back, been hooked ever since . Would love to do another with her sometime.