TOPIC: True Dungeon 2013 Experiences

Monday 8/13
Local Setup Crew-It was a lot of physical work but I enjoyed talking with various people while working. Doing a variety of random tasks.

Tuesday 8/14
Local Setup Crew-Same as above. I believe I spent most of the day with Jeff Chandler. Started off doing lots of random things. Bye the end of the day I was helping Warren put up roof.

Wednesday 8/15
Local Setup Crew-I helped finished roofing. Ian and Seth were a pleasure to work with. Then I was made in charge of hanging emergency lights and room entrance lights. These were the green and red lights hanging above 'doors' in the 'corridors' between rooms. If you didn't notice them that that is okay. I had spent the entire time until 3PM not going into the rooms. Hanging them I had to walk into every nearly completed room twice (as they wanted a double check of the lights).
Trading-I started trading around 5pm to 8pm at Landings on Maryland. This was most deals I had already worked out but also random folks that came up to me because they needed things. I think next year I will have more things available for trade for noobs. I was not expecting such a high number of people needing basic armor and weapons. I will be better prepared for this next year.

Thursday 8/16
9:01AM Lycan Puzzle Normal-This was a PUG group. I wanted to get in a puzzle run before my group of noobs ran it on Sunday. I showed up late because I had left my badge in the car. When I arrived there were nine people sitting around going through their newly opened bag of tokens. They weren't talking among each other. I asked if they wanted to use my tokens and they agreed. I believe 7 or 6 of them had never played before with the others just once. The coach didn't get us lvl 5 cards for the few characters we had as level 5 and didn't mark the few RoR's I had. No biggie This was just test run for me.
This group was great. We got the eagle egg out of the stump (something I thought would be impossible with folks that had never worked together before). The lilac room we solved but we didn't get a treasure stamp. When I mentioned this the DM said the stamp was acquired in the previous room, by obtaining the treasure box out of the stump. I meantioned the T symbol on the wall should be moved and we proceeded to the next room. We were joined later in that room by someone higher up that signed or missing treasure stamp box. I wasn't looking for the extra stamp but thought the situation should be fixed before others felt they may have been cheated. I believe (don't quote me on this) resulted in some people getting 4 stamps after that. We killed the werewolf and wisp without issues. We were unable to solve the rope puzzle. We 'solved' the last puzzle in 5 minutes but I think the DM did it wrong. Each of us just grabbed the potion on our left and drank. DM said we solved it and we walked out to get XP and 13 Treasure Pulls each. Not bad for a PUG group which had almost no tokens before I arrive. When they returned my tokens all I was missing was one Orb of Might. I anyone found a 2013 one in a dungeon and found like to return it I would be in your debt.

12:48PM Lycan Combat Normal-This was my group of friends plus 2 new people I gave tickets to in exchange for all their tokens acquired from the event. Christy and Ben were great to have along. My group was able to get the eagle egg and the treasure box out of the stump. We solved or defeated (though combat was not easy for us) everything else except the rope puzzle despite seeing it for the second time.

10:00PM True Grind-I met binia, rafiq and his brother. Raven and Incoginto were our DM's. This was a blast. I hope everyone enjoyed meeting me as much as I enjoyed meeting them because I did have a good time.

Friday 8/17
1:50 Golem Combat Normal-This was supposed to be a group of 6 noobs I traded tickets for tokens for (like Christy and Ben) but 4 didn't show up. I am not certain if that is because we had a mis-communication or they could not make it for other reasons. I had 2 friends show up and fill in. Because the original group was supposed to be mostly noobs, we didn't destroy combat the day before, and we were down two people we decided to play normal. It seemed the right level the day before for the group.
In the first combat room we destroyed the creature before it even had a turn. I believe this upset the DM because he was just rude to us after that point. I usually don't call out bad DM's because I know they have a hard job. It is long and repetitive and I usually thank them for it regardless. Some of them are super great and those I make sure to tell them how great they are before I leave the room. This DM though put a sour mood on the entire party for the rest of the adventure. He was upset that we were not playing Hardcore and wanted to know why. I explained to him that we played Normal yesterday and it seemed balanced correctly. I said I don't know if our stats were done wrong today or yesterday but I was basing it off that information. He said we these stats we should be doing Hardcore. He stated that if we were worried about missing two people I could have picked up two. I explained that I wanted the treasure for the two other bodies that were not present but I held the tickets. He said I could not do that. He said he had been playing for years and could solo an adventure on normal but didn't do it because it would not be a challenge. I understand the point he was making was that we should have been doing Hardcore. I agree with him. We would have enjoyed the difficulty more. It was the way he put it to us for 10 minutes after we completed the room. He was cocky, arrogant and just plain wrong. After I left the room I pulled up Jeff's post about treasure and having tickets without having players to confirm I was correct.
The next room of combat we destroyed round 1 as well confirming we should have been on hardcore. This DM however put it in much better terms. We thanked him for it but unfortunately were pretty sour about the treatment in the previous room. When we got to the Golem the DM saw that we were on normal and said he would only attack us once per round. We told him to go ahead and attack us twice. We defeated the Golem in a few rounds and solved the final puzzle of the switches after a few tries.

6:38PM Golem Combat Normal Sealed Run-This was a Sealed run sponsored by Rafiq and his brother. This was a blast. It was great play with Adeya and Fizzikx (sorry if I misspelled these but didn't want to put up your real names) as well. Over all we had a great time. We had 1 or 2 I cannot remember DM's roll D20's at us for damage. I don't remember that ever happening on normal before. I hope that is not correct because a OTK against a player on normal seems excessive. I don't know if they knew we were veteran players and wanted to make it more interesting or just something else. Not a biggie just thought it should be pointed out.

10:24 Lycan Combat Normal Sealed Run Part 2-This was a continuation of the Raqif and company group. Still had a blast but it was too late to be playing TD. Adeya and I got kinda loopy doing awful puns. Rafiq's brother and I started singing 16 Tons to attempt to get everyone singing....we failed. The group (except me) all pulled at least a UR between the two runs. I think Fizzikx pulled a HoP and I know at least 1 or 2 relics were pulled.

Saturday 8/17
12:39PM Golem Puzzle Hardcore-This was my group of friends. We were able to proceed through the dungeon without too much difficulty. I this point I determined Golembane to be easier than Lycan as even on Hardcore we were not worried. In the final room we the switches we took too long. I didn't remember the exact solution but knew how to arrive at it fairly quickly. Unfortunately by the time I realized we ran out of time. The only missed stamp the entire GenCon. I blame myself.

3:38PM Lycan Combat Normal Sealed Run-This was Fizzikx's sponsor run with Adeya returning for part 1. I had sooooooo much fun on this run. I played a barbarian. In room 4 (I think) I licked a mushroom (in game) that I made me trip out in the room and then in room 5 I played I was coming off it bad. Many laughs by all throughout the adventure.

7:36PM Golem Combat Normal Sealed Run Part 2-Continuation of Fizzikx's group. We had lots of laughs. We got to almost solving the gear puzzle but seemed to be a gear short and realized there was must be a mistake. That is when I revealed I hid one of the gears in the gear room which the DM thought was really funny. In the golem combat my first slide was either an 18 or 19. I walked away from the table laughing quite hard. As other saw my slide they chuckled as well. The DM finishes the casters stuff to check the slides sees the boards and says, "That is not funny." My polymeric decoy had smacked the Golem nicely in the face. The DM played it up well though saying the barbarian's throw does hit the Golem squaring in the face but does no damage. I tell the DM this has pissed me off so now I want to rage as the barbarian. We both have a good laugh. Everything is defeated or solved and the party has a blast many saying it is the best run they have had all GenCon. I admit it is up there for me but all my runs were fun except the one previously mentioned.

Sunday
10:49 Lycan Puzzle Hardcore-This is a group of my co-workers and friends who have never been to GenCon before little loan played True Dungeon. Two people called off sick so we do 8 man. I choose Puzzle for them because my group of players prefers puzzle so I thought this group would too. I warn them that room 2 (with the stump and egg) is perhaps the hardest or second hardest (behind the 7th room in Golembane) in all of TD. I tell them I have played it 4 times and all 4 times we have succeeded so no pressure. We got the egg out but not the box. 5/5 on the egg. 1/5 on the treasure box. The plank room on hardcore only gives you 5 planks. I am last so I won't help with the puzzle. We have a lot of fun in the room. Leaving each other stranded. Warren is our DM and he is great. It was nice to see him again before GenCon ended. Very pleasant man.
Everything is going great to we get to the wisp. This is the fight I am dreading. It was a struggle when my group fought it and they knew what they were doing. I don't have the tokens to be affective at ranged and I know it. I warn them ahead of time if we have to ranged we will struggle. The wizard and bard launch everything at the wisp. The barbarian has no ranged weapon for some reason. He cannot find it. So it is a paladin, a ranger, fighter and a rogue left as sliders. Round 1 Ranger (me) over shoots the everything. Everyone else falls to slide hard enough. The wisp is hitting us hard keeping the cleric busy. Round 2 we do the same thing. I over shoot everything and everyone else barely makes it up the board. Round 3 everyone misses again. I am starting to get worried. Magic Missiles are the only thing working against him but at only 2 being cast a turn I am worried but running out of time. Round 4 I slide the +2 boom stick (not my normal ranger weapon) right on the 20. I tell everyone else not to slide because we cannot risk bumping it and we probably need to hit 20's to hit it. The DM informs us the 14 is pointed at the wisp so it is destroyed. All rejoice. I tell them we got lucky.
The next room is the ropes I believe. Everyone just wants to try things with the ropes without really considering the clue or the rogue clue. I tell them to read the clue again. They still don't understand that the shape they need is in the clue. After a few more repeats of "read the clue" from me they figure out there needs to be a star with the whites. They attempt so weird things with the black ropes. The engineer in the group then figures it out. They did an excellent job. The final room we go in and I talk to the DM. I tell him I believe I have the solution (having played on Thursday but not certain if the previous DM was correct. The proceed around the table correctly randomly guess the first two (being left). The third one the paladin grabs the left and dies. They realize they just sacrificed their lvl 5 pally could could prevent 1 death....oops. They fighter then proceeds around the table making it a little over half way when he dies. I warn them they are running out of time. The wizard steps up and goes around the table. He completes it.
At this time I am uncertain to the answer of the puzzle though we have solved it twice. They ask me if we should revive the two fallen adventures and I tell them no it is the final room.
12:49-ish Teardown-I part ways with my friends letting them grab all the treasure. There is only monster trophies box left I am told later. I work the next 6 hours with Jeff Martin. It is amazing how fast True Dungeon is torn down. If you can I recommend volunteering for teardown. It would be helpful to TD and it is kinda cool to see it come down. It is a pleasure working with Jeff. He is a hard worker and I hope I kept up with him, but he is fun too. I have to leave at 6:30 as I have someone waiting on me. I am a little torn about volunteering myself on Sundays in the future. I think it is awesome to see everything taken down. I know they need the help but Sunday most of my out state friends leave. I hadn't thought about this when I agreed to volunteer. I missed getting to say goodbye to my friends I only see once or twice a year.

Overall I had a great time. One of the overall best TD years for me. I think I did do too many runs (9). It was great though to put some faces with names. I would love to run with Rafiq, Fizzikx and Adeya again. They were a blast. Jeff Chandler, Jeff Martin, Seth, Ian, Alex, Drake, and Warren were a pleasure to work with. Sorry anyone I forgot as I terrible with names. Hope to see everyone before next year.

I'll keep the format going:

Monday 8/13
Local Setup Crew - Spend the day hanging curtains and erecting walls. Had some good conversations with some great people.

Tuesday 8/14
Local Setup Crew-Same as above. Started the day running electrical power to the various rooms, then helped install the audio and lights to the Lycans Afoot Combat side. Spent about 20 minutes decorating rooms, before being pulled off to join Warren and BC on the roofing project.

Wednesday 8/15
Local Setup Crew- I also helped finish roofing, then spent the rest of the day putting out small fires and organizing the prop area to consolidate their footprint. I closed out the day by helping assemble props in the rooms, which lead to me almost being electrocuted by a faulty power strip that successfully blew a circuit breaker at the ICC. The most entertaining aspact of today was acquiring water for the fountain... After the close, I did some trading, getting a few nice pieces for my character.

Thursday 8/16

8:03pm Golembane Puzzle (Nightmare) - Had a very positive experience, but was flummoxed by the final puzzle. Never noticed the light bar up top that would tell you how many you had wrong. Fortunately, went with someone who had done it correctly, which kept us from failing.

10:26pm Golembane Combat (Nightmare) - Having just done Puzzle, Combat was relatively easy. Nothing much to add here.

Friday 8/17
4:13 pm Lycans Afoot Puzzle Normal- This run was done by friends of a close friend, most of which had some experience running the dungeon, but wouldn't be described as hardcore TD junkies. We did exceptionally well, solving every puzzle except for the last puzzle, because we never got that the figures were the statues. We had an unfortunate encounter with the DM of the last room. We started forcing the puzzle, because we couldn't figure out the pattern and were running out of time. Instead of letting 2 or 3 of us manage to live, while solving the puzzle, the DM told us we all died while we still had about 30 seconds on the clock and had finally gotten all the correct choices figured out.

10:00pm True Grind (Hardcore) - My first True Grind, and a very entertaining experience. I can't undersell how great Incognito and Raven are at running this event. It had a great twist, a lot of close calls, and ended up with just the Monk and Wizard surviving to kill the last boss monster.

Saturday

8:01pm Lycans Afoot Puzzle (Nightmare) - Having run through once on Normal, most of the puzzles were easy for us, with two notable exceptions. First, this time we had two people who had significant physical impairments that prevented them from getting down low enough to start the egg up the tree. Added to that the fact that the Nightmare egg was smaller, and we never really had a chance. I understand that TD can't be all things to all people, but I would encourage Jeff to design physical challenges in such a way as to be more fair to those with physical issues. Second, in the final room, we knew that the statues were the figures, but couldn't make heads or tails of some of the statues vs. the potion. I'm not sure if we were just being dense, or if the statues were too obscure, but we failed this while feeling like we had the puzzle figured out, which was frustrating.

10:12 pm Lycans Afoot Combat (Nightmare) - This run may deserve its own thread. We had zero issues with this run until the final room. The DM in the room started things off normally, but was extremely surly, to the point of having a God complex, during the combat. For instance, I played the Druid, and cast a spell surged Call Lightning. The DM looked up the damage on my card, had me pick the correct leaf, and then said "ok, 20 damage". I then went to correct him about the Spell Surge, at which point he became very upset, telling me that he knows what he's doing and that he's got this. Minutes later, our newest player told the DM that she was going to do Stunning Fist on the Tree. The DM acknowledged, and our Monk slid and hit. Next round, the tree attacked. Our Monk politely asked about the Stunning Fist, to which the DM arrogantly stated, "Did I ask you to re-roll?". The Monk said no, and the DM launched into an argument with the Monk about how he knows how to do his job and not to second guess him. It ended in the DM wasing a full minute of our combat time yelling at us, later pulling the Monk aside and speaking to her in what the Monk perceived as being a very condescending tone, and our Monk leaving the dungeon in tears.

Players are encouraged in TD culture to remind the DM to include all bonuses, as there are so many moving parts. It is very upsetting to have a DM come unglued on you for doing something that only serves to help the DM do his job. Later, we concluded that the Treant is immune to blunt weapons, but all of this nastiness could have been avoided by a simple "your attacks don't seem to be bothering the monster" or "Your Stunning Fist has no effect". In my case, the DM could have simply said, "I was getting to that, 40 is correct". Probably the worst interaction a group of mine has ever had with a DM at TD.

Sunday

Teardown begins. Let me re-iterate that it is incredible the speed at which TD gets torn down and re-packed. Kudos to all the leads, directors, and particpants in the build and tear down, it was incredible to watch and experience. I'm not sure I'll be able to afford taking the extra three days off every year like this, but I highly recommend everyone do it at least once.

jedibcg wrote:
3:38PM Lycan Combat Normal Sealed Run-This was Fizzikx's sponsor run with Adeya returning for part 1. I had sooooooo much fun on this run. I played a barbarian. In room 4 (I think) I licked a mushroom (in game) that I made me trip out in the room and then in room 5 I played I was coming off it bad. Many laughs by all throughout the adventure.

7:36PM Golem Combat Normal Sealed Run Part 2-Continuation of Fizzikx's group. We had lots of laughs. We got to almost solving the gear puzzle but seemed to be a gear short and realized there was must be a mistake. That is when I revealed I hid one of the gears in the gear room which the DM thought was really funny. In the golem combat my first slide was either an 18 or 19. I walked away from the table laughing quite hard. As other saw my slide they chuckled as well. The DM finishes the casters stuff to check the slides sees the boards and says, "That is not funny." My polymeric decoy had smacked the Golem nicely in the face. The DM played it up well though saying the barbarian's throw does hit the Golem squaring in the face but does no damage. I tell the DM this has pissed me off so now I want to rage as the barbarian. We both have a good laugh. Everything is defeated or solved and the party has a blast many saying it is the best run they have had all GenCon. I admit it is up there for me but all my runs were fun except the one previously mentioned.

I played the fighter on these two runs and it truly was an awesome time. I hope to run again with you all.

Never saw you this year Kerwin.

jedibcg wrote: Monday 8/13
3:38PM Lycan Combat Normal Sealed Run-This was Fizzikx's sponsor run with Adeya returning for part 1. I had sooooooo much fun on this run. I played a barbarian. In room 4 (I think) I licked a mushroom (in game) that I made me trip out in the room and then in room 5 I played I was coming off it bad. Many laughs by all throughout the adventure.

7:36PM Golem Combat Normal Sealed Run Part 2-Continuation of Fizzikx's group. We had lots of laughs. We got to almost solving the gear puzzle but seemed to be a gear short and realized there was must be a mistake. That is when I revealed I hid one of the gears in the gear room which the DM thought was really funny. In the golem combat my first slide was either an 18 or 19. I walked away from the table laughing quite hard. As other saw my slide they chuckled as well. The DM finishes the casters stuff to check the slides sees the boards and says, "That is not funny." My polymeric decoy had smacked the Golem nicely in the face. The DM played it up well though saying the barbarian's throw does hit the Golem squaring in the face but does no damage. I tell the DM this has pissed me off so now I want to rage as the barbarian. We both have a good laugh. Everything is defeated or solved and the party has a blast many saying it is the best run they have had all GenCon. I admit it is up there for me but all my runs were fun except the one previously mentioned.

I had the great fortune of these two runs (and a grind on Sunday) being my introduction to true dungeon. This group was an absolute blast to play with, and I hope I have a chance to join them again. The "make the noob do it" approach to all the puzzles meant that I got to experience the whole thing from fresh eyes, while at the same time freeing up the vets for more important activities like hitting on nymphs, licking mushrooms, seeding the whole dungeon with treasure bags, and setting traps with the dreaded ducks.

Even if the game had been bad, I'd probably have gotten hooked just due to the group I got. With the game being great on top of it, I'm already making plans for how many runs to do next year.

Wednesday - Waiting on our TD Volunteer buddy

Our group, consisting entirely of Indy locals that live on the north side, makes a habit of coming downtown Wednesday evening before the con to get the lay of the land, do any administration what-have-you, and get dinner. This particular year we were left waiting for one of our group members to get out of his GM training Wednesday evening. When he finally came out, he had that devious glint in his eyes. We all knew immediately that he could see farther than us, and would bind us with ancient logics. Good things were in store.


Thursday - 6:49, Normal Lycans Afoot (puzzle)

This run consisted of my north-side group (mostly co-workers). We had a tough time with some of the puzzles, ultimately failing at lifting the egg out of the stump due to some considerable lack of coordination. Several of us knew what we needed to do, but pulling it all together proved impossible for us. People keep mentioning a treasure chest inside the stump, but there wasn't one on this particular run.

We failed the rope puzzle as well. We discerned immediately that we needed to make a star, but came to find out Sunday evening that we were missing several ropes when we came through this room, making the puzzle impossible.

We ultimately failed the final room with the elixirs as well. We knew that the statues had something to do with the solution, but at the time we couldn't determine what.

As our group's resident rogue, I had my first surprise of 2013 TD: something was up with the rogue boxes. In the training room of this run, I was noticing that I could set off the red light simply by tapping the stylus into one of the start/end holes. I was able to repeat this anomaly pretty consisting about 1 out of 4 taps, verifying that I wasn't, in fact, touching the sides of the groove. At first I wrote it off as a faulty box in the training room (the coach even stated that they had been having trouble with it). But as I attempted the first box in the run, I had the same issue. And again on the 2nd. And the 3rd. By this point, I was getting frustrated. I've got a pretty steady hand, and I knew I wasn't touching the sides. The GMs were kind enough to allow me to demonstrate my concerns, and I was able to show them that I could get the box to red light without touching any side walls. They seemed as confused as I, and they graciously allowed me to continue as they watched and verified that I could, in fact, get the stylus through the groove without touching the sides. At this point, I was theorizing that some maintenance on the rogue boxes had gone awry.

At the end of this run, we were feeling a little disillusioned as a group. We had a new player filling for one of our group who had a scheduling conflict. She found the experience less than stellar, but that was probably due more to our group dynamic than the run itself (though I will admit a burning hatred for that eagle egg).

During our treasure pulls, one of our newer members pulled a GoFGS. We were really excited, because in the past such a pull was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. We excitedly told him its value and was a great pull it was. At this point, I was pulling for monster bits, blissfully ignorant of the cornucopia of URs and relics awaiting in the equipment bin.


Friday - 7:29, Normal Golembane (puzzle)

Same group, minus the new player. This run turned our collective frowns upside down. We had an amazing time and came out laughing and gleeful. I only wish that we could have had our newbie along on this one so she could had gotten a real taste of how awesome TD is.

We solved every puzzle, though we had at least one buzzer beater (we managed to solve the gear box mere seconds before time was up). The shackled genie was an excellent combat with some puzzle-like elements to it, though I feel like there should have been some bonus for parties with the foresight to free her rather than kill her (perhaps a small amount of healing). Nevertheless, the NPC played her partly marvelously, and accepted our applause with grace.

Our bard's antics and prose kept everyone laughing and having a good time, GMs included. We were tickled to death at GladOS's cameo in the final rooms. The final puzzle required a bit of thinking on our part. Being a group consisting almost entirely of software engineers, a binary Mastermind-esque puzzle was well within our realm of expertise. Unfortunately, our powers of perception were lacking, as we could have discerned the answer without any trial-and-error had we thought critically about what GladOS was saying in the prior room.

I had some trouble with the rogue boxes acting up on this run as well, though not all of them. Again, the GMs were polite and understanding when I was able to demonstrate the odd behavior of the boxes, though we were still at loss to explain it. At this point, I was seriously considering calling it quits on the boxes altogether for the rest of the con, especially considering that I was about to embark on my very first Nightmare run the following evening, and I'd had very little experience with the larger stylus.

During our treasure pulls, I was still pulling for monster bits when several members of my group pulled more relics and URs. At this point, I was suspicious and started asking around. We discovered that the equipment bin was fairly overflowing with purps and blues. I mentally kicked myself for not doing the appropriate research up front and dropping my first 30 pulls on the monster bits bucket (which, by the way.....not many monster bits in the monster bit bucket, apparently).


Saturday - 8:02, Nightmare Golembane (combat)

This run consisted of a few of my normal group, as well as an old friend of mine from way back. Said friend had been doing Nightmare runs for a couple years, so he gave us the rundown on what to expect in terms of difficulty and the kinds of preparation we would need to do. We had the gear, now it was time to put up or shut up.

The rest of the group was filled with singles and pairs, some geared, others new players. We all immediately jumped in to help gear the newbies and help them with any questions they had. Anything to make the coach's job easier, right?

When we got to the training room, I finally discovered the answer to my rogue box dilemma. As I showed the coach the strange behavior of the box, he considered what he was seeing. In years past, my technique has always been to have a low grip on the stylus with my thumb, index, and middle fingers. I then rest my pinky on the top plate of the box to stabilize my hand as I traversed the groove. This had never caused any issues in past years.

After a moment's consideration, the coach asked me to shift my grip higher on the stylus and try again. I did so, and discovered that in order to do so, I had to lift my hand away from the top plate of the box. After a few attempts, I determined that this had solved the issue. The coach then informed me that they had replaced the bottom plates in the boxes with solid brass, and that it was possible that the combination of that and my grip allowed a circuit to be completed through my hand resting on the top plate.

Following that explanation, I had no trouble completing the rogue boxes for the rest of the con, though I did have a few moments of high anxiety when doing the new spiral patterned box.

Ultimately, we got through the Nightmare run with no issues whatsoever, and had a great time doing it. I started pulling from the equipment bucket after this run, but alas, no URs or relics for me.


Sunday - 12:00, Hardcore Lycans Afoot (combat)

This was supposed to be a Nightmare run, but only 5 people showed up. A few minutes before we were to go to the training room, we had a couple of walk-ons, but they had never done TD before. We got them equipped and elected to downgrade to a Hardcore run.

My furious loathing of eagle eggs aside, we had no trouble surviving through the run, though we did get a bit panicked on the Will-o-wisp when we couldn't seem to hurt it quickly enough. Luckily our spellcasters were able to bring it down.

The Shambling Mound fight (at least, I assumed that's what it was) was delightfully hilarious for me. I had taken some push damage from the prior room, the river crossing, since my party apparently decided that they had to wait for me to do the rogue box before they could even start crossing the river (of course, I didn't find this out until I finished the box and turned around to find them all looming over me). It was at this point I discovered that I had left my bag of healing tokens sitting in the previous room next to the rogue box, and had to run back to retrieve them. When I returned, I was hastily pulling out enough stump waters to heal 11 points of damage, when I managed to drop a few tokens. I bent down to retrieve them, and as I was doing so, a creepy voice whispered in my ear.....heeelllloooo. I froze. Then a giant plant beast nabbed me and dragged me over to the corner of the room.

Now, I tend to dislike rooms that take a player and preclude them from doing anything. In years past, I feel like that person kinda gets cheated out of some of their participation in the dungeon. However, this particular NPC made being a captive a hilarious amount of fun. We danced, we sang, we got hit in the junk by my party members on more than one occasion (on the slider board, not literally). He kindly explained to me in hushed tones the deal with the room, and that I wasn't in danger of dying even if my party kept hitting me during combat. All-in-all, I had a great time.

17 more treasure pulls, and still no URs or relics. The rest of my group likewise pulled very little interesting on this run, but overall we got some great stuff. I did have a few moments of jealously that people were getting relics out of a box that I dropped a considerable amount of materials to craft, but ultimately our group will be better for it, so maybe I can convince them to run Nightmare next year.


And just like that, it was over. Another GenCon come and gone, with the same TD fun and excitement I've come to expect. Very well done.

Thursday:

2:51pm - Golembane Puzzle- Pickup Group with n00bs and other unknowns. This group was amazing. I showed up early to the run to find my preferred class taken by a father and his son. I offered to help them out if they let me play the rogue and they obliged. I then lent out my bag check to another party member and then proceeded to lend out (on paper) my HOP and RORs to all new players as well as the 10 CoGFs. A great time was had by all and even though we didnt solve all of the puzzles this was an amazing into into my pre-gt run.

6:00pm GT Golembane Puzzle - Flat out the GT runs are always amazing and this year was no exception. Meeting darkangel, TJRat, valetutto, eversuede, EN, Brainscan and Stormie for the first was amazing and all players were truly a pleasure to run with. Jeff came in wearing a lizardman mask and asked us to figure out the color of the gem Cogwin was using to power his golem and if we could tell him we all got a special surprise that "no one has seen before" for telling him. There was no extra room this year but I feel seeing Jeff in costume made up for it. On my previous run I had drawn a purple Special ? token and when I turned it in - I got a Mithral Coin of Fate!!!! The swag in the token bag was great and included all of this year's relics as well as the monster bits (as previous years).

9:49 Lycans Puzzle (Team Synergy) - This run was great as well. SageSTL sponsored it for us and it was an absolute blast. We even got the egg AND the treasure box. Brad and Ramsildor were on this run as well and an amazing time was had by all. This only bad part about this run was that I lost my +2 staff of power during the run. This saddened me greatly, however, the pulls had later on made up for it and then some. Also I was still on the high of getting a mithral coin of fate...

Friday:

6:38PM Golem Combat Sealed Pack (Naked Run Friday 1): Sponsored by Rafiq. This was also one of the best runs I did all weekend. Playing with Adeya, JediBC, Rafiq, Anslem, and others was an absolute treat. As has been echoed before - we could have TPKd and it would not have mattered - I had so much fun on this run and the next one that it was simply the highlight of my convention. We must do this again next year if we are all able to.

10:24 Lycans Combat - Continuation of Naked Run Round 1. I think we were all beat. Adeya was looooooopy and hilarious. I was having a great time. For the record I did *NOT* pull a HOP - that was Brad =) (Conga Rats, Brad!)

Saturday:

I started out the day doing two runs with my local groups (lycans combat and golembane combat) this was an absolute blast and I thinK I even managed to hook one of my local guys into TD. I have pointed him in the direction of the forums and anxiously await his joining our ranks soon =) He managed to pull bracers of the quivering palm (not sure about the title but the UR monk ones) and also a ring of heroism which sealed his fate.

3:48 PM Lycans Combat Sealed Pack Treasure Run 1 (Naked Run pt 2) - also had an amazing blast on this run and had the pleasure of running with Tharwn007, kerwin1970, Ramsildor, and JediBCG again. Also joining the ranks was Brad, Shady and Adeya. This group was in direct competetion for my favorite run as well. We had a blast and did quite well on the puzzles. Adeya even dressed up for the occasion as bat GIRL. =) It was also nice meeting and playing with Shady for the first time as well as Kerwin and Tharwn who were both new this year! I was very happy to give these players an awesome into to TD.

7:38PM Golembane Combat - Sealed Pack Treasure Run 2 (Naked Run pt 2)
Having ran into MorningStar several times before this run - i was finally able to run with him for a change. It was an absolute pleasure. All personalities mixed amazingly well and we were laughing so hard just enjoying one another's company that we could have all TPKd and probbably not minded. We did amazingly well on the run and treasure pulls became mediocre. Still part of the best runs during the con. Thanks again to all for joining.

The last run of my day I ended up passing to Shady. I'd like to personally apologize to all members I bailed on but then again I dont think you wanted to run with a zombie rogue anyways.

All in all - TD this year was a BLAST, but more so because of the players and amazing TD Staff than anything else.

Favorite Players: SageSTL, JediBCG, MorningStar Zero, Brad, Ramsildor, Adeya, Shady, Harlax, Dave, the n00bs (Rob and Tharwin), Landspeeder, bpsymington, tjratt, picc, EN, and many many others.

Favorite track: Golembane Puzzle
Second favorite: Golembane Combat

Favorite GMs: Don (amazing!), WJ WC? (something like that), and the TPK dm who ran the tree room at the end of lycans. He was hard hitting and we all died but he was great and knew exactly what was up. Thank you all so much for making our trip so enjoyable!

Lastly I'd like to give a HUGE shout out to all our bag check volunteers for being so helpful and understanding, as well as ALL of the prep staff from ticketing to coaches (even laz I GUESS... to Don and the prep room folks who RPd (including the rather amusing young fellow in the cloak who liked ducks very much - you know who you are)!

Thanks again for making GC the #1 thing I look forward to in my year and I hope to see everyone again next year!!

PS> To all my synergy sponsors SageSTL, Amorgen Burke, CommanderFuron (who I only got to see in passing this year), and

I assume they made the boxes more conductive due to what could be considered an exploit. I have always done my best to not put my hands on the top of the box after it triggered when my finger touched the stylus and metal edge at the same time. I find one knee on the floor and resting my elbow on my other knee.

I didn't find out until Saturday that the Scroll of Magic Hand would work on the egg, and that the 'chest' was broken early on and replaced with a nerf football, lol.

Things I wondered on the way home...

If I had been carrying two potions of polymorph viper could our druid have slithered into the tree, returned to normal, handed the egg out, polymorphed again and slithered out?

Then I thought the dryad probably would have freaked at the sight of a viper with her precious egg.

If I had been wearing a cloak of gliding could I have leapt off the exploding tower while shouting "so long suckers" at the rest of my party.

Then I thought some combination of explosion and falling rubble would have done me in anyway. Might have been worth it to see their expressions...

I got mentioned twice in the same post! Yay! <sniff> I love you guys!

The replacement nerf ball was only on one side (Combat?) the other side still had a chest.

Ah ha! I was wondering what that Nerf ball was on my Sunday run....

As for the Rogue box, I used to hear in years past that some rogues would grip the stylus between their thumb and index or middle finger and use their fingernails as a guard against hitting the edge of the groove. I could definitely see why they would up the sensitivity to prevent that. Some of we rogues are on the up and up and want to make an honest living.

I never did bump into Raven this year, though a GM in one of my runs asked if I had paid my rogue taxes, which of course I know nothing about.

I think I might need to lay low for a while...