TOPIC: A miscellany of suggestions/ideas

There isn't really a generic "True Dungeon discussion" forum area, so I guess I'll just put this in the GenCon 2015 area.

The following are just random ideas/suggestions I'd like to offer for consideration.

* Have written text available for all important dialogue given by NPCs, especially if the dialogue is being played from a recording. Several rooms this year had instructions written on the wall, which made things much easier. For instance, in the ten talking mushroom area. However, having a scroll of text on each mushroom showing what it was saying would have been even better. I realize these signs are not quick and easy to make, but if something important to game play is being said it should be made explicitly clear; I can think of no sure way other than literal text on the wall to ensure this.

* Please do not add any more token slots. We are at a rather strained number of slots already. While earcuffs/earrings are nifty, they are really pushing it.

* In a similar vein, and taking a cue from the Medallion of Heroism, I suggest some pushback against the "Christmas tree" effect be implemented when possible. While stat penalties as item drawbacks are cumbersome and difficult to implement, restricting slot usage would be relatively simple. For instance, certain tokens that are slightly more powerful than usual for their rarity and slot may say they "count as two" items for that slot.

* I enjoyed the grub room, as it offered the players a choice of seeking either a "combat" or "puzzle" solution, or some combination. However, upon seeing a sliding board most people just assume that combat is their only option, and they won't even ask to attempt anything else. I would like to see more rooms like this in the future, but I think it would be worth having the coaches/trainers mention to the players that they might be able to gain an advantage in some combats - or even avoid combat entirely - if they are clever enough.

* The production values of the dungeon are fantastic, no doubt. So many people pour so much energy and love into this thing that it's astounding. That said however, I will just express my personal opinion that if given the choice between maintaining these production values and increasing ticket prices, I will vote to keep the prices down every time. Heck, I would be fine with walls made out of hanging bedsheets and orcs in simple Halloween rubber masks if it meant we would go back to the days of 8 member parties and $38 tickets. I realize I'm likely in the minority on this, and have no illusions of things getting scaled back that much, but I might as well throw my voice out there.

* Churning through so many commons and uncommons (and even rares, to some extent) every year seems incredibly wasteful. I would be fine with some sort of standardized token set of commons and uncommons that doesn't change every single year. The rares and URs, etc. changing every year would be enough, methinks. With the saved expense of not having to redo all the commons and uncommons every year, perhaps there could even be a greater of variety of rares than the usual annual 40. Just an idea.

* The experience codes were a great success! It was SO much easier to wrap up a dungeon run this year. Kudos! Please keep this system.

* Many people complain about inconsistent DM rulings, such as how one DM allowed a certain puzzle solution while another didn't, and so on. I believe it is a mistake to try and create a consistent way for each DM to run each room. Players must accept that this is not a tournament or a computer simulation, but a roleplaying game! If someone is trusted to be a room DM, they should be allowed the leeway to make on-the-fly decisions as appropriate. So many times, a DM has not allowed a perfectly acceptable solution or course of action simply because it wasn't on the approved list of officially acceptable actions, or the DM couldn't remember if it was listed as an acceptable option, and so they just default to denying otherwise clever and legitimate player actions. It seems pretty sad.

* Most of the complaints I hear about True Dungeon - unreasonable or rude players, feelings of being insignificant, having tired and cranky DMs, etc. - seem to be a direct function of the number of people involved. No matter how well you organize things and try to run them smoothly, the simple fact is that the potential for problems increases dramatically with the number of people involved. Where am I going with this? Try to cut down on the number of players in a run. I realize doing that without creating a cost increase would be very difficult, but consider my point on production values, above. Simply saying "you can buy out a run and play with fewer players if you want" is NOT a solution. The vast majority of players are going to be thrown into a room with a dozen or more total people; it's inevitable that they will eventually question whether they're getting their money's worth.

So, that's all for now. If some of these opinions stick in some people's minds, great. But if they get cast aside, then oh well. At least I voiced them.

* Please do not add any more token slots. We are at a rather strained number of slots already. While earcuffs/earrings are nifty, they are really pushing it.

We seem to be seeing more slotless items too. Might need to rein that in as well.

* In a similar vein, and taking a cue from the Medallion of Heroism, I suggest some pushback against the "Christmas tree" effect be implemented when possible.

Not sure what that means.

For instance, certain tokens that are slightly more powerful than usual for their rarity and slot may say they "count as two" items for that slot.

So for the Boots of the Marauder that some see as overpowered, how does that work?

* The production values of the dungeon are fantastic, no doubt. So many people pour so much energy and love into this thing that it's astounding. That said however, I will just express my personal opinion that if given the choice between maintaining these production values and increasing ticket prices, I will vote to keep the prices down every time.

My understanding is ticket prices are largely set by GenCon and tie directly to the hall rental costs. There is some agreement that GenCon and TD have that covers such things, we as the public don't get to see it. Besides, the sets are reused year after year (There's a particular apothecary chest with little tiny drawers I want to search every time I see it. It was in the mindflayer room this year and the medusa room last year.) Much of the production items are made well in advance of ticket sales and are more the result of token sales. Again, this is my understanding and I reserve the right to be wrong.

* Many people complain about inconsistent DM rulings, such as how one DM allowed a certain puzzle solution while another didn't, and so on. I believe it is a mistake to try and create a consistent way for each DM to run each room.

I believe there needs to be a baseline acceptable method, but DMs should have leeway to make a more creative tailored experience to increase how much fun players have.

Lode

XP codes - I liked the cards, but in some ways last year's sticker was better. I stuck it on my wristband so I knew which run it went with. This year Shelly and I got some of our cards mixed up, and we were lucky enough to guess right so that one of us didn't enter two codes from the same run. Next year, is it possible to add dungeon and date/time on the sticker?

DM creativity - Three of the rooms have stamps. The seventh determines survivor button. The rest, in a sense, kind of don't matter, other than being a place to cause damage that needs healing. In these rooms, at least, the DMs should be able to wing it moreso than the others, even if you wanted to keep the other rooms managed more strictly because they "matter" more.

Costs - it was cheaper when TD was across the street, but there was less room, too. The storyscape is amazing every year, but for me the coolness peaked with True Craft. The quests and NPCs made it like a village. Now it's a cool ghost town with a bunch of tourists. Which is to say, going back across the street might not be such a bad thing if it lowered ticket prices. If nothing else, the lighting is better. (And it's not that inconvenient compared to where we are now. When we were in Hall D, I would agree that location was a big improvement over Marriot. Now, it's a toss-up.)

Garrison wrote: Try to cut down on the number of players in a run. I realize doing that without creating a cost increase would be very difficult, but consider my point on production values, above. Simply saying "you can buy out a run and play with fewer players if you want" is NOT a solution. The vast majority of players are going to be thrown into a room with a dozen or more total people; it's inevitable that they will eventually question whether they're getting their money's worth.

Hmmm - I wonder if we could have some allocation of "Enhanced" runs which cost 25% more than a basic run, and were limited to 8 slots?

This might also have the tenancy to partition newbies from veterans (I don't expect a lot of newbies to be buying the $65 ticket over the $52 ticket)?

Brad Mortensen wrote: XP codes - I liked the cards, but in some ways last year's sticker was better. I stuck it on my wristband so I knew which run it went with. This year Shelly and I got some of our cards mixed up, and we were lucky enough to guess right so that one of us didn't enter two codes from the same run. Next year, is it possible to add dungeon and date/time on the sticker?

DM creativity - Three of the rooms have stamps. The seventh determines survivor button. The rest, in a sense, kind of don't matter, other than being a place to cause damage that needs healing. In these rooms, at least, the DMs should be able to wing it moreso than the others, even if you wanted to keep the other rooms managed more strictly because they "matter" more.

Costs - it was cheaper when TD was across the street, but there was less room, too. The storyscape is amazing every year, but for me the coolness peaked with True Craft. The quests and NPCs made it like a village. Now it's a cool ghost town with a bunch of tourists. Which is to say, going back across the street might not be such a bad thing if it lowered ticket prices. If nothing else, the lighting is better. (And it's not that inconvenient compared to where we are now. When we were in Hall D, I would agree that location was a big improvement over Marriot. Now, it's a toss-up.)

I liked the stickers better also, it was easy to stick them on the back of the badge to keep track of them. Although my real preference is still to have the XP captured in the exit room like it used to be. There are a number of party members in my group that have missed out on XP the last couple of years because they lost their stickers/cards.

Matthew Hayward wrote:

Garrison wrote: Try to cut down on the number of players in a run. I realize doing that without creating a cost increase would be very difficult, but consider my point on production values, above. Simply saying "you can buy out a run and play with fewer players if you want" is NOT a solution. The vast majority of players are going to be thrown into a room with a dozen or more total people; it's inevitable that they will eventually question whether they're getting their money's worth.

Hmmm - I wonder if we could have some allocation of "Enhanced" runs which cost 25% more than a basic run, and were limited to 8 slots?

This might also have the tenancy to partition newbies from veterans (I don't expect a lot of newbies to be buying the $65 ticket over the $52 ticket)?

I'd rather buy two tickets and $104 and get double treasure...

Brad Mortensen wrote: Costs - it was cheaper when TD was across the street, but there was less room, too. The storyscape is amazing every year, but for me the coolness peaked with True Craft. The quests and NPCs made it like a village. Now it's a cool ghost town with a bunch of tourists. Which is to say, going back across the street might not be such a bad thing if it lowered ticket prices. If nothing else, the lighting is better. (And it's not that inconvenient compared to where we are now. When we were in Hall D, I would agree that location was a big improvement over Marriot. Now, it's a toss-up.)

The Marriott had better lighting control, a more comfortable floor, and was a lot lower cost.

But it was also smaller. TD could run a Max of 2 dungeons in there.

Do we want to go back to having only 2 dungeons? TD is selling out all its tickets right now in record time. If we cut the number of tickets IN HALF, do you think it will cause fewer problems?
Especially if cutting back means we can drop the price... there will be fewer tickets available, and more people trying to buy them. Not really a situation I'd want.


Regarding the XP stickers/cards... I really liked them on cards this year.
The only thing which would make it better for me (and probably for a lot of other people) is if you could have the Dungeon name/type printed on the sticker.

That would meake it a lot easier for people to (a) remember which dungeon that particlar card was from and (b) make sure they were given the appropriate card. (I heard a few groups were given the wrong XP code... they got the puzzle version XP after going through the combat dungeon) I know there was a way to tell (whether the code started with A, B, C, or D) but having it printed right on the sticker would have saved a lot of confusion.

I'd also love it if there was a separate XP code for "Normal" and "Hardcore/Nightmare" levels... but that's me.

When handing out the token pack at sign up, have a choice of the usual randomized pack or a STANDARD EQUIPMENT PACK which would include 9 commons and a single randomized rare.

For instance:

Sling
Club
Robe
Rations
Bandages
Boots
Cloak
Gloves
Hat
And a randomized rare.

Raven wrote: The Marriott had better lighting control, a more comfortable floor, and was a lot lower cost.

But it was also smaller. TD could run a Max of 2 dungeons in there.

How about both? Regular TD in Hall A as it is now, two newbie dungeons in the Marriott

Newbie dungeons could be retro dungeons like we had at WYC. The ticket price would be lower, perhaps fewer rooms, only Normal difficulty, limited treasure.

Kirk Bauer wrote:

Raven wrote: The Marriott had better lighting control, a more comfortable floor, and was a lot lower cost.

But it was also smaller. TD could run a Max of 2 dungeons in there.

How about both? Regular TD in Hall A as it is now, two newbie dungeons in the Marriott

Newbie dungeons could be retro dungeons like we had at WYC. The ticket price would be lower, perhaps fewer rooms, only Normal difficulty, limited treasure.

I hearby nominate Kirk to find enough additional volunteers to make this happen.

Fiddy wrote: I hearby nominate Kirk to find enough additional volunteers to make this happen.

I already did the hard part, coming up with the idea, I'll leave the volunteers to you

Kirk Bauer wrote:

Fiddy wrote: I hearby nominate Kirk to find enough additional volunteers to make this happen.

I already did the hard part, coming up with the idea, I'll leave the volunteers to you

So if he comes up with them does he get half the rewards?