TOPIC: Feedback for gencon 2019

So I wanted to post this while it was fresh in my head.

First of I wanted to say me and everyone in my group (8 people) all had an amazing gencon and had an amazing experience thru out true dungeon. I got to introduce 3 new people to true dungeon this year and can say they will all be back again next year and we are planning to hit up gamehole con also.

So I think the only real disappointment the veterans in our group had was that on the runs we did without our new players we ended up having to do normal on all 3 runs. This was disappointing to us because we have just started to acquire better gear for hardcore and didn’t really get to use it. I’m trying to figure out for next year a better way for a 4-6 stack of players to make sure we can do hardcore when we can’t buy out runs.

Our new players only regret was they only signed up for 2 runs this year lol.

This year I was able to interact with a lot of 0-3 year exp players on my runs and the biggest thing I realized is that almost none of them know about the character apps, transmutation, the forums or almost anything extra about true dungeon outside of the actual playing. I personally feel that maybe the best place for this information is when we are getting treasure pulls after the game. I know a lot of the players thought the exp cards they got were just some random td ads and didn’t even read them and just throw them always. Maybe a quick talk from the person giving the treasure pulls about what the exp cards are, what monster bits are and about the forums and community would be good. Also maybe a new player pamphlet or big poster that goes into more detail. Because the more steps they need to get info the less likely they will go get it.

John DiMartino wrote: So I wanted to post this while it was fresh in my head.

First of I wanted to say me and everyone in my group (8 people) all had an amazing gencon and had an amazing experience thru out true dungeon. I got to introduce 3 new people to true dungeon this year and can say they will all be back again next year and we are planning to hit up gamehole con also.

So I think the only real disappointment the veterans in our group had was that on the runs we did without our new players we ended up having to do normal on all 3 runs. This was disappointing to us because we have just started to acquire better gear for hardcore and didn’t really get to use it. I’m trying to figure out for next year a better way for a 4-6 stack of players to make sure we can do hardcore when we can’t buy out runs.

Our new players only regret was they only signed up for 2 runs this year lol.

This year I was able to interact with a lot of 0-3 year exp players on my runs and the biggest thing I realized is that almost none of them know about the character apps, transmutation, the forums or almost anything extra about true dungeon outside of the actual playing. I personally feel that maybe the best place for this information is when we are getting treasure pulls after the game. I know a lot of the players thought the exp cards they got were just some random td ads and didn’t even read them and just throw them always. Maybe a quick talk from the person giving the treasure pulls about what the exp cards are, what monster bits are and about the forums and community would be good. Also maybe a new player pamphlet or big poster that goes into more detail. Because the more steps they need to get info the less likely they will go get it.

the default is normal. everyone has to agree to change it. If you want to avoid that, buy all 10 tickets then look for people to add to the group, so you can tell them in advance it is hardcore or nihtmare.

I understand that normal is the default and we didn’t try to push a harder difficulty on new players and even pulled our punches to avoid ruining anyone else’s fun. We were unable to buy out full runs this year even though we tried and it sounded like a lot of players had this issue to. It’s not a big deal just a minor frustration.

TD is a fluctuating entity. Things change from year to year as Jeff and Crew try to make everything work perfectly for both new and old Players.

Quite a few times over the years computers used to be outside the Dungeon that had instructions to log onto TD, create a profile, and put in your XP right then and there.

Quite a few times in years past there were signs up talking about transmuting.

Things like that come and go. Jeff is on here heavily and reads as much as humanly possible. He might even respond to your concern. In regards to what I responded to. Laz is correct about what he said, but you already knew that.

Just have patience (which you do have I can see) with the process.

I always (or nearly always) mention this in the training room.

The new videos in the training and epilogue rooms were added to attempt to help distill the information for new players, but we’ve discussed putting out some sort of “one-sheet” of info at XP as well... we’ll talk at TDHQ and see what we can come up with. Thanks for playing!

John DiMartino wrote: This year I was able to interact with a lot of 0-3 year exp players on my runs and the biggest thing I realized is that almost none of them know about the character apps, transmutation, the forums or almost anything extra about true dungeon outside of the actual playing.

Shameless plug: www.talkingtd.com for the Podcast. There are episodes for new players and we even talk about transmuting (although I think it needs a separate session all by itself.

Ed

As for the videos we only ever saw them in our sealed run. They never played in any of our other runs. I can’t remember if there were screens for them to play on in our other runs so I’m not sure if that was by design or not.

John DiMartino wrote: As for the videos we only ever saw them in our sealed run. They never played in any of our other runs. I can’t remember if there were screens for them to play on in our other runs so I’m not sure if that was by design or not.

There were definitely screens for the videos in the training rooms and at the end. I suspect they may not always have been activated since the information they covered is the same as the speech a lot of coaches already give.

Picc wrote:

John DiMartino wrote: As for the videos we only ever saw them in our sealed run. They never played in any of our other runs. I can’t remember if there were screens for them to play on in our other runs so I’m not sure if that was by design or not.

There were definitely screens for the videos in the training rooms and at the end. I suspect they may not always have been activated since the information they covered is the same as the speech a lot of coaches already give.

Much of the information in the videos is given in coaching. The rest was a duplicate of what is done in training. I don’t think they were all that helpful.

Mike Naglee wrote: The new videos in the training and epilogue rooms were added to attempt to help distill the information for new players, but we’ve discussed putting out some sort of “one-sheet” of info at XP as well... we’ll talk at TDHQ and see what we can come up with. Thanks for playing!

Extremely dislike of the videos in training, too tired right now (my con didn't end well on a personal note) but rambling blunt thoughts below
The videos felt like a cop out for trainers who didn't really know their spiel or really what their role was. I view the role as a bridge to cover game mechanics (DMing) and questions left over from coaching. Example in training one must be more than proficient in tokens, game mechanics and class abilities as i'm the room (yes i'm a trainer) where i get random questions from any of those categories as players come to me to ask (especially those who've done a run or 2 and now want more info) how X works. I have a variable length pitch that dpending on party makeup covers just basics and gets them lots of practice time to more indepth coverage.

A good trainer judges the party by a quick question or two and by party card to figure out where i can save time (do I cover monk/ranger when doing initial combat mechanics or do i need to ask if there's a rogue. Again one finds one shortcuts to save time and get more useful training time for parties.

Really appreciate players who came to me afterwards and thanked me for training. Some folks who did this Sat made my night.

The video slowed things down and really didn't cover much, plus production quality didn't fit the room. The video feels like it would be an awesome tool to be used on TV's out in storyscape where inevitably random passerbys wander in and are curious as 'they want to know what's going on in this hall or what TD looks like.

I wouldn't mind an updated aid of some sort of aid for folks who do have hearing issues i can use. See how some clues/DMs spoken bits are available in some rooms where we've had audio issues.

Overall this con itself was great for me and l truly love my teaching role of being a trainer as i love showing players and folks new things and love seeing the moment when it clicks for someone of 'oh that's what i'm supposed to be doing and why this is fun'. That is my payoff for the long days and short sleep.

Shoutout of course to various coaches and assistants in E1 and E2 who helped keep me on track. I have great sense of timing for my pitch and room, i just have no sense of specific time #'s and thanks to volunteers who kept me on track of what party comes to my room next.

Always thankful for my TD volunteer family.