TOPIC: Tokens for 1st time players

Plan on doing a couple runs at GenCon this year. (Not the sealed deck runs) And have a couple questions.

1st - without setting up a group run, how often do runs have a majority of new players in them without extra tokens to use? I.e. Most only have the 10 pack of tokens?

2nd - depending on the likely percentage of newer players on a random run, I'm thinking of bringing extra tokens to help out. Is this actually helpful or does it bog down the coaches having to deal with new players and a bunch of tokens to figure out?

3rd - if I do something like this any suggestions? I.e. Keep the amount of situational tokens to a minimum, use tokens that mainly effect the party card to keep things simple?

Or is this behavior frowned upon?

My $0.02 (I suspect you'll get a variety of answers):

If you're planning to do this, my biggest advice would be to try to be the first player into the room and talk to the others as they come in. Make sure it is clear that you are only offering assistance and that they shouldn't feel pressured to take your help.

If you get there and the coach is already filling out the card, think twice before offering anything other than maybe HP boosts.

In general, avoid situational tokens. However, if you have enough of the same situational token to equip everyone and want to help the whole group remember when it comes into play, that can work. For example: if you've got 10 Flameguard Greaves and are going to remind people to take 2 less fire damage if it comes up. Greaves are also conveniently a spot that most new players will have empty.

I've run every dungeon once at Gen Con with an ever growing group since 2015. There are usually 2 to 4 new players per run at Gen Con that I've been in. The sealed vipers run I did last year had 6 new players, which was the most I've ever had, but is not relevant to this discussion.

For loaner tokens, I would stick to a minimum number, and it would be best if they all are party card relevant or modify hit points. For example, I'm planning on 1 loaner tokens this year for newbies that end up running with us :
Shirt of linked healing

This let s me help keep the newbies alive by making my healing dramatically more effective (I play cleric with a linked shirt whenever possible). It's easy for them to remember, and it doesn't make coaching any more difficult, and I can collect the token right after the training room.

If I were going to do extra tokens, this year I would find a large stack of these items :

Blighted boots
Blighted pants
Blighted belt
Bogling gloves
Blogling necklace
Bogling shirt (if I didn't use lsoh)
War Shell Armor
Ring of iron will

Any player you outfit with this set gets :
+1 melee hit and damage
+3 ac, +1 ref, +1 ranged hit
+3 more AC for all but monk and wizard
+6 hp, +1 fort save
+1 will save, after accounting for pluses and minuses

Most importantly, I would plan on giving away all the Commons. In coaching, I would say I have these extra comics, are you interested? Also, you can borrow this rare ring to offset the will penalty.

Hopefully that set of tokens makes their run more enjoyable, fills their card so they don't feel like they are running as naked, and helps them survive.

I don't think any of us can tell you the answer to 1. We can all give you what we have witnessed or heard, but it is not data that anyone to my knowledge has tracked. I would guess it is alot of players but what are the odds, not a clue. As much as I have played in pug groups that are using starting packs, I have ran into pugs that they have several years worth of starting packs and 3 (or 4) treasure pulls. I have run into pugs that appear to buy some amount of tokens each year.

2. I don't know what tokens you have access to, but that comes to my mind that hasn't already been mentioned. Charm of Health, Ring of Health and I think there is an IS that adds health. If someone has a starter pack they are unlikely to have 2 rings, 3 charms or 5 IS. So you can lone those out without affecting anything they open. They also don't need to go on the party card.

3. Yes limit situation tokens, unless it is something like Fiddy said. I do also strongly recommend the greaves.

To help others out is not frowned upon. Just make sure you are offering if someone wants it not pushing it on anyone.

If you have a pocket full of weapons, those are probably the most useful but riskiest to loan out.

People get excited at the end, so unless you plant yourself at the exit to room 7 with your hand out, some will walk away. Sure, some people might be stealing them, but mostly I think they just forget.

I’ve often loaned out rares, but I’m not shy about collecting them back. Depending on your situation, you might be more comfortable with uncommon weapons. Nikita no one will think less of you if you don’t lend any.

I personally loan out tokens almost every time I play with new players, but not a lot per player. I keep most of the tokens on me and make sure basically everything I loan out is on the party card or real easy to deal with.
I keep extra defenders sets, I loan out hp boosters, and other stuff to inprove survival.

Appeciate the feedback.

My thought process was to bring some extra tokens from 2019/2018 instead of mulching them and letting the new players keep them regardless if it is uncommon or rare. No strings attached

Just wanted to make sure it was okay to do so and how often newer players were found on pug runs.

Yet again thanks for the responses

For the past few years, I've put together a set of Rare builds for most of the classes, and I put them into a zippered notebook.
If there are new players, I ask if they are interested in borrowing a completed build.

I prepare a party card for the coach, and I tell them which row the player will be using.

I have a small conatiner of weapons (melee and ranged) and some minor healing tokens, but I keep all the rest of the equipment on me.

I tell new players to please spend the healing tokens if they get low on HP--a dead paladin won't help the party.
I keep these builds simple--almost no conditionals I mainly put up things to boost AC, HP, saves, to hit, etc.

I also make sure that this won't be an issue for the player.
If they want to run with their free bag, I try to help them sort out what equipment will help them (if they ask for help).

Just my $0.02

--Steven

Someone (Brad maybe?) posted an idea on this a long time ago, which was to bring 10x of one usable by all token that is in a slot unlikely to be filled by new players (Ioun, Charm, Earcuff) and leave it at that.

"Hey - I've got Ioun Stone Ruby Rhombus for everyone, so we can all take -3 damage from fire."

That way you can help without overwhelming anyone.

It might be even better if the thing you do boosts the party card, so the players don't even have to think about it, like a +1 save earcuff, or a HP boosting Ioun, Earcuff, or Charm.

Beyond that, having a stack of +1 Faeirie Iron Skulls for ranged weapons can be clutch.

1. depends a lot of the time and day, I'd say easily 50% of the players during the day are brand new. Less first thing Thursday, and later in the evening.

2. It is helpful, some players love it, other hate it, in either case just try to be considerate of the people your offering to loan stuff too.

3. Best advice, dont offer to loan out anything conditional. If you throw a lot of "you can" and "when x do y" tokens at new people they will usually at best be forgotten and at worst may fluster someone. Personally I usually only offer to loan out +level and +treasure items for people since "hey who wants to use the 5th level cards and get some extra loot, other then that everything's the same" is an easy sell that still let's people feel like they are in control of their own characters.

The biggest eye opener for me was one year when I loaned out complete builds, thought I was doing a good thing, then found out after that one of the people I loaned a build too had a bad time because they felt like they wernt allowed to actually contribute when "some vet took over and got us through"

I guess all I'm saying is be mindful of others experience.

I just looked at the list of commons I posed above - is it just me, or is this a better than normal year for building with commons and uncommons?

I kicked out a build with 8 commons, 5 uncommons, and 14 rare, mostly from last year and this year, that could be used by barbarian / fighter / dwarf fighter / paladin. Depending on class, it has, essentially, 35HP, +10 saves, +7 melee hit and damage, and 19 AC.

The biggest eye opener for me was one year when I loaned out complete builds, thought I was doing a good thing, then found out after that one of the people I loaned a build too had a bad time because they felt like they wernt allowed to actually contribute when "some vet took over and got us through"

That's very interesting. I hadn't received that feedback before, but I'll watch for it.
The feedback I've gotten has skewed much more toward the difficulty level (Hardcore vs. Normal).

The TD PHB (and some coaches) indicate that a completely Rare Token build is OK for Hardcore, but I've received feedback the past two years that Hardcore was too stressful and that Normal was more fun.

I'll have to watch to make certain I don't offend any players by lending a full set of gear.