TOPIC: Returning Veteran's 2018 thoughts

I'm back!!!!! What, no-one remembers me? That's fine, I know I'm not a terribly memorable person.

Anyway, after a 3 year dry spell, I returned to GenCon. I did all four dungeons back to back on Friday afternoon/evening. And here's my thoughts.

The Good:

• The coaches and trainers were excellent. They did a great job helping all the new player (most of my runs were comprised for new players with one or two veterans, myself included)
• The ship steering puzzle. Great teamwork puzzle and it worked well
• The weekday puzzle puzzle. Good play on a classic puzzle, and loved the ghost effect
• The singing puzzle. Simple yet fun, and I welcomed the chance to sit down.
• Most of the combats. I liked the start at range effects, the ice wyrm and giants, the gargoyle.

The Bad:

• The engine room puzzle. This could have easily gone into the good, except that the mechanism was so touchy it was a chore. If it was an on/off switch that you had to hold it would have been great. Though I pity any group with less than a full compliment
• First corruption combat. Space in combat is at a premium in the best of rooms. This room was tight, and avoiding the exploding pustules made it a chore.
• Some of the rooms were hard to hear, not withstanding the below

The Ugly:

• Battle cries. There is enough noise and sound issues, and people just celebrating. Encouraging random loud yelling just made it worse. I failed the rainbow bridge because a particularly loud scream made me lose track of my count.
• Non-preventable X damage. Ugh. It's 2018. Damage prevention and eldritch damage have been a thing for years. I have to seriously wonder why I spent (way too much) money for these top end tokens, just to be told that a room does a special, unpreventable version of the damage they are supposed to prevent. Even on Normal.

Over all I really enjoyed TD 2018 and am glad to be back. I'm Hoping to get into a few runs at Gamehole and looking forward to 2019.

Xavon wrote: I'm back!!!!! What, no-one remembers me? That's fine, I know I'm not a terribly memorable person.

Anyway, after a 3 year dry spell, I returned to GenCon. I did all four dungeons back to back on Friday afternoon/evening. And here's my thoughts.

The Good:

• The coaches and trainers were excellent. They did a great job helping all the new player (most of my runs were comprised for new players with one or two veterans, myself included)
• The ship steering puzzle. Great teamwork puzzle and it worked well
• The weekday puzzle puzzle. Good play on a classic puzzle, and loved the ghost effect
• The singing puzzle. Simple yet fun, and I welcomed the chance to sit down.
• Most of the combats. I liked the start at range effects, the ice wyrm and giants, the gargoyle.

The Bad:

• The engine room puzzle. This could have easily gone into the good, except that the mechanism was so touchy it was a chore. If it was an on/off switch that you had to hold it would have been great. Though I pity any group with less than a full compliment
• First corruption combat. Space in combat is at a premium in the best of rooms. This room was tight, and avoiding the exploding pustules made it a chore.
• Some of the rooms were hard to hear, not withstanding the below

The Ugly:

• Battle cries. There is enough noise and sound issues, and people just celebrating. Encouraging random loud yelling just made it worse. I failed the rainbow bridge because a particularly loud scream made me lose track of my count.
• Non-preventable X damage. Ugh. It's 2018. Damage prevention and eldritch damage have been a thing for years. I have to seriously wonder why I spent (way too much) money for these top end tokens, just to be told that a room does a special, unpreventable version of the damage they are supposed to prevent. Even on Normal.

Over all I really enjoyed TD 2018 and am glad to be back. I'm Hoping to get into a few runs at Gamehole and looking forward to 2019.

We did do the Engine room 5 man. One person a side and the wheel was turned by foot at the end.

Xavon wrote:

First corruption combat. Space in combat is at a premium in the best of rooms. This room was tight, and avoiding the exploding pustules made it a chore.

From my experience in the dungeon, and the talk-through at the riddle reveal, this was not a thing. The only time being hit by the pustule bursts did anything was in the very first room of the dungeon. There were creature attacks that could inflict further corruption, but not where you're standing in the room. Did your GM say otherwise?

Welcome back!

Since you have just returned know when this debuted at Origins The engine room was less touchy and almost too easy. They improved it at GC making it a little harder and really bumped up the end effect with the light up green tube after all were locked red. I think the GC version was better. It's a group effort so if you had a shaky party member I can see why it would give you that impression.

Also the screaming I thought was great, I was thrilled to see some role playing being brought back into the game plus you can't expect Vikings to be quiet can you? The biggest distraction was the undead angel from N1 when they increased the volume so loud it interfered with N2 room one. That I agree with.

Seth Uricheck wrote:

Xavon wrote:

First corruption combat. Space in combat is at a premium in the best of rooms. This room was tight, and avoiding the exploding pustules made it a chore.

From my experience in the dungeon, and the talk-through at the riddle reveal, this was not a thing. The only time being hit by the pustule bursts did anything was in the very first room of the dungeon. There were creature attacks that could inflict further corruption, but not where you're standing in the room. Did your GM say otherwise?

Correct. We actually had two people get corrupted in room 2 from bursting pustules before the combat even started. So the rest of us were very careful about where we stood/stepped.

JACKOFTRADZE wrote: Welcome back!

Since you have just returned know when this debuted at Origins The engine room was less touchy and almost too easy. They improved it at GC making it a little harder and really bumped up the end effect with the light up green tube after all were locked red. I think the GC version was better. It's a group effort so if you had a shaky party member I can see why it would give you that impression.

Also the screaming I thought was great, I was thrilled to see some role playing being brought back into the game plus you can't expect Vikings to be quiet can you? The biggest distraction was the undead angel from N1 when they increased the volume so loud it interfered with N2 room one. That I agree with.

I have no problem with RP elements. I have a problem when it interferes with other players in other rooms and even other dungeons. If I miss part of the NPC audio (or again, mess up a puzzle due to the distraction) because of this, it is not terribly fair or balanced. Having a battle cry, without having to scream it, or putting a ceiling on that room to help muffle the sound would have made it more viable.

Welcome back, Xavon!

And thanks for your comments. It's always good to hear what people think after a time away.

One of the things which I am pretty impressed by, is how very few groups (this year, as opposed to, say, 4 years ago) are complaining about slow Combat DMs. The gripes are mostly about Audio (an ongoing challenge) and about specific, challenge-level details (puzzle X too hard, monster Y too much damage, etc.) in other words, things which can be fine-tuned with feedback exactly like yours!

And - unlike 4 years ago - these comments will make a difference as the Dungeon goes on the TD circuit for other Cons.

Thanks for helping to make TD better, and I hope you'll be sticking around for a few years again : )

Welcome back Xavon!

I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you or doing a run with you, but I always love meeting players that came before me and helped TD get to where it is today!



Trent

Raven wrote: Welcome back, Xavon!

And thanks for your comments. It's always good to hear what people think after a time away.

One of the things which I am pretty impressed by, is how very few groups (this year, as opposed to, say, 4 years ago) are complaining about slow Combat DMs. The gripes are mostly about Audio (an ongoing challenge) and about specific, challenge-level details (puzzle X too hard, monster Y too much damage, etc.) in other words, things which can be fine-tuned with feedback exactly like yours!

And - unlike 4 years ago - these comments will make a difference as the Dungeon goes on the TD circuit for other Cons.

Thanks for helping to make TD better, and I hope you'll be sticking around for a few years again : )

Thanks, Raven.

Yes, combat was generally great. A couple of times there were two combat DMs; I'm guessing those were training or other exceptions, but those rooms did run the smoothest.

JACKOFTRADZE wrote: Welcome back!

Since you have just returned know when this debuted at Origins The engine room was less touchy and almost too easy. They improved it at GC making it a little harder and really bumped up the end effect with the light up green tube after all were locked red. I think the GC version was better. It's a group effort so if you had a shaky party member I can see why it would give you that impression.

Also the screaming I thought was great, I was thrilled to see some role playing being brought back into the game plus you can't expect Vikings to be quiet can you? The biggest distraction was the undead angel from N1 when they increased the volume so loud it interfered with N2 room one. That I agree with.

I thought the wheels at Origins were very touchy, at least on Thursday. I was in the first run with a very experienced group. Maybe they adjusted it later.

If they were more so at GenCon, that's disappointing.

The lock color ar Origins was blue. Glad they changed that.

Harlax wrote:

JACKOFTRADZE wrote: Welcome back!

Since you have just returned know when this debuted at Origins The engine room was less touchy and almost too easy. They improved it at GC making it a little harder and really bumped up the end effect with the light up green tube after all were locked red. I think the GC version was better. It's a group effort so if you had a shaky party member I can see why it would give you that impression.

Also the screaming I thought was great, I was thrilled to see some role playing being brought back into the game plus you can't expect Vikings to be quiet can you? The biggest distraction was the undead angel from N1 when they increased the volume so loud it interfered with N2 room one. That I agree with.

I thought the wheels at Origins were very touchy, at least on Thursday. I was in the first run with a very experienced group. Maybe they adjusted it later.

If they were more so at GenCon, that's disappointing.

The lock color ar Origins was blue. Glad they changed that.

we had a different color.

jon wrote:

Harlax wrote: The lock color ar Origins was blue. Glad they changed that.

we had a different color.

I ran it twice at Origins. The lock was a different color both times.

Gotta say I’m not a fan of puzzles that totally rely on colors. (The Drow Houses was the worst.) I’m partially colorblind, and I work with a guy who can’t tell red from green to save his life. But I had a coworker who lost her eyes to glaucoma. I guess nothing can be 100% accessible.