TOPIC: Noob Review

This year was the first time my son (15) and I went to Gen Con or played True Dungeon. For background, we had bought $500 in tokens before going and had reviewed the Players Handbook and tips on the forums. We had decent builds (mostly red, couple UR, and some C and UC) that were better than the average noobs but much less than most veterans.

We started with Into the Viper's Pit on Thursday, which was a sealed event. I think everyone in the run was a new player, and most of the people were in groups of one or two, so it was friendly with a good set of teamwork. We played normal. Despite being nervous about the lack of tokens, we made it to the final room before the entire group shuffled off the mortal coil. This was probably the most fun group of the weekend because everyone was low key and we weren't concerned about screwing up a run for veteran players (or vice versa). We had a fantastic bard with a good voice and sense of humor.

Friday morning we did N1. This was a mix of levels of players but no large contingents of people so still good teamwork. Our builds were respectable in the middle of the pack for our group. Puzzle rooms were a lot of fun. Combat wasn't as bad as I feared, and I think we made it through alive.

Saturday morning we did N2. This was a run with a group of 8 players who were fairly intense and came as a group. Their builds had purple as the worst, and the entire party had CoA. They wanted to play Hardcore, and we went along with it although we feared dying in the first combat. But they were willing to help us with healing, and we survived. The DM in the last combat room said our group had the easiest time of any group he had seen defeating the giants. Then we went out to get our three treasure pulls while the rest of the group had 15+.

Saturday afternoon we did N3. This group had veterans including a family of four with husband, wife, and a teen girl and boy. This group was stronger than the N1 group but weaker than the N2 group. We did it on normal and made it out.

Highlights were the puzzles, in particular navigating the ship through the mines, and puzzle with the "mirrors." NPCs were great throughout, and other volunteers were anywhere from good to great. The drinking song room was awesome and really got everyone in the spirit.

Lowlights were the sound. As many have pointed out, very hard to hear in almost every room. Even when the DM pointed out the location of the speaker(s) and we crowded around it quietly, I could almost never hear the clue clearly. Other lowlight was the lack of variety/necessity of using different tokens. Combat seemed to be completely a function of AC and damage, without the need for special items that would do a particular kind of damage or help with a particular puzzle. We were nervous going in about being able to find the various items/consumables we might need in the heat of battle, but I think the use of consumables by our groups was almost nonexistent as well as the use of items other than main weapon. Casters seemed to only need to use their spells. I would have liked it more if a more diverse set of token use would have been necessary or helpful.

Suggestions: (1) Improve sound; (2) Have runs assigned to different difficulty levels (know this was tried in the past and people ignored the designation but then that is their fault); (3) Design dungeons so that a more diverse use of tokens is required to survive or at least helpful.

Overall a great experience and we are already planning to return to Gen Con in 2019 (and perhaps attend smaller cons between now and then).

Finally, a big thank you to all of the volunteers. A couple stood out. I think one of the coaches/trainers said the experience helped him get through the year. He was really enthusiastic and made the experience better. There was also one combat DM who did an awesome job of sorting the rogue, casters, and sliders into different groups and keeping everything moving. The medusa NPC deserves a shout out, and so does the smith NPC.

Sounds like a GREAT first experience!

This is not MY first year, but My 15 year old's second and my 14 year old's first and they loved it.

Welcome to the club!

Hello John,

Thanks for the thoughtful review - welcome aboard this crazy astral vessel!

Welcome to the forms. I’m glad you had a good time. And ya the Medusa was great as best I could tell. I was so committed to not looking that I only know the bit of razzing I got from her for not looking. I enjoyed Viper a lot.

Currently I’m looking forward to Pax South