TOPIC: NIghtmare Mandate - Beating an almost dead horse

David Gerspach wrote: Catching up on some posts. I've had bad experience with nightmare runs two years in a row. I will no longer sign up for them. Over half the players were newbies each time and their excuse was that this was the only run with open slots. I didn't force the issue.

Buying up entire slots is not a viable option for me, since there are usually very few full slots open by the time I can get into the system and then there is no guarantee I can find 9 other friends at that specific time able to do the run.

Team Synergy is the absolute best option and without them I wouldn't have been able to participate in nightmare runs. So thank you again to those wonderful organizers.

I think organizing nightmare runs on the boards is probably the best option. They can continue to list dedicated nightmare runs in the schedule, but I'd be interested if they have any statistics on how many of those runs actually ended up being run as nightmare.

I think adding hardcore was an outstanding option and allowed me to finally convince my friends to do something more than normal. They loved it and I don't see us going back to normal,although I'm still not sure they'd do nightmare. Maybe some day. In the meantime, I am still hoping to rely on Team Synergy.

Yes, many thanks to the Team Synergy organizers. They were great runs with great people.

Brad Mortensen wrote: To be clear, I believe TD enforces the "nightmare is nightmare" rule as it is. No change to the way TD operates is required on that score. The issue is one of practicality. In every case I know, the prepared players agreed to dial it back because they weren't able to outfit a bunch of random newbies and coach them through their first game at Nightmare. Sounds like those who tried pretty much died, as you'd expect.

So faced with certain doom, the veterans are gracious and agree to run on normal. If even one vet objected you'd have a NM party leaving a string of character corpses through the dungeon.

It seems like going with dedicated HC runs where the party can agree to ramp up , and where it's easier to help an unprepared newbie who wanders in, will create fewer disappointments than dedicated NM slots. Unless you can find a way to prevent NM tickets from getting into the hands of clueless innocents. Which I don't think you can without getting GenCon to be all fascist about ticket sales.

Well, it seems clear that the "Nightmare is Nightmare" rule isn't enforced, because a number of people have posted about how their Nightmare runs were downgraded to Normal or Hardcore. The way the rule was explained, it wouldn't be possible to downgrade from Nightmare in the dedicated Nightmare slots, but it is happening. Whether it should be enforced is another discussion, but it seems it isn't being enforced currently.

Mike,

I don't think it is being strictly enforced. First, as someone mentioned the coach may or may not be aware if a time slot is suppose to be Nightmare dedicated. For example, when our coach walked in I told him this is a dedicated Nightmare run, but we've decided to run Hardcore instead. The coach was like okay no problem; but I could tell by his reaction that he didn't know it was suppose to be a dedicated Nightmare run.

Then, if your the experienced players ready for Nightmare; you can either insist on running Nightmare and probably get your way. But if there are new players your might have a miserable time or just they can agree to downgrade and probably still have fun. So I think if you are flexible about that is probably good. But I do feel for anyone expecting an experienced and geared group to run Nightmare; and a bunch of new players show up.

Hi David,

I agree, like I said earlier it is clearly not being enforced. And like you said, it sounds like there isn't a mechanism in place to make sure the Coaches even know that they were dedicated Nightmare slots. And I also agree that perhaps it shouldn't be enforced if they are consistently being filled with less-prepared players that aren't ready and/or willing to play Nightmare. It probably is something True Dungeon should look at in the off-season.

How many people have bought tickets for the Nightmare slots and found a team full of people all ready for Nightmare?

Mike

Mike Steele wrote: Hi David,

I agree, like I said earlier it is clearly not being enforced. And like you said, it sounds like there isn't a mechanism in place to make sure the Coaches even know that they were dedicated Nightmare slots. And I also agree that perhaps it shouldn't be enforced if they are consistently being filled with less-prepared players that aren't ready and/or willing to play Nightmare. It probably is something True Dungeon should look at in the off-season.

How many people have bought tickets for the Nightmare slots and found a team full of people all ready for Nightmare?

Mike

maybe just get rid of the slots dedicated to nightmare all together . Then people can just make them on here..really how many non forum people are really after nightmare?

lazlo_hollyfeld1985 wrote: how many non forum people are really after nightmare?

Ya know, the forum is a very bad place to ask that question

Raven wrote:

lazlo_hollyfeld1985 wrote: how many non forum people are really after nightmare?

Ya know, the forum is a very bad place to ask that question

"Everyone NOT on the forum, please raise your hand..."

Raven wrote:

lazlo_hollyfeld1985 wrote: how many non forum people are really after nightmare?

Ya know, the forum is a very bad place to ask that question

I more posed that to people that have done the runs...if they had done nightmare with non forum people.
Sorry. I have been playing cards for 24 + hours and I am ready for bed

Brad Mortensen wrote:

Raven wrote:

lazlo_hollyfeld1985 wrote: how many non forum people are really after nightmare?

Ya know, the forum is a very bad place to ask that question

"Everyone NOT on the forum, please raise your hand..."

*raises a foot*


now that I have your attention, team synergy runs are awesome.

Brad wrote:

Brad Mortensen wrote:

Raven wrote:

lazlo_hollyfeld1985 wrote: how many non forum people are really after nightmare?

Ya know, the forum is a very bad place to ask that question

"Everyone NOT on the forum, please raise your hand..."

*raises a foot*


now that I have your attention, team synergy runs are awesome.

Yes. Yes they are.

Yes there is no Mechinism to alert the coaches to a nightmare run.

The topic of difficulty IS covered in the speil but typically done shortly before they leave the coaching room. This way the coach has a good idea what level they might survive at. I list all the options to them even if I know what their answer is, I wait to get it from them. If they seem unsure I make a suggestion or go more into detail about it.

Clear pickup groups of nightmare always has some new player in it. I've never come across a random group of strangers all ready to play nightmare.
I often don't know who filled in on the wait list or who randomly bought a ticket and this was all they could get.

The dedicated runs were put there because folks didn't want to buy all the runs and were having a hard time getting into nightmare groups even with the help of the boards (i think because they didn't try hard enough) and thats fine but they don't always fill super fast and get left behind for new players to pick. Wich ends up sad for everyone.


If we wish to make the current system work better we need the following:
1. Clearly identify which runs are nightmare and make sure the coaches are being told.

2. Be prepared for angry people that bought the wrong run. Some of this could be mitigated in the following ways:
A. Offer to switch their run out for a wait list.
B. Make sure anyone wait listing for a nightmare run slot knows what that means.
And a few other things I don't have time to mention current.

Or we just do away with it stating we have enough runs to meet demand and folks wanting nightmare need to come here and join the organization process of those specific runs.

valetutto wrote:
Or we just do away with it stating we have enough runs to meet demand and folks wanting nightmare need to come here and join the organization process of those specific runs.

i think this is the way to go. what has it been 4 years or more doing it? still same thing every year..