So after sifting through the numerous dead bodies and shattered pieces of rubble, here is an analysis of this past weekend's True Grind event at Who's Yer Con.
There were 6 events (4 on Saturday, 2 on Sunday) with 56 participants. Although players were *supposed* to do Mini-Adventure or Grind only once, I know of at least two situations where someone went through Grind more than once. Fer shame!
Saturday 6 PM: 10 players. Hardcore Victory. 7 players survived, 3 dead.
Saturday 7:30 PM: 8 players. Hardcore Victory. 3 players survived, 5 dead.
Saturday 9 PM: 10 players. Hardcore Ran Out of Time. 3 players around when time was called, 7 dead.
Saturday 10:30 PM: 9 players. Hardcore TPK. All 9 died.
Sunday 11 AM: 12 players. Hardcore Victory. 9 players survived, 3 dead.
Sunday 12:30 PM: 6.5 players (0.5 cause of the Halfling Fighter!). Normal Victory. 3.5 players survived, 3 dead.
Participation Rate: 56 / 60 = 93%
So of the 6 runs, 5 were Hardcore (83%) and 1 was Normal (17%).
For the single Normal group (small sample size), it was a Victory (100%), with 7 players, of which 4 were survivors (57%) and 3 pieces of dragon chow (43%).
For the 5 Hardcore groups, 3 of them were victories (60%) - though each had at least 3 casualties, 1 ran out of time (20%), and 1 was a TPK total party kill (20%). Of the 49 Hardcore players, 19 survived (39%), 3 ran out of time (6%), and 27 were fed to the dogs (55%).
Looking at classes, we have: (S = Survivor, O = Out of Time, D = Dead)
Barbarian (1S + 1O + 1D = 3 total)
Bard (1S + 5D = 6 total)
Cleric (3S + 3D = 6 total)
Druid (1S + 1O + 4D = 6 total)
Dwarf Fighter (3S + 1D = 4 total)
Elf Wizard (1S + 2D = 3 total)
Fighter (5S + 3D = 8 total)
Monk (2S + 1D = 3 total)
Paladin (3S + 3D = 6 total)
Ranger (1S + 3D = 4 total)
Rogue (2S + 3D = 5 total)
Wizard (1O + 1D = 2 total)
- One anomaly was a run where two experienced tokenholics could not agree on who would play Druid. The situation got out of hand, and I just ended up letting them both play Druid. I won't get too much into it, but I will say that I am disappointing these experienced individuals (who I am both friends with) couldn't figure out a fair way to resolve the issue.
- There was also a run where we somehow ended up with 12 players. They ended up having 1 Dwarf Fighter and 3 Fighters (which is why there were 8 Fighters despite only 6 runs).
So every single party had a Bard, Cleric, Fighter, and Paladin. The Wizard was the least popular (two instances), followed by the Barbarian, Elf Wizard, and Monk (three instances each).
If we look at survival rates, we have:
Dwarf Fighter (75%)
Monk (67%)
Fighter (62.5%)
Cleric (50%)
Paladin (50%)
Rogue (40%)
Barbarian (33%)
Elf Wizard (33%)
Ranger (25%)
Bard (17%)
Druid (17%)
Wizard (0%)
Poor human wizard! Major surprise was the high death rate of the Druid.
- EVERYONE played a 5th level character (no 4th levels at all)
- I was surprised by the severe underutilization of class abilities. I only recall a single use of Greater Rage. The Fighter's Weapon Specialization was only used once. Stunning Fist was never used.
- Also I saw several Barbarians, Fighters, and Paladins using Relic/Legendary Bows when I strongly suspect they didn't have the necessary Dexterity.
Encounter List
[Room #1]
1. Guardian Naga (the polite and noble snake)
2. Helmed Horror (suit of armor)
3. Blink Dog "Fido"
[Room #2]
4. Mimic "Chester"
5. Rust Monster "Rusty"
6. Blink Dog "Bowzer"
[Room #3]
7. Spectator (Beholder-Kin)
8. Umber Hulk "Uff da"
9. Blink Dog "Chomper"
[Room #4]
10. Medusa
11. Stone Golem "Rocky"
12. Blink Dog "Duke"
[Final Room]
13. Ember (Dragon)
14. One or two Invisible Stalkers
- Ember was a dragon whose color (Black/Blue/Green/Red/White) was randomly determined by a die roll (which could have been rerolled with an Eldritch Runestone). Due to pure chance, all the groups ended up facing acid dragons (4 black and 2 green). That's just the way things rolled.
- Blink Dogs would accumulate so if you ignored them, you could theoretically have up to 4 around at a time. Though 1 or 2 at a time was the average.
- As a homage to Stu's Blink Dog in the first Grind, this year's Blink Dogs and Invisible Stalkers had a special mechanic. As their action, instead of attacking, they could "run interference" by sliding an extra slider to try and knock out the players' attacks. Overall, Raven did a spectacular job with the Blink Dog sliding (though there were a few cases when the puppies failed their master!). Hopefully players enjoyed this extra challenge rather than getting frustrated/annoyed!
- Rusty ate an awful lot of Templar Armor and Mithral Chain.
- I was surprised when one player actually was using Spectre's Spectacles. The +10 to saves was really helpful against the Umber Hulk and Medusa!
- One Rogue lost his Nightshade's +2 Short Sword attacking the rust monster. His second Nightshade's got stuck to Chester (the Mimic). He didn't want his third Nightshade's stuck so he used a +1 Short Sword which also got stuck. Unfortunately his third Nightshade's then got Shattered by the Medusa!
- One Bard got stuck to Chester (the Mimic). He attacked with a Whip that they got stuck. He used his fist, which got stuck. And then with his final available hand, he did enough damage to fist the mimic (with a critical), killing it.
EASTER EGGS
- Blink Dogs could be distracted by the creative use of tokens. Turkey legs and rations were the most obvious choices. After killing the medusa, one scientific bard cut off the medusa head and tried to get the final Blink Dog's attention. Raven rolled to see if Duke would notice it and he did. Duke then had to roll a saving throw vs petrification which he failed!
- After killing Chester (the Mimic), any melee weapons that hit him (or that he grabbed) remained stuck. Universal Solvent was the most obvious answer, which was used several times. I would have also accepted any alcoholic tokens (which no one used). In a few cases, I allowed for creative solutions because the party had nothing else - a Flask of Combustion (though it caused some collateral damage) and a Druid Freezing Orb spell (won't always work, but I made an exception).
- The Medusa's gaze could be really nasty and killing her did not restore any players back to flesh. However, there was a built-in mechanism to do that. Experienced players might recall the Stone Golem and Medusa they faced many years ago in the city of Greyhawk. Taking stone golem fingers and mashing them up with a Mortar & Pestle would create a paste that could be used to restore players back to flesh. We even had some hints built into the Bardic Lore to suggest this. Unfortunately, no groups ended up using this easter egg.
- Ember had an ioun stone. Fortunately it was not a Black Pearl. Instead, it was an Eldritch Prism which protected the Invisible Stalkers from harm. Most groups just ignored the Stalkers, though one group managed to destroy the Ioun Stone and dispatch the Stalkers before finishing off Ember.
Please feel free to add any feedback, analysis, commentary, stories or anecdotes!