TOPIC: Common misconception about Combat vs. Puzzle

More than ever before, both at Gen Con and here on the forum (though more so at the former), I hear people proclaiming astonishment over having to solve puzzles on combat runs. Combat runs have never been 100% combat. In fact, the only difference between combat adventures and puzzle adventures is two rooms. The descriptions on the How To Play page make this abundantly clear (to those few who read them) and the single-line descriptions in the Gen Con event listings say either "puzzle-oriented" or "combat-oriented" not "all puzzle" or "all combat".

But, of course, people nearly always ignored the warnings on the Nightmare-designated runs, so I can't say I'm surprised.

I acknowledge that both adventures have some of each (Combat and Puzzle) and also reminded people of this... but 2 things did stand out which I thought were valid comments:

1) Starting a "Combat" run with 2 puzzles in a row felt... odd. I'm not the only one who double-checked "We are on the Combat side, right? I didn't accidentally sign in to Puzzle?"
But since we moved on to Combat rooms afterwards, that feeling quickly went away.

2) Treasure Stamps. With 2 of the Treasure stamps coming from Puzzle-related rooms, it meant that groups who chose Combat-Oriented deliberately (because they are more interested/better equipped for Combat than Puzzles) were at a disadvantage.

It felt a bit like Studying for a Calculus test, in a Calculus course, and then 2/3s of your grade being based on your use of Grammar.

I liked the Puzzles, and don't feel they were unreasonable locations for a Treasure Stamp, but I concede that a Combat-oriented run is going to attract players who want to be judge on (and rewarded for) their combat-readiness... not their puzzle-solving skills. It might be a good idea in the future to aim for 2 Treasure Stamps coming from rooms directly related to the nature of the Dungeon (Combat or Puzzle.)

What Raven said.

If one of the stamps is in one of the "unique" rooms, this problem automatically fixes itself.

utterly agree with both of the above posts.

Seconded.

Especially the second point.

Yup, very reasonable (but fairly minor) concerns here and I agree with both of them as well.

Ditto what Raven said.

Kirk Bauer wrote: Yup, very reasonable (but fairly minor) concerns here and I agree with both of them as well.

Point 1 is minor

Point 2, IMHO, is not minor.

Agree with Raven, as my son and I were surprised by a treasure room in combat side being a puzzle. (of course it is always a good idea to agree with the thieves guild's top operative)

IMHO in Puzzle runs you should have 1 combat, 2 puzzle treasure chips.
In Combat runs it should be 1 Puzzle, 2 Combat

In BOTH cases the odd man out puzzle should be the FIRST unique room for the run. It's the most likely successful of the unique rooms.

I agree with Raven. How about a standard for "Combat" and "Puzzle", one room will be the opposite of the run. i.e. Combat will have two treasures rooms in combat rooms and one in a puzzle room. Same with Puzzle, one in combat room. Then you know what to expect each year.

Hopefully we can look at removing the distinction between combat and puzzle again next year. Still think that sounded like a great idea.