TOPIC: Idea Feedback Needed ASAP - Linked Runs

I was thinking of setting up all the runs in the 9am and 7pm hours as special tournament events. That makes 10 slots of 10 tickets each day -- so that 100 people could take advantage of this idea. The cost would be 3 X $78 or $234. With this ticket you would have a space reserved for you each day at the same exact time. So if you bought a ticket at 9:12am for "Astral Journey to the Bliss" you would report Thursday, Friday and Saturday each day at 9:12 am to play with the same folks. We'd be taking a gamble that someone might refund the ticket at the last second, but I guess I'm willing to take the risk since it sounds like a good idea of passionate fans.

It would NOT involve any tickets for Into the Viper's Pit.

I want to do this because we are taking great pains to tie the 3 modules together, and I like it if folks could play it in order. It also might make for a better experience having it at the same time each day -- and we might be able to do some special things during those slots because we know the same folks are running the same time each day.

What are your thoughts? This would affect basically 300 tickets out of 6,000 -- or 5% of tickets.

This is for Gen Con only at this time, but we might consider it for Gamehole Con if we do the ticket selling. That is still up in the air.

I'd kind of rather do them all on the same day, with a short(ish) break between each run. Something like 9:12, 11:48, and 2:36.

For my personal group, this would be amazing. The exhibit hall is so packed in the morning that it's nice to head in after the first rush. The 9:12 slot would mean we could start each day with a different dungeon and then soak up the rest of Gen Con.

We'd be all over it, but the chances of actually getting the three slots I'd need for my group are probably nil.

Seems fine, although there will be some predictable backlash of the "True Dungeon has an event that costs $200+ dollars - Ha-Rumph!"

If you go this route, it might also be possible to tie these events to some other kind of "VIP" experience, like 2x combat DMs, or, you get handed a bag with your completion tokens and XP for all three at the beginning of your first one in a special token pouch or something.

Maybe your HP total at the end of each mission could optionally carry over for a special "iron adventurer" completion token?

I have concerns-both in general and for me personally.

Logistics:
1. Will a single person still be allowed to buy a full set of 10? Basically giving them 3 time slots in a single wishlist entry.
2. Are these events still issued 3 separate tickets? Can a different person show up on day 2 as a 'sub' for a person who couldnt be there.
2b. If the slots are not able to be unlinked, how do you handle no-shows?

Personal:
1. I also like to target early/9am runs when able...but if one day doesnt work for my/wife schedule, this system will lock us out of ALL 9-10am runs. *although, if subs are allowed, DDA as a group could tartget one of these sets and swap in players as available...but that kinda goes against the idea of bundling them.

Sorry if this sounds negative. I like what you are trying to do (even though i am not the target audience, i expect others will really appreciate this), i just want to see the deatails worked out before jumping ahead with it.
If the ticketing/subs thing can be solved or wont be a problem (*there may not be a problem at all, just things to be aware of with how this would work), i would like to see the times for it spaced out a bit more. Blocking out an entire hour to anyone not wanting these kinds of tickets can be harsh (especially for what i see as highly desirable time slots).

I would prefer you to have the linked slots during the middle of the day. That would help me get single tickets for the morning.

It might be better to test this idea at a smaller con like GHC.

From a perspective of is it a good idea for TD in general, I think it is, depending on the answers to the questions that have been raised.

Everything below this is my personal perspective only.

From that personal perspective, I'm a bit torn. Mostly because I already try to target the 7pm timeframe for a group I coordinate. So, on the one hand, I'll love it if I succeed in getting 10 of the same time. On the other hand, I wonder if my odds of getting a full run of ten blocked by solo players will go up.

My personal preference would be to see a block of time set aside each day where you have to buy all 10 tickets to the run (one $780 ticket). But I realize that may just help me and a few other groups. And is probably slightly more risk on the TD side for getting those spots sold.

Or even take it a step further. Let me buy 1 $2340 ticket that gets me all three dungeons at the same time every day for myself and 9 other people I coordinate.

I feel like it may case more harm then good during that mad rush as it will limit available configurations and could be confusing. As Mike pointed out people will also probably complain about the existence of such an expensive ticket.

That all said its probably fine if its only a small population of tickets in the morning.

Please dont do anything "extra" for those tickets in terms of completion tokens or xp though. I feel like that is just inviting complaining from everyone who wont be able to get a ticket.

If people want to iron adventure through all 3 modules litterally nothing is stopping them from doing it today. It actually sounds like a cool idea.

An iron man run, three right in a row. That would be a blast.

I like the idea of getting your tickets together. Anything to minimize my interactions with RUBI.

One problem I’ve seen is the concept of “order.” It’s why the first adventure sells out on Thursday long before the second one. It seems like there are more empty runs in the second dungeons on Thursday mornings.

This year there is a third adventure in the order, so that may be compounded. (Viper is retro and fits in anywhere.)

Using this ticket to emphasize the “proper order” could make that worse. It might be better to somehow encourage people to play them backwards (N3 - N2 - N1) to reduce the number of empty runs on Thursday morning.

Picc wrote: Please dont do anything "extra" for those tickets in terms of completion tokens or xp though. I feel like that is just inviting complaining from everyone who wont be able to get a ticket.

Agreed. Limited edition tokens are great incentives, but they cause a lot of angst for me, and probably others.

Despite not being directly affected, I love the idea.

The concerns voiced above are all important.

I also worry that we spend all this time telling players they don't need to play the modules in order, then now are telling them "Here's a chance to play them all in order!" Kind of a mixed message.

I think whatever time of day you make it for, someone will want it at a different time. People will have to decide if they want to do this or something else. It is always a tough choice at Gen Con.

I also like the idea of a one day Ironman rather than same time 3 separate days, but I know that isn't how the Gen Con tournament structure works.

I think pricing would be easy enough to explain in the description for the event.

The idea of a single ticket for all 10 slots for all 3 runs is one I like a lot. I wonder how many would sell?

Bottom line, I think you should do it and be ready for some complaints. Then again, my opinion is of limited value since I won't be fighting for tickets this year.