TOPIC: Sealed Adventure Feedback

So as a returning vet, I was not terribly happy to replay this dungeon. The automatic eldritch damage in the puzzle rooms is bad enough in well kitted veteran parties, but we had mostly new players (and only 8 to begin with) and a few seemed demoralized. Still, I stood back and let them solve the puzzles themselves.

We did OK, until the last room, where we wiped.

Most of them seemed interested in playing again, but I got the impression that a few would not.

Ian Lee wrote: I was only allowed to {cast Neutralize Poison on} a PC.

The description for Neutralize Poison on the front of the druid character card says, "Remove Poison from 1 character or monster".

The back of the druid character card says, "If you meet a monster you believe is poisonous (like a giant spider or snake), try casting Neutralize Poison on it."

Did the run on Thursday at 1. I was cleric and other healer was paladin. I think like half of the party got stoned during the Medusa, and we defeated her just in time and had no more healing spells. The Pali was still alive so I was able to do restore power and he did lay on hands to few members that were alive . I think the dm restored a member or two after the battle . Everyone in the party was low on health and we did some damage in room 7 but when that extra monster came out it wiped our party.
In room one we toke push damage . Few of us toke damage in the sand dagger room. (Was there a way not to take damage?)

As a veteran, I really enjoyed this run as I missed out on it in 2014. (I really loved that if you did not run it before you were able to get XP for it.) We were one of the few groups to survive and even better was it was half noobs but all of the vets in the party missed it prior too so it was truly new to everyone. Only one of us made it out alive (a noob) but we won because of the group effort which is a core element of TD. It would have been nice to be allowed to buy one extra 10 pack but the sealed element made it a really challenge.

No offense, but I don't get what the negative mewing is about on this run, it was very clear on what its intent was. I would love to see a "Best Of" Dungeon like GHC had in 2016 at every con. I think that would really appeal to everyone. Sealed Normal and below, Hardcore and above is typical TD. The best of both worlds in one clip. It's new to everyone as well.

We ran one of the last runs on Friday night.

Only 7 players though, 5 or 6 of them newbies.

I pulled three items in my 10 set that were worth gold only, I didn't even have a weapon as a rogue, but I was given a club by the coach after I asked.

Due to player choice, we also didn't have a cleric.

So we went nonlethal. I'm pretty sure the coach suggested it due to not having a full party, and everyone agreed with them.

I and 2 other players were stoned in room 5 upon entry (really bad save rolls). 2 others died in combat, and I think the 6th eventually died, and the 7th ran away, I was in the corner with my fellow statues so I couldn't follow what was happening in combat very well.

We all came back in room 6 with whatever hp you get for nonlethal respawns, and in room 7, we were all miraculously waved to full health by the DM. The poor fighter still died a second time! But we beat the monsters. That hp heal by the GM was amazing, and much appreciated.

I was the GM for room 3 on thursday evening, friday morning, and room 4 for saturday evening.

I will say that room 3 appeared to be a real gem, for the most part. Had about 80-90% pass rate, with most groups getting it after the 2nd lightning strike, and I had several tell me they liked this puzzle a lot better than Room 1. It was awesome seeing the groups suddenly get the solution, and the cheers of success when they finished. The damage in that room is a little rough considering the two fights after it, I will agree, but for the most part most groups solved it fast enough that they could do a little healing afterwards. The scrolls of loki's blessing that some had were perfect for the room.

Room 4 was....a little bit rushed because it was originally supposed to be a puzzle room, but the egg table broke the first day so we had to convert it into a combat room, which was a surprise for the room 4 GMs. The only groups that really didn't pass that one were those who didn't target the coffin.


I do hope people had fun in these rooms. I know the ones following it were pretty rough if gear was missing.

[quote="Brad Mortensen" post=313748I think the majority of newbie concerns would be addressed by a few parameters:

- Make sure players are aware of the minimum AC (on party card)
- Have common gimme weapons available for unlucky packs
- No insta-kills before room 7
- Make sure the dungeon works with the current token collection

[/quote]

These are good points especially the insta-kills.

I was hoping this dungeon would have been tweaked using the feedback from when it was first run. As I recall there were a lot of unhappy/frustrated new players after running it then. The medusa consistently killed new players. The dungeon can be just as difficult as before, but be rebalanced in such a way that players don't feel the outcome was unfair. Hopefully the eggs, and the sand knife ran smoother this year. I didn't get a viper run in this year, but I popped in for some photos, and it was great to see the medusa room, and the sand knife room again. The sand knife room is one of my all time favorite rooms.

Had I had more time it would have been fun to join a pug of new players for a viper run.

Adam Pillari wrote: Room 4 was....a little bit rushed because it was originally supposed to be a puzzle room, but the egg table broke the first day so we had to convert it into a combat room, which was a surprise for the room 4 GMs. The only groups that really didn't pass that one were those who didn't target the coffin.

That answers my question about the egg table. Pity, it was a cool puzzle.