TOPIC: Thornbarb Pass appreciation

I did my first Thornbarb run with a great group today. Thanks to coach Chad, DM Jeff, Epilogue Andrew, our golem, and the NPCs - everyone did a great job. I thought the puzzles were fun and challenging, and the combats were tough (NM level) - I finished with only 4 spells left!

Still love the new skills tests - no mistakes today, although I did say necrology instead of necromancy.

Thanks, all!

Though I am not a fan of the digital animations (I feel they mostly take awake from the immersion) , I did see a vast improvemnt in the quality of them from last time. One in particular I was very impressed with though I would still rather have physical things.

Thanks for the feedback, all! We are learning each time and hopefully will continue to make each adventure better than the last! This is a whole new boat of craziness that we're in, so we sincerely appreciate everyone giving constructive feedback (much that has and continues to be implemented) and for your patience when things don't work as planned.

Have a great remainder of your weekend and watch for shipping notifications to start tomorrow!

Lori

jedibcg Banjo 42 Lover wrote: Though I am not a fan of the digital animations (I feel they mostly take awake from the immersion) , I did see a vast improvemnt in the quality of them from last time. One in particular I was very impressed with though I would still rather have physical things.

I'd like to see them integrated more. Cutting to or overlaying a monster is cool, but it would be cooler to see various background elements we could not achieve in real life green screened into the video. A bridge over a chasm for example could be a lot cooler if green screen were used to make the chasm look bottomless for example.

Still v2 was a great adventure and a clear step up from v1 as they get more used to the technology.

On a side note I absolutely loved the combat heavy version of v2. I dont think we've ever had such a monster heavy dungeon and it really worked to scratch that no virtual grind itch.

Picc wrote:
I'd like to see them integrated more. Cutting to or overlaying a monster is cool, but it would be cooler to see various background elements we could not achieve in real life green screened into the video. A bridge over a chasm for example could be a lot cooler if green screen were used to make the chasm look bottomless for example.

I understand that, but I disagree. If I want a cool looking video game those are out there. I have always been impressed with the physical creations of sets and monsters of TD. That has been part of the draw for me. To see the creations of Jeff and Co. I understand I might be alone in the desire to see let digital creations and accept if digital is the way things are going for the V series, I just have a preference for the the non-digital.

On a technical note, green screen's not that hard for a locked camera/editing, but for a free-floating, move-on-demand camera like the golem has, it would be a nightmare to do even once. To really feel "ooh that's bottomless," you'd need the golem to move up to the edge and look down; to do that live and on demand, I'd expect to pay millions of dollars. That said, I *do* think it may be possible to do *something* with green screens by the time V5 rolls around, but it would be more on the lines of "oh I didn't even notice" or the same kind of effects you might get by building with sets & props.

Come to think of it, at that point, you'd basically be creating a VR space with the golem camera as the headset.

Actually, rather than use a green screen in the space, you could plausibly do one of those animated monsters on a video with no background and integrate it into a room with a real-life set, with maybe an extra layer on top so it looks like the monster is in the *middle* of things and not the front, for a room where the camera is pretty settled in one place for the fight. Likewise, if you were say, in a castle, you could put a green screen in a window and play a video of the fields beyond (or do the same thing with LCDs on a loop in a physical dungeon).

Just to add to the appreciation a bit... My group had a wonderful time. The puzzles were very fun for us. The difficulty was really good in the order they came. The first one was a great way to get into the grove of puzzle solving.

I wish I knew the name of one of the NPCs to thank her specifically. She offered to take our bard (who is 6 years old) as trade. The kid thought it was the funniest thing and her mom seriously considered it. It's that kind of thing that has made us such big fans of TD.

Thank you again to our very kind and patient group and everyone working at TD for a really great escape from reality.

DM James here - I think I might have been on that run? There may be 2 NPCs doing that role, but I believe that was Kat at the time?

I think the most interesting element of VTD is the ready supply of tokens to react to situations. I would like to suggest a much more intricate puzzle situation DURING combat. For example more effectual use of weapons to cause things to go boom. It’s very hard in a live event to go grab for a trinket item...but having the stacks next to me, that goofy item from the commons making a huge difference is a really cool thing to me. Like using the silver mirror and smashing it into a harpy like a baseball bat. Shards of impaled fragments should be just nasty!

Looking for to live events again...but while in VTD playing up the idea of more access should be more fun in battle

Finished the 2:48 run a bit ago. Loads of fun, and nobody died in the party! I could not hit worth a darn this time, so gotta bring up the to hit...

Great DM, great NPC, and loved the monsters. Great work team, especially our Golem.

Agree with the hitting. D20 tough, but fun. There is a reason my tabletop group is nicknamed the Bay Shippy Rollers. (Not "shippy" but I am sure many will get the pun). Still, challenging, visually stimulating, audio excellent. Can't wait until V3, I plan on running as much as I can.

Thank you everyone for the amazing experience.

It would love to volunteer if things work out a bit.

I had a great time with this one. V1 was still fun, but this felt like an improvement across the board. The difficulty was more dialed in, the apps worked better, and the puzzles felt more appropriate to the medium. The bridge puzzle room was especially great, and felt like it was just as good virtually as it would have been in person. That's hard to do.