TOPIC: About Power Creep . . .

<br />Umm, ya. Being outnumbered like crazy might have also had something to do with that. Give germany equal numbers of men and industrial production and it'd be a bit different.<br />

<br /><br />It was modern-day logistics that won the war.  <br /><br />Our bean-counters were better, and the unsung heroes of the effort.

<br />I don't want there to be a misconception about what happened. The coaches didn't push us toward one run or the other, they simply looked at the tokens we had equipped ourselves with and gave us something we were lacking; an insight as to the difficulty of the dungeon vs how we were geared up( AC's, to hit's, etc). As a first-timer, I had no clue what was waiting inside. The coaches roughly explained the differences of the two runs to us and that helped us to make an educated decision. Isn't that what coaches are supposed to do...educate (either about equipping tokens or the run in general) so the group can make their own decisions? For an individual experienced with TD, I'm sure you can make your own assesments as I will from here on out. I had honestly believed I would need purps just to get through the normal run. In reality, the way we were decked out caused it to be less than enjoyable. Will I run "normal" in the future? Yes, but only to get the XP and when I do so, I will find a creative way to challenge myself (commando run comes to mind). Had the coaches not conveyed the differences and the knowledge they had, I probably wouldn't have attempted "nightmare" and thus wouldn't be as excited about TD as I am now and wouldn't have spent the extra money on additional tokens. <br /><br />As for success in the dungeon, keep in mind success and survival are two different things. Dying early is what will upset most people, a group is not likely to be angry if they survive the dungeon to the end. While they may survive, they may not be successful with the varying challenges, that is where the individuals have no one to blame but themselves. Gear can only do so much. I worked exit for a total of 5 or 6 hours between 2 days and I only saw 2 individuals die before the final room in either "nightmare" or "normal" and only a handful more had been resurrected.<br /><br />Just out of curiousity, I'd like to see the data on survival rate through the dungeon and how many "we want our money back" complaints there were. I saw one woman upset because she didn't get a survivor pin due to the collaborative nature of the final room, but that was the only instance I saw or heard about.<br />

<br /><br />Several good points...it sounds like you were educated, and of course that is a good thing, and the strategy I think our coaches wanted to employ.  <br /><br />Earlier it sounded more like a peer pressure situation where your group may have felt compelled to do Nightmare because of an "Others were doing it" speech from the coach.  That got me a little concerned.<br /><br />Please understand for sake of covering our own buts - we need to be very careful in how we suggest players choose to run and thus spend their money.<br /><br />As for "customer satisfaction" VS "money backs" I would have to think we did not have any issues from coaching...while we did have some new faces in the coaching arena - I think we all took our job very seriously and set expectations very well.<br /><br />G

Germany also made fatal mistakes at critical junctions of the war and failed to press the advantage when they had it.<br /><br />Kim

back to subject of power creep for a moment; there is still plenty to do without increasing the power level.  most URs have been items with simple +1 or +2 bonus, but we have started to see different things that can be done without increasing power level:  give a small added bonus (+damage against large creatures), give a different bonus INSTEAD OF +1 (no miss chance, +4 to save, life stealing).  there are so many options for abilities to weapons that will be comparable to the current best (except maybe nightshades...it is WAY above the curve) without be explicitly better.  the bar is set at +2 with small, class specific bonus, for weapons, and +1 bonus for armor, i dont see those going up.  avoiding power creep is already being done, so there is no need to be concerned.  instead, try to help think up what cool new abilities the next set of equipment will have.

The causes of Allied victory were many and varied, Germans splitting their forces onto two fronts and launching the battle of Britain were mistakes for which recovery could not be had. Of course the US entering the war brought a vast advantage in number of personnel and overwhelming tonnage of equipment for the Allies. Notably, Allied equipment quality did not reach the quality of the German war machine until almost the end of the war, but the Allies could lose 3 or 4 to one and still outnumber the Germans decisively. If the Germans didn't have Hitler, their discipline and strategy might have been applied to greater advantage, but without him, they may never have started the war. Of course the Allies had the moral high ground, which must have counted for something.

You are right, there are many many untapped avenues that don't have anything to do with damage or AC. Some of them can even introduce a touch of humor and comically uncomfortable situations for players. 

One of Germany's biggest mistakes was invading the Soviet Union.<br /><br />

If anyone saw the train wreck that was urotosukidoji II, then they already know the nazi's #1 mistake.

Actually, Germany had to attack the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union were in offensive positions thus poised for an attack on Germany. Germany knew this and therefore caught Stalin off guard by attacking first. Thus, since the Soviet Union were in offensive positions, they were caught with their pants down, allowing Germany, within the first month, to capture more Soviet Union military equipment that Germany had of its own. This then allowing Germany to roll to within 20 miles of Moscow, and Moscow only saved by -40 temp winter. Without U.K. and U.S.A. supplies and support, U.S.S.R. was at that point, finished.

Interesting, I knew the second part of that but not the first. History painted Hitler as the backstabber and aggressor, even though they both mercilessly abused Poland.

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.  Hitler did not learn from Napoleon's mistake.<br /><br />I hadn't heard that Stalin was poised to break the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.  I'll need to check that out.<br />

<br />Interesting, I knew the second part of that but not the first. History painted Hitler as the backstabber and aggressor, even though they both mercilessly abused Poland. <br />

<br /><br />But the winners always get to write "History".  If Germany had won WWII, we would have heard all sorts of stories about the evil Russians being mean to the Germans.