TOPIC: Golembane - First Puzzle and Final Puzzle thoughts

Flushmaster wrote: The biggest problem a lot of groups had was communication and agreeing on trying a combination.

This is even harder when you have players who have the "leadership" tactic of just yelling and bullying everyone else into doing what they want.

Thankfully they are not a common type of player, and they also tend to be the kind of person who gets so frustrated dealing with other people that they ragequit and never return (yay!). But it is enough of an unpleasant experience that I'm going to focus on Nightmare runs as much as possible in the future. Much more likely to be playing with experienced and reasonable, mature people that way.

Garrison wrote:

Jim Auwaerter wrote: ...ending the combat-run with a puzzle where rocks fall and everyone dies was disappointing.

Yup. It made sense story-wise, but was anticlimactic.

Another odd thing was that on my Thursday Combat run it was not stamp room, but on my Friday Combat run it was.

my main annoyance with the last room is always going to be that in one run we had a correct solution and the next run it was wrong.

Even story-wise, it didn't make much sense to me. Our job going into this castle was to get the gnome so we could get information from him. I thought we fought him with the golem (at least, that's who I thought the little guy at the base was, before the actor left for another group). Did he somehow get away, outpace us, and set up a multiple-solution logic puzzle after we destroyed the golem?

No, we killed him but he started the self-destruct sequence on the tower. Our only hope of escape was to go to the roof and throw the switches to open the doors and launch the ship with us onboard.

Jim Auwaerter wrote: Even story-wise, it didn't make much sense to me. Our job going into this castle was to get the gnome so we could get information from him.

Can't fault you if you missed it, but there was some pre-recorded dialogue from Cogwind (yes, the little guy hanging from the Golem's neck) He did his evil laugh, and bragged about how he had "sold the Dwarves into slavery". So you did get the info you wanted, as well as a clue (from during the Genie room) that Cogwind had recently been to the Bone desert. If you defeated Cogwind, his last action was to set off the self-destruct, and yeah, that infernal logic problem.

It looks like our next adventure will be boarding the airship and flying over (or to) the Bone desert, searching for the Dwarves.

Raven wrote:

Jim Auwaerter wrote: Even story-wise, it didn't make much sense to me. Our job going into this castle was to get the gnome so we could get information from him.

Can't fault you if you missed it, but there was some pre-recorded dialogue from Cogwind (yes, the little guy hanging from the Golem's neck) He did his evil laugh, and bragged about how he had "sold the Dwarves into slavery". So you did get the info you wanted, as well as a clue (from during the Genie room) that Cogwind had recently been to the Bone desert. If you defeated Cogwind, his last action was to set off the self-destruct, and yeah, that infernal logic problem.

It looks like our next adventure will be boarding the airship and flying over (or to) the Bone desert, searching for the Dwarves.

Not just that he had been to the Bone Desert, but that he got the Genie there, and could acquire a replacement when he went back. Suggesting some sort of slave trade in said desert.

The first adventure next year will likely be in the air (since the Amulet of Wonder will let you sprout wings).

But, guessing by the tokens this year, there will be fey, charm, and maze/confusion effects, as well as plant creatures.

I'd be willing to bet the airship crashes before it reaches the desert, possibly into a forest (the second adventure next year). Lotsa fey and plants!

That would leave the 2015 adventures to finally reach the Bone desert and accomplish whatever it is we need to do there (hopefully finding the dwarves still alive), and thus rounding out the 3-year story arc.

I'm somewhere between 1%-10% sure it will go exactly like this.

now I want to buy a genie!

ohh I wonder if a special next year could be a wish

I was hoping there would be a special task or something as a benefit for those that read the book.

That must have been it. I was with Adeya, so she can also speak up, but I sort of recall one of the DMs saying something about some dialogue not playing properly. That may have been a different room, though, or it may just have been in my head. I think we were mainly focused on healing and what was coming up in the next room once the golem got dropped.

I'll just chime in with my experience here. As a coach I encountered the NPC giving clues. I think he did a good job. Some things needs to be worked out so that every group has the same oppertunities. Some groups that were running behind missed out due to time restrictions, others that finished getting their tokens in order had more time. On occasion the NPC woudln't show presumably because he was in another room or else where giving clues.

Before too long I had most of his lines memorized so when he didn't show I played his part when I had time.

I think if the coaches had know about this ahead of time a fewe subtle changes could have allowed for this better.


Now as a player I clearly knew the important clue at the end but that almost didn't help us because we tried it and failed. What was important to note was the DM pointed out the lights indicated no successes. I believe it was also stated the lights may have not been working properly at this time. Ofcorse the next step was one of our guys pointing out that absolutely no successes means their all wrong and should all be reversed.

I think had it not been for the lights being pointed out we would have tried several more times.


I loved Glados it made my night.

I think its a decent idea for the DMs to re-speak the audio clues when necessairy as some times its easy to miss. As I had a "preview" run I made sure my friends where standing next to speakers.


For room 1 I loved it, I laughed when my people would drop it. Yes the audio took a while and ironically I was more impressed when I found out it was human powered rather than some contraption that was droping the balls through the pipes. I know if I had made it, there would have been a machined to do it, and i'm sure it would have failed a lot.