TOPIC: True Grind Post-Mortem (2014 Who's Yer Con)

Eric, that Umber Hulk had a name. Let us never forget "Uffda"!

It was an awesomely designed and run Grind! I had a blast playing and am grateful for getting the chance to run the Blink Dogs in the last run on Saturday.

Thanks, Raven, for letting me tag-in and for being an excellent pack of extra-dimensional hounds!

Thanks, Eric, for your expert design and engaging DMing!

Harlax wrote: I was initially bummed when it came up Black as I was prepped for red - ring of fire resistance, Ioun stone ruby rhombus. Or green with the Ioun stone iridescent sphere.

For the Green Dragon, I did end up going with the 3rd Edition SRD which is acid-based (corrosive acid breath, and immunity to acid). I do realize that some versions of D&D have the green dragon as more poison based but I thought acid was probably a better fit for TD (stupid Medallion of Greyhawk messing things up!). So the iridescent sphere would not have helped much since it was acid (and corrosive).

Then when we went past 300 damage and it was still standing I was feeling like I might be failing a morale check.

Overall I was happy to come out alive.

300 was the magic number for Normal, but Hardcore had a little bit more. You were definitely in the final stage by then though!

I was the lone human Wizard who died in grind, and I was quite happy to do so. We were running low on time and only had the dragon left. I had been rocking the Mad Envoker's most of the time, but held back after our Cleric died. But I was able to activate it one more time, killing myself in the process and doing enough damage to Ember so that our Halfling Fighter could finish her off. It was definitely a worth-while sacrifice, and I was happy I got to kill myself with the new Charm.

Green equals poison. What can I say, I still think in 1st edition.

That is certainly why some of our group equipped the medallion.

Harlax wrote: Green equals poison. What can I say, I still think in 1st edition.

That is certainly why some of our group equipped the medallion.

Well, it still definitely helped against the hideous medusa! She was quite the man killer!

Adeya wrote: I was the lone human Wizard who died in grind, and I was quite happy to do so. We were running low on time and only had the dragon left. I had been rocking the Mad Envoker's most of the time, but held back after our Cleric died. But I was able to activate it one more time, killing myself in the process and doing enough damage to Ember so that our Halfling Fighter could finish her off. It was definitely a worth-while sacrifice, and I was happy I got to kill myself with the new Charm.

Yes, I was very impressed by the sheer amount of damage you inflicted with the Mad Evoker's Charm. It was just enough damage (combined with the Halfling Fighter) to put Ember over the top.

There was a time when Jeff was worried that no one would want to use the new charm, but you have definitely proved him wrong!

I realize any commentary from me may come across as biased (and it is!) and I still have to say this:

Eric has brought True Grind from "A 2-inch stack of combat boards to grind through" to a carefully planned raid against a hive of intelligent & well designed monsters, culminating in a boss fight which, if you survive, you really feel like you've accomplished something.

Its not that his monsters are much tougher individually than regular TD monsters (some are, but most fall within the normal stats from normal/hardcore/nightmare monster stats)... it's that he sets up great synergies between them.

The Serpent being able to heal the blink dogs... the blink dogs saving the serpent by running interference; last year's Shambling mound which had a Constriction attack, and the Caster with her "True Strike" spell to let the Shambler get a grip on even the highest AC character; And IIRC, Blood Beard's Grind had monsters that could throw PCs in the water, and monsters in the water who could use special attacks on them.

It really makes players think. Not just about how to min-max their builds, but about which monster to take down first, or how to negate a monster's special talent, or whether there's some special ability or Easter egg token which could help against an unusual opponent.

I really enjoy Grind - both from a player and DM point of view - and look forward to seeing what Eric writes up for our GenCon module ]

Incognito wrote: There was a time when Jeff was worried that no one would want to use the new charm, but you have definitely proved him wrong!

I loved that Charm! The Grind at WYC was my first chance to use it. And special thanks to Lazlo for making a trade with me so that I had it in hand at WYC. (I originally wasn't planning on acquiring it until GenCon.)

Combined with a good Cleric wearing the Lenses of Divine Sight, the Mad Envoker's Charm worked beautifully! As long as I had at least 20 HP I was using it - had to save a little health just in case I was targeted in a blast. Oh, and a protective Paladin is also a must! But I know our Cleric healed me for well over 100 HP during that Grind, the vast majority of which was self-inflicted damage.

The Broasted wrote: Thanks, Raven, for letting me tag-in and for being an excellent pack of extra-dimensional hounds!

Thanks for jumping into that last shift. I would have been happy to go another round, but sneaking out early meant I could hang out with Kithren and some of the other TD folks which I don't get to see often enough.

I hope you "keep your hand in" for Grind, and come back to help us out again some other year.

Adeya wrote:

Incognito wrote: There was a time when Jeff was worried that no one would want to use the new charm, but you have definitely proved him wrong!

I loved that Charm! The Grind at WYC was my first chance to use it. And special thanks to Lazlo for making a trade with me so that I had it in hand at WYC. (I originally wasn't planning on acquiring it until GenCon.)

Combined with a good Cleric wearing the Lenses of Divine Sight, the Mad Envoker's Charm worked beautifully! As long as I had at least 20 HP I was using it - had to save a little health just in case I was targeted in a blast. Oh, and a protective Paladin is also a must! But I know our Cleric healed me for well over 100 HP during that Grind, the vast majority of which was self-inflicted damage.

I would have healed her more but I fell on my head and then the dragon got me. I think he had be watching all the healing I was doing without breaking a sweat. Stupid smart dragons breaking our combos.

This was also my first Grind (Thank you, Lazlo.) I was the lone Barbarian to survive, and I saved my Rage until the final room (BUT I did not remember it until after my first 3 attacks on the dragon.) Lazlo's little extras to my build had me pumped up enough that I was about +26 to damage.

But I did equip the Stu-pendous Pendant, the Boots of the Maurauder and the Rod, Pt. 6 to meet my Dex requirement for the Slayer Bow. And it was fun to use.

Thanks, Eric, for a great event!

MU Skulls Rob.

I've said it elsewhere too...great job Incognito!

We talked about this afterward and after reading this thread, I realized even more we were totally unprepared for this grind. Time to raise my game. There where so many times when I went "Wish I had this or that token with me". I really appreciate the thought that goes into design and making having the right tokens available for the correct job beneficial. We just rolled in with our builds, some healing, and nothing else much useful.

I swear to be better prepared come GENCON!

Thanks again Incognito and Raven for a great time.

Slightly updated the end of the first section with more detailed statistics.

Now to work on the data from last year (2013 - Year of the BUNNY).

UPDATE: You can see the 2013 data here:

truedungeon.com/forum?func=view&catid=556&id=189266

and compare the statistics and survival data.

The Who's Yer Con event was a bit tougher than last year's Grind because most Who's Yer Con players were tokenholics (everyone was 5th level) and also since it was an unpaid event.