let me start with: THIS YEAR WAS GREAT!
I just wanted to lead off with that so it doesn't get lost in my post. so, I ran all 4 dungeons, 1 grind, and an additional viper puzzle on Raven's 5-person double-down run.
on Viper:
I loved the egg puzzle. though, once you know the solution, it becomes less cool...but still fun to play with the magnet/wand.
the floor puzzle was kinda meh to me. failed it the first time and had no clue (just a suspicion that all those pips must have meaning). on the double-down run, the DM told us a certain shape was glowing, and we were able to connect the dots.
alternately, the sarcophagus was amazing. and could have been a natural fit to a puzzle dungeon instead of combat (especially if turning it off was a puzzle you had to solve mid-combat).
the sand puzzle was incredible. the only downside was cleaning sand out of fingernails the rest of the dungeon.
our group did just fine in the final combat rooms. though, we did them Thursday and Friday, and I always equip with the iridescent spindle so we don't have to breathe nasty poisons.
ZEPHYR:
this dungeon was full of good teamwork puzzles (connect colors, charge ball, air blast). they had a good mix of must work together and must listen to a person in charge...at the same time. I liked all 3 of these puzzles. though, I do know that we easily could have run out of time if we didn't have someone who had already been on zephyr. having played the first few years, I tend to search rooms more cautiously than the new puzzles require. now-a-days, you gotta jump right in and start solving. I expect once jeff has us retrained to charge ahead we will start tripping traps again
I really like the cute little orb zipping around. both the puzzle and the combat against it were fun.
the wyvern combat was very interesting and I enjoyed it. though, I don't like how it seems they did the set-up for it. luckily, again, we had someone who had been before, and she made sure our ranged attackers were ready to step up to the combat boards. this should have been explained: the room intro should have been that we need 4 people to pilot the ship...but oh wait, what is that in the distance approaching, the rest of you man the battle stations. something like that to give you a chance to actually decide who should be doing what.
and now, the only real bad thing I have to say about the dungeons themselves: the switch box. this room was horrible. first, we found out that some of the lights were broken. ok, that can fit with the theme. but I could not get my first light to turn on. even after someone mentioned that every section it was a set of a single color that triggered it. I tried every combo for each color of switches. then someone else tried every combo of each color on it. we ran out of time with that being the only thing we needed. we told the DM multiple times that we thought the light was out, but she assured us it worked. we accepted that we failed as the horn sounded and asked her to do the solution, just to ensure the light hadn't burned out. she said she didn't know the solution, but said she was certain it still worked. the 5 of us standing next to her were all staring at her with incredulity. she was seriously telling us that she guarantees that the light worked, without any way to back up the claim. and worse yet, if the light was out, she had absolutely no way to tell if a group solved the puzzle. the only thing that kept us from being raving mad was that I had my wife use my 2nd Ro7P voucher to play the Troubador, so we had already gotten the treasure stamp. this became a recurring conversation the rest of the weekend: 'the DM should always know the solution to the room.'
Non-Dungeon stuff:
ok, I have to say this again...also, why the hell do I have to say this again! WE NEED LIGHT IN THE VILLAGE AREA!!!!! I don't even bother trying to do anything in the TD area any more. if I need to sort through any tokens, I go out to the convention center hallway and find a spot on the floor next to the wall. and if that really is as much light as there can be without ruining the dungeon ambiance, then use that space for something else.
the epilogue room went fairly well. I think we would all prefer to get our rewards at Gencon, and clear up the 6th level bonus token. but no serious problems on site.
However, I despise the way XP was given. I didn't even realize it was as big of an issue until Saturday; my wife's only zephyr run, we did hardcore because it was the only run for multiple people who wanted max XP. at the end, since it wasn't the nightmare button, I asked to make sure it was the hardcore XP sticker...only to find out that all the stickers were the same. you got to pick which level and room to get XP for. WHAT?!?!? that not only cheapens the XP, but makes me wish we had done it on NIGHTMARE because it wouldn't matter if someone died early. I mean, really, why not just give everyone the max XP for the year and call it done without messing with all the stickers?
ok, all that said, please refer to my first comment: THIS YEAR WAS GREAT! thank you TD for another great event. hope to see you at whosyercon in the spring.