TOPIC: True Grind Post-Mortem (2015 Who's Yer Con)

Incognito wrote: even with Feather Fall, the hit player would take a smaller amount of impact damage from the initial hit.

Hmm, it makes me wonder if the "scientific" principles of feather fall's vertical motion reduction also work on a horizontal axis.

Druegar wrote:

Incognito wrote: even with Feather Fall, the hit player would take a smaller amount of impact damage from the initial hit.

Hmm, it makes me wonder if the "scientific" principles of feather fall's vertical motion reduction also work on a horizontal axis.

We could try shooting a feather out of a cannon and see what happens.

Druegar wrote:

Incognito wrote: even with Feather Fall, the hit player would take a smaller amount of impact damage from the initial hit.

Hmm, it makes me wonder if the "scientific" principles of feather fall's vertical motion reduction also work on a horizontal axis.

Well, if it only slows your vertical rate of descent but not your horizontal velocity, then you will be thrown further. And perhaps hit the dungeon wall for full damage rather than the floor for no damage.

I would say a monks slow fall ability would have lessened the damage a lot as the power is the ability to land without taking fall damage.

In the Friday noon Grind, the Monk got tossed by the tail, and it was ruled the feather fall let him take no damage.

Okay now that we've had the time to settle down from WYC, I wanted to get feedback on a few things:


#1. What are people's thoughts of the new difficulty level (the "New Nightmare")?

Too hot, too cold, or just right?

Although WYC TD'ers are not representative of the random, average player, it is interesting to note that 7 out of 8 of the runs were all on the new Nightmare setting.

And though there were no takers for the Epic level (equivalent to the Old Nightmare), it does sound like Kirk is planning on doing an Epic Grind at GenCon.


#2. What do people think of the Psychic Powers mechanic?

Only a few players used an Amulet of Wonder to increase their psychic potential. I don't recall anyone using an Eldritch Runestone (though Raven would know better since she did the coaching).

But even though we marked the psychic column for players and a fair number of players had the ability, it seems like the vast majority of them forgot to use their psychic power (even the free 4 point healing).

Thoughts?


#3. We are making steady progress towards getting players to utilize the various Character building tools so that they have their stats (and equipment lists) ready for the event.

Since there are a few different tools available, I am curious which one(s) people prefer and why they like that one over the others.

So what are the best ones from a player's point of view?

And secondarily, what are the best ones from a coach's point of view?

I am a big fan of David's spreadsheet. I can build 12 characters on 1 sheet and move them between different excel files. I also like that I understand it enough that I can make edits to it as I feel are needed (I had added HP to the Character Card before he did it this year).

Incognito wrote: #1. What are people's thoughts of the new difficulty level (the "New Nightmare")?

Too hot, too cold, or just right?

I think it was "just right". All of my grinds were NM and had about a 50-75% survival rate (even with some Mystic Mushrooms). But none of my groups had fully maxed-out builds all around. I'd say on average we had one Legendary per person and 5-10 URs per person. That feels like a good equipment level for a NM Grind group to me.

Incognito wrote: And though there were no takers for the Epic level (equivalent to the Old Nightmare), it does sound like Kirk is planning on doing an Epic Grind at GenCon.

Definitely. I have 8 out of 10 slots filled for the run. I think Epic should be appropriate for a group who has 90%+ optimal builds for their classes and that is what we'll have.

Incognito wrote: #2. What do people think of the Psychic Powers mechanic?

It wasn't that interesting to me mostly because it was hard to remember. I think I did use my Feather Fall ability on my last run while in mid-air from being thrown (and now I can't remember if you said that should have been allowed or not). Every other run I forgot to use my 4-point heal.

Incognito wrote: Since there are a few different tools available, I am curious which one(s) people prefer and why they like that one over the others.

So what are the best ones from a player's point of view?

Although I like the mobile app version, I still find that I like the Excel version best especially if I can get my whole run's builds loaded in. I think there are a few reasons why I like it. I can make copies and variations (e.g. for dungeon run vs. Grind). I can see the correct value for things like Charm of Synergy. And it is always the most frequently-updated version.

I'd like to use the official one here on truedungeon.com but it has lots of bugs and is missing lots of tokens (last I looked no 2015 tokens yet, and even Pharacus’ Greater Cloak of Destiny is missing). If that worked better I think it would be ideal because each player can manage their own build yet you can see the full party card.

Incognito wrote: Okay now that we've had the time to settle down from WYC, I wanted to get feedback on a few things:


#1. What are people's thoughts of the new difficulty level (the "New Nightmare")?

Too hot, too cold, or just right?

It seemed right to me. I would rank it as more difficult than a normal Nightmare run, but pretty close.

Incognito wrote: Although WYC TD'ers are not representative of the random, average player, it is interesting to note that 7 out of 8 of the runs were all on the new Nightmare setting.

And though there were no takers for the Epic level (equivalent to the Old Nightmare), it does sound like Kirk is planning on doing an Epic Grind at GenCon.

I'm looking forward to it!

Incognito wrote: #2. What do people think of the Psychic Powers mechanic?

Only a few players used an Amulet of Wonder to increase their psychic potential. I don't recall anyone using an Eldritch Runestone (though Raven would know better since she did the coaching).

But even though we marked the psychic column for players and a fair number of players had the ability, it seems like the vast majority of them forgot to use their psychic power (even the free 4 point healing).

Thoughts?

I used the heal in my non-Grind runs, but forgot about the powers in the Grind. For GenCon I'll have to remember to put it on my cheat sheet.

Incognito wrote: #3. We are making steady progress towards getting players to utilize the various Character building tools so that they have their stats (and equipment lists) ready for the event.

Since there are a few different tools available, I am curious which one(s) people prefer and why they like that one over the others.

So what are the best ones from a player's point of view?

And secondarily, what are the best ones from a coach's point of view?

I like the iPad build tool best. It allows me to make changes to builds right up until the run begins and yet still provide a quick stat reference for the Coaches (or to fill out the party card myself).

As someone who often equips multiple people the ability to switch things last minute is invaluable.

I think the Psychic Power are at best very situational. Since you're limited to one you have to choose wisely and mostly that means forget to use it.

The ioun stone slot is tight for some folks now, even with the earcuff to help out.

I think they have the potential to be creatively used especially in grind but I'm not convinced they are worth the slot yet.

I love the iPad tool for making on the fly changes.

I love the spread sheet for capturing synergistic effects and creating a full party card

I've got the unlocked version of the spreadsheet on my iPad, but I don't think the iPad has enough horsepower to really run the thing well.

Honestly I was terribly disappointed at how bad the psychic powers are. They don't stack, it's only 1 per run and they mimic uncommon and rare tokens even at the 7 stack level.

If they didn't require another UR token to power them I would probably add them to my build but I don't see them as useful enough to warrant an ioun stone even on my Wizard.