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True Dungeon
StinkyTurd
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
in PAX South
Hey im just curious if anyone else here is interested in doing the true dungeon and would like to book a block together. Also is anyone planning on volunteering for it?
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Have you participated in TD before, or did you do the sample they had at South last year?
https://tabletop.events/conventions/td-at-pax-south-2018
I'm hoping I get a group as good as the one I hooked up with for last year's demo. We were all noobs, only a couple of people knew each other, and we got along great. My biggest worry is getting a person or two who already knows the rooms and spoils them for the rest of the team.
Why wait? There are plenty of TD reviews out there from the past few years. And there are even reviews of this specific dungeon (Moongate Maze) since it was debuted elsewhere (Gen Con?). Being a proven concept that travels around, I imagine it becoming a regular thing at South will depend almost entirely on ticket sales. I suppose something like a lack of volunteers or unfavorable contract terms from PA might discourage them, but if people like it and it is making money, that sort of stuff tends to work itself out. Heh.
My friends and I were extremely impressed by the free demo last year. It was great fun. But we were baffled by the rookie mistakes they made on Sunday that left a lot of attendees disappointed and upset. Just basic customer experience issues that hopefully won't repeat now that they plan to have a full presence this year.
If anyone else is curious, they confirmed in their latest newsletter that both the TD badge and tickets are virtual. The free TD badge is nothing more than a formality to purchase tickets.
Earlier today I was regaling someone with stories of the epic swag we used to get at PAX, back before there were so many iterations and before game companies' advertising budgets got stretched so thin. One year, not long ago, Cards Against Humanity offered random packs of PAX-exclusive cards in the swag bags. They were in understandably high demand. I've never been a fan, so I agreed to try and grab a full set for a friend. In the great spirit of geek camaraderie, some attendees set up a trading station in an unused corner, on a decorative ledge. It was pretty amazing. Basically on the honor system, and they had gathered and organized a good thousand cards. Nerds at their very best. I got my full set and managed to leave some bonus cards for the next lucky soul.
Got me to thinking about the cash cow that is True Dungeon tokens. I imagine once new players catch on, there will be some furious trading before sessions. I hope TD plans ahead and maybe sets up some tables off to the side so people can trade without getting in each other's way or disrupting the line. Maybe they already have a system in mind based on all their prior events. I've never been, so I don't know. I just want to avoid a situation where people have to stalk the line and hawk trades up and down the hallway.
I supposed the combat side may have been better. But I don't know if I'll be back.
True Dungeon had what ya dont see at PAX
A NAKED ELF QUEEN! (Sorta implied I guess)
I was pleasently surprised, but found it hard to concentrate on the puzzle.
Our entire group made it thru ok. Moderate challenge I'd say. Definately something that a decent group could all get thru on the next higher difficulty, hardcore.
As for $ for fun, its worth it ONCE or twice. But the game is just setup for pay to win with a collectable crack token system. Imo the excuse "its expensive to pay the employees" doesn't fly when your paying someone $150 for three days to sit naked on a rock 8 hrs a day.
She had to listen to me sing from a spot kneeling in front of her throne. She was not paid enough for that nonsense.
3 of my party died in the combat version of the maze, myself included. All of that in the 2nd to last room where the two enemy tables were set up apart from each other.
This is exactly what ran through my head as we stepped out of the exit.
This was by far the most disappointing aspect, to me. There's entirely too much emphasis placed on token collecting and real world dollar token values. I had some inkling from reading up on the game last year, and a bit before going in this year, especially by looking at what they charge for token packs, but the sheer amount of emphasis was sickening. Multiple volunteers spoke as if this was the focal point of the game, not the gameplay itself. One volunteer after we exited mentioned at least three times in 90 seconds how he knows of folks who buy $24,000 worth of tokens every year. I'll gladly admire someone's ultra rare weapon token, but I'm not impressed at all by what they spent on it or what it's worth in dollars. If I play this again, I don't plan to spend a dime on extra tokens. I don't see the point, so I really think I must be missing something in what makes that worth it. If I were able to play this once a month? Maybe. If I'm just really into collecting pretty nicely weighted tokens (which I'll admit they are)? Again, maybe. But, not at once a year, and I like collecting things, but not that much.
This was the second most disappointing aspect. We had zero idea how we were doing collectively. It felt very rushed going from room to room. We could have interacted better as a group in the little waiting areas between rooms, so maybe that's a bit on us, but the overall story aspect was lacking (i.e. like a good DM might provide). It may be a completely different experience (1) in the combat version and (2) playing "lethal". Maybe that's also where better tokens that cost $90 each really help out.
Don't get me wrong - we had a blast and I don't at all regret having played - but, if I do it again, it's more likely to be for my kids than for me, and I'm going in with nothing but the tokens I got this year and will get with my basic purchase next time.
My group had a great guide who managed to never break character - Condescending and looking down at us - he was quite amusing. He also never mentioned a thing about anything outside of the game. When somebody had an issue (non-emergency) he simply said "I'll see what I can do" while looking down his nose and spoke to the room's GM. So the GM (who is already not a character) handled it. That was a nice touch that really helped with keeping him as a character. I also ran into him afterwards and got the impression he also volunteers at Gen Con so is experienced, which may have helped. (He was also super chill and was saying sometimes he's paranoid because the character is meant to be an ass and is worried about people taking it personally.)
Pre-game they were open to questions - although sometimes it took a moment for them to notice I had a question as they seemed to be doing other stuff as well.
I don't think a single person talked about their own experience at TD. Nor do I think we were ever encouraged to actually buy more tokens. We were encouraged to come back next year or to gen con, but tokens were never really discussed. (Except to encourage trading/loaning pre-game so people could fill their slots better. Like when the GM saw my second choice weapon would be great for the Barbarian, he mentioned it and I loaned it to him.)
I definitely think that TD is heavily reliant on having a good staff working with your group. My group did have good staff, and as a result, afaik, everybody had a great time. I wonder how much of that is new vs experienced TD staff.
A part of me wants to do Gen Con specifically to be a TD volunteer - it seems amazing. (I'd do South, but I'd rather enforce...)
About the puzzles themselves...
The puzzle requiring scent was maddening. We knew what we needed to do, but the smells were hard to identify. Perhaps it was due to being late in the day? Not to mention... The concern of sticking your face next to something other people have and breathing in deeply... during flu season... Didn't seem the best idea.
And the one with the stones and the lights... We had color blind members who literally could not tell the difference between two colors...
Was that guide the puzzle guide he was so i was talking about loved him and such a nice guy
highly dependent on who you were interacting with. finding out after the fact that a lot of their labor is unpaid volunteer was not a surprise. the guy who was supposed to help us newbies figure out classes and gear was rude and shitty and kept harassing us to go faster without any explanation of anything. the practice room explained fuck and all and just made us feel rushed and cramped and added to the level of anxiety and pissiness we had going on from setup room
the actual fancy dress dungeon guide with a gorgeous bow was great in and out of character, showed concern for party members who were in physical pain or high anxiety, made conversation, was happy to talk in or out of character during down time
after he 'betrayed' us and we went back to volunteers in tshirts, it went back to annoying and anxiety inducing, including snarky comments about us not checking our items for fire damage (in the dark, while constantly being berated about how slow we were, and ignoring all our healers requests to heal anyone); the light pillar puzzle was malfunctioning but we were still given a bunch of hp in damage despite the guy standing there watching it fuck up and be unsolvable; the guy in the flower puzzle room was a neutral, so that wasn't so bad. the ending was super anticlimactic and sudden. and then immediately after all this they come at you with the pitch to sign up as a volunteer, which made it feel like the whole thing was a gross cash grab/real life version of crappy loot boxes
at $400 per party it was kinda unacceptably poorly run
and adding for here: I have no sense of smell and stayed way the fuck away from all the flowers in the flower puzzle. so far I'm one of the few members of our group not to get sick. also I have zero sense of smell, someone else in our group had a very limited sense of smell/couldn't smell anything except the strongest smells, and I think someone else in our group was limited sense of smell as well. so not only was it super plague-y, it completely knocked a third of the room out of being able to do anything, plus all the smells got cross-contaminated from people 'pollinating' them so we ended up having conversations about which muddy dirt smell was the most dirt-like. if this was free trial run groups or a smaller fee it would have been whatever, but again, at $400 per group, one group every ten minutes, kinda unacceptably shoddy
Yes!
Tickets for two completely different True Dungeon adventures at PAX South are now on sale at the link below. Come enjoy an amazing two-hour live-action D&D adventure!
https://td.events/