World's Smallest Dungeon 2007

Tony Hellmann

Hi everyone,

We're thinking about formats for The World's Smallest Dungeon next year.

We could do it just like we did this year, which went amazingly well...or, we have another option.

We could do a 10x10 foot room, with LOTS more space, and send you in two or three at a time. Whoever finds the item first wins. Of course, since its a competition, the prizes will be better...

Or, if you have your own suggestions, let's hear them!

--Tony

PikaPuff

I hate competing for a prize maybe if everyone could win something, but the real winner gets something better?

Anyways, I'm the guy who cast illusion to make the booth workers think my $3 off book coupon was really a $3 off t-shirt coupon. It was one of my favorite parts of PAX. Thanks for playing along.

Samyel

Hmm... if you send three gamers into a dark room groping for things, they're probably going to end up groping each other. *twitch*

Tony Hellmann

PikaPuff wrote:

I hate competing for a prize maybe if everyone could win something, but the real winner gets something better?

Anyways, I'm the guy who cast illusion to make the booth workers think my $3 off book coupon was really a $3 off t-shirt coupon. It was one of my favorite parts of PAX. Thanks for playing along.

I heard about that! That was AWESOME! You were the only person to ensorcel my staff. Our COO used wisdom as his dump stat, so he was totally defenseless against you.

I hear what you're saying about the competition thing, and I like the idea of giving something to everyone who plays. We'll definitely keep doing that.

--Tony

MoonVydeo

The only thing I would say about the dungeon is make sure things can stay in their spots. On my 5th try to get the wood bead necklace the girl rattled off all the areas it was not, the same areas I had been told the last 2 times. I repeated all this back to her and then said;

"If it's not in any of those areas then it has to be underneath the chest of drawers, but there was nothing under there the last two times I checked."

At which point she she said, "Really? Hold on a second." Then she went in the dungeon, came out and said, "OK, now we're ready." Then I finally found it.

Overall it was very cool. I think the increase in size will be good as it was a bit of a pain to check the drawers.

You could go with a choice of race or class chart of some type that would give different bonuses.

Instead of giving hints of where it is not, how about for exceptionally good rolls a hint of the general area the explorer "feels" it might be.

Some real secret compartments for the epic quests.

PikaPuff

Oh god yes. CHOOSE A CLASS. Leave it a super small dungeon. I love hte gimmick of it. "World's smallest dungeon."

Anyways. Choosing class... the only one I can think of is... oh crap.

I mean race. choosing a race, if you're an elf you can turn on a light because of nightvision. Elves have that right?

Anyways classes could work too, but I can't think of examples, but I think it's a great idea, combined with the d20 check at the start would make it even better.

Quethal

If you made it a 10 by 10 room, and had more than one person in there at a time, it should be cooperative; you probably would not want people competing for a prize and getting in each other's way. That could lead to bad things.

Stabbity Style

We got dice towards the end and were thrilled about it. Dice are always good. I thought the booth was done really well. Fun and looked nice. Hats off to you guys. A bigger dungeon with multiple people could be fun if everyone got at least something.

Dosto!

Three people in a dark room groping around!? I have never seen an adult movie that started this way... recently!

Cymoro

At least make it a standard 5x5 room. Jeez.

But seriously, it was a lot of fun and I look forward to it next year.

Samyel

I was the claustraphobic girl who kept trying to find a proxy to use my +10 bonus chit on. Sadly, I couldn't pry any of my friends away from the Guild Wars tournament to try it. Chivalry is dead.

RedmondKC

It was really hard to get to the lower stuff in the room, so maybe a teensy bit bigger. But keep it one person at a time. Maybe have two dungeons running simultaneosly? "World's OTHER smallest dungeon"??


On a side note, that was a mean trick you pulled on all of us that won the $10,000. I cried a little. Fer reals. I have a jamaican $50 note in my wallet now to show off as a souvenier, but no new shiny iPod...

Maybe next year you could actually do real US dollars and make it $1000? Make the thing more difficult to decrypt and possibly be available for answering on the first day as opposed to the second (I was the one that got us snuck into the exhibition hall on day one to turn in the answer). I dunno. It was kind of a big let down.

In your defense though, $10,000 is a buttload of money, and you guys were really friendly and fun, and the World's Smallest dungeon ruled. All in all you broke even in my books. Maybe next year you'll come out on top?

Big Guy

I roll twenties.

I just had to say it. On my first roll, I rolled a 20. Then went inside and found the item. Then when I rolled for a prize, I rolled another 20. Thanks for the shotglass and the picture guys.

Samyel

What are the odds?

About one in twenty.

leaf

Make the worlds largest dungeon, so people like me that freak out in small spaces could participate as well. =\

I jest, but in a serious way. I had a couple bad panic attacks due to the huge crowds...

Edit: Hey pikapuff, remember when you were on the bus telling that exact story on how you got that shirt late one night? I was the guy with the long hair and glasses lounging in the seat next to you.

PikaPuff

leaf wrote:

Edit: Hey pikapuff, remember when you were on the bus telling that exact story on how you got that shirt late one night? I was the guy with the long hair and glasses lounging in the seat next to you.

maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe

Itsatrap

RedmondKC wrote:

On a side note, that was a mean trick you pulled on all of us that won the $10,000. I cried a little. Fer reals.

I heard the whole thing was handled extremely poorly, to the point where I'm not longer interested in their products. The bait-and-switch, while *technically* legal, definitely left a sour taste in my mouth. The worst part was the unapolegetic response after they were called on it. Continuing to collect personal information (via contest forms) after the prize was "claimed" also struck me the wrong way. Sorry Technomancer, your products might be interesting, but I can't in good conscience support those sorts of business practices.

Tony Hellmann

Itsatrap wrote:

RedmondKC wrote:

On a side note, that was a mean trick you pulled on all of us that won the $10,000. I cried a little. Fer reals.

I heard the whole thing was handled extremely poorly, to the point where I'm not longer interested in their products. The bait-and-switch, while *technically* legal, definitely left a sour taste in my mouth. The worst part was the unapolegetic response after they were called on it. Continuing to collect personal information (via contest forms) after the prize was "claimed" also struck me the wrong way. Sorry Technomancer, your products might be interesting, but I can't in good conscience support those sorts of business practices.

I'm sorry you didn't like our marketing stunt. That $162 for the $10,000 Jamaican dollars came out of pocket. My pocket. The winners still got some money. Just not enough to buy a car. Who did you get the unapologetic response from? I'd like to know.

Also, bearing in mind that a contest is a marketing tool (as is going to a con), it doesn't work so well if someone comes up before the show even opens, you give them the prize, then turn the other 40 people away. That's sort of anti-marketing. We collected email addresses from the first couple people so that they could be contacted if they were not present at the time of the giveaway. If we quit collecting them after the 4th person, it would look a little suspicious. You won't get any marketing material from us if you submitted an answer.

--Tony

Tony Hellmann

leaf wrote:

Make the worlds largest dungeon, so people like me that freak out in small spaces could participate as well. =\

Hey Leaf,

I'm interested in accomodating people who have trouble participating with the current configuration. Would it help if we turned off the strobe and left the door open? Or do you just simply need more space?

--Tony

Stabbity Style

Well, I thought it worked well. 162 is plenty of money, so get over it. I picked up some technomancer products just recently and they compliment my playing style well, so thanks. The critonomicon actually makes for a game in itself with my players. Can't wait to see what you guys have for next year.

leaf

Man I would be ecstatic to have 10k jamaican dollars, I don't see why people are complaining. Sure it's not enough for a new car, but go down there and bam, new donkey.

Yeah I saw the room and I was like "haha that's awsome...and no way in hell am I getting into that room." Honestly though, I could probably handle it if the door was left open, but I had to rush outa the exhibition hall a couple times just due to the crowds.

Hopefully with the extra room next year at the Seattle convention hall, there'll be way more space and the crowds will be spread out more. Your plans for a 10x10 room sound better to me, heh.

Samyel

leaf wrote:

Yeah I saw the room and I was like "haha that's awsome...and no way in hell am I getting into that room." Honestly though, I could probably handle it if the door was left open, but I had to rush outa the exhibition hall a couple times just due to the crowds.

Glad to hear I wasn't the only one with that problem. I had trouble getting through a photography class in college, because the dark room was about the same size as that dungeon. I'd start to shake and drop the film, and it would go down hill from there.

I did buy the very last shot-glass though.

leaf

I'm lucky our dark room was just massive, the only closet space was the room to load your film into the chemical tank.

EnPsyane

I loved the World's Smallest Dungeon. It was one of the coolest things in the Expo Hall, imho. I was lucky enough to have picked up a shotglass for the +10 to my roll... and then I rolled a 20. ( cause that's how I roll ). Gots me a Technomancer Press t-shirt.
Not only that, my wife & kids kept going back while I working as an Enforcer in tabletop just to do the WSD. They loved it!

I'm all for making it bigger and badder. I think allowing groups in would be fantastic to have that Party feel.


And, I just have to say Thank You Tony! The idea for the WSD was really genius. You gave myself, but more importatnly my family, a great PAX memory.

Tony Hellmann

Samyel wrote:

I did buy the very last shot-glass though.

Oh, just so you all know, I learned the other day that those shot glasses are NOT dishwasher safe. Well, they are, but the printing on them isn't. You put it in the dishwasher, you'll get a blank shotglass back out.

FYI.

--Tony

Tony Hellmann

Hey, I had another idea...what about a 10x10 room with a monster in it? (A dude in a zombie suit or something). He touches you twice, you're dead, unless your party has a cleric to heal you. Each party member can pick a class, which gives you some sort of bonus or ability in the dungeon. We'd have a window so the Dungeon Master could watch and adjudicate.

Hmm...the creative gears are turning in this Technomancer's head...

--Tony

Samyel

Tony Hellmann wrote:

Oh, just so you all know, I learned the other day that those shot glasses are NOT dishwasher safe. Well, they are, but the printing on them isn't. You put it in the dishwasher, you'll get a blank shotglass back out.

Good to know. I gave it as a gift to a gamer friend. I'll let him know. The folks at the game store got a good chuckle out of it, incidentally.

As for the monster idea, I dunno--it gets into potentially ugly territory when physical contact comes into it. All it would take is one accidental grope to turn things nasty.

Tony Hellmann

Samyel wrote:

Tony Hellmann wrote:

Oh, just so you all know, I learned the other day that those shot glasses are NOT dishwasher safe. Well, they are, but the printing on them isn't. You put it in the dishwasher, you'll get a blank shotglass back out.

Good to know. I gave it as a gift to a gamer friend. I'll let him know. The folks at the game store got a good chuckle out of it, incidentally.

As for the monster idea, I dunno--it gets into potentially ugly territory when physical contact comes into it. All it would take is one accidental grope to turn things nasty.

Which game store?

--Tony

Samyel

Tony Hellmann wrote:

Which game store?

--Tony

High Octane, in Kamloops BC. It's the only game store we have in town, and one of my favourite places to chill out. It's one of the few successful independant game stores I've known--I used to work in a similar one, but it went under years ago.

Of course, not having much competition for the D&D/Magic/boardgame/comic market probably helps. Kammyland is getting to be a fair sized city.

MoonVydeo

Tony Hellmann wrote:

Samyel wrote:

I did buy the very last shot-glass though.

Oh, just so you all know, I learned the other day that those shot glasses are NOT dishwasher safe. Well, they are, but the printing on them isn't. You put it in the dishwasher, you'll get a blank shotglass back out.

FYI.

--Tony

Could the next batch be dishwasher safe please? I would like to be able to use it and wash it afterwards.

Samyel

MoonVydeo wrote:

Could the next batch be dishwasher safe please? I would like to be able to use it and wash it afterwards.

There's this wacky thing that people used to do before dishwashers... it involved soapy water and getting your hands wet. I'm pretty sure it worked for cleaning shot glasses, along with most kitchen utensils. :P

Tony Hellmann

MoonVydeo wrote:

Could the next batch be dishwasher safe please? I would like to be able to use it and wash it afterwards.

Yes, we're looking for another supplier. I was as disappointed as you were to learn that they weren't dishwasher safe.

--Tony

MoonVydeo

Samyel wrote:

MoonVydeo wrote:

Could the next batch be dishwasher safe please? I would like to be able to use it and wash it afterwards.

There's this wacky thing that people used to do before dishwashers... it involved soapy water and getting your hands wet. I'm pretty sure it worked for cleaning shot glasses, along with most kitchen utensils. :P

While i am quite familar with this....what do they call it again....oh yeah "hand washing" process, I noticed while they were selling the shot glasses quite a few of them had paint chipped off of them. This made me think something was "fragile" about the paint and that washing would be questionable. I think hand washing might produce the same results.

I had a set of shot glasses a friend brought back from Mexico. We used them with similar results, thought those were more of a get them wet loose the art. :shock:

:P

Aiolar

I realize the dark, closet-sized dungeon could be a problem for some people, and some changes should be done for that, but honestly, I thought it was great! Actually, it was a bit of a problem for me too, but most of that was the whole groping around in skull eyes and fake-cobweb covered corners and bowls... I had to keep reminding myself that they were fake, and dry, and wouldn't be full of bugs or slime or anything like that. I'm very glad I was right on that count... The strobe was great - enough light to see, but only barely, and the flashing dark/light/dark created an awesome effect.

I, too, roll awesome (if not quite 20's): I rolled 19 for each (knowledge check and prize roll), and picked up a sweet set of dice.

For next year - If something cool could be done with classes or races that'd be good, but given this last year's challenge (find an object in 60 seconds), there isn't much I can think a human, dwarf, warrior, or ranger, say, would get as a benefit. Also - the benefit of such a tiny room is that the object *can* be found in 60 seconds - this keeps lines short! A more expanded adventure dungeon would be fun (monsters, big room, class abilities and such), but with 20,000 people this year and who knows how many next year (even if everyone didn't do the dungeon), the line for the dungeon might be insane!

PikaPuff

Aiolar wrote:

[stuff]

I agree with keeping the dungeon the same size. Otherwise it wouldn't be the world's smallest dungeon. There's really no need to change the size of it.

Dewar

MoonVydeo wrote:

Samyel wrote:

MoonVydeo wrote:

Could the next batch be dishwasher safe please? I would like to be able to use it and wash it afterwards.

There's this wacky thing that people used to do before dishwashers... it involved soapy water and getting your hands wet. I'm pretty sure it worked for cleaning shot glasses, along with most kitchen utensils. :P

While i am quite familar with this....what do they call it again....oh yeah "hand washing" process, I noticed while they were selling the shot glasses quite a few of them had paint chipped off of them. This made me think something was "fragile" about the paint and that washing would be questionable. I think hand washing might produce the same results.

I had a set of shot glasses a friend brought back from Mexico. We used them with similar results, thought those were more of a get them wet loose the art. :shock:

:P

I just got around to using my shot glass. I spilled a bit of alcohol on the outside of the glass and when I put the glass down I realized that half the letters were stuck to my hand. No matter how you wash it the printing will come off.

I was extremely dissapointed that my favorite souvenir from the con was ruined after using it only once.

RedmondKC

Tony Hellmann wrote:

Itsatrap wrote:

RedmondKC wrote:

On a side note, that was a mean trick you pulled on all of us that won the $10,000. I cried a little. Fer reals.

I heard the whole thing was handled extremely poorly, to the point where I'm not longer interested in their products. The bait-and-switch, while *technically* legal, definitely left a sour taste in my mouth. The worst part was the unapolegetic response after they were called on it. Continuing to collect personal information (via contest forms) after the prize was "claimed" also struck me the wrong way. Sorry Technomancer, your products might be interesting, but I can't in good conscience support those sorts of business practices.

I'm sorry you didn't like our marketing stunt. That $162 for the $10,000 Jamaican dollars came out of pocket. My pocket. The winners still got some money. Just not enough to buy a car. Who did you get the unapologetic response from? I'd like to know.

Also, bearing in mind that a contest is a marketing tool (as is going to a con), it doesn't work so well if someone comes up before the show even opens, you give them the prize, then turn the other 40 people away. That's sort of anti-marketing. We collected email addresses from the first couple people so that they could be contacted if they were not present at the time of the giveaway. If we quit collecting them after the 4th person, it would look a little suspicious. You won't get any marketing material from us if you submitted an answer.

--Tony

No no no. I still like your guys spirit and all that. And I totally understand how $10,000 would not be a very finacially viable option. I really actually rather liked the contest though, and I think it would be wonderful if you guys could make it more "real" next time. Hell, even $50 for the first five correct submitters would be sweet. Or free Technomancer stuff for the first 20. I dunno.

Just don't get me wrong, here. Your staff was friendly and fun and great to hang about. I was just (naturally) a little disappointed with j$50. I do still have it though, and will totally be competing in whatever contest you guys whip up for next year. Maybe I'll somehow get an iPod out of it afterall? :-P

Thanks.