PDA

View Full Version : Picking Up the Initial Pace



Millennium
2007-02-19, 03:44 PM
I've played the OOTS game 4-5 times now, and I've been having a lot of fun with it, once everyone gets down to at least the second floor.

However, the one problem we've had is that the game seems to start off very slowly. Thus far, we haven't played anything but the shortest variant of the game, but even with this we've never been able to get down to the second floor in less than a day, and usually it takes us two days (3-4 hour/day sessions). Once we actually get to the second floor the pace of the game picks up very quickly, and generally finishes off in a couple of hours, and once this happens it's a lot of fun.

Many people complain that low-level characters in D&D are too weak to do anything interesting, and maybe this is supposed to be a dig at that, but it doesn't seem likely. It seems more likely to me that we're probably doing something wrong. But in that case, what is the first level of the dungeon supposed to feel like in 3-4 player games? Certainly it shouldn't take two days just to get to the second floor. Typically we don't go further into the dungeon until we've got 3-4 additional shticks; are we being too cautious?

Harkone
2007-02-19, 03:57 PM
In the 4-player, short-version (3 floors+Xykon's lair) games I've played (about 10 so far), the game has taken around 3 hours total. In the beginning, on the first floor, you must make liberal use of your loot to get assistance from other players to defeat monsters; if you hoard your loot (even loot you drool over) from the beginning, you won't get anywhere and the game could drag out if everyone uses this strategy. Once you get even 2-3 more schticks (on top of the 3 you start with) your character is alot more powerful (especially if you get the right schticks; a player that draws multiple battle schticks and boosts their attacks early can really move the game along). Think of the difference between even a 3rd level D&D character and that same character at 1st level. That's my take anyway.

Totally Guy
2007-02-19, 06:02 PM
Try to get the stairs found in rooms close to the dungeon entrance, that way it can be possible to dip in and out of the harder battles and get back to the entrance in one move.

And my advice is always go down when you can. It forces the other player to either give up NPC support or follow you. This speeds things up as you can kill more monsters in the same number of turns. It's a bigger gamble but you can choose not to continue fighting after killing the top monster as if you were on the upper floor anyway.

Seeing how far down you can go before actually killing anything and just armed with the starting shticks gives the player something to brag about. It's all about laughing in the face of death! (Or simply laughing because your particular doom this time collects unusual lint balls)