User:GRuban/sandbox

True Adventures, Ltd., is a role-playing game company started by Jeff Martin. It operates two entertainment venues at Gen Con Indy: True Dungeon and True Dungeon Fantasy Tavern. The company also hosted the event True Heroes in 2004 and 2005. True Adventures ran these events at Gen Con SoCal when the convention was still in existence. The company grew out of Martin's work in creating elaborate props and puzzles for his Dungeons & Dragons game. More than 3,000 people play True Dungeon each year. True Dungeon has been described as "the single most popular event" at Gen Con. People attend Gen Con just for True Dungeon.

True Dungeon
True Dungeon is somewhat like a live action roleplaying (LARP) game. The game's developers deny that it is a LARP. While players are free to role-play particular characters, True Dungeon does not emphasize role-playing aspects; characters lack backgrounds and names. Instead characters primarily are collections of spells and statistics useful for solving puzzles and battling opponents. The rules mechanics are loosely based on those of Dungeons & Dragons. Combat is played out by sliding weapon counters along a waist high shuffle board table. True Dungeon focuses on riddle and puzzle solving along with the shuffle board combat system.

Jeff Martin originally ran yearly immersive games of this sort for groups of friends. Gen Con owner Peter Adkison was invited to one of these events, then running under the name "Jeff Con" for about 30 people. After his experience, Adkison invited Martin to run the game at Gen Con after participating in one of Martin's events. True Dungeon was first run at Gen Con Indy in 2003. The first event was arranged at the last minute; there was no promotion and tickets were not in Gen Con's system.

The events takes about 100 volunteers to run. The 2006 event supplies filled two semi-trailers.

Equipment for player characters exists in the form of "treasure tokens". These are marked wooden tokens indicating various pieces of traditional Dungeons & Dragons equipment. Examples include rope, small steel mirrors, weapons, and armor. In 2005 players were given a random weapon and random armor; they were expected to trade within their group to optimize their equipment usage. In 2006 players were given a random bag of 10 tokens. Since the game began players could also purchase additional bags of random tokens.

True Dungeon provides an interactive environment, complete with multiple solutions to many problems. There are a small number of NPCs as the plot requires. Players move through various rooms in the game world. Each room contains a challenge in either the form of a puzzle, a combat, or both. The puzzles can be very difficult and the game has a high rate of character death, although the games lethality has dropped over the years. Jeff Martin said of the 2004 Gen Con Indy game that only 20% of characters survived, while in 2005 42% did.

Closer to live action role-playing, players are expected to physically explore their surroundings, not simply describing interactions with the gamemaster Many interactions do require gamemaster interaction, with some details of the environment described to players by the gamemaster assigned to each room.

The first few years, each group of players were accompanied by a gamemaster throughout the dungeon. In 2005, this was switched to having a gamemaster assigned to each room to ensure more consistent rulings for a given room.

To maximize throughput of players, each room of the dungeon has a group of players in it. Groups all advance to the next room simultaneously. As a result, each room has a hard time limit. If players finish early, they must wait for the time limit to expire before advancing. If the players are too slow, they are penalized hit points and are moved into the next room. The plot for each dungeon usually provides a reason for the time limit. One year the plot specified that the characters were fleeing lizardmen. Sometimes the rooms themselves explain the time limit; in 2005 one room had a moving wall that would crush characters who failed to open the locked door into the next room quickly enough.

Player success in True Dungeon (and True Heroes) is tracked in the form of Experience Points. Players with larger numbers of Experience Points (or XP) are given levels. These levels have no impact on the gameplay, but offer benefits outside of the game.

Events
In 2005 two different adventures were run in parallel: "Battle Below Castle Greyhawk" and "Assault Above Castle Greyhawk". In the last room of one of the adventures players could send a brief message to the other adventure, a clue to help the second party complete their last room. Players were free to play both adventures.

In 2006 two very similar copies of the same adventure, "Escape from the Spider Cult", were run in parallel, effectively doubling the number of slots available for players. The playable classes were also expanded to include Barbarian, Druid, and Monk, in addition to the previous Wizard, Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, Ranger and Bard.

In 2007, again two very similar copies of the same adventure, "Race Across Greyhawk", were run in parallel. But this year, one dungeon was more combat oriented while the other was more puzzle oriented. This year also marked the addition of live monsters to the game including a shambling mound, a medusa, and a stone golem.

2008's adventure was entitled "Hope of the Lost." The plot line had the players infiltrating a temple of Pelor that had been taken over by evil forces. Again two versions were run in parallel, a "combat" version and a "puzzle" versoin. Like 2005's game, groups on the two paths had to work together at the very end to win. Unlike te 2005 year, the two teams actually joined up in the same room. The puzzle group had to solve a puzzle while the combat group had to fight a monster. Both groups had to succeed to win.

True Dungeon Fantasy Tavern
In 2005, True Dungeon added a tavern area in front of the True Dungeon adventures proper. The area is decorated as a stereotypical fantasy tavern. Drinks are available for purchase. The area is intended to be a fantasy-themed area for gamers to congregate and socialize. It also acts as a staging area for players waiting for their session of True Dungeon. A shuffle board is available to practice combat, and many players meet here to trade tokens.

In 2006 players with a ticket for the day's event could enter the tavern. Any player with enough Experience Points to be fourth level could also enter. Anyone else wishing to enter needed to pay a fee.

True Heroes
True Heroes was a superhero-themed game that is played much like True Dungeon. It was produced in conjunction with Upper Deck Entertainment and Marvel Comics. Combat involved throwing small balls containing magnets at metal targets. Combat also used aspects of Upper Deck's "VS System". True Heroes operated at Gen Con Indy and So Cal in 2004 and 2005 before being cancelled.