True Adventures
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
True Adventures, Ltd., is a role-playing game company started by Jeff Martin. It operates three entertainment venues at Gen Con Indy and Gen Con SoCal. The company grew out of Martin's work in creating elaborate props and puzzles for his Dungeons & Dragons game.
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[edit] True Dungeon
True Dungeon is a live action roleplaying game. 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. True Dungeon was first run at Gen Con Indy in 2003.
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.
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 playes 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.
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.
[edit] True Dungeon Fantasy Tavern
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.
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.
[edit] True Heroes
True Heroes is 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 gaming conventions such as GenCon in 2004 and 2005. It was not run in 2006.
