A Knightmare in Belfast
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hey there, my name is paul, im playing treguard in the qknightmare next week, i shall speak to the guys running it and see if we can get you guys some pictures from it, and i think they are recording it so maybe we can somehow let you see it also.
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I was in the first group to play the dungeon. It was absolutely great. Unfortunately we didn't manage to make it out of the second floor due to me stepping across one blade into a second. Darn that scale.
There were I believe 10 groups all together. Four that I know of got to level 3 (They made the dungeon easier after we did it, apparantly ther staff were complaining) Two groups died on the bridge of sawblades where I died. One died in the second room of the first level where the letters of Exit were on the floor. They ignored the letters and went through a random door. Two died on the causeway and one stepped to the wrong right in the corridor of blades. I'm afraid I don't know how the others died.
We also had a good reason given as to why there had been no dungeoneers for so long. Apparantly Lord Fear had managed to abduct Treguard and was holding him captive. He had also tried to permanantly seal off the dungeon but thankfully had failed. We were thus suprised when we were greeted in the antichamber by Brother Mace who explained the situation to us. (Well, actually Lord Fear contacted us and told us.)
There was even a wall monster and a room that goes boom. If you hadn't followed the advice of the wall monster and taken up a shield you would have died in the room that goes boom because there was no exit until the bomb went off.
Thank-you to all of you in Belfast for giving me a wonderful time.
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Hello, all. As Aidan's main advisor / spellcaster I thought I'd give a report of our (sadly curtailed) dungeon run. Aidan, please correct me if I get mixed up.
We entered the castle, and were greeted by Brother Mace. who explained that Lord Fear had kidnapped Treguard. We saw a shot of him tied up, and were mocked by Lord Fear. Aidan was then sent into the dungeon.
In the first room, we encountered the Guardian (played by a woman), who asked us to choose between the Paths of Agression and Defence, each reached by a bridge over a drop, and marked by a sword and shield. We chose Defence, and entered a room with the letters X,E, T and I on the floor, and four visible exits. We collected the letters in order (E-X-I-T), and the fourth, er, exit, was marked by an "Exit" sign.
This put us in a room with a table containing a bar of gold, a candle, a shield and a spyglass. We used the spyglass to hear Lord Fear ranting at his minions (no useful info). A wall monster then challenged us, and asked three Greek mythology questions, which we answered correctly. He let us pass, and advised us to take the candle and shield, which we did.
Proceeding on, we entered a room spanned by a chasm with a woman on the other side. This was Lilith, we were informed, a powerful sorceress who despised Lord Fear. She (played by a man), asked us to step closer to see us better. And again. And again. We eventually refused to go further, and she asked Aidan to take off his helmet. He refused, and she eventually asked his name and purpose. We assured her we opposed Lord Fear, and she condescended to let us pass. She gave us a spell "D-O-O-R" and made some passes with her hands. Apparently the chasm should have vanished but it didn't. ("Gremlins", Brother Mace tutted.) He asured us it was safe to cross the room, and Aidan crossed the chasm into another room.
This room, however, contained a bomb. A traditional Knightmare bomb. Aidan quickly held up the shield and survived the huge blast, which left a hole in the floor. Brother Mace advised us to emulate Alice, and go down the rabbit hole, which Aidan promptly did.
We then came upon a dark room. Holding up the candle, we perceivd an exit, and passed through, finally reaching Treguard! Aidan managed to free him (Lord Fear had said there were keys, but we never saw any - a continuity error?). However, there were no visible means of exit! The spell D-O-O-R let us through, and we entered a corridor with two exits. Treguard suggested he stay to hold back the minions that were (presumably) following, so we asked his advice on direction. He didn't know. (We were told afterwards that we were never expected to get this far - later teams received a scroll with their items that told them "When the path forks, left is right," or similar. This explains the "key" problem as well.) Brother Mace ad-libbed something about "I have prayed deeply...and I think you should go left." Who were we to disregard such divinely inspired advice?
Passing left, we encounter the Guardian once again, blocking our path, in a room with a spyglass on a table. She challenged us with two questions - one to pass, two to earn aid later. (Teams that came after only required one question right of the two to get both.) We nonetheless answered both questions, to their amazement. (None of the cast knew the last question themselves, they told us afterwards.) She told us we would receive her aid when we needed it most. We then looked at the spyglass, and received a vision of Lord Fear dispatching one of his guards, a red- and black-armoured knight. He also instructed him about the Grand Causeway, stressing that it was of PRIME importance that he cross it successfully. This was fairly obvious, and we proceeded onward.
We now came to a room that was simply a bridge crossing to a door, with three blades slicing through it horizontally at irregular intervals. We moved Aidan up to just before the first blade, and I told him, "Now, when I say, take a big step. ...NOW!" Aidan duly stepped forward, remained the same size as he moved along the perspective bridge (Damn you, gremlins!), and stepped right into the second blade.
Ooh, nasty!
And that was that, alas. The cast congratulated us on getting so far, and bid us farewell. The teams that came after us had that second blade removed, more clues, and less questions to answer.
It was an absolutely amazing experience! Would I do it again? Without a second thought - but I don't think we'll be going first next time!
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One small mistake, the darkened room came between Treguard and the Guardian. I believe that you are slightly conused because I was convinced that Treguard was an illusion and was thus holding up the candle in an effort to dispel the illusion. In later session he was manacled and dungeoneers later had to release him.
Oh, and the scroll read "The right path is not always the correct path"
I'll now tell what came after (and technically before but it never actually happened to us)
Before the room in which I perished, we should have encountered a hag on the opposite side of a chasm which screamed "Curse!! Cuuuuurrrsssee!!! repeatedly at the dungeoneer.
The room after the bridge with the blades had an apparition blocking the path to level 3. The team would have been informed by brother mace that this was a curse which had been summoned by Lord Fear to guard the stairway. The player's could use the spell so handily provided to them by the hag to dispel the curse.
The first room of the third level contained the causeway, two groups perished here, one group had put down the spyglass too quickly and didn't have the necessary clue, the other thought that one was a prime number.
The next room contained two passages, one marked as short cut with a reduced image of the corridor of blades (I love that pun) and the other marked as "Team Evil". The was also a guard at the point where the paths bisected and if the team had answered one of her questions correctly (there were complaints that the second question was too difficult) the guardian would appear and hold off the guard while the team escaped down the short cut.
Corridor of blades. Need I say more? One death due to stepping to the wrong right.
Next room contained one exit and the item that the party was questing for. Only one group ever managed to get this far. Through the exit was a causeway with two 90 degree bends which was the final room of the dungeon.
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actually a few mistakes in the order there, but i wont be choosey, after the hag and the cavern of blades came the number causeway, then the path to level 3, then a goon blocking a choice of 2 paths but the guardian would help you.
then came the corridor of blades, like the one from the original series on the escalator, followed by the quest room and a path out of the dungeon.
also the keys were thrown deep into the dungeon and well, got lost as lord fear didnt know where they were.
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It sounds excellent. Was the character of Brother Mace played by Michael Cule, and if not, what did he think of the portrayal?
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he played it for 2 of the 4 sessions, then we let him go and have some fun of his own. (he ended up winning a competition game)
and i played brother mace for the rest and we did a cast change around
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Hello, all. As Aidan's main advisor / spellcaster I thought I'd give a report of our (sadly curtailed) dungeon run. Aidan, please correct me if I get mixed up.
I played the Guardian in Qnightmare and I just felt I should correct a few errors I felt you have made in this post.
Apparently the chasm should have vanished but it didn't. ("Gremlins", Brother Mace tutted.)
The chasm was not supposed to vanish. Lilith cast a spell that formed an icy barrier over the chasm. The colour changed from black to blueish, rather than a bridge appearing. Michael Cule was unaware of this until the sequence was replayed and made clear. So, this time, the gremlins were innocent
We then came upon a dark room. Holding up the candle, we perceivd an exit, and passed through, finally reaching Treguard! Aidan managed to free him (Lord Fear had said there were keys, but we never saw any - a continuity error?).
The keys were never meant to be found, that was just Lord Fear messing with and taunting you.
(We were told afterwards that we were never expected to get this far - later teams received a scroll with their items that told them "When the path forks, left is right," or similar. This explains the "key" problem as well.)
It's not that you were never expected to get that far, so much as that was the first time we had ever run the whole thing and we were unsure of how far people would get. It turns out the bridge of blades was where most people met their grisly end.
More importantly, contrary to your statement, later teams did not have an advantage on you in the form of the scroll. The "scroll" was on the table from the very first run (I know, I helped lay out the props). It was sitting face/text up on the table, waiting to be picked up and read. Your dungeoneer neglected to either describe or pick it up. Following this I rolled the paper into a scroll and secured it with a loose cable tie, since we feared other teams would be equally careless, or miss this valuable clue.
Passing left, we encounter the Guardian once again, blocking our path, in a room with a spyglass on a table. She challenged us with two questions - one to pass, two to earn aid later. (Teams that came after only required one question right of the two to get both.) We nonetheless answered both questions, to their amazement. (None of the cast knew the last question themselves, they told us afterwards.)
The two riddles were reduced to one at the behest of Michael Cule, being considered too difficult. While it's true that none of the cast, including myself, knew the riddle, I would say that Irish folklore is not so commonly known in the north as in the south. You were not the only team to get the question right, although it doesn't matter since only two teams got far enough for the Guardian to aid them.
Aidan duly stepped forward, remained the same size as he moved along the perspective bridge (Damn you, gremlins!), and stepped right into the second blade.
I don't think this was a gremlin. The key to the bridge was in taking well placed, and often calculatingly small steps. Also, let it be remembered that it was an amateur production, and the work of one (genius) man. I don't think you should mock the technology of it too harshly, a lot of work went into it.
The teams that came after us had that second blade removed, more clues, and less questions to answer.
I think I have illustrated, the following teams did not have more clues. The second blade was removed, once again, at the behest of a main figure in the cast. However, it did little to reduce the death rate of the bridge!
It was an absolutely amazing experience! Would I do it again? Without a second thought - but I don't think we'll be going first next time!
Despite your nitpicking, you seem to have enjoyed the experience and I am glad. The cast had a lot of fun putting on the performance, I know I certainly did.
I may have come across as abrasive in this post, but I felt I had to address certain issues that you raised. As I said, a lot of work went into Qnightmare, mostly the work of Andrew (Qnightmare Director) and it rankles a little that people pick out little problems in what was essentially an amateur production and a bit of a laugh. Oh, and I couldn't resist the air of slight superiority in your tone heh
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O-kay. It seems like you've misinterpreted the tone of my post completely. The idea was to give a balanced overview of the whole game as we found it, not to either nitpick it or gush about it. It was intended to be for the benefit of those who weren't there, not to mock or belittle what were evidently Trojan efforts to make the game happen at all.
I played the Guardian in Qnightmare and I just felt I should correct a few errors I felt you have made in this post.
Yes, I remember you. I have several photos of you and the other cast members in your costumes, and I was really impressed by the attention to detail.
Apparently the chasm should have vanished but it didn't. ("Gremlins", Brother Mace tutted.)
The chasm was not supposed to vanish. Lilith cast a spell that formed an icy barrier over the chasm. The colour changed from black to blueish, rather than a bridge appearing. Michael Cule was unaware of this until the sequence was replayed and made clear. So, this time, the gremlins were innocent
Thanks for clearing that one up! It was very confusing at the time - none of us spotted anything changing.
The keys were never meant to be found, that was just Lord Fear messing with and taunting you.
Again, thanks! That one was bugging me a little, because I wasn't sure if it was deliberate or not.
More importantly, contrary to your statement, later teams did not have an advantage on you in the form of the scroll. The "scroll" was on the table from the very first run (I know, I helped lay out the props). It was sitting face/text up on the table, waiting to be picked up and read. Your dungeoneer neglected to either describe or pick it up. Following this I rolled the paper into a scroll and secured it with a loose cable tie, since we feared other teams would be equally careless, or miss this valuable clue.
Fair enough - I checked this one with Aidan when we discussed the game on the way home, and he assured me he hadn't seen any scroll. That one's our fault!
The two riddles were reduced to one at the behest of Michael Cule, being considered too difficult. While it's true that none of the cast, including myself, knew the riddle, I would say that Irish folklore is not so commonly known in the north as in the south. You were not the only team to get the question right, although it doesn't matter since only two teams got far enough for the Guardian to aid them.
I didn't know that about the riddles - I wasn't trying to either gripe or boast, just explain developments in the game over the convention, since we did see ourselves as "playtesters", in a sense.
Folklore point - that seems fair enough. It did indeed seem very hard, though I was aware other teams got the question right.
Aidan duly stepped forward, remained the same size as he moved along the perspective bridge (Damn you, gremlins!), and stepped right into the second blade.
I don't think this was a gremlin. The key to the bridge was in taking well placed, and often calculatingly small steps. Also, let it be remembered that it was an amateur production, and the work of one (genius) man. I don't think you should mock the technology of it too harshly, a lot of work went into it.
I'm surprised that you see that as mocking - I considered it more of a humorous reference to the technical problems that were there throughout. Of course it was an amazing production, and I don't think you should just consider it "amateur". The quality of the experience (tech issues notwithstanding) was as good as the original series. But the tech issues were there, and they did deserve a mention. Are you being a bit overdefensive? And I do think we would have managed the bridge without the second blade.
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The teams that came after us had that second blade removed, more clues, and less questions to answer.
I think I have illustrated, the following teams did not have more clues. The second blade was removed, once again, at the behest of a main figure in the cast. However, it did little to reduce the death rate of the bridge!
The clues point was a mistake on our part. However, it is true that later teams had one blade less and less questions, and that probably was required to make the game slightly less lethal. I'm not actively trying to be judgemental here, just to give a sense of the experience as it developed.
It was an absolutely amazing experience! Would I do it again? Without a second thought - but I don't think we'll be going first next time!
Despite your nitpicking, you seem to have enjoyed the experience and I am glad. The cast had a lot of fun putting on the performance, I know I certainly did.
"Nitpicking" is harsh. Anyone who was there with me - and, indeed, most of my friends and family for the previous two months - would know how excited and enthused I was about taking part in a production like this. The fact that I decied to give a sense of the overall experience rather than my individual experience of how great it was (and, believe me, it was) doesn't mean I didn't appreciate it for what it is. And, incidentally, I really enjoyed your performance. That's why I asked you for a photograph when I spotted you in costume the next day.
I may have come across as abrasive in this post, but I felt I had to address certain issues that you raised. As I said, a lot of work went into Qnightmare, mostly the work of Andrew (Qnightmare Director) and it rankles a little that people pick out little problems in what was essentially an amateur production and a bit of a laugh. Oh, and I couldn't resist the air of slight superiority in your tone heh
Abrasive? Well yes, yes you did. I put a lot of effort into writing up my account of our adventure, and to have you tear it apart because it wasn't overwhelmingly positive throughout was disappointing. What did I actually say? That the game experienced some technical difficulties which I considered minor (true) and that it was made easier for later teams (true - whether it was at the behest of the cast is irrelevant). You seem to ignore the effort I put into describing what was an unforgettable experience for myself. If I didn't enjoy it immensely, why would I have bothered? And obviously the minor problems stood out - there weren't any major ones. If you're going to respond to even implied criticim with "It's just a bit of a laugh," then people won't take your efforts seriously, and this one deserved to be taken seriously. I didn't notice an air of superiority in my post, but I did notice the incredible overdefensiveness of yours, and I was hurt by it.
I had a wonderful experience at Qnightmare - it was the highlight of the convention for me. I do indeed hope to do it again, but your overzealous defence of something that really didn't need it has put me off writing a review the next time.
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My name is Andrew (Not the same Andrew who ran Qnightmare, he's a lot smarter than me), I was one of the organisers of Q-Con. I have some video clips of Qnightmare as I know you are all dying to see them.
Paul testing the corridor of blades:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCe01tJL59A
The intro sequence:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS6Kd-e7cuY
Pictures of the setup and running of Qnightmare can be found here on the QUB Dragonslayers gallery.
http://www.dragonslayers.org.uk/gallery/v/Q-con/Qnightmare/
Enjoy, there is more to come.
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Ok, your two posts makes it more difficult to quote and reply so I will keep this brief.
And, incidentally, I really enjoyed your performance. That's why I asked you for a photograph when I spotted you in costume the next day.
Obviously I am flattered that you enjoyed my performance.
Abrasive? Well yes, yes you did. I put a lot of effort into writing up my account of our adventure, and to have you tear it apart because it wasn't overwhelmingly positive throughout was disappointing.
This sounds a bit like six and two threes. You are angry because I criticised the post you put a lot of effort into? However I am denied indignation when you slighted a production that took a huge amount of effort to pull off? Interesting.
... it was made easier for later teams (true - whether it was at the behest of the cast is irrelevant).
Back to the perceived idea that you were somehow "cheated". Incidentally I forgot to mention that, while you had one blade more, your team did not have to deal with an element that we introduced - the henchmen. Later teams were harried regularly by the goons. Standing around for ages debating clues and deciding courses of action became a thing of the past. Once you exceeded the time, goons stomped their way onto the screen, ready to cut you down. I noticed after rereading my previous post that I had omitted this piece of information. I would also like to reitterate that removing one blade did not heavily reduce the kill rate of the bridge - it still claimed many lives.
I didn't notice an air of superiority in my post, but I did notice the incredible overdefensiveness of yours, and I was hurt by it.
The air of superiority is what drew me to your post initially! I am not the only one to have noticed it either. Perhaps you should reread it, or have a fesh eye look over it? I might have let it slide as just another person nit-picking, but the entire post seemed to suggest that your team were the best ones there and only failed in the quest because they were somehow screwed over by having a tougher run. It was the clues, the riddles, the extra blade. We were robbed. I didn't think that was a fair judgement. Having watched many teams come and go over the weekend, I have to say quite a few were high quality, and the overall winners took it in their stride. In this case "if only" does no good.
I wouldn't say I was "incredibly overdefensive" since most of my post was geared towards correcting errors you had made in your original post and clearing up "grey areas." I am, of course, a little defensive of something that took considerable effort but still wasn't good enough for some people. I don't think a man who has been "hurt" because I criticised a post he made on a forum should call anybody "incredibly overdefensive" or anything of the like. Pot, kettle, black.
Most people seemed to enjoy Qnightmare immensely, which is, of course, delightful. However the comments of "we should have had film and drama students as actors" and "we should have organised it properly and not left it to the last minute" are still fresh in my mind. It's a little sad that people couldn't take it for what it was - a valiant attempt to recreate in an hour what it took the original series a week to create (i.e one whole episode). We didn't have the luxury of multiple screens, a team of techs, professional actors and so on but for some reason people almost expected it.
I had a wonderful experience at Qnightmare - it was the highlight of the convention for me. I do indeed hope to do it again, but your overzealous defence of something that really didn't need it has put me off writing a review the next time.
As I said before, I am glad you enjoyed Qnightmare overall, it was our goal to create an enjoyable and memorable experience for all the Q-Con attendees. We felt the venture went incredibly well, despite any passing negativities.
I will refer you to my earlier pot-kettle-black comment in response to your assertion that I am "overzealous"
There are no concrete plans to rerun Qnightmare. The idea has been tossed about, but we'll have to see if it is viable and so forth. Maybe you won't have need to write another review after all!
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My name is Andrew (Not the same Andrew who ran Qnightmare, he's a lot smarter than me), I was one of the organisers of Q-Con. I have some video clips of Qnightmare as I know you are all dying to see them.
Paul testing the corridor of blades:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCe01tJL59A
The intro sequence:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS6Kd-e7cuY
Pictures of the setup and running of Qnightmare can be found here on the QUB Dragonslayers gallery.
http://www.dragonslayers.org.uk/gallery/v/Q-con/Qnightmare/
Enjoy, there is more to come.
You probably shouldn;t show those photos to people, some of us cast members look less than dashing!!
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