As a new player, running through the Praetorium dungeon was the worst

[Iscah]

No amount of tomestones will make people watch almost 30 minutes of cutscenes in one dungeon.

Nobody will queue for it, no amount of incentive will make people queue for that.

If they make cut scenes mandatory regardless of player preference, Castrum and Praetorium die. No one will run them. If you got it in a mentor roulette, it would actually be faster to leave, eat your thirty penalty and try again. They can't force cut scenes onto people.

Two things here. Firstly it's not true that "nobody" will run them - drastically less, perhaps, but not nobody, and it will be the people who are willing to wait for newcomers now. (Which may also have the side effect of multiple newcomers in the party, making it more of a challenge and less "epic boss killed in twenty seconds".)

The other option is to make the EXP/rewards equivalent to what you could earn in that time elsewhere, for less work.

Furthermore, if cut scenes do become mandatory. How likely do you think people are to patiently wait versus simply kicking the person slowing them down? It already happens. Just imagine what it'll be like if the roulette offered 4-5 million EXP.

If it's possible within the game infrastructure, I would hope they create a "first-time player cannot be kicked" rule if they're implementing mandatory cutscenes in an 'only until all players opt to skip cutscene' way.

---

Ultimately a "solo mission" mode would be the best solution.