ONLINE QUEST 2 Into the Northlands

[QorDaq]

I’ve seen those who questioned the release timing of animal allies with the BQP. This is to counter the solo quest difficulty everyone has complained about for years. They just threw in the part about multi-player quests to stop complaints from others who want to use them also.

Certainly worth consideration. And it was probably smart to do so, not just to assuage those who want an Animal Companion in the party, but in general to add flexibility to how people might play the game.

I'd personally still like to see a little more clarity in the rules, but as mentioned, it's HQ, so it's a big sandbox and folks will play as they like regardless. Which is good. It's kept the love alive this long anyway.

[Kurgan]

And they're really reminding people HARD of the flexibility of the game, to prevent this particular quest series from souring people's experience of the game if they aren't already in that mindset, which is the right thing to do, since they didn't want to just flat out change it, presumably for fear that some would gripe that it had been "tampered with" and the package they never got to play in 1992 had been "changed" (even if it would have been for the best, in my humble opinion). Perhaps overly cautious about change, but I'd rather have that kind of mindset at the helm of my beloved franchise all things considered, than the reverse, wouldn't you?

[Kurgan]

Thank you Avalon Hill! Seems they fixed up the things we were asking about... the file is updated.

Into the Northlands ... Minor Spoilers:

Falling Block square is marked in trap orange/gold.

The Mummy at letter B is indeed intended to be a wolf mummy (same stats as a normal mummy monster) related in the flavor text not a separate creature.

[SirRick]

I like the new artifacts. The spear could have been 2 combat dice as normal and 4 dice vs Polar Warbears instead of 3, but it's a free magic weapon, so you can't complain.

The armor is cool (pun not intended) and screams for the Knight hero to use it.

Overall all the new items and the inclusion of the Armband of Ice, might finally make the Frozen Horror quests playable. I hope I get to try them out sometime.

[JackieX]

The Mummy at letter B is indeed intended to be a wolf mummy (same stats as a normal mummy monster) related in the flavor text not a separate creature.

If the monster is a wolf mummy, shouldn't he be able to attack diagonally like the wolf?

[manaknight14]

If the monster is a wolf mummy, shouldn't he be able to attack diagonally like the wolf?

Since they didn't give any special stats, I'm guessing the designers intended it to function like an ordinary mummy, but you make a good point. If an ordinary wolf can attack diagonally, maybe the mummy should too? If we want to create unique stats for a wolf mummy, maybe we can extrapolate them? I'm willing to try....

Movement
Average movement on a standard dice roll is 7, which is the same as the one human type of standard baddie (the chaos/dread warrior). A human mummy's movement is 4, three less than a living human. The standard wolf's movement is 10, so apply the same penalty and you get 10 - 3 = 7.

Attack Dice
A normal mummy gets 3 AD. Standard wolf attack dice is 3, which is as high as a starting barbarian, i.e. the "greatest warrior of all." Maybe this justifies an extra AD for the wolf mummy, like the "great warrior" mummy from The Trial?

Defend Dice
Wolf defend dice is 2, same as any other starting character, so keep the standard mummy DD.

Body Points
The mummy's 2 BP are the same as a mercenary, i.e. a human NPC. The wolf has 5 BP, but that is as a substitute for a hero. What would be the equivalent for an NPC wolf? Well, we have some guidance of a hero-to-NPC BP conversion from MotM. Enemy elves there have 3 BP, which is a 3 BP penalty compared to the hero elf. So wolf mummy would have 5 - 3 = 2 BP, same as standard.

Mind Points
It's undead, so 0.

So in conclusion, my Mummy Wolf stats:
MV = 7
AD = 4
DD = 4
BP = 2
MP = 0
Special = diagonal attack

Basically it's an undead chaos/dread warrior with one less body point, plus the diagonal reach.

[Pancho]

I’m quite impressed with this download, it looks like a lot of thought has been put into the new rules and artefacts, which hasn’t always been the case with the new release material.

The wolf ally idea is very cool, and is a nice solution I think to the difficulty of the solo quests. I’ve never been a fan of the suggestion that mercenaries or other Heroes come along for the solo quests (it’s supposed to be a trial for a champion who works alone!), but I can get behind the idea of him taking an animal ally along.

[Kurgan]

The "you run into an ally mid quest" was a trick Dave Morris used in his HeroQuest novel solo quests in '92-'93.

[Kurgan]

As far as giving the wolf mummy wolf stats, sure why not, give him the same stats as Snowdasher the friendly wolf... and he'll be a really powerful boss! The only handicap would be that he'd roll black shields for defense and so be twice as easy to kill (and nobody to heal him as you could in theory).

Then again an easy rationalization is that this is an UNDEAD creature, so his natural abilities may have been blunted somewhat from his former full strength. Throwing in a 5 BP monster as an even bigger boss than the one you fought earlier seems a bit much but would be a big surprise (and maybe a cool moment for the Wolf to shine).

I was thinking giving a potion to the Wolf to heal him could only be done on the hero's turn. The wolf can't retain a potion (what, in his mouth?) so if he dies, he dies... no last minute saves with a potion held in the hand (paw).

domymontalto playtested this quest with me, as he took control of the Barbarian. I goofed up a few times but it all came out in the end, he got just as much healing as he would have in the released version as it turns out and it was eminently playable with some close calls of course! The one big changed happened when someone bought him a mercenary, who shortened the boss fight probably by two turns (had there been a major wolf boss later he would have come in handy for that!).

"Into the Northlands" (special guest hero)! (video)

[Hogg]

They added this quest to the app.