First HQ game night in (15?) years!

[lucasdp]

After finding my old HQ system, lurking on the forum for a little while, and now trying to be active on the forum, I will finally be assuming the role of Zargon and introducing four new heroes to the world of HQ this Saturday evening!

As a kid, I only ever played a straight forward, by-the-book campaign. Now, I'm thinking of employing a few minor house rules. I'm going to use EvilWizardCharacter's suggestion of starting heroes off with the Maze > the Trial. If there is any fuss about being the wizard, I'm going to use Bob-Bob's suggestion of beefing him/her up with some of the Japanese rules (i.e., the "beginner" and "intermediate" spells). I don't want to start off with too many house rules right off the bat, as none of my heroes have played HQ before, but I'm sure we will add more as the campaign continues.

I'm also thinking of employing music to set the mood (found at least three threads on that here, so I've got good options). Hopefully my heroes don't find that too geeky.

Any other suggestions on starting fresh? From reading the forum, I can tell most of you are several quests into your campaigns. Do you remember what did/didn't work well in the beginning?

Anyway, I'm super excited and I think my heroes are too! Hope to get some good pics to share with you all!

[Maike05]

Hi Lucas and welcome on the forum ! Don't hesitate to read the blog and especially tips for Zargon/Morcar section as these contains very useful article on how to enhance the gameplay

If I remember correctly, the things my player loved were:
- painted minis
- looting monsters for gold after killing them (usually 1D6 x 5 Gold),
- findings barrels of special liquid with random effects (dwarf beer, orc beer, healing potion and so on )
- The greediness and hunt for treasure chests -> always trapped of course !!
- Having some random and mean event that almost kills them, only to find healing potion and Treasure hoard afterwards

What they don't like:
- the abuse of tactical placement of figures and houserules that over complicate combat => a little improvement is fine though
- the frustration of getting your turn over when you move & attack and that you have some movement left => I usually allow them to continue moving on after having attacked.

I hope you could find some useful tips !
Looking forward seeing some pics as well.

[Patroclus]

Welcome!

About background music for HQ I suggest Basil Poledouris...


If you want something less dramatic and more romantic, you could make a mix from Lineage 2 sound tracks:





For warhammer (the wargame) which is pure war I could suggest the Bolt Thrower band (but it’s death metal, so you may not like it).

[EvilWizardCharacter]

Hey Lucas,

This is the version of "The Maze" I played to great results with my two cousins the other week. They were only in town for a couple days, so I wrote them a four-quest, ice-themed story arc--hence the Ice Gremlins. I recommend a similar adaptation if your group is a bit older and, if not board-game-experienced, savvy in general. The dwarf was basically a Barbarian and the Skaven was basically a Dwarf. As far as the letters go, I had included some items to help beef them up more quickly, but you could easily ignore that. I also think putting a couple traps in there to teach them that mechanic is useful. "The Trial," after all, is filled with baddies but is without traps. Again, our second quest was just an icy themed version of the classic American quest #1.

I agree with you that sounds are very helpful for getting players in the mood. I use a little iPhone soundboard and Bluetooth speaker with sound effects for our games. My Questing Party of thirty-year-olds love it, but needless to say, my two young cousins lost their minds.

You can see a Quest in which I employ the soundboard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSHEZZDBPHg

As for house rules, your group will inevitably come up with those to best suit your unique playing styles.

I hope you'll share with us how it all goes!

[lucasdp]

Success! We played the Maze > the Trial > the Rescue of Sir Ragnar and everyone had a great time. We listened to Skarseian (dungeon synth!) and the Conan soundtrack. I haven't painted any minis yet (I know, I know), but I did get some Reaper minis from my local game stores to add flavor. I picked up female versions of the heroes and of course the new Reaper figures look more badass than the original heroes, so one of the guys even picked the female dwarf!
I slaughtered my heroes during the Trial, you guys. Only Miranda the elf survived, and I think it made them too cautious during the Rescue of Sir Ragnar. They didn't explore much and were very goal oriented. Which was fine, still had lots of fun, but I hope they get more adventurous as they get get into the game.
The guys were actually arguing to be the wizard, so I didn't beef him up after all. And I think my wizard played well. So no major house rules yet. I am thinking of allowing another hero or two to join next time; we've got other friends that want to play, and I've got the extra figures now. We'll see...
I've got a couple pics, but having trouble posting them. I'll try again later...

[sorcerersapprentice]

Patroclus's post offering music was really cool, often an overlooked part of RPG's methinks.

Can I suggest Enigma for setting a deep trance type pace that rises and falls (good for long quests),
and Brand X, excellent for epic moments.

[lucasdp]

OK, I gave up on trying to post pics from Google Drive and got a Photobucket account. Here goes nothing...

If this works, you should see Miranda the elf besieged by orcs and goblins, with Scrunchie the barbarian on her way to help!

[Decipher]

I haven't painted any minis yet (I know, I know)...

Painted minis is overrated. I like my minis original.

[whitebeard]

I haven't painted any minis yet (I know, I know)...

Painted minis is overrated. I like my minis original.

Them's fightin' words!

[lucasdp]

I agree with you that sounds are very helpful for getting players in the mood. I use a little iPhone soundboard and Bluetooth speaker with sound effects for our games. My Questing Party of thirty-year-olds love it, but needless to say, my two young cousins lost their minds.

You can see a Quest in which I employ the soundboard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSHEZZDBPHg

I didn't watch your entire video (It's hard enough for me to find the spare time to play irl, much less watch other people play for two hours ), but I skipped through and it looks like you throw a pretty fun Quest Night! I also got the impression that you created/assembled your own soundboard; can you confirm or deny this? Sjeng mentioned this soundboard on another thread --> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.highfantasysoundboard and I think I'm going to employ it in our next round.