Should there be other races?

[torilen]

I've attempted to include the halfling and gnome in some of my expansions in previous days.
My reasoning - well, you all know I play D&D, so there is a lot of influence from that. BUT, look
at nearly all the classic fantasy stories - lord of the rings, old school forgotten realms, etc....
they have at least halflings, if not both halflings and gnomes.

SO...how does everyone feel about including these? I'm putting together a lot of new card
packs - mostly treasure and artifact right now, but could be other things to come - and I
was wondering if I should include racial items for these two, or just keep it for elf and dwarf.

If you could, please give a reason why you feel the way you do - might make my decision easier.

[cynthialee]

I like the idea of a bunch of races. Hobits, Gnomes, Orks (reformed from the ways of chaos of course), and of course Fairys!

[Goblin-King]

They may have split in different directions somewhere along the line, but I'm of the conviction that the Hero Quest world and Warhammer world are the same.
As such I'm okay with all warhammer races (that would be haflings, regarding the OP).

Personally I prefer vanilla HQ though, but that's just me. I like the simplicity! Hero Quest is like lego; you can build anything with simple blocks!
But we haven't really beaten through all the official content yet either... Lots of monsters and spells we haven't encountered. I guess that's also part of the reason why I'm not that interested in adding homemade content into my games... (yet)

[Daedalus]

While I'm not ready to use new Heroes yet, it kinda seems like an inevitable thing to at least try one day. The Elf Quest Pack has already set the precedent for racial artifacts. I'd make a smaller selection of special racial artifacts, as they could always be removed from play (or not printed) by any Evil Wizard player. Maybe set them apart as an alternate file.

Personally, I'd go for a Halfling Hero before a Gnome Hero.

[Big Bene]

BUT, look
at nearly all the classic fantasy stories - lord of the rings, old school forgotten realms, etc....
they have at least halflings, if not both halflings and gnomes.

Well, I have to disagree...
Forgoten realms is not a fantasy story but a fantasy setting (same is true for Warhammer, of course), and it includes halflings just becasue they were in the Ad&D basic rules.
Halflings are no traditional folklore, they are an invention of Tolkien and belong to the Lord of the Rings. A fantasy story that is not set in middle earth but includes halflings shows a distinct lack of orginality, at least in the choose of it's races, and more often than not, you find the same lacking in plot and style.
There are several perfectly "classic" fantasy books without halflings, and of the true classics, meaning the books from which the modern fantasy genre developed, namely Conan the Barbarian, The Lord of the Rings, and Elric of Melnibone, only the Lord of the Rings has halflings, and this was the book (well, actually the sequel of the book) that introduced them for the first time (same with orcs, by the way).

[cynthialee]

BUT, look
at nearly all the classic fantasy stories - lord of the rings, old school forgotten realms, etc....
they have at least halflings, if not both halflings and gnomes.

Well, I have to disagree...
Forgoten realms is not a fantasy story but a fantasy setting (same is true for Warhammer, of course), and it includes halflings just becasue they were in the Ad&D basic rules.
Halflings are no traditional folklore, they are an invention

There were a number of Forgoten Realms novels.

[Big Bene]

I know.

[Daedalus]

Just one request...please, no Dragonborn Warriors in Hero Quest. I wanna fight lizards , not join them!

Actually, a thought has just reoccured to me. Has anyone ever tried or heard about a reverse-dungeon type of Quest or Quest series? I'm thinking a party of Orcs and Goblins (maybe even a Fimir) going on a raid or something of that sort. A Goblin Sneak, Goblin Witch-doctor, Orc Warrior and Orc Shaman could be lots of fun, I think.

[torilen]

First off:
Big Bene with the smack down. Ouch. hehehe. I do see the point - I guess I go back to lord of the rings, and not much beyond that,
so my statement was from a narrow point of view. And yes, conan doesn't have halflings or gnomes...but doesn't have elves or
dwarves, either. That's why I didn't consider that.
I guess my question, stated more simply...why did HQ include elves and dwarves and not any other races that were sort of the
standard in fantasy settings in the late 70's and early 80's (i.e. D&D and those things).

Second - it is very understandable...those who desire the very basic of HQ and want to stick with that. So, thanks Goblin for the
comment. That's one reason I posted this question...in making expansions to HQ, I wish to know what I should focus on, and if
there aren't a lot of people who would use other races, I know not to waste my time on it.
(as we all know, I don't get to play, so my likes and dislikes for game play don't matter as much right now).

Third - don't worry Daedalus. That was one thing I HATED about 4th ed. D&D. Wizards took all these weird races and threw them
into the game - even into the FR setting - as if they were always supposed to be there. It made no sense to me. If you want odd
races, like dragonborn something-or-other - make some sort template to create it from the normal races. Don't just present it
as a normal race and expect people to play it.

Okay - I'll get off my soap box on that one. But yeah, that won't come from me...so no fears there.

[Big Bene]

I must admit you've hit a weak point of mine when stating "nearly all the classic fantasy stories ... have at least halflings". I love fantasy literature, and having these things right is important to me. This is not to say halflings are a bad choice for a fantasy setting, and playing a halfling in Heroquest (or at least having one in the party) may be interesting (and when you take a look at the custom race sets made by others, halflings are always one of the first choices).