j_dean80 wrote:I like how it turned out. If I drug out and added the other levels it would get quite boring with no objectives and take a lot longer. AHQ is more advanced because the players enjoy dragged out games. That’s why HQ is different. If you’d like to play random levels first then be my guest, but that’s not something to draw up. As far as the solo quest, it was a completely different quest that had nothing to do with the shattered amulet. I may do a one off on it at some point but for now am too busy.
I like how they turned out too, but some of the quests seem a little short without any sort of filler. They all had their unique features though, so I could see these as two-board quests, with a pre-generated random starting board just to fill them out. But, it's really down to personal preference.
I wouldn't bother with the solo quest though. It is literally a three-level random dungeon that you cannot escape from, where you control the whole party and are given 12 mercenaries to fight alongside you. There's absolutely nothing truly special about it, unless you want to draw up a random dungeon.
It might be worthwhile to include some revised tables for random generated HQ dungeons in with your quest pack to round it out, or simply just to mention using this approach as a way to flesh out the quests into two-board quests for a truer appreciation of the theme of the Quest of the Shattered Amulet.
I love HQ, AHQ, and WHQ for their own features, and quite enjoy combining what I see as the best parts of all three games into a single system. For me, the simplicity of the HQ combat system cannot be beaten, as combat doesn't feel drawn out or overly complicated. From AHQ, it has to be dungeon generation - but you do need to come up with ideas to keep it fresh if you use it a lot. Finally, from WHQ, I love the card manipulation, and have always seen the HQ Treasure deck as similar to the combined Treasure and Event decks from WHQ.
I know that for some, a key criticism for the random dungeon generation in AHQ is that it's too easy to create sprawling mazes that don't fit your playing area, but using the HQ board gets around this criticism. Of the three pages given to HQ in the AHQ rulebook, only half a page is actually given to random dungeon generation.
Ultimately though, this is a good quest pack, and remains true to the source material. I look forward to playing it in the future!
