Comparing the AHQ Variants

[slev]

Great idea!

Let me know how it goes!

[RECIVS]

I notice that in Reforged the monster and hero stats are a bit lower, so presumably porting the extensive list of equipment from Reforged into Second edition wouldn’t work? The damage bands with letters in Reforged is a super idea, but that leaves common weapons with slightly different DD to second edition. I’m loving that second edition got everything into 62 pages, but the depth of Reforged is brilliant.

Slev has his own system, not compatible with the original or any of its other variants. The issue is the lower stat values of Heroes and Enemies in Reforged (including Strength), not the damage bands (they seem fine as they are), so, with some exceptions, I think you can port Slev's equipment list to Second Edition without much work.

Second Edition gets everything into 62 pages because its set of skills and bestiary take no more than 15 pages. You may see that in my variant, for example, those two sections alone take 50+ pages, which you don't have to read to start playing. Also, characters and equipment in Reforged are more varied than in Second Edition, which also adds several pages. You have to keep in mind, however, that most of the text is used only for reference and between expeditions, not during exploration and combat.

I faced the same decision years ago (Reforged vs Second Edition), so my solution was to combine what I think is the best of both revisions into one set of variant rules. That's why I had to tweak the stats of Slev's Heroes and Enemies to the original scale. You may see that my bestiary can be used with AHQ and Second Edition.