Ye Olde Inn

Comments on the contents?
Spookyhappyfun had already begun a pre-release discussion, ProphecyofTelor.

Well with much anticipation I read Baker's new quest written many years after the original quests. spoilers ahead***
I was amused and it certainly has some intriguing ideas. It is certainly a continuation of story lines in the HeroQuest game of old, a true sequel of sorts. Nothing contained herein conflicts with the world of HeroQuest of old per se, just swap the name changes (was there any?) back I suppose. Abominations are summoned as if they were some demon from the netherworld rather than a naturally occurring monster race of the world that the Fimir they replaced were, so there is that.
We get some more generic-could-be-anywhere place names and whatnot such as the tower on the cliffs of Turekk Tor, the wizard Melar's tower.
new baddie: The Dread Sorcerer King FellMarak. I can't tell if that is supposed to be the Witch Lord or not.

The heroes must return to Melor's Maze the wizard who created the Talisman of Lore, which puts this as mandatory after the main quest book quests AND it must be played strictly in order as it is a linear story so no picking and choosing or skipping around out of the 14 quests contained therein. There is a very interesting stairwell climb and a not so interesting arena battle. Serious player spoilers abound from page one in the questbook, don't let anyone but Mentor/Zargon/the gamemaster touch it. It also assumes that the hero wearing the Talisman of Lore is the wizard character so the script would need to be altered if another character happens to be wearing it.
Speaking of Mentor, the questbook makes abundantly clear that the wizard painted on the rule book cover and the game master's screen is in fact Mentor, putting to rest the long held controversy that the screen perhaps depicted Zargon/Morcar unleashing his forces, when instead it is actually Mentor forseeing/scrying/remote-viewing/predicting them using Loretome.

There is a spell that turns all the player characters into orcs, which also means defacto that it shouldn't be played after Teos Abadia's questbook if that is indeed where the infamous orc bard playable character figure debuts (I haven't read that yet)... or ignores the orc as a possible playable character as a snub perhaps? Maybe Baker did not read, have access to or care about the Orc Bard specifically or the other new questbooks.

Spoilers!

Fascinating. Thanks for the report! Part of me wanted to do a deep dive and spoil the entire thing, but another part of me wanted to avoid it like the plague until we played it at our table. But duty demands I read your post and this was a nice summation. I've got a new theory to rationalize the Abomination/Fimir change (short of just replacing them which I also can easily do). The idea of transformations has been touched on before in the official quests (EQP).

I guess it makes one think about the nature of Orcs in this universe. It can go many different ways but it sounds like he stuck close to the previously established lore, as I would expect and hope. Just because you're the "OG creator" of something, doesn't mean you can do no wrong, and maybe you gave one impression to your audience decades ago that is no longer there (ex: Lucas in Star Wars, Spielberg in ET or Indiana Jones). I'm happy to hear the news.

I am also okay with the idea of quest packs not being in strict continuity with each other... a bit closer to Fan Generated content, as opposed to "canon" content, which is how many may end up viewing the other two quest packs. I guess it's all bonus material in a way, the general public will presumably only be able to get their hands on the remake stuff, moving forward, unless Hasbro ends up making some of it free or whatever.

Zargon is still the evil santa guy to me, maybe they're look-alikes, as in the Sticker Album?

Spoiled, / doesn't regret it.

Speaking of Mentor, the questbook makes abundantly clear that the wizard painted on the rule book cover and the game master's screen is in fact Mentor, putting to rest the long held controversy that the screen perhaps depicted Zargon/Morcar unleashing his forces, when instead it is actually Mentor forseeing/scrying/remote-viewing/predicting them using Loretome.

...as I always sayd since I was a child.
Cool! I still feel this will be the best part of the whole package we'll get.

And also to be fair to Stephen Baker, he was under restraint like everyone else in terms of not being able to use the GamesWorkShop Warhammer fantasy IP... I hope his quests are just as good as the old ones. Only play-testing will tell!

Is the story well written? Are the quests well designed?

Is Rogar's Hall included in this pack or are there 10 brand new quests in Baker's book?

SPOILERS

Quest 1 Return to Melar's Maze
Quest 2 Escape from Melar's Maze
Quest 3 The Great Stairwell (12 levels with various names)
Quest 4 The Tower of Turekk Tor
Quest 5 Melar's Chambers
Quest 6The Ruined Temple of Gilgarreth
Quest 7 The Archives at Arborenis
Quest 8 Telor's Tomb
Quest 9 Halls of the High Mages
Quest 10 The Arena of Misildia
Quest 11 Melar Unleashed
Quest 12 The Rise of Fellmarak
Quest 13 Zargon's Flame

Kurgan wrote:Is Rogar's Hall included in this pack or are there 10 brand new quests in Baker's book?

no Rogar's Hall in anything in the new quest books

an Online training quest only
Rogar's Hall
https://cdn.hasbro.com/faaa3d5019832273 ... 35eab5.pdf

Oh wow, thanks for the updates! So Stephen Baker gave us 14 new quests total... the freebie and then 13 in the book. Nice! More than we bargained for...

The title of the last one makes me chuckle a little bit (Zargon's OLD FLAME; like the way to defeat him is to seek out his ex, j/k I'm sure it's a serious and hopefully awesome quest).

That stairway makes me think of 12 rooms, like one of those puzzle quests, should be interesting.