Avalon Hill's "Free Online" digital quest additions ('20-23)

[Kurgan]

Avalon Hill, since their remake of HeroQuest, has written, and released for free (thank you) several "online" and "digital" quests. So far all of them (except the first one) have been added to the HeroQuest Companion App (available in Apple App store or Googeplay store for free in either case). But what if you want to run them as Zargon? (Or don't have the capability to run the app on your bluestacks emulator on your PC, lack a smartphone with data, or just are worried about them disappearing after December 30, 2026?)

Well worry no more... here are the links. For the moment it sounds like AH/Hasbro is doing some site maintenance and so the links are broken. Here are the archived versions... get 'em while they're hot! (and yes I have played them all, so those are my personal ratings, I've run them all as Zargon except New Beginnings which I played as a hero in two different settings with a brand new party of friends/family)

Sadly, only Knightfall is actually available in full in multiple languages (though again using the official companion App, you can get the text translated as you play, though again that is from the Hero perspective, not for Zargon).

That's not an error, some of them were in image format rather than vector based PDF...

Rogar's Hall by Stephen Baker (a "training" quest... more like a special challenge, recommended for veteran players coming back to HeroQuest after a long time!)
Recall Stephen Baker wrote the original HQ adventures (including both "the Maze" and "the Trial") as well as KK, ROTWL for the European originals, and was a consultant for ATOH. His influence was long felt in the HQ legacy, and was a guest writer during the Haslab campaign, being responsible for "Prophecy of Telor" as well. This was his return to HeroQuest after 30 years.

https://cdn.hasbro.com/faaa3d5019832273570327fcdc971786a399f134/8ce8da71ae03462180a184da7535eab5.pdf
Difficulty: high.

(actually some have pointed out that the data for this quest seems to be present within the App but is not implemented, so far it is only playable the old fashioned way)


New Beginnings by Doug Hopkins ("Quest 0," recommended as an alternate beginning for brand new heroes... before The Trial, to help gain a little bit of gear to prepare for what many consider one of the tougher beginnings to the game!)

https://web.archive.org/web/20240625024325/https://hasbropulse.com/blogs/avalon-hill/heroquest-try-out-a-new-beginning
Difficulty: medium.

The Forsaken Tunnels of Xor-Xel by Doug Hopkins ("Quest 1," intended to be played after Quest 14, but before Kellar's Keep... with the idea that you play KK before Return of the WitchLord in Avalon Hill's continuity. In actual practice this could be played anywhere, but it really helps to have the assets from ROTWL handy since it makes use of many of the "undead" characters more than most quests).

https://web.archive.org/web/20231204091326/https://hasbropulse.com/blogs/avalon-hill/heroquest-brave-the-forsaken-tunnels-of-xor-xel
Difficulty: medium.


Into the Northlands by Doug Hopkins ("Quest 2," is highly recommended as a prelude to The Frozen Horror aka the remake of the Barbarian Quest Pack. Avalon Hill realized a bit too late in the production cycle that TFH was a bit too extreme in its original difficulty for most players as-is, so this gives some very useful tips for Zargon to tweak the adventure and make it more player-friendly. The actual quest teases much of what will come later and helps a solo player gain necessary gear to make surviving in the actual three solo quests a bit more possible... since the original intention was for a brand new hero to play the Solo quests without having first played the 14 quest Game System).
This really stands out as being the first real insight behind the Avalon Hill team's playtesting, and their outright encouragement for Zargon players to experiment and improvise, tweaking the game to their liking, and the PDF includes "new artifacts" that can be printed and cut out to use however you like (optional).
Difficulty: low.

https://web.archive.org/web/20231210053305/https://hasbropulse.com/blogs/avalon-hill/heroquest-a-chilling-journey-north


Knightfall by Unknown ("Quest 3," is intended as a prelude to Rise of the Dread Moon, which was Avalon Hill's official first "all original" retail quest pack, of course this came out after the Mythic tier questbooks, but those were not released to the general public until later. The way this quest is presented in booklet format makes it out to be a possible alternate beginning for brand new heroes as it encourages "light roleplay," which you don't get from playing it in the App. Also useful for future Zargons!) This calls for assets found in ROTDM, but they can easily be simulated using existing pieces if needed. It provides a few additional story/lore tidbits to supplement what you discover in this new quest pack and a little more opportunity to gain new gear in preparation for the main ROTDM campaign (which thankfully is far less punishing than Frozen Horror or Mage of the Mirror) so playing this first is not essential, but still worthwhile for fun. Note: while the author is unknown, I do know it was not written by Tessa Hogan, the author of the 10 quests in ROTDM.
Difficulty: medium.

Available in English via the first link, and in five languages in the second:

https://web.archive.org/web/20230819121033/https://hasbropulse.com/blogs/avalon-hill/heroquest-online-quest-3-knight-fall

https://web.archive.org/web/20240223013547/https://eu.hasbropulse.com/blogs/avalon-hill/heroquest-online-quest-3-knight-fall


Sadly no "online digital quests" were released to coincide officially with the retail releases of ROTWL (though Xor-Xel feels much more like it fits there than with the intended KK), Mage of the Mirror, Against the Ogre Horde, or Jungles of Delthrak. We also haven't seen any of those cool animated painting commercials on youtube (see Hasbro Pulse channel) like we saw leading up to Rise of the Dread Moon (these also covered the Hero Collection sets).

If/when any new links are posted, please share them below!

[HispaZargon]

I would like to point that some of the online quests are still available for downloading in Hasbro Pulse European website. Official active links below:

- New Beginnings: https://hasbro-pulse-eu.myshopify.com/b ... -beginning

- Forsaken Tunnels of Xor-Xel: https://hasbro-pulse-eu.myshopify.com/b ... of-xor-xel

- Knightfall (different languages): https://hasbro-pulse-eu.myshopify.com/b ... 4aca1b44ca

[carthoz]

I took the chance of remaking the online quests we only got as image files into PDF files. Rebuild the quest maps with the official assets in Illustrator and/or Indesign and did a new layout based on the original quest books. I steamlined the formatting and tried to optimize the readability of all texts. Oh, and I added a print-friendly version without the background graphics for every quest.

Here are the files (for now at Google Drive):
New Beginnings | New Beginnings (print-friendly)
Forsaken Tunnels of Xor-Xel | Forsaken Tunnels of Xor-Xel (print-friendly)

I think I will remake Knight Fall and Into the Northlands in the same way.

[SirRick]

Those look great! I was hoping Hasbro/Avalon Hill would make printer-friendly versions of their online stuff. When I print the normal versions on my crappy printer, they are often too dark and a little blurry. When I print stuff from hquestbuilder, it turns out fine. So these printer-friendly versions are much appreciated!

[carthoz]

Those look great! I was hoping Hasbro/Avalon Hill would make printer-friendly versions of their online stuff. When I print the normal versions on my crappy printer, they are often too dark and a little blurry. When I print stuff from hquestbuilder, it turns out fine. So these printer-friendly versions are much appreciated!

Thank you! Like you, I also thought that the background-heavy files may look nice, but really suck to print at home. So it's good to see someone appreciates it!

Here are 2 new additions, remade in the same way. I changed the way the cards are presented because I am more of a crop-marks guy.
Into the Northlands | Into the Northlands (print-friendly)

[Kurgan]

At last year's conventions "Dread on the Horizon" was added, but no official PDF was ever posted online (scans of the official paper with Doug's corrections exist of course, distributed by fans; and the quest is officially supported in v.6.1 and later of the HQ companion app). This year "Return of the Witch Queen" was also released at GenCon but once again no official PDF has been posted, only fan scans.

[wallydubbs]

It seems like HeroQuest is dying down. Ever since they stopped advertising it on Hasbro Pulse a lot of people don't know where to get Wizards of Morcar. It was right around this time that Hasbro/Avalon Hill stopped uploading these on line quests. Yes, we still have New Beginnings, Xor-Xel and Knightfall, but it's been nearly a year and Dread on the Horizon still hasn't been loaded up and I'm doubting we'll see Return of the Witch Queen either. Maybe we'll get one more quest pack, as there seems to be an unfinished storyline with Grawshak that they've been building to. They wouldn't just end it there... Right?