If you could ask Stephen Baker anything...

[Goblin-King]

In the other thread I proposed compiling the ultimate list of questions for Stephen Baker to answer.
If this goes well I'll ultimately try and contact him. Maybe we can finally get some of those ancient questions answered regarding both canon and rules.
This is of course under the assumption that you still accept Stephen Baker's words as valid in HQ matters...

Feel free to discuss each other's questions and wordings etc.
I'll keep this first post updated with any new questions.

Q. Who does the old whitebearded man in the red cloak depict? Is it Morcar or Mentor? Someone else?

Q. To what degree is the HQ and Warhammer world identical? Is it just the geography, or also races and events?

Q. What do you consider canon for HQ?
- Pictures printed in official quest books
- The North American exclusive material; Frozen Horror and Mage of the Mirror
- White Dwarf quests
- Quest published in other fantasy magazines
- The Japanese version of the game system
- Marvel Winter Special
- Sticker Album
- Dave Morris Novels
- Advanced HeroQuest
- Warhammer Quest
- Warhammer Fantasy
- HeroQuest 2 Legacy of Sorasil - Amiga game

[knightkrawler]

Q. To what degree is the HQ and Warhammer world identical? Is it just the geography, or also races and events?[/b]

I still don't get how this is a question to Stephen Baker.
There's a given situation, a publication history, a combination of facts. From there on it's literary studies, a field of academics that deals with interpreting stuff.
Situation interpreted: the world geographically is the same in Warhammer Fantasy and HeroQuest.
The differences make them two different timelines, however, because there are ambiguities in historical events (the Rogar stuff, for example).
They are alternate fictional realities and that is a literary fact.

The question could be, however:
Q. Did you consider the HeroQuest background world identical with the Warhammer Fantasy world at the time these things were created?
If so, do you now think that HQ has its own established background or do you think that it has been retconned along with the mainstream Warhammer Fantasy world shortly after HQ's publication, when the Warhammer world was recreated with far more detail?

I don't wanna heckle you on this topic, but again, it's a set of facts and there's a field of academics that was made to interpret that.
A invents a fictional world.
B uses this world for something else but gets some details wrong that are now ambiguous to A's world.
That means B has invented his own fictional world.

Or:
A invents a fictional world.
B uses this world for something else, trying to expand on A without ambiguities.
C later takes A's world with many changes, adding details, for A's purpose, establishing many many ambiguities between A's and B's worlds.
Thus, B's world becomes an own world in its own right.

The outcome is the same and is a fact now: the HeroQuest world is an own fictional world.
Because there's another world from the same creators and with the same geography, this HQ world must be an alternate reality to that older world.
I'm divided myself between the two takes, and I'm interested in Mr Baker's answer.

I just take it as a given that these Old World maps had been published before HQ.

[QorDaq]

I like KK's rewording (for clarity) of the question about the HQ world origins.

Now for my own question -

Q. Board Game Geek references your efforts to get Milton Bradley to publish your game concept. Once the project was greenlit, how much input did you have on design direction for elements such as, Quests, Monsters, Treasure, Lore, and Hero archetyping? What was your primary focus during development?

[Goblin-King]

Sure... That's why I made this topic instead of just making a list myself
I agree it's a better fleshed out question.

And since I like a good heckling...

I do think your logic is somewhat flawed kk. Especially regarding pictures.

Take a look at this picture:

Pretty cool, huh? It's "Behemoth's world" by Richard Clifton-Dey.
That painting is Richard's creation. It's a selfcontained universe depicting, well... Behemoth's World.
If you are a cool dude you might also recognize the painting as the cover of Blue Öyster Cult's album "Cultösaurus Erectus".
Once BÖC bought the right to use the image for their album; in that context it ceased to depict Behemot's World and instead became the eponymous Cultösaurus Erectus.
The painting is also the cover of the game "Ork". Now it suddenly depicts planet Cisskei.
My long winded point is that it doesn't matter what any given piece of art has been used for earlier. If you put it in your product it's independently part of that product.

As for our pals A & B...
I don't know if it's fair to declare B's world "his own fictional world" just because he gets details wrong or expands.

Is your game set in the Warhammer world?
Yes!
But X didn't happen according to Warhammer lore.
No, the plot is an original story, but it still takes place in the Warhammer world you know and love. HeroQuest is "extended universe".

It's like if you took the Warhammer novels and declared them non-canon because they depicted events not reflected in any of the rule/army-books.
I think this is becoming very academic...

Anyways... What I'm really asking is whether I should include Warhammer's Snotlings, Pink Horrors, Skaven and Bloodletters...
Or if I should only include generic fantasy creatures like kobolds. Or even if there are no other races than what we've seen so far!

My

[knightkrawler]

That painting is part of the three fictional worlds you listed and maybe more, because it was used for three different purposes.
It's rather straightforward.
It is therefore a good analogy for the Warhammer Old World maps, for example.
But your question rightly is "with what to fill that map?!", and we partially agree.
My question holds the flaw in it that it suggests B used the map with the whole fictional world in the back of his head. I just assume that because GW was invilved in HeroQuest.
They wouldn't and didn't license away the map (or any other art that definitely depicts their fictional world - IP).
I think we can safely assume the Warhammer Fantasy world can be considered the basis of what to fill the world with.

That would be Warhammer Orcs, not D&D Orcs.
Pink Horrors yes, because there is chaos in HQ and therefore Pink Horrors likely exist analogous to WF. But have they entered history yet?
Snotlings yes, as per my reasoning in that other cool thread.

I rather think that the answers are all pretty much independent from what Mr Baker thinks, but I get your wanting to ask him for his POV.
You want to establish the limits further if he knows of any.
Frankly, I don't wanna fill this HQ background with Kobolds or a sentient horseman race or Conan.
It's why I write my own background world. Piece by piece, might I add, with the questbooks.
Is the framework I've been thinking of, that rough outline of history and geography, canon even before I've written it down or drawn it and presented it to you guys?
It's really an interesting topic.

[cornixt]

Anyways... What I'm really asking is whether I should include Warhammer's Snotlings, Pink Horrors, Skaven and Bloodletters...
Or if I should only include generic fantasy creatures like kobolds. Or even if there are no other races than what we've seen so far!

The answer is always the same - include what you want to play with.

[Anderas]

Yes, I agree. You could go the steel Knightkrawler way and say it is fixed with no flexibility, so I invent my own with accidentally the same geography and storyline. Or you say I take the original and bend it to my liking. I don't think there is a big difference in the result. Except maybe if you invent really everything from zero and change everything.

Even then you are not free because you are influenced by the existing lore. You will want to reuse your models as well. So there will be Orcs and Goblins and maybe Fimirs. Skeletons and Zombies.

So if I ask Steven Baxter one Question it would be if he intended to copy the enhanced gameplay of Space Crusade to Heroquest somehow with the mercs. And if yes why there is no Blip like mechanism?

[whitebeard]

The title and content of this thread cracks me up.

When I imagine Steven Baker's replies, I think of this SNL skit with William Shatner.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/trekkies/n9511&ved=0ahUKEwiKo4rLgY_OAhVRxWMKHfbODmAQtwIIITAC&usg=AFQjCNGj8QDSKHewPGETNjEIodJyrJJn4g&sig2=cygHhAITfQ_9_kQryIwmlA



In 1986 little did they know that the geeks would inherit the earth!

[QorDaq]

The title and content of this thread cracks me up.

When I imagine Steven Baker's replies, I think of this SNL skit with William Shatner.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/trekkies/n9511&ved=0ahUKEwiKo4rLgY_OAhVRxWMKHfbODmAQtwIIITAC&usg=AFQjCNGj8QDSKHewPGETNjEIodJyrJJn4g&sig2=cygHhAITfQ_9_kQryIwmlA



In 1986 little did they know that the geeks would inherit the earth!

What's really funny, and I mean in an ironic way, was just how much nerd rage that SNL skit created within the Trek fan community. Shattner's seeming inability to appreciate the meal ticket his little lark had afforded him for decades at the expense of the fans, turned him into a hated man for years.

[mitchiemasha]

The only question i'd ask would be... What ideas were cut from the original game?