HQ Custom Quest Survey

[Thrawn]

Thanks for all the feedback so far. Keep it coming.

Hope it will be helpful to other quest writers as well. I haven't started charting responses yet. I'll wait until more results come in for that to see if there are any trends.

Just reading through, lots of differing opinions, confirming that just because I have certain opinions, doesn't mean most others will share them, so I may have to make compromises when writing quests in order to make them useful for a larger audience.

[AerynB]

Just reading through, lots of differing opinions, confirming that just because I have certain opinions, doesn't mean most others will share them, so I may have to make compromises when writing quests in order to make them useful for a larger audience.

I don't think it's necessary for you to make compromises when writing your quests. It was nice of you to ask our opinions about what we like, but I think the most important thing is that you enjoy the end product. Creating stuff just for others is sure to make it a chore, or make it feel like work. If you like the quest, it'll show through and other people will also enjoy it and appreciate the effort no matter if it's their cup of tea or not. Just my .

[Thrawn]

With the completion of WAAAGH! I was wondering specifically about whether some of my design decisions were correct for it.
1) I did compromise on tiles. All of the quests use tiles from the official sets to represent what is needed. (For example - When I originally wrote and ran the quest, one of the quests used a custom tile for a rope bridge across a river, but to represent it, I used the ice bridge tile in the quest pack so that nobody needed to use a different tile.) The one exception was including "rock lobber" tiles in the quest. There wasn't really anything to substitute for them.

2) I used lots of custom monsters in the quest. Most are variations on orcs and goblins, fitting in with the theme of the quest pack. I included a "substitute" column in the monster table in case people wanted to use original monsters only, but I think the pack definitely loses difficulty, variety, and strategy when not using the custom monsters. Figuring out how to balance this is one of my biggest concerns. The orcs and goblins aren't a big stretch, but I wasn't sure how my inclusion of a wyvern (for one quest) would go over since I am guessing not as many people have a miniature (or even a close substitute for it), but thematically, I really wanted to include this.

3) I tend to write closely tied to the warhammer world, using locations, creatures, historical events, and themes from that world. I wasn't sure if this is something others care about or appreciate. (For example, although WAAAGH! isn't based on any historical orc invasions, everything in that campaign is consistent with a story of an orc invasion starting in the Worlds Edge Mountains into the border princes. Every town, tribe, and lmost landmarks mentioned can actually be found on warhammer map, and has historical context.) Some of the otherther campaigns I have in various stages of development (some have been played, some are just outline) include a chaos incursion from the north, the overthrow of a vampire count, a border clash between two border princedoms, and a set of quests that run along with the Isle of Blood storyline that is the current Warhammer Fantasy boxed set.

Basically, with the amount of work that goes into developing some of these, I'm wondering if some of the decisions I make (custom rules, non-standard tiles or miniatures) may be a barrier that makes it so others never have an opportunity to play them. Depending on the survey, I can decide where to compromise in order to make the quests more accessible if needed.

[Sinned]

Part I Basic Demographics

1) I have played HeroQuest (pick one):
A- 20+ years


2) I play under the rules for (choose 1):

B - EU

2b) I have played the following (choose all that apply)
B - Warhammer Fantasy Battles
C - Warhammer RPG
D - Advanced Hero's Quest
F - Other Role Playing Games
G - Other Fantasy Style Board Games (ie. Talisman, Dungeon)

3) I own miniatures/rules from the following (choose all that apply)
B - Warhammer Fantasy Battles
C - Warhammer RPG
D - Advanced Hero's Quest


Part II Miniatures and Monsters:

4) Which of the following most describes your preference for minitures used in a quest:

C - I prefer quests using miniautures/creatures appropriate to the full Warhammer universe.


5) I feel that the official monsters from HeroQuest (pick 1)
A - Are perfectly designed and shouldn't be changed.


6) For monster selection on a quest (choose all that are appropriate:

C - I like the storyline to tell me why types of monsters appear on a quest.



Part III - Boards and Tiles

7) I prefer to use tiles and furniture (choose 1):

B) Only if it's available in official HQ expansions


8) My preference for custom tiles is (choose all appropriate):
A) Don't use them. Just use the board.


Special Rules:

9) The level of special rules I like to see in a quest (choose 1):
A - Is none. Leave them out and keep things as simple as possible.


10) For the game system, I'd like to include special rules for (choose all that apply):


Quests and Story:
11) I prefer custom quests to come as (choose 1):

B - Mini-campaigns of 3-6 quests telling a single story.


12) My likes (Choose all that apply):

B - I like HQ to be connected to the Warhammer Universe (locations, monster races, etc)

[bruenor]

This poll is irrelevant, all you need to know is how awesome Heroquest is.
Nuff said.

[Thrawn]

This poll is irrelevant, all you need to know is how awesome Heroquest is.
Nuff said.

Thanks. Noted. That was so helpful.

[Goblin-King]

I actually think it's very relevant.
For those cases where you are indifferent or in doubt about a design choice you might as well go for the more popular option.

About making custom quests to share with others...
Obviously you should always make quests you enjoy yourself. Your enthusiasm will shine through.
That being said, if you intend to share your creations with the world, I'd say go for content everyone can just print and play.
Not everyone has a huge arsenal of minis to represent the collected monster manuals of WH,D&D and LotR (I know, weird right?).
If playing a quest begins to be too complicated or too much work, some might just skip it instead!

Personally I wouldn't bother with a quest where I had to print and glue additional tiles and cards.

But that's just ME
I surely have noticed people in here with very different philosophies on how to play Hero Quest. Yay for diversity!

[bruenor]

Jesus guys lighten up, it was a joke post....

[Thrawn]

There definitely is diversity (which was expected.) I'm considering doing things like "niche" quests. For example writing a quest pack using dwarven forge sets instead of an HQ board. I know up front that 0% of people would be interested in something like that, I'll move it to the bottom of the things I could be spending my time writing. When writing for myself, I typically write stuff using lots of special rules, special tiles, 3D terrain, custom monsters, etc. However, when figuring out what to put up here, I try to "mainstream" the quest a bit to make it more accessible. So I think the biggest thing I'm looking at is how much work to put into converting things so that it potentially reaches a broader audience.

[Goblin-King]

Jesus guys lighten up, it was a joke post....

That'll teach you not to be funny on the Internet!

also, Hero Quest IS awesome!