Monsters and how they act

[QorDaq]

I have said this before, and likely will again, but; One of the awesome things about HQ is it's simplicity. The structure of the rules is such that almost anything can be tweaked. For me, back when I had a group playing regularly, that lead to a lot of RP-lite game play. In that sense, it becomes very easy to simply look at the situation on the board and react accordingly.

As an example, given a room with more than one door, and a mess of enemies who are outnumbering the Heroes, I'd likely rule that enemy morale is high so they are not going anywhere. Given the same room, where the party had all but wiped the monsters in a round, a straggling Goblin with unobstructed access to a door might certainly decide to leave...

Now, what happens next could also be circumstantial, if there are "Guards" in the corridor or room on the other side of the door, then I'd be surprised if they would just stand there while a squealing goblin bolts past them... So, perhaps they wrangle the errant Goblin and accompany them back into the Room? Whereas, if there is a clear path for escape perhaps that same Goblin would simply scurry off, leaving the game entirely? Or potentially show up later with reinforcements if the situation made sense.

Another option, and I definitely did this on occasion in home-brewed adventures, is to select particular room encounters that are designed for calling in reinforcements either at a particular time (end of Round _____, for example), or if certain conditions were met/not met... i.e. Opening a given chest, door, whatever sounds an alarm in a guard room somewhere, and so on.

The point being, I feel there is plenty of room for the RP-lite stuff to come into the game without creating specific rules for every possibility. Reading the mood of the players is, to me, a huge part of the equation when deciding how much extra layering to throw into the mix (for any board game that has RPG-lite elements and a GM). A group who is tired and just wants to finish up the session, might not want every combat to get dragged out with more monsters showing up based on a die roll for every encounter. They may also come to "Expect" certain behaviors from the monsters and start planning every combat out based on those expectation (Heroes using doors as choke-points for EVERY combat?).

All of that said, and again, I love that HQ is as wide-open a system as it is... It really does provide a great opportunity for customizing to the needs and preferences of different groups... And quite easily too. Which is to say, keep on keeping on Cynthia, innovations like yours can help break the tedium of the same event played out over and over. If the group likes it go with it!

maj!

[mitchiemasha]

A dungeon is not a static place that sits in limbo waiting for heroes to activate the next room. That is silly. There must be some form of interaction between the denizens of a dungeon. Thag the Devourer must certainly know that Grat the Mighty is in the other room of the building or warren of tunnels they share.

One could even take it further and say, you're playing out a story. The next room in which who ever (Grat) stands is not the room the Heroes faced him in. Just because the dungeon is played in the mechanic as static doesn't mean it has to be viewed as in limbo. It's all down to ones imagination and how they chose to interpret it.

When you activated 1 room, who's to say at what point the monsters in that room entered it, the beginning of your turn, the end or always there? Thematically all turns happen at the same time but don't play as such. The monsters in the next room, yet to be revealed, may have been sleeping... Or... they may have been 5 more rooms away. They might of been alerted of your presence some turns ago but it took them the length of time it took you to activate the next room, to reach that room.

Yes the map predictates where they are at the point you meet them but that doesn't mean they were there from the moment you entered the dungeon. I've never had a problem of it making sense. Who's to say their wasn't an extra goblin in the room you entered but it ran away. The goblin you face when activating the next room.

I may give the escape token an extra ability of moving into an un opened room but the room will remain unactivated but I'm still with the standing that many monsters would fear retreating to a bigger boss more than facing the Heroes.

[MadMickyG]

Just reading this stuff made me think of a few situations with my kids.
My son, when playing the big bad boss, likes to play his monsters smart.
If our characters are using a door as a choke point, he will space his monsters out so someone HAS to enter the room or it becomes a problem.
And if possible, he will run other monsters around the long way, to attack from the flank.

Something I also thought of, while reading this, is when you go in to a room and there are enough monsters to surround you.
I have mentioned before, we use the player/monster support option. If you are facing a monster and one of your hero companions is also next to the monster and can attack, then you receive an extra attack or defence die for each companion.
The monsters get this, so my girls will try to wipe out my son if he is playing his Battlemage by surrounding him. This method can turn a harmless goblin into a death dealing machine, if there are 4 goblins around the one target.
Also makes an easily killable target harder as they gain defense dice from support.

What if, as we sometimes do, you run in to a corner so you can only be attacked by two monsters at a time. So the rest of the monsters, who cannot reach you, see another player in the doorway. One monster goes to attack in the doorway, while the other monster could run off to get reinforcements.

As has been mentioned though, it would depend on the type of monsters. Unless the controlling force is in the room, undead would just swarm.
Goblins would fight while in numbers, but I can see one or two perhaps running off if their numbers were reduced significantly.
Orcs, as was mentioned, would be stubborn and fight on, unless they were outnumbered to start with. Fimirs would e the same.
Chaos Warriors (including Chaos Goblins, Chaos Orcs and Chaos Furys) would follow the best strategy to achieve success.
Evil players (I have the pieces do that ) would act like normal players.

Oh the fun and mayhem to be caused!

[mitchiemasha]

Ah yes the horde mechanic.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

A dungeon is not a static place that sits in limbo waiting for heroes to activate the next room. That is silly. There must be some form of interaction between the denizens of a dungeon. Thag the Devourer must certainly know that Grat the Mighty is in the other room of the building or warren of tunnels they share.

That is exactly why I don't like Warhammer Quest and other such random dungeon generators, six Skaven Assassins in one room and a Goblin Sorcerer on a Giant Spider in the next, how long exactly have they been sat there waiting for what?

But back to your original point I think it depends on your style of play. If you play with an active EWP i.e. one that is constrained by the rules but is otherwise doing his or her best to obliterate the party then you have to introduce a degree of less realistic constraints to make a more balanced game, if on the other hand like myself you play a more passive GM who is more of a Narrator and whose goal is too try and ensure the Heroes win but only by the skin of their teeth then feel free to add a little more realism, rules or not rules (although some consistency may not be a bad thing) and to carry out dice rolls behind the screen...

[Gold Bearer]

If I don't kill at least one hero I don't feel I've done my job properly. If I manage to kill two I'm very happy. If I kill three I feel the need to pick on the surviving hero with everything from then on for having the cheek to deprive me of a full party wipe. If I do get the full wipe I'm so ecstatic at my utter dominance over the mere peasants that I can't help but stand on the table, drop my trousers and urinate over the other players.

On a slightly more serious note, a party scraping through only by the skin of their teeth means nothing if it was always going to happen. If the EWP is 'active' there's a genuine thrill and sense of achievement.

On a side note, I was thinking of adding a rule for undead so they can only move towards the nearest target and attack but decided against it because it would be boring for the EWP, imagine playing through RotWL like that. I just assume that they're being controlled directly so the act intelligently but it might be good to add it as a general rule with the note that it could be overridden in totally undead themed quests by saying 'these undead are the minions of Zarcar (or whoever else you want it to be) and being controlled directly by their will, don't expect a mindless hoard.'

[knightkrawler]

On a side note, I was thinking of adding a rule for undead so they can only move towards the nearest target and attack but decided against it because it would be boring for the EWP, imagine playing through RotWL like that. I just assume that they're being controlled directly so the act intelligently but it might be good to add it as a general rule with the note that it could be overridden in totally undead themed quests by saying 'these undead are the minions of Zarcar (or whoever else you want it to be) and being controlled directly by their will, don't expect a mindless hoard.'

I did playtest some rules like that for my undead. Zombies attacked/tried to attack/got as near as possible the nearest hero (even if it wasn't possible because, say, that nearest hero is entangled in four or more figures already), mummies attacked the hero with the least current body points available to be attacked, and skeletons could attack diagonally.
I kept the last one, but the other two used simultaneously made for situations that weren't much different from just being the damn EWP and use the monsters tactically. I mean, it's similar to the tactics I use when I'm not forced to do it so I did away with those as with any other houserules I've come up with over the years that are - in the end - just complicating matters.

If I do get the full wipe I'm so ecstatic at my utter dominance over the mere peasants that I can't help but stand on the table, drop my trousers and urinate over the other players.

Also, since my girlfriend doesn't want to play HQ anymore anyway, I started pissing all over a fully wiped out party again.
They don't know yet cause I haven't completely wiped them out yet...

[Gold Bearer]

It would interesting for the hero players to fight against truly mindless undead. For example the wizard is on 1BP but doesn't have to worry about being attacked because there's a closer hero to the monsters. It would be nice to do that in quests that aren't just undead or later ones that have plenty of non-0MP undead.

Edit:
A neat rule for handling hero deaths so it's not impossible for them is to give replacement heroes 250gp to start with and another 250 after completing their third quest instead of having to wait three quests for all 500. That way they can get either a broadsword or a spear/shortsword/hand axe and a shield from the off, or a tool kit.

[Daedalus]

That is exactly why I don't like Warhammer Quest and other such random dungeon generators, six Skaven Assassins in one room and a Goblin Sorcerer on a Giant Spider in the next, how long exactly have they been sat there waiting for what?

Those crazy monster tables were an unfortunate byproduct of GW marketing efforts to push their full range of figures. On the other hand, the role-playing section of those rules featured thematically focused monster tables and preset dungeons run by a gamemaster. Sadly, my players never gave that a try.

The new Warhammer Quest: The Silver Tower has since been released. It uses the weirdness of Tzeench to thematically explain random layout, and the quests are linked as a series of narratives. The monsters relate better under this theme as an intentional selection of his followers, led by an uber-boss.

To return to the original topic, WQ:ST is a co-op and has random AI for monsters to add interest in combat. For instance, it's kinda cool when monsters can seek to escape if the conditions are right. Random events can also see reinforcements appear through portals, among other things...