HQ2021 Missed opportunities

[Bareheaded Warrior]

When I was referring to iconography I was more thinking of its use to simplify presentation on cards (and reduce language dependencies). I've attached an image of some Mice & Mystics cards as an example of what I'm talking about.

You can see on the "Collin" mouse card (the equivalent to the character board and/or monster cards) the use of numbered icons to indicate the equivalent to Movement, AD, DD, MD and the use of a number of hearts to represent BP and the layout and colour coding of the card, you could easily see how this or a similar style could have been used for HQ Character Boards and Monster Cards, a row of numbered icons, like shield icon for DD instead of a stats table using the word "Attack Dice", "Defend Dice" and so on

Equally looking under Collin's card at the two "search" cards, equivalent to HQs equipment cards, again the layout is good, and the use of numbered icons and keywords, the shield icon with the DD bonus on the top left corner matching the DD icon from the character board for armour cards, the equivalent for AD in the same position on the weapon card. The use of icons or keyword or labels for ARMOUR, WEAPON, MISSILE WEAPON and similar categories, you could easily add an icon of a gold coin with a number value to indicate cost, a hero icon to represent which hero could use the equipment if limited to one, like Wizard only or my preference a "BASIC" icon on weapons that Wizard can use and so on.

This standard look and feel I think enhances and simplifies the game, a character/monster card/board with a shield icon with the number 2 combined with an armour card for a Helmet that has the matching shield icon with a number value of +1 automatically suggests that you roll 2DD as standard then add 1DD to give 3DD as standard if armed with the shield, without you having to even read the rulebook.

A gold coin icon with 100 on it is less wordy, easier to translate and more space efficient "This item costs 100 gold coins" and so on.

[Markus Darwath]

I don't think there is really a need for it in a coop board game. It's not like any of the cards will expire for future competitive play events, you just buy the expansion and add it in. I don't think anyone really thought about removing cards from the game in the future, but in that case you'd also be removing models, tiles, and furniture too, so you'd need a list anyway.

For those with a 'collector' mindset, however, there is absolutely a desire to be able to separate the components back into their original groupings and boxes. Small icons (or even letter abbreviations) printed on the cards (and even tiles) would have made that simpler. Personally, I have sleeved my cards and written the abbreviations for the expansion names on the sleeves in sharpie for just that reason, tho I primarily keep the cards all together in a plastic deck organizer box for playing purposes. (I haven't yet done this with RotDM, PoT, or SQT... I may have to pick up another deck box)

[Kurgan]

If you have everything mixed together in a pile and now you want to put them back into the original boxes...

The hardest thing to separate out are the tiles (like I said, the copyright dates on the cards are a dead giveaway). However throughout the various sets the combinations of front and back on the tiles are unique. The only issue I see is that both Frozen Horror and MOTM have a "skull on both sides" tiles. Actually I think MOTM has ONE of these tiles and FH has the rest. Otherwise you can tell them apart (based on clues on the box sleeve/box back and quest booklet if you threw away the sheet that you punched the tiles out of). None of the boxes contain tiles that have the same combinations of front and back (front of the tile is concave, back is flat).

The elf monster minis (Warrior & Archer) from ROTDM are identical to the ones in MOTM so just grab any of them to fit back into the box (if you saved the candy trays it's easy to remember, otherwise look at the back of the box sleeve/quest booklet... all the distribution of minis are listed on every box).

But like the Spiral Staircase in the GS has an alternate (non-spiral) staircase image on the back... while the one included with MOTM has the same image on both sides. The extra double blocked squares included in MOTM has the double rock thing on the "flat" side and a "tomb" on the concave side. The double blocked squares in the GS have gratings on the back side.

KK/ROTWL tiles from the Haslab campaign have a white, matte finish on the back, while the retail versions have a black linen finish (like the front side) on the reverse.

Now if you're mixing GS edition boxes, you're on your own! (may have different copyright dates on some things but usually those don't appear on the tiles except the really big ones).

The Hand Axe and Helmet Equipment cards in the 2022 GS box are different than the previous editions. The text wording matches ROTDM but the copyright date may be different, I'd have to ask someone who has both to check because I don't have the slim box GS. Although many of the cards in SQT/PoT match ROTDM, they are different because the ROTDM cards are from the "Alchemy" deck, while the same cards in these newer expansions are "Equipment."

The retail SQT/PoT cards differ from their equivalents in the Mythic set are distinguishable by copyright date (there are many other subtle differences as well, such as wording and text formatting, zoomed in/out images, even color).