Heroquest remake by Hasbro - The BIG discussion thread

[Kurgan]

YouTube channel La Guarida de Morcar has published a new video revealing lots of leaks about next releases of HeroQuest products:

https://youtu.be/wwWmG58pTmE?si=uhsfceX6-LP2TB8g

The video is in Spanish, so I have summarized the most relevant leaks in the following two new threads:

- JUNGLES OF DELTHRAK expansion topic thread.

- WIZARDS OF ZARGON expansion topic thread.

Additionally, the video also leaks the following highlights:

- Crypt of Perpetual Darkness retail version will be released at Q3 of 2024

- A pack with (I guess) female heroes from Mythic Tier adn maybe other extras will be released also at the end of 2024

- There are plans to release a revised version of the Basic Game in 2025, maybe including new stuff or quests (Dark Company??)

- This revised version is not confirmed for other languages than English

"Confirmed"?? Except maybe shifted to Q2-Q4 2025...
One theory is that the First Light cover debacle may have delayed things longer than we might have guessed.

I am 100% convinced we will have CoPD an WOM remake both in retail by the end of this year, based on the store leaks (that have never been wrong so far when it comes to HQ).

Otherwise the only "news" are that First Light is out in the UK (as of yesterday) and coming out in the rest of Europe Feb 20th-May 1st... first in English, then German, then Spanish. The Jungles of Delthrak "Crystal Inclusion" dice are still available in Europe, but sold out in the US (same story for the Rogue). The First Light dice remain a store leak for now, but I am expecting we'll hear about soon.

Hasbro (Iberia) Spain continues to say that Hasbro's Headquarters in the Central US makes the decisions about restocking and distribution of expansions, translation, and even whether to put the PDFs online, not them.

Cannes Games Festival is coming up soon, so I bet they'll showcase these things and possibly we'll hear about some of the new things officially by then? If not, there's always UK Gaming Expo, Bologna PLAY, GenCon, and LUCCA...

[Kurgan]

This just came up as of last night... remember how Doug Hopkins said "those aren't final" indicating the First Light dice shown at GenCon (to be fair, he didn't make clear he was referring to ALL of the dice, or just the movement dice)?

Well while many people (including myself) have unboxed copies of First Light from Target to show that the dice are the same as they were at GenCon last year ("ivory/bone" colored combat dice and white movement dice with red pips), the UK release of First Light through Hasbro Pulse happened yesterday and MULTIPLE people have reported that the dice they got inside the box were the same as the 2021/2022 dice... red with white pips.

This color scheme matches what the First Light Box cover, rulebook, and GM screen depict... which is red with white pips.

One theory was that perhaps Target has a mini, secret exclusive...

Another theory is that it was just a mistake at the factory, a last minute miscommunication. Perhaps they created a lot of these white dice and wanted to get rid of them, and guessed (correctly) that most of us hardcore fans would buy them up and wouldn't care that much, and once those run out they'll have red dice inside.

Perhaps Hasbro has a "waste not/want not" kind of philosophy. Encarmine & co. at Avalon Hill gave away the free factory rejected turquoise clear dice at GenCon (shame on anyone who scalped those) two years ago. Various "influencers" on Youtube got review copies of First Light with the old (rejected) Clark Mitchell cover.

Some people commented as if they were excited to get those as collectibles because they were misprints or rare. I just want to WARN anyone that is seeking these white dice for this reason... it would be the easiest thing in the world to fake.

White dice with black pips are probably the most common board game dice out there and a person could just paint the pips red very quickly and easily and substitute them into the box to fool people and charge a ridiculous price. Please don't fall for such a scam!

Also, if the box is sealed, with that very thick, very tight shrink wrap (with the dragon sticker on it) how would someone know what color the dice were inside? Even an X-ray wouldn't be in color!

Unless it came from Target on a certain date, it wouldn't be guaranteed to be the (presumably) "rare" white dice.

Anyway, if you think the whole thing is silly, it is. My thought was the white dice with red pips are inferior to the red dice. They make more sense to be red because that's the color they've always been, and every set (other than First Light) calls them "red dice." Plus the contrast between the two colors of dice makes them instantly recognizable even if a person were to be color blind.

Yes, it's true that Frozen Horror came with blue movement dice (and translucent blue combat dice), but no special directions are given for using those. They're clearly a bonus, like having extra character sheets (with blue instead of black/gray ink) or the red gargoyle included inside Prophecy of Telor (that COULD be used as a proxy to represent the demon form spell, though no instructions are given to use it that way).

If AH had intended to change the movement dice color for real, I think it would have made sense to represent them that way on the box, rulebook, and GM screen, and even a simple sentence in the rulebook saying that "movement dice" and "red dice" are meant to be the same thing, to ensure no confusion for future buyers of expansions. Combat dice this was no issue because they aren't referred to as "white dice" in the rules literature, so the fact that there are multiple sets with different colors combinations isn't a big deal even for the most green of newbie players.

Anyway, if accurate, I think this is an improvement. Will I hang onto these misprint dice? Probably, just as a historical anecdote... I have plenty of red dice.

[Kurgan]

https://dungeonmarvels.com/buscar?controller=search&s=heroquest

Would you look at that; a website offering the ability to reserve retail copies of not only the base game and the two expansions we've had announced so far (All estimated 31/01/22), but also The Frozen Horror (Estimated 31/08/22).

Sept 16, 2021, the day the leaks began!

[Kurgan]

First Light in the UK had red dice with white pips. I wonder what the European release will have ? Set to release Feb 24th (Cannes Games Festival is Feb 28th...).

[Kurgan]

Reports have come in that EVERY box of First Light in the UK and the rest of Europe so far have had red dice with white pips. Yes, at Cannes the set showing white dice with red pips was shown in the glass case (possibly at the table as well) but I would be shocked if France didn't also get the proper "red" red movement dice.

One guy on my youtube channel claimed that his set purchased at Target had a red dice with with pips. So maybe it was an attempt an an exclusive for a limited time just as a little wink and nod to early adopting fans like us, or maybe it really was a factory screw up... and now that the stock has been diminished, we'll just see red with white from now on (and no blue with yellow pips at Walmart anytime soon!).


Crypt of Perpetual Darkness is expected in retail July 1st. Wizards of Morcar is still iffy, but I'm going to say Dec-February (probably January, and maybe some will get it early if I had to guess) is pretty plausible at this point.

The Fanroll "First Light" limited edition dice are showing March 31st for the UK... 9 days, which probably means others should be getting it by now, if not by April.

And another rumor is that Hasbro Spain is getting more hires... maybe that will start to turn around the situation there where they have almost no support after stuff sells out?

We continue to wonder what the crossover will be... will it be HeroScape? Talisman? Some combination of things?

Many continue to wonder what the future of HQ holds. Doug Hopkins is fired up and ready to keep going at it until they can't anymore, talking about Alchemist's shops and Wizard's workbenches, bestiaries, and advancement systems in his list of things he thinks about. Hasbro is at least committed to the end of 2026, but that is always subject to change.

Edit: A second report of a fan buying HeroQuest from Target and it having red dice with white pips came in the week of 4/29/25.
The official release month of CoPD into retail was announced as August (which doesn't preclude someone getting it "early" sometime in July, I'm guessing) with nothing new confirmed inside the box other than "foil cards" and the Dragon being "black metallic plastic." The box size is the same as SQT/PoT and features the same holographic sheen that SQT/PoT had, and it still contains 10 quests. The artwork appears the same as before just with Joe's name in a new font prominently featured on the cover. The Fanroll First Light dice are still showing as a "pre-order" item on various websites (expected perhaps as late as June 1st).

[Kurgan]

Hasbro Consumer care has been made aware of the "Bad batch of resin at the factory" situation with the transluscent dice found inside Prophecy of Telor & Spirit Queen's Torment retail sets... that has resulted in internal cracks developing visibly in the dice over time (same issue as we saw with the cyan giveaway dice at GenCon two years ago, mine got cracks even though they didn't have visible air bubbles and they mostly stayed on my shelf!). We have word of at least one UK fan getting replacement dice sent to him for his cracked orange dice. It's a good sign that Hasbro is standing by their products! So check yours and if they develop damage, even if you bought them new from a third party, I say contact them (civilly of course) to get a replacement or refund.

First Light is still awaiting release in a few countries, and it seems red dice with white pips have become the norm, even inside sets bought from Target in the US, according to reports.

UK Games Expo this weekend had Avalon Hill's Doug Hopkins unbox "Joe Manganiello's Crypt of Perpetual Darkness," set for retail market by Aug 5th (except in Germany, where it's coming Sept 15th). As before, some may expect to get it as early as July 15th. Pre-orders are up all over the place. So far Pulse only lists the English versions, but it's getting translated to other languages, confirmed (for the first time officially!).

Features:

-Venim (same sculpt as 2021 Mythic dragon) done in metallic dark gray plastic
-rubber "boot" rim that can fit on the model base (similar to those included with Betrayal 3rd Edition) done in gray. according to Doug that's to "designate" a specific monster though some would say it very slightly makes the base more stable. Many warped copies from the Mythic campaign had a tendency to fall over at the slightest vibration.
-20 "foil" cards ("Oil of Acid Immunity" finally gets its own card... this card plus the Crown of Shadows and Dragon Spear get two copies each, one done in the familiar remake style and one done in a radically new "graffito/heavy metal" style with a wacky new font that's a bit hard to read in places)
... the rest of the cards are repeats from other boxes. Crossbow & Battle Axe, Holy Water, and Potion of Speed for Equipment. Alchemist Shop potions use the "Alchemy" cardback from ROTDM/JoD instead of just more Equipment. Tempest Spell Scroll and Lightning Bolt Spell Scroll have cards included (the latter was not a physical card in the Mythic set). All cards have a holographic style "foil" surface on BOTH sides of the card.

Virg posted a handy list in HeroQuestFans discord:

Potion of Restoration,
Venom Antidote,
Potion of Dexterity,
Potion of Battle,
Potion of Speed,
Potion of Defense,
Potion of Healing (500g, 1d6),
Artifact:
Crown of Shadows (New and old art versions?),
Dragon Spear (New and old art versions),
Ring of Return,
Magical Throwing Dagger,
Lightning Bolt Spell Scroll,
Tempest Spell Scroll,
Oil of Acid Immunity (New and old art versions),
Equipment:
Battle Axe,
Crossbow,
Holy Water

-set of 6 BLACK combat dice with white symbols (yes, just like those fan made "power dice" but with standard distributions of symbols instead of extra skulls)
-pair of BLACK movement dice with white pips
-only Quest 1 was glimpsed so far, but some additional Max Dunbar art was added to dress things up and some small adjustments to the text (capitalizing terms to fit the format of other expansions to catch Zargon's eye a little better), we're guessing an attempt to fix errata similar to SQT/PoT retail releases but no further details as of this posting.
-pad of character sheets (set for 10 quests, brand new art style, but same info as other official character sheets, same size, black & white)
-holographic cover (similar to SQT/PoT). The box has a new title "Joe Manganiello's Crypt of Perpetual Darkness" with his name displayed prominently, and the same Dragon artwork depicted on the quest booklet from Mythic (also appeared on the box holding the mythic components)
-lots of empty space! We think this was done for economic reasons, but there are clearly gaps in the candy tray where they could have put more stuff but didn't.
-will be available online and at FLGS like the other official expansions, so this is NOT a limited release (thank goodness) and will be released outside of the English speaking world this time

Much speculation and wishful thinking was proven false this weekend, so we have:

No entrance/exit doors
No additional monsters (besides Dragon)
No new monster card for dragon (if anything was tweaked about Venim it would appear in the notes for Quest 10 which hasn't been shown yet)
No additional heroes
No new quests (the pack is still 10 and that would have been mentioned by now I think, since Joe did a spot on the Late Show and just said 10 quests)
Dice (and dragon) are opaque color rather than translucent
Box size is still the "smaller" expansion size equivalent to SQT/PoT/KK/ROTWL
Price point the same as MSRP for SQT/PoT ($34.99)

A big milestone! Remember this was the Mythic stretch goal that was not reached (at $4 million, for the record, the highest amount raised was

With this release, that means there still remain a few "exclusive" or "proprietary" items from the Haslab campaign (that is to say, not available in retail):

Sir Ragnar prisoner
Haslab male Elf hero
Haslab female Barbarian hero
Haslab female Wizard hero
Haslab female Dwarf hero
Mythic "Mentor" Wizard hero
Mythic "Witch Lord" monster
Mythic female Druid hero

There's a re-sculpt of the male Elf included with retail MOTM and a re-sculpt of the female Barbarian included with retail Frozen Horror. No female Dwarf, but there's a female "Explorer" hero included with Jungles of Delthrak that is clearly a kind of Dwarf and could easily be used as such. Against the Ogre Horde remake includes a male and a female "Halfling" version of the Druid with re-done cardback art but the same mechanics (a slight text tweak indicates the Shapeshift spell was always intended to grant an extra defend die AND and extra attack die... but the attack bonus doesn't work at range).

In terms of giveaways... a Dark green (slightly darker than the Orcs/Goblins/Abominations of the Game System) version of the GS Dread Sorcerer has been given away at conventions this year in a tiny box with the "First Light" artwork on it and wrapped in tissue paper. Spotted at Bologna PLAY and UK Games Expo (with luck it might appear at GenCon as well).

The "mountain dew" (translucent yellow with dark green symbols) dice were given away in limited quantities at select WPN (WOTC network) FLGes, in packs of three wrapped in plastic but again in limited quantities. These were the same dice given away at conventions last year. The promotion has ended of course.

FanRoll continues to crank out new "limited edition" dice in the same vein as the "Dread Veil Dice" (purple symbols on clear dice that have squirts of purple and blue "ink" in them with blue glitter that are a bit hard to read across the table) tin released to coincide with Rise of the Dread Moon. The "Crystal Inclusion" dice tin came out for Jungles of Delthrak and was sold without the snap together dice tray (featuring the cover artwork) in Europe and with in the US for a higher price. These dice used the same formula but the ink squirts and glitter inside are green and the ink is dark red making them hard to read at the table (and the foam packing in the tin is white instead of black). This has been selling out, and the latest one is the First Light Fanroll set where you can buy the dice tray separate from the dice tin. These latter dice in person look like cinnamon gumdrops and seem to be less see through than the previous ones. It's hard to tell if they're just translucent pink with gold glitter inside or clear with a bunch of pink ink and gold glitter inside, but they look very different than the CGI images of the dice inside the tin which look more magenta. While easier to read than the last iterations they're not that impressive (personal opinion), and still limited run.

So far no official announcement of Wizards of Morcar remake, but the store front listing that popped up at the same time as the one for Crypt of Perpetual Darkness tells me we should be hearing about it/seeing some teasers very soon, perhaps at GenCon (July 31-Aug 3) this year?

[SirRick]

I can also confirm I got replacements for the PoT dice. I just forgot to mention anything about it until now. Way back when several of us were discussing the dice issue, I managed to contact Hasbro. It was a pain in the ass, because the site wanted me to sign in, but my hasbro pulse sign in wasn’t working. Maybe you need a separate account just for customer service stuff?

After I did manage to contact them, it wasn’t long before I got and email saying I was getting replacements. You need all the information on the box, like the production number and stuff like that. Since I purchased it using my hasbro pulse account, I was able to give that information too, but I am not sure if that was needed.

[Kurgan]

I can also confirm I got replacements for the PoT dice. I just forgot to mention anything about it until now. Way back when several of us were discussing the dice issue, I managed to contact Hasbro. It was a pain in the ass, because the site wanted me to sign in, but my hasbro pulse sign in wasn’t working. Maybe you need a separate account just for customer service stuff?

After I did manage to contact them, it wasn’t long before I got and email saying I was getting replacements. You need all the information on the box, like the production number and stuff like that. Since I purchased it using my hasbro pulse account, I was able to give that information too, but I am not sure if that was needed.

That's good news! I'm glad they made it right. Now I know what to do if mine crack...

[HispaZargon]

Just to inform you that for some reason there is a new file version uploaded in official Hasbro Instructions website for Game System Rulebook and Questbook ref. F3649/F3654 (GS V1):

https://instructions.hasbro.com/api/dow ... lebook.pdf

Apparently the books content is exactly the same as previous F3649/F3654 file, however it is true that this new file looks more optimized (images are downloaded quicker) and some visual improvements have been also added (i.e. the quest map icons have more definition now in Rulebook pictures).

[twiztor]

eagerly anticipating a Wizards of Zargon release! hope we get an official announcement at GenCon in a few weeks!