Recommend a first quest.

[Blackthorn]

This weekend my friend JT and his son are coming over to play HeroQuest with me and my kids. This will be the first time we've played with non-relatives and had one player per character, both of which I am looking forward to. My kids and I are of course well acquainted with the game, but our guests are not. JT has played RPG's in the past and has a copy of the rule book that I printed for him and both he and his son are into the fantasy genre.

As Zargon, I'm trying to decide what quest to present. I'm leaning towards The Trial, even though it's a difficult one. I like that all of the monsters and furniture are on display and there are no traps or secret doors. If it looks like things are going poorly for the heroes, I can always make a few modifications to balance things out. My second choice would probably be The Rescue of Sir Ragnar, although I suspect that my kids have the location of Sir Ragnar's cell memorized. I'd have to print one of the redesigned maps for this quest that I've seen on this website to throw them a curve.

I also own all of the US expansions and these quests would be new to both me and my kids, although I suspect that the difficulty level would far exceed The Trial.

So, which out of the 54 official quests in my collection would be best for our inaugural session?

[knightkrawler]

Try The Trial with European rules, which is to say, give each monster 1 BP to aquaint your players with them and tell them, the monsters will get more difficult.
And allow the heroes to use spells and search for treasure.

[Patroclus]

I can’t remember how hard was the trial, but knightkrawler’s idea is perfect.

About the position of Ragnar, I don’t believe they remember exactly where he is, with all these quests of HQ in the same board, is very difficult for anyone to remember. But you can make some changes on the fly, trying to not change dramatically the number of enemies.

Have a great time… I am also going to play today, and I wish you a smooth game with a lot of fun!

[tasoe]

I am also going to play today

Yeah, you are! Don't be late!

[tasoe]

So, which out of the 54 official quests in my collection would be best for our inaugural session?

I would say a quick "The Maze" from the first print EU rulebook, never hurt anyone.
It helps new players to get the feel of the game and gets them to stick better to the taking turns concept (which in my groups almost never applies).

[Blackthorn]

I would say a quick "The Maze" from the first print EU rulebook, never hurt anyone.

Well, I might want to hurt them just a little

[Blackthorn]

I ran The Trail with NA rules and it went really well. To everyone's surprise The wizard (Tim the Enchanter) turned out to be the real hero, taking out both the Gargoyle and two Chaos Warriors. My daughter enjoyed using the female elf figure from the Elf Quest Pack and finally being able to play just one character. I took some pics and will post the details in the Saturday Night DUNGEON forum.

[Ethica]

I always start with The Rescue of Sir Ragnar because it's quite interesting with all the rescuing and stuff.

[Blackthorn]

I've posted the details and a few pictures in the Saturday Night DUNGEON forum: http://www.yeoldeinn.com/hqforum/viewtopic.php?f=161&t=1474