Ye Olde Inn

I finally got my gaming group (aka "The Fellowship of the Pointy Stick") together for our first session since last January. We decided to play HeroQuest and it made me realize all over again how great this game is. Not rouse-ruled, revised, virtual RPG HeroQuest, but just the plain vanilla out of the box version. We had a great time, had several funny moments, and converted my sons friend from school into a fan after his first quest. Of course, his idea of a fun board game was Monopoly

I've been playing other board games too and Carcassonne is a new favorite, but when it comes to a fun dungeon crawl I don't think HeroQuest can be beat. All of the so-called "spiritual successors" like Descent and the D&D board games add a level of complexity that make for a very different gaming experience that we just don't enjoy as much.

I'll be updating my "Blackthorn's Dungeon" thread http://forum.yeoldeinn.com/viewtopic.php?f=161&t=1474 soon with the stories and quotable lines from our most recent quest.

Oh yes, let's not forget pictures of my miniatures in all of their unpainted glory!

Blackthorn wrote:Not rouse-ruled, revised, virtual RPG HeroQuest, but just the plain vanilla out of the box version.
All of the so-called "spiritual successors" like Descent and the D&D board games add a level of complexity that make for a very different gaming experience that we just don't enjoy as much.

Exactly. This is the true beauty of HeroQuest. It just somehow found a magical balance that no other game has found since. They all feel like they need to expand on the concept and that's where they all fail.
HQ is really simple. Basically you need to learn the combat system and the search function and a new player is ready to go! From there it's all presentation.

You don't don't think standard HQ gets old far too quickly? It's too repetative. It's simplicity makes it a great base to work from and it's awesome when you first starty playing it but it think it definitely needs additions to the gameplay for reply value. One time through the standard material with standard rules is a must but then new quests, monsters and traps isn't enough.

Goblin-King wrote:

Blackthorn wrote:Not rouse-ruled, revised, virtual RPG HeroQuest, but just the plain vanilla out of the box version.
All of the so-called "spiritual successors" like Descent and the D&D board games add a level of complexity that make for a very different gaming experience that we just don't enjoy as much.

Exactly. This is the true beauty of HeroQuest. It just somehow found a magical balance that no other game has found since. They all feel like they need to expand on the concept and that's where they all fail.
HQ is really simple. Basically you need to learn the combat system and the search function and a new player is ready to go! From there it's all presentation.

Yes. Vanilla HQ is the best. And no, it does not get boring. Being on the edge of death because Zargon is outsmarting you, is always exciting. This is easier to achieve if you can actually be harmed by a group of goblins. I've been contemplating what to do once the original 14 quests are exhausted. "Where to go from here" has been answered so many different ways in the expansions and forums. The official expansions don't seem to work the right way… mercenaries, really? Is that what we have to look forward to? Maybe I would do one very difficult quest with the aid of mercenaries, then have them turn on the heroes at the beginning of the next quest (to steal the recovered artifact). I have yet to read Kellar's Keep, but I do not understand how the staircase to the next level becomes the armory, full heal, spell refresh, AND finding a replacement for a fallen comrade? That must be some stairway! Perhaps the best thing to do to stay true to the original game is to go the opposite direction and simply start every new sequence of quests with new heroes at some pivotal stage of development with some amount of gold to spend.

We simply treated KK and RotWL like any other base quest. Just a series of seperate quests really.
The only exception I make is if a quest is a 2 parter, like the Eyes of Chaos.
I let the heroes buy potions at the start with whatever gold they had left from previous quests, and equipment if needed, and that's it. They only refresh their spells inbetween, nothing more. No HP regeneration.

And I added the evil wizard deck to balance things out a bit after they were fully equipped. The monsters get tougher and/or more plentyful later on (ogres, skaven).
We played the base game, KK, RotWL, durrag dol, the Inn of chaos, the weather-man, eyes of chaos after that, and now we're headed for AtOH. Then WoM. After that, I'll probably play fanmade quests from the Inn. Maybe the Japanese base game too, and Dark Company. As long as they don't require too much custom stuff. New monsters (and possibly clever trap mechanisms/puzzles) however, I welcome gladly
Oh and that mirror maze quest, definitely gonna try that.

Well, of course the original 14 quests gets boring if played repeatedly, but no... after 25 years of questing I still haven't felt the need to implement anything besides the official material.
But I've played a crazy amount of homemade quests, some of which have had new mechanics and monsters.

But really, I think the storytelling is what gives it a lot of it's value too. It's not a faceless scenario like monopoly or carcasonne (awesome game by the way).
Basically I'm not too fond of power creeping: introduce stronger monsters, give the heroes stronger weapons, rinse, repeat...
The best way to keep things under control is to occasionally kill a character. Especially if you can down the barbarian!
And this is where the lack of power creeping is a good thing. There's not too long way back to where you were.

Oh and that mirror maze quest, definitely gonna try that.

I've heard it's pretty good

If you play HeroQuest as an experience rather than a competition, then it has significantly longer life.

If it was meant to be so competitive then it would have included variations in the quests that make it harder/easier depending on the number of players.

cornixt wrote:you play HeroQuest as an experience

This is exactly what HQ is all about!

I can appreciate how it might be fun to convert HeroQuest into a game with more depth or create something new based on it's mechanics...this forum is a testament to that, but if I want something more complex I'll just choose a different game. I agree that new quests, both official and homemade are the best way to offer variety.

cornixt wrote:If you play HeroQuest as an experience rather than a competition, then it has significantly longer life.

If it was meant to be so competitive then it would have included variations in the quests that make it harder/easier depending on the number of players.

Then why keep track of BP.

A competition is an expirience.

I would agree with the quoted statement if the words competition and experience were switched over. It's designed for four heroes regardless of the number of players they are. I just think it needs some kind of time restrainst to break up the repetativeness that can happen when the players are free to line up around a door and open it with a movement roll of twelve (if we rolled low we used to roll again and in the end said technically we could keep doing that until we rolled a twelve so all doors are opened with twelve if there's no monsters on the board). I think random events is the best way to do this because it breaks up the repetativness in its own right anyway, even space crusade had this with the alien event cards and HQ definitely needs an equivelent I think. I apparently overdid it it a bit for my players taste with the amount of monsters (nearly a one in three chance) in my first p-b-p quest. It's a slightly over one in nine chance now.