Ye Olde Inn

by **Fullork345** » February 16th, 2015, 8:41 pm

Why are they classified as unofficial quests when GW had a hand in them? Or were they submitted by fans for the magazines? I know the one writer of the ogre based white dwarf quest was a gw employee.

I know it's a open world and you do what you want, but I"m curious to why those aren't classified as official quests.

I'm thinking the reasoning is because it was never released as part of an actual game pack? If so, there would have been more involvement, approval, etc. not just from Games Workshop, but from Hasbro/Milton Bradley as well.

For instance, there is fine print on the third page of the Marvel Winter Special explaining how the Heroquest elements are being used with permission.

by **Rook** » February 18th, 2015, 8:34 pm

It does also have the proviso that Orcs smell. Really really badly.

I think it's what GimmeYerGold said. I think it was just promo material for the game.

Granted it's very good promo material...

by **Big Bene** » February 19th, 2015, 7:35 am

Fullork345 wrote:Why are they classified as unofficial quests when GW had a hand in them? Or were they submitted by fans for the magazines? I know the one writer of the ogre based white dwarf quest was a gw employee.

Not surprising, as White Dwarf is a GW pubication.
And then again, he could just as well have been a Disney employee. Games Workshop has no saying whatsoever in HeroQuest canon. HQ was developed, published and owned by Milton Bradley. They hired GW for the minis and some advise in fantasy genre questions. GW brought in some Warhammer Background material. It was sort of a joint venture, but the responsibilities and the final decissions were MB's. So whatever HQ material GW published in their house organ is strictly spoken just fan fiction.
As the Heroquest world was modelled after the Warhammer world in the time of the joint venture, but there are quite some differences from the time after this (both in the later HQ questpacks and in Warhammer) one can have one's own opinion if the two worlds are the same, expecially if Warhammer material (expecially Warhammer exclusive monsters) should [be included in HQ. It has been discussed throughoutly in the Inn. But this is a question that rather regards to taste, to continuity and other in-game topics - for the question what's "official", Warhammer and GW are irrelevant.
As for the Marvel Winter Special, it is not "classified as inofficial". Some do so, others (including myself) don't. It is not published by MB (not even GW), but was (AMAIK) co-written by Stephen Baker, the author of HeroQuest (who was, according to some sources, employee of MB at the time, according to other sources a free author who published his games at MB).
Also, in the Marvel Winter Special, there are no real contradictions that made it seem alien to the real "official" HQ material (the game sets), just a few jokes that helped the narration to roll along, whereas the White Dwarf Quests introduced material that really affected the gameplay and was not in the official games (Skaven etc.)

by **Fullork345** » February 19th, 2015, 10:53 am

It's quest is listed as unofficial, hence why I asked. And the special adds the same skaven as the white dwarf, just as alternate rules rather than in a quest.

by **Daedalus** » May 26th, 2015, 5:41 pm

Fullork345 wrote:Why are they classified as unofficial quests when GW had a hand in them? Or were they submitted by fans for the magazines? I know the one writer of the ogre based white dwarf quest was a gw employee.

I know it's a open world and you do what you want, but I"m curious to why those aren't classified as official quests.

By classified I imagine you mean as ordered here at the Inn in the Board index. I'm looking at the Heroquest Rooms descriptions for the answer:

Official HeroQuest Releases
Topics relating to HeroQuest Game Systems and Quest Packs released by Milton Bradley.

HeroQuest Merchandise
Topics relating to HeroQuest merchandise other than Game Systems, Expansion Packs and Published Quests.

Published Quest Releases
Topics relating to Quests published in various Novels and Magazines.

The Inn defines official Quests as those released by Milton Bradley only. As Big Bene has mentioned, MB oversaw and directly controled them as product.

Big Bene wrote:As for the Marvel Winter Special, it is not "classified as inofficial". Some do so, others (including myself) don't. It is not published by MB (not even GW), but was (AMAIK) co-written by Stephen Baker, the author of HeroQuest (who was, according to some sources, employee of MB at the time, according to other sources a free author who published his games at MB).

While Steve Baker was credited as an advisor of the MWS, he wasn't the author of Revenge of the Weather-Man. The credited scenario authors were Ken and Jo Walton. Steven Baker was an employee of Milton Bradley from 1986 to 1992, as he himself recounts in this Kaos interview. The MWS was published during this time.