Ye Olde Inn

I realized today that I have literally never had a chance to play HQ as a hero. I was always the only one of my friends that owned the game, so I have always been the default Zargon. I'm not complaining, mind you. I love playing Zargon. Seeing the map, knowing what's coming, and all that comes along with being the game master, is great fun for me. And I like being in the position to choose whether I'm cheering my heroes on or trying to slaughter them.
Anyone else in the same boat? Maybe I should try a play-by-post game here. As I've just started a new campaign with friends that are new to the game, and the childhood friends I used to play with are many miles away, I don't anticipate getting an IRL chance to play a hero any time soon.
Although, now that I think about it, I did notice my Wizard studying the rulebook very, very closely last time we played. Maybe he'd like to trade roles when we get to Kellar's Keep...

Me.
I have often wondered if I would even make it as a player....

cynthialee wrote:Me.
I have often wondered if I would even make it as a player....

From what I've heard of your games (Doppleganger total party wipe, etc.), it sounds like your players don't "even make it as a player..."

=

Played as a Hero in my youth; now exclusively Zargon. I think my evolving experience of the game is like my evolving experience of Christmas morning. When I was a kid, all I wanted to do was open presents. As an adult, I seem to experience a greater joy in giving.

Zargon is a giver...of pain.

whitebeard wrote:

cynthialee wrote:Me.
I have often wondered if I would even make it as a player....

From what I've heard of your games (Doppleganger total party wipe, etc.), it sounds like your players don't "even make it as a player..."

=

you can't base your estimation of my games based on my high lights reel.
That doppelganger wipe was quite a long time ago.
LOL

Yeah...I'd say that for HQ at my table, the players have about a 60% quest success rate and when they do bag the quest objective there tends to only be one or two survivors to make it out of the dungeon. There is this one NPC Hero Henchman Wizard that has made it out alive from every quest he goes on, but if he goes on the quest...chances are there will be only one other survivor. I have no idea why the dice gods like to be funny like that, but they seem to have their fun with the games also.

I played Hero as a kid when we were playing with my cousin's set, and I was the EWP when we were playing with my set.
Now I'm the default EWP because I made the rules and write everything up.
Only when playtesting I play everything which, make no mistake, is also always fun for me.

How about rotating who gets to be Morcar?

We did that a while back. We were only four players, me included. So everyone picked a hero. I got the dwarf.
Then I played as Morcar in the first quest. That meant there were only the remaining three heroes (barbarian, elf and wizard) playing that quest.

For the next quest the Elf played Morcar. Then I got to join in the action as a hero. I would join in on the next two quests as well as the barbarian and wizard would play as Morcar respectively.
Then I played Morcar as well. One round as Morcar - three rounds as a hero. Same for everybody.

This system worked really well. Everyone got to play as heroes. Everyone were forced to try out what it was like behind the screen (which I think is very healthy for the group!).
Even the dynamic of always missing a certain key-player was actually really fun. Aaaw! We could really have used the Barbarian here!
Sure with the RP-goggles it's a little strange why the heroes aren't in every quest, but as a game it didn't matter at all.

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cynthialee is known by many names...

cynthialee the cruel
cynthialee the Slaughterer
cynthialee the sadist

cynthialee the merciful is NOT one of them...

This is why I no longer play D&D/AD&D. In 35 years of playing, I got to play as a player once. Always the DM! But for HQ, my daughter is Zargon most of the time, so its all good on that front.

I've never played as a hero; I take far too much pleasure in watching the players fall into my traps and uncover the narrative...

When I was playing through HQR I was the Heroes, despite having read up thoroughly on the Quests in my off time. My brother, who played Zargon, started changing things up on me whenever I said something like "oh hey, it's the XYZ quest element, I remember that". I hope that if we ever get around to running AlterQuest, I get to play Zargon, if for no other reason than being the author of the Quests!