Ye Olde Inn

Do you do anything extra to the creatures, characters, setting - to differentiate it from other RPG tabletop gaming systems?
Since it's not Warhammer and it's meant to be a more generic entry-level D&D style game?
So it's not any other setting, but it IS generically enough lkke most of them.

I've been writing up a background world that I have a rough outline of while writing quests, little by little, without blocking myself by sketching out more than is needed at any given time. The world is fleshed out for the heroes as it is fleshed out slowly for the players. The themes are something you won't see in generic fantasy other than maybe Terry Pratchett's discworld, but less humorous.

Very nice.

The tone of my campaigns is actually very similar to Pratchett. I was just discussing this with my wife last night.
Lots of humor. But I do keep things fairly serious when certain quests call for it.

Tonally, it's like Final Fantasy 4-9.
I use ALL of those to describe it, because they feature a heavy focus on comic relief (especially 5) but are also extremely dramatic and even somber when appropriate.

I incorporate different non HQ and non D&D monsters into my campaigns to make the setting more unique.

Also many of the characters physical traits are tweaked.
Dwarves can be less stocky and short. Especially the females. Some dwarves have been mistaken for stocky humans from time to time in my setting.
Elves can and often do grow facial hair in my setting.
For example.

One of my quest packs, Eternal Kingdom, is based on an album, Eternal Kingdom by Cult of Luna.
They are a post-metal band and that album takes you on a journey through dark woods and mental institutions.
It is very dark, harsh, cold, and claustrophobic.
All quests in the pack are named after songs on the album, for poetic measure.
It's about exploitation, greed, power hunger, and conspiracy. The central characters are Elves (but I don't call them that) based on Dark Elf and Wood Elf tropes.

I do not know how I came up with the idea to have an album inspire a quest pack.
I haven't come up with a different idea in that direction since, so I'll call it a stroke of insanity.

My quests are for the most part stand alone, and I try not to worry at all about the world setting. Interestingly, about half of the quests I write are initially given a name taken directly from Iron Maiden.

For example, I'm working a quest right now which plays a lot like Diablo. So I'm calling it "Back in the Village" for now.

I use what HQ gave us and try to just expand on it. I try not to "step on any toes". Inspiration comes from the back of my mind (influenced by many things I've seen or read I'm sure). I love HQ and don't like to change it a lot, just add more to do. I recall as a child my father and I would play it all the time. Then we ran out of expansion packs and it got put away... That was long before internet days and great sites like this to add more quests. Now I basically make quests so the game will never end.

Depends what you mean by personalise, and it depends on the group that I am "Mentoring", or "Morcaring".

Some are happy with the quest intro and that's about it. Some want to know more about the monsters and the world they are exploring. Too be honest, although simple, the Heroquest lore is rich enough for most people's purposes, especially with the added background/flavour of the Warhammer Fantasy world. I might go to the extent of a dramatic candlelit reading of the intro notes and some suitable mood music, but I'm not going out of my way to add entirely new background.

in my opinion a little bit goes a long way with Heroquest, when it comes to adding stuff.
- recurring villains are always cool, with some new baddies sprinkled in when appropriate.
- new Heroes are ok, but they are minor variations on the original four character archetypes. I usually get put off when I hear people introducing entirely new classes, especially if the theme/tone is off from the original.
- Sensible yet fulfilling advancement rules. Upgrades need to be hard to achieve, and come every couple of quest packs not every couple of quests.
- A new quest pack gets a few new monsters, cards, tiles, traps etc, but all of it is consistent with the original flavour of the game.

That being said, every single new quest has to add something new and interesting, or gaming sessions get very stale very quickly. Thankfully, the core game is so adaptable that it can be used again and again and again.

Here's how I am creative:
- I scan the market for miniatures and determine if I want what I see and for what I want it
- I integrate those miniatures into my world in the back of my head. For instance, Red Box Games makes their awesome miniatures too small in human scale compared to many other manufacturers I like. So my world has an offshoot of the human race that is more petite and not that tall
- I try to fit those miniatures into a thematic group
- I think of a story that builds that group of miniatures (answering questions like how come undead and skaven work together?)
- I try to come up with a storyline/quest pack idea

The other way, story first, looking for miniatures later, leads to too much frustration too often. That has mostly to do with the variety of scales and styles minifacturers utilize.

Thank you all for the wonderful answers.
I hope to hear more stories of creative additions and personal touches. It offers a fun bit of insight to how other fans are enjoying this awesome game.