Best Way to Play Solo?

[David McMurdo]

Hello Everyone,

I found myself at this forum after stumbling upon its very useful list of errors in Avalon's Hill re-release of HeroQuest, and having read some of the discussions here, I couldn't resist signing up to talk with others that love HeroQuest as much as I do. I've visited Ye Olde Inn many a time across the years, though somehow missed its forums. I made an hour and a half video explaining why I love the game so much (link in signature if interested), and as I say in that, HeroQuest is to me what chess is to many others—I regard it as THE game to play and have done since the nineties. I'm not someone that ever uses internet forums (until now), so please forgive me if this thread is misplaced—I didn't think that the matter at hand was quite a "house rule" as such, though I could be wrong.

I absolutely love what Avalon Hill have done with this new HeroQuest, and having owned it for over a week now, I've already had a few games using their app. Now I find it quite impressive as apps go, but it has exactly the kind of limitations that I expected. For example, the moment that you open a room's door, every monster in that room will make a beeline for the heroes, and any HeroQuest veteran knows that this is just going to result in them being butchered one by one. Any human Morcar/Zargon would quickly get wise to this and adapt, even if only by having the monsters stand there awaiting the heroes.

The bottom line is that as impressive as the app is, it has its limitations. Now it was never hard to play HeroQuest solo provided that you were honest about what a monster would really do in each situation (as opposed to mysteriously avoiding finishing off the wizard with his one body point), but I wanted to ask you guys if any of you have developed more sophisticated methods of playing solo. I can't be the only one that has found himself with a very limited circle of friends after thirty years, and each of them recluses like myself. Yeah there are plenty of ways to play digitally, but it's not the same without the board and miniatures.

Thanks.

[Kurgan]

Welcome to the forums!

I haven't used them, but several people have come up with random generation of rooms, which can be found elsewhere on the Inn pages and also in these forums. I've even seen some use these for live games posted on youtube. For me one of the more fun ways to play is as Zargon or certainly to have a human GM. But I can see the benefit for others. That's why if I play virtually I prefer to play with the real physical set with the camera pointed at it, even if it is a bit slower than other methods (plus I never had much luck getting Tabletop Simulator to run... but let's face it, if you are trying to play with an automated Zargon that isn't your solution either since it's just a virtual set of assets to move around).

You would think the app could develop difficulty levels or dipswitch options for the "digital Zargon" as to monster behavior or other favored tactics. Monsters that run straight at the nearest hero are still an improvement of the '91 DOS monsters that couldn't leave their starting room (or enter a room, if they started in a corridor) and could be attacked "off screen" with impunity.

To get you started here is just one version of fan-made Solo Hero Quest Rules.

[Kurgan]

by the way, I gotta say I really enjoyed your video. I learned a few things (what you guys call "drafts" we call checkers over here). Most of the EU players I've run into on here miss their old rules, rather than seeing the NA rules as an improvement but it's cool to see you got what you wanted there. You're a good storyteller, so it was fun to listen to even if it wasn't full of the usual close-ups of miniatures that other unboxers have done. You say you're not much of a game collector, but you've played a lot! I appreciated the meditation on the appeal of the sword and sorcery genre. I guess for me the tv commercial highlighted not only the cool miniatures, but also the contrast between the wizard and the fighter type characters, highlighting the variety of the genre it was drawing inspiration from. Good stuff...

[Pancho]

I’ll echo Kurgan in extending a warm welcome to a fellow veteran of Morcar’s dungeons.
My favourite way to add spice to solo play and at the same time prevent (or at least tone down) the door blocking tactic is to add the Evil Wizard card deck. I probably sound like a broken record round here but I think they’re the single best fan made addition to HQ. Basically every Morcar turn where he has no monsters on the board, he draws one Evil a Wizard card from the deck to use when appropriate.
You can find them over on the main webpage in the cards section. I even did a variant of them called “Room” cards which Ian the exact same idea but specifically for solo play; the card is auto played when a Hero opens a new room. Many of the cards prevent door blocking because they give crossbows to the monsters inside the room, or a trip wire makes the Hero stumble inside etc.

You can find these here viewtopic.php?f=34&t=5005

[Kurgan]

Yeah the "door blocking technique" , well said. I gave in to the advice of many hear and started allowing not only the more liberal Line-of-Sight targeting rules (which were there all along according to that diagram from 1990) in my NA game, but also allowed the "four diagonal squares" with the crossbow, which really encouraged this tactic.

The door blocking isn't really a cheat, since it's advocated right in the booklet, but it does make many quests rather easy if they use it consistently with two or more heroes. I too love the Evil Wizard Deck (I renamed mine the Zargon deck) with the threat cards. Also the Combat Cards (with the Ron Shirtz art, from Phoenix's page)... kind of a pre-defined set of heroic (or villianous) feats (fewer instances of having to use gamemaster's fiat... and can inspire more creativity on the part of the heroes).

Then there's the Lone Monster deck which I've started using as well. Ah the creep away from simplicity....

But I agree with David here that the simplicity is a strength of the game. So the many additions I use just tend to be more opportunities (optional) to draw cards from a deck, rather than having to worry about equations or measurements which I usually consider the more tedious aspects of tabletop games 0(though I'm sure some enjoy these things more). To me this is the right amount of complexity while to others it wouldn't be enough I suppose.

I'm to the point where I see games being very drawn out when one person is controlling multiple heroes (instead of each person having their ideas ready to go when their turn comes around, combining their brainpower to solve problems), and would much rather get back to having each person control their own as part of a team. We try to play virtually on the forums, but if you can't do that, then there's the solo quest option, I agree.

[banjo_oz]

I am currently making a web app to play the game solo with, though it expects you're using the official Companion app or something like HQGM as it is just a dice roller, treasure drawer and hero/stat tracker... meaning it's basically all the bits missing from the official app.

I was making it for my own use but would be happy to share if others were interested. I made a similar thing to play Space Crusade solo a few years ago.

[elvyler]

I am currently making a web app to play the game solo with, though it expects you're using the official Companion app or something like HQGM as it is just a dice roller, treasure drawer and hero/stat tracker... meaning it's basically all the bits missing from the official app.

I was making it for my own use but would be happy to share if others were interested. I made a similar thing to play Space Crusade solo a few years ago.

I'd be open to trying it out, it would be helpful to keep some of the clutter off the table.

I made a simple web based treasure card drawer a while ago. I've been meaning to add more features like you describe, but haven't had the time. The mobile view also needs some work.

https://elvyler.com/hq_card/

[banjo_oz]

I am currently making a web app to play the game solo with, though it expects you're using the official Companion app or something like HQGM as it is just a dice roller, treasure drawer and hero/stat tracker... meaning it's basically all the bits missing from the official app.

I was making it for my own use but would be happy to share if others were interested. I made a similar thing to play Space Crusade solo a few years ago.

I'd be open to trying it out, it would be helpful to keep some of the clutter off the table.

I made a simple web based treasure card drawer a while ago. I've been meaning to add more features like you describe, but haven't had the time. The mobile view also needs some work.

https://elvyler.com/hq_card/

Cool treasure drawer! Love the use of the GM screen graphic. I may not have even started on my little project had I known of yours sooner! LOL!

Your drawer very similar to mine, except I redid all the card myself so I could offer optional custom versions of some cards I felt needed clarifying (and so you can toggle EU, US or mixed-with-tweaks decks).

My coding skills aren't great so mobile layout of mine is likely busted right now; since I made it for myself, it's designed to be used at a fairly specific size PC monitor and have only tested on a few browsers (Pale Moon, Waterfox Classic and Chrome so far) but that can change if I make it public.

(I can't figure out how to attach a screenshot here, or I'd show you a WIP; it's a bit ugly so far and needs beautifying for public use).

[elvyler]

Cool treasure drawer! Love the use of the GM screen graphic. I may not have even started on my little project had I known of yours sooner! LOL!

Thanks! That's partly my fault. I haven't really advertised it, it's just for fun.

Your drawer very similar to mine, except I redid all the card myself so I could offer optional custom versions of some cards I felt needed clarifying (and so you can toggle EU, US or mixed-with-tweaks decks).

My coding skills aren't great so mobile layout of mine is likely busted right now; since I made it for myself, it's designed to be used at a fairly specific size PC monitor and have only tested on a few browsers (Pale Moon, Waterfox Classic and Chrome so far) but that can change if I make it public.

I've been meaning to get around to adding more functionality. Eventually I want it to have options to add cards from the expansions, as well as to allow people to upload images for custom cards. I'd also like for it to have an armoury reference and reference of artifact cards.

(I can't figure out how to attach a screenshot here, or I'd show you a WIP; it's a bit ugly so far and needs beautifying for public use).

No worries, I think you need something like 14 or 15 posts before you're allowed to upload images to the forum. You could embed an image from a different website though. I've used imgbb in the past.

[banjo_oz]

Cool treasure drawer! Love the use of the GM screen graphic. I may not have even started on my little project had I known of yours sooner! LOL!

Thanks! That's partly my fault. I haven't really advertised it, it's just for fun.

Your drawer very similar to mine, except I redid all the card myself so I could offer optional custom versions of some cards I felt needed clarifying (and so you can toggle EU, US or mixed-with-tweaks decks).

My coding skills aren't great so mobile layout of mine is likely busted right now; since I made it for myself, it's designed to be used at a fairly specific size PC monitor and have only tested on a few browsers (Pale Moon, Waterfox Classic and Chrome so far) but that can change if I make it public.

I've been meaning to get around to adding more functionality. Eventually I want it to have options to add cards from the expansions, as well as to allow people to upload images for custom cards. I'd also like for it to have an armoury reference and reference of artifact cards.

(I can't figure out how to attach a screenshot here, or I'd show you a WIP; it's a bit ugly so far and needs beautifying for public use).

No worries, I think you need something like 14 or 15 posts before you're allowed to upload images to the forum. You could embed an image from a different website though. I've used imgbb in the past.

Thanks! It's almost usable now so I'll try and post it for you and others to try. Like I said, a bit wonky in terms of display (not tested on mobile devices) but basic functionality should work at least on PCs. The idea is it can be used with either a virtual tabletop (HQGM, Vassal or similar), a real physical board and minis, or the Hasbro official Companion app, replacing the need for cards or dice all cases. For me personally, I often don't have space or time to unpack my physical sets so playing virtually is the only way I get to play!