*OFFICIAL* Order of CURRENT HeroQuest Books per Avalon Hill

[Kurgan]

It's either meant to be played in place of the Trial or before the Trial I thought.

[KentKaliber]

Correct, The Beginning is supposed to be played BEFORE the Heroquest Base Book. But I'm wondering where The Beginning fits in relation to Rogar's Hall......

[manaknight14]

I think the implication is that Rogar's Hall is still intended to be the very first "quest". As brutal as it is, it is just an illusion used for training the heroes before they go on real quests (I like gaeryth's analogy to the Danger Room from X-Men). New Beginnings is described as an actual quest against real enemies who serve Zargon, so I would imagine it is meant to fall between Rogar's Hall and The Trial.

[KentKaliber]

I think the implication is that Rogar's Hall is still intended to be the very first "quest". As brutal as it is, it is just an illusion used for training the heroes before they go on real quests (I like gaeryth's analogy to the Danger Room from X-Men). New Beginnings is described as an actual quest against real enemies who serve Zargon, so I would imagine it is meant to fall between Rogar's Hall and The Trial.

WOW this is a great, great observation / conclusion here!

[gaeryth]

After reading the new quest I think I'll run it first (the flavor text of the quest makes it seem like Mentor is grabbing random heroes off the streets), then Mentor will offer more training in the form of Rogar's Hall, which will still be as I described
before, a danger room. If I was running new players, I would use both quests the same way, offering suggestions and such on gameplay.

I'm also thinking of allowing my player's to replay Rogar's Hall when ever they want, just to see how powerful they are with artifacts and new gear. I'm also looking to add some other forms of progression/advancement. I'll probably swap out monsters every time with homebrew variations so that it doesn't get stale. (I just got my copy of Bardsung, so I've got lots of Hobgoblins and Bugbears to add to my greenskin horde, and duergar to populate ancient dwarven ruins.)

[Kurgan]

I still like my homebrew re-write where "Rogar's Hall" is actually a trap set by Zargon to kill the heroes...

[CavemanLogic]

Personally, I am playing Rogar's Hall with my Team in this spot:

Quest 6 = Legacy of the Orc Warlord
Quest 6a = Rogar's Hall ************
Quest 7 = The Lost Wizard

In Quest 6, Legacy of the Orc Warlord, the Heroes have been CAPTURED and are imprisoned! They must find their Equipment and escape!

When the Heroes reach the EXIT STAIRS of Quest 6, I have my MENTOR figure waiting on the Stairs for them ----- he then says to them, "With your capture, I have realized, your Training is not complete. To prevent this from ever happening again, I will take you now to Rogar's Hall......follow me........"

After thinking about it, I totally agree with you. Rogar's Hall, with its 40 Monsters (14 more than any Quest in the original Quest Book), and more importantly, 62 Body Points (!) worth of Monsters (27 more than The Trial's 35 Monster BP's), is an insanely difficult Quest, and as you say, would likely turn away any newbie players from wanting to play again.

I did a bit of statistics on the Original Game's Quests (using the HQ89 American Quest Books, which I *hope* are exactly the same as the HQ21 Quests) plus the three official Online Quests recently released by Hasbro. I counted all the Monsters and counted the total Body Points worth of Monsters in each Quest. I then used that data, as well as the narrative elements in the Quest Intro's, to determine which order made the most sense for the Heroes to tackle each Quest. Here's the Order in which I would play the Original Quests plus the three new Online Quests:

1: New Beginnings (Online Quest 00). This is a great introduction to all eight Monster types, plus it has "Zoryana Wretched Crone of the Dread Flame" as a Boss Monster at the end. It is one of the easier Quests, with only 17 Monsters (tied for second least among the 14 Original Quests + 3 Online Quests), and 24 BP of Monsters (fifth least among those 17 Quests). And it introduces the Heroes to the importance of Searching for Traps and Secret Doors.

2: Quests 2 through 5. These are among the easier Quests in the Base Game, with an average of 19.25 Monsters and 23.00 BP of Monsters.

3: The Trial (Quest 1). After they have had a chance to upgrade their Weapons and Armor a bit, the Heroes should be able to tackle The Trial, with its 24 Monsters (tied for third most among the Original 14 Quests) and 35 BP of Monsters (tied for most among the Original Quests).

4: Legacy of the Orc Warlord (Quest 6). The one where the Heroes start out in a cell without their equipment. This is also one of the more difficult Quests. 26 Monsters (most among the Original Quests, and trailing only Rogar's Hall's 40 Monsters and Forsaken Tunnels of Xor-Xel's 27 Monsters), and 31 BP of Monsters (fifth most among those 17 Quests).

5: Rogar's Hall (Online Quest ?). The Training Quest, where no Hero can suffer permanent death (they are all restored to full health after the Quest). Like I said above, the 40 Monsters and 62 BP of Monsters is brutal! The three Artifacts they may find during the Quest disappear at the end, but I assume they get to keep any gold they find.

6: Quests 7 through 14. These are a bit more difficult than Quests 2-5. Average of 20.75 Monsters, and 28.13 BP of Monsters. Only Quest 11--Bastion of Chaos/Dread rivals Quest 1 The Trial in terms of difficulty (23 Monsters, 35 BP).

7: Forsaken Tunnels of Xor-Xel (Online Quest 01). The Quest which bridges the storyline between the Original Quests and the Kellar's Keep Expansion. This Quest is another difficult one. 27 Monsters (second only to Rogar's Hall's 40), and 33 BP (trailing Rogar's Hall's 62, and Quest 1's and Quest 11's 35 BP each).

That's my list. Any suggestions welcome.

Cheers!

[manaknight14]

As a counterpoint to my earlier post:

While I am pretty confident that the creators intended that Rogar's Hall be the very first quest, I notice that the flavor of the new "Online Quest 00" makes this counterintuitive. In New Beginnings, Mentor goes out of his way to describe each type of monster as they are encountered, as though the heroes have never seen them before. Any hero that has been through Rogar's Hall has already seen more than their fair share of these monsters, even if they were only illusions and not the real thing.

I will be interested to hear if KentKaliber is able to get any follow-up response on quest order from AH now that this new addition has been officially released.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

I like the way that Avalon Hill seem to be handing out clarity with one hand (the official sequence) and then withdrawing it with the other (a new "first" quest) perhaps they should act on the suggestion of an official sequence posted on their site that they then update when new stuff comes out!

[Kurgan]

The dark secret is that Mentor has gone through a lot of potential "Heroes."

But where is the new Rogar and the ones to equal his companions?

So there may be many opportunities to "explain" the basics as the candidates have to be replaced ("funeral expenses if necessary").

The training of new heroes is already effectively canon via the "solo" quests in Barbarian and Elf packs (not that these two heroes were special, the Wizard and Dwarf were planned as well, before the franchise was discontinued).