Doug Hopkins asks: What do you Want to see in HeroQuest?

[Kurgan]

At GenCon when I interviewed him (and this sentiment was echoed on and off camera by other staffers as well), Doug Hopkins, rules designer at Avalon Hill said that IF we want to see something in HeroQuest, we should go on Social media (they are especially active on X formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram), and make your requests publicly!

I don't have those social media accounts, but here is my short list of things I would LOVE to see (Doug would say its' about 18 months turn around and of course assumes they can do it, legally and financially):

1) Quests from Dark Company, Dave Morris Novels (Growl of Thunder, Running the Gauntlet), the Maze, Takara's 1991 Japanese HeroQuest, Marvel Winter Special quest (Revenge of the Weather Man with the bonus hazards pack), A Plague of Zombies (from the Adventure Design Kit), as well as the White Dwarf Quest (Halls of Durrag-Dol, the Eyes of Chaos) to appear in some format, whether that's as free digital quests+in the app or in booklet form.

2) As above, maybe an entire box containing the content of the Japanese edition with its unique artifacts, rules, and storyline.

3) Wizards of Morcar (with tweaks... the hero spells need to be more powerful, and there are some map glitches like unexplained Pits of Darkness, unmarked treasure chests, and the lack of an epilogue text). Plus there are only 5 quests... perhaps this could be supplemented?

4) With the above, this would be a golden opportunity to add in the lost "Wizard Quest Pack" which was 90% finished back in 1993, it was designed to give the Wizard access to great new spells and equipment (special potions only he could use, artifacts to enhance his character, an animal companion). Right now officially the Elf gets an artifact that boosts him to 8 BP, and the Barbarian to 10 BP. The poor wizard only gets his official upgrades here. There are problems with the difficulty but not so bad as the Elf and Barbarian packs. I would LOVE to see this. A single pack of 15 adventures could work.

5) The Dwarf quest pack is even more of a grind and a gauntlet of pain than the Frozen Horror, so I'm not sure whether it could be released as-is and people would like it, BUT there are many great ideas in it (like the Wizard pack) that have been used. Still, lowering the overall monster BP, and nixing some of the traps could make it much more playable. The designs for the models and artwork still exists in the Hasbro vaults and it completes the set... Wizard and Dwarf join Barbarian and Elf. Each pack focuses on the homeland (so to speak) of each hero, each gives a bonus artifact that boosts their body and mind, and each gives special potions for that hero, as well as some solo quests to test them. These are intended for advanced HQ players anyway.

6) Crossover IP. Remember when they asked us this? I would LOVE to see HeroQuest crossover with HeroScape. There's the Stephen Baker connection (the combat dice are even compatible). This would seem the most natural crossover that wouldn't harm either franchise (and is an even better fit than Talisman or D&D when you think about it). This idea was specifically teased at GenCon, but I think they are testing the waters to see if people would accept it. Making the heroes (and or monsters) as factions within HeroScape could work. Another opportunity for even more sculpts of familiar characters in the same scale (and as with the previous format, there would be an unpainted and painted version). These minis could be easily taken over and used in HQ, and could encourage players from each game to jump back and forth or homebrew their own minis.

7) Advanced HeroQuest. If this game were brought back it would need some modern tweaks I think as the original box was kind of devoid of stuff. But many would like to see this back in some form. It would require GamesWorkShop involvement but Talisman 5th Ed. is proof they can work well with Hasbro Gaming (Avalon Hill).

8) Keep the new heroes in stock! Don't let these guys get away. If the print runs, run out, for the Rogue and Monk, roll them into another expansion! There's no reason to let these go away. I would also love to see the sex swaps of the Wizard, Dwarf, Bard, Warlock...

9) Villains pack. Many have asked for a villains collection... we're talking special sculpts of named boss bad guys from the Witch Lord, Ulag and Grak, and the many sorcerers out there. It may sound silly to have a figure you use "once" (remember that homebrew means you can use them however you want), but this pack could also include some cards that are suggested enhancements for these guys. New tricks, spells, skills, minions... that make it feel like "HeroQuest." Plus there is the opportunity to include a new version of the Witch Lord that looks awesome for those who missed the Haslab Mythic set. How about a "Zargon" mini or two or three? I'm picturing an old man very similar to Mentor (but a meaner, more evil version), but you could also include a hooded figure like the Marvel Winter special, or maybe a demonform. What does Zargon really look like? You decide! I'm not saying you have to have a monster to fight on the board, he could also appear in "cutscenes" as well. The sky is the limit!

10) Crypt of Perpetual Darkness retail. Like it or not, this is the last piece of the puzzle (even though we have a new Dragon coming in First Light, grasping vines in Jungles of Delthrak, and similar kinds of skull tiles but not exactly). Golden opportunity to tweak the box, and include some more minis in a new color and some new special dice. This includes assets from KK/ROTWL so you could just re-add those, or do them with alternate artwork.

11) More Stephen Baker commercials, digital quests, and general promotion of the game that already exists. Keeping the existing things in stock and promoting them is fine, I say a new expansion doesn't have to be cranked out every six months forever, eventually it will slow down and even stop, but I want HeroQuest to be a game that is on store shelves for a long, long time (and is resupplied as it is sold).

12) HeroQuest in more languages! In the 1990's HeroQuest was available in something like 19 languages and nations (I could be off by a little but you get the picture). Finding ways to get it into more markets would be so awesome. Japan and Brazil are two key markets that are being left out with the modern version for example. Also Hasbro Spain has been upsetting fans there with not restocking expansions in Spanish when they sell out, forcing fans to resort to import english copies to translate themselves at extra cost.

13) Full adventure design kit and painting guide. A box that helps you make your own quests and paint your minis would be great. Maybe in the modern age this would take a digital format. An in-store display is cool but these typically only last for a limited time. Back in the day there was the Adventure Design Kit and a poster associated with the Advanced Quest/Dark Company that had a guide for painting the various characters that was very cool and is now a collectors item. During the Haslab campaign there was a designer blog dedicated to painting the furniture but it had only one entry...

14) The return of Battle Masters and Space Crusade! Okay these are long shots I bet, especially the latter one, but I can dream!

Miniatures: I'd love to see Fimir, but if not them then cyclops, lizard men, other similar creatures...(fommorians?), trolls, ratfolk, minotaur, centaur, smaller versions of the giant spiders, scorpions, orcs & goblins with different poses and weapons (flails, crossbows, spears and other polearms, shields), magical henchmen for the good guys, more animal companions (combat donkey-cart? maybe via a beastmaster type character to help the heroes), rock monsters (I Know we have gargoyles but like stone golems), carnivorous cave worms, giant moles, evil dwarves, alternate sculpts of the mercenaries with different levels of gear, dwarven furniture, townsfolk/npcs, blind swordsman trainer, SIR RAGNAR, wrestling moves on cards and wrestler characters to use them...?

It's tempting to say there should be official versions of the "Power Dice" but maybe they are content just giving artifacts and potions that give bonus or re-rolls.

The App needs a dev mod where you can move/place monsters, needs PC compatibility and not to expire off the web anytime soon!

Any others I missed?

Thanks to the Avalon Hill Team for all they do, but hopefully these and other ideas can be spread far and wide, posted on several different platforms so they can show their bosses there are always more things they can work on, that we would actually buy and use!

[Vorimir]

-Wizards of Morcar remade mixing the almost finished Wizard Quest pack.
-A dwarf quest pack based in the never releases one.
-The Dark company remade.
-Adancement/leveling up rules
-More weapons and items to buy and use.
-Optional advanced rules.

[j_dean80]

I prefer they stay away from the rest of the classic stuff and focus on new Quest Packs that fill in gaps. I don't want to see them steer too far from the current lore.

[HispaZargon]

What I think Hasbro should release attending to what they have already released, looking for the coherency of the franchise:

- New Quest Packs: Not necesarilly in big box format, smaller format like KK and RotWL are also welcome I think. New stories. new heroes, new characters, new miniatures, new boards (why not, even modelur board)... thats what fans like to see.

- Wizards of Zargon: Remake of the original Wizards of Morcar adapting it to the remake's rules, and including 5 new quests for a total of 10 quests, like they already did with the remake of AtOH by adding 3 arena quests. Maybe one option could be inserting one new quest before each one of the existing quests of Wizards of Morcar, to make the full story more interesting. The rules of the spells from WoM should be many of them revised, and new artifacts should be included to empower the Wizard. A new Wizard hero must be introduced in the pack, or maybe a new spellcaster Hero similar to the Wizard like they already did with Berserker (reminding the Barbarian) or Explorer (reminding the Dwarf). A new set of 12 Mercenaries would be greta to be introduced like in the original BUT I would absolutely make them with the opposite genders as seen in The Forzen Horror to have more miniatures variety.

- More online quests. RotWL does not have any prequel online quest like KK had, for example.

- More promotional story videos. They were really nice however unfortunatelly there are not more videos since long ago. Again RotWL had no promo video like KK or RotDM. Having AtOH and JoD videos would be appreciated too.

- Companion app quicker updates woulb be great too. It takes a lot of time seeing the app updated after any new expansion release.

[LucaRocks]

I personally want to see more board mechanic stuff. Traps that travel (aka the rolling boulder, Dread hands from KK or Dread cloud from ROTWL), wandering monsters that teleport or the heroes have to roll for (ala the Demon King from Key to the Kingdom), press plates that will lead to different places on the board, walls that move aside after certain monsters have been killed (revealing new doors). Stuff like that.

I would also love elementals or summoned creatures in the game. Some exclusive to the wizard and some that the others could call.

And some new, canon rules or variations for the Druid's transformations. I already homebrew quite a bit of these but Canon rules that allow for a variety of transformations would be cool.

Other than that, I'd really like the monsters from the dwarf pack to be brought it if they aren't making that an expansion. Golems, rock moles, giant worms that can punch holes in walls... Stuff like that would be cool.

[Kurgan]

To me the Wizard and Dwarf packs are "part of the lore." The stuff released in the 90's to me are "part of the lore." All of that stuff, even if I didn't know it existed when I was a teen, where nevertheless part of that foundational legacy of HeroQuest (or planned to be).

I'm not against them creating brand new content that is made to look like it would fit comfortably within the established lore (I have loved Rise of the Dread Moon and rank it among my favorite expansions... having played it with a good group and only 1 quest left to go! I'm also excited to play Jungles of Delthrak, having experienced the first two quests at GenCon).

We all know that anything they do release will become part of the "sandbox" experience. For historical purposes I would LOVE to see some kind of "HeroQuest Scrap Book" like a compendium of annotated screenplays (draft notes, art, etc). Think of the things we've seen in the realm of Star Wars ("the Making of Star Wars," "the Annotated Screenplays" "the Art of Star Wars"). Something like that might have limited appeal to ALL customers, but old school fans like us who want to see what the early versions of HQ were like, what ideas made it into spinoff games, and discarded ideas, the evolution of the product, etc. would eat that stuff up. Whether that was a book, a documentary, a multi-media DVD, there are so many ways that could be done. And yes it would take time and resources to be done right, but man, I would pay money for it!

[LucaRocks]

I would also love more effects in plastic form. Magical or elemental barriers, force fields that fit over a figure, more fire like in JoD for hazards that kind of stuff

[MonsterMotor]

Yes, yes, all the interesting things mentioned above would be nice to have.

However, what I would also like to see is that the producer introduces some fully functionating quality control measures. They have shown that they can design great, new stuff, e.g. like Dread Moon... But too many of their products contain too many errors. First get the basics right before striving towards higher things.

Also, the German language translation team should be fired and completely replaced. The German texts from the 2021+ edition are a real pain to read. Very poor writing quality.

[SirRick]

Using Kurgan’s post as a base, I’ll chime in.

A Villains Pack would be great. It could include bigger named bosses (like Sir Ragnar), but even a couple new named or generic bosses for quest creation purposes, such as the heroes fail a quest. Then Zargon has to modify the quest or make a new one from scratch. It would be fun to throw in a boss that could end up being a reoccurring character. A Dread Warlord, an Abomination Sorcerer, Pirate/Bandit character, etc.

A retail of CoPD would be nice, along with adding the original version of the Druid hero would be nice. Maybe some changes could be made to the story so its not so weird. Such as the forces of Dread allowing armed heroes to roam freely about the town just seems so odd.

For miniatures a Fimir-like monster would be welcome. The Abominations are fine for some quests, but my main issue is the size and shape of the miniature itself. Its very large and spiky and hard to place on the board. A Lizardman or Beastman variation with the exact same stats would be nice, with a mini that is easier to handle, and less sprawled out.

[Kurgan]

Ah yes, Beastmen... on the Monster card from the classic edition... finally faced in Battlemasters! Dread Archers! Maybe some of these bad guys could be cast in dark blue plastic? Or even more badass, BLACK PLASTIC.

The Villains pack could come with obsidian dice with blood red symbols...