HeroQuest lost Quest Packs: Wizard and Dwarf Quest Pack

[banjo_oz]

Wow, this is really fantastic news (just learned about this thread today)! There are certain things in certain fandoms that are the "holy grails" for those fans (missing Doctor Who episodes, Star Wars deleted scenes, etc.) and this material is definitely THE holy grail for HQ fans, I would say!

Like some others have said in this thread, my personal greatest interest is seeing the "raw" scans/material before an fan work on it. Early GW design is fascinating, and this is something very special and part of gaming history. While a fully polished and playable version of the quest packs is obviously very desirable as an end result, I would always want to be able to compare the original notes to fan adaptations, no matter how minor the changes. I mean, we *all* love to homebrew and "fix" things like insanely overpowered Ogres and other issues in official quests and rules, but I still always come back to the official material in the end because it IS HeroQuest, straight from the source (for better or worse) and was all we had as kids in the 80s. Besides, this stuff has been presumed lost for a LONG time and should be preserved by as many people as possible to avoid it becoming unavailable ever again.

Regardless, I would be very happy and honored to offer any assistance I could. I have fairly decent graphic design skills (Photoshop, etc.) but not what I'd consider professional standard, however I *am* a professional writer/author (mostly TV script work but also fiction/prose and some non-fiction too), with a love of sci-fi and fantasy storytelling. I have also worked as both a proofreader and editor. If any of those skills help, please drop me a message or email.

[therealshrek]

I am sure this was thought of, but we do already have the Elf and Barbarian Quest packs.
Since originally these were suppose to be a set of 4. Those are good start points.

They show us the size of the box. The number of Quests (3 Solo, 5 Group Quest, and a Double Map Quest), New Traps.

These were meant to be tougher, not just Ogres with 10 Body, but Giant Wolves with 5 body , 6 attack, and 10 speed.
The Frozen Horror shows us that this can introduce completely new monsters. A5 D4, Body 6, and ability to cast 6 Chaos Spells.
Warbears with double 4/4 Attack.

Potions: Both the Elf pack and the Barbarian pack had 4 potions on the inside cover. Potion of Rejuvenation and 3 potions specific to that Hero.
Spells: The Elf and Barbarian packs more than doubled the Chaos Spells 13 total, and added the 8 Elf Spells.
Equipment: Both packs had items specific to that Hero. (The +2 body, +1 mind item) Since this was in both, there should be one for the Dwarf and Wizard.

Ive seen some info on the Dwarf and Wizard, so it looks like we are probably in good shape for the Monsters.
And it sounds like we have 10 maps for each. Which is right on the money.
I havent seen anything on Potions.

Anyway, I am happy to help out in any way I can, although I think my expertise is probably simply along the lines of heroquest Lore, haha.
I have all the US and UK expansions to include the Masters ed. with the Dark Company, I also have the Winter Special, the White Dwarf adventures. etc.
And I also have Adv HQ and WQ, and the conversions. based on the Ogres stats of 10, 11, 12, I would say they used these.

[Kurgan]

I agree that when in doubt, the template established by the other two can be followed.

I was thinking perhaps the infamously "not adequately tested" and "broken difficulty" for the released EQP/BQP kind of works in our favor for the task of these lost packs.

If there are rough edges, for all we know that's how it would have ended up. So yes, any fan corrections that say the Ogres shouldn't have 11-12 BP would be a homebrew thing to do after this gets done. If the quests are ridiculously hard and contain some weirdness, that may have been "intended" all along. So the "warts and all" approach is welcome in my book. You can always turn the page and see "well, and if you want it to be a more balance affair, here are some suggestions..."

How how cool would it be if there was an official errata for EQP/BQP as well? I don't suppose that's in there somewhere. We've all made our fan corrections already, but maybe somebody on the team figured it out before press time (but too late to fix anything)? Insights from the designers could be cool there too (oops, I should have done X instead of Y, etc). We're not trying to beat these guys up (metaphorically) for their shortcomings, but if they're forthcoming with any details on how they would have done things differently, I'd love to hear that.

Personally I think the insane difficulty was assuming that the audience had already played all of the other quest packs, and saved their gold and were fully equipped and would be bored if it wasn't that hard. Where they goofed up was in making the "solo quests" (which were intended for brand new players to HeroQuest, with starter level heroes) of such high difficulty as well. The first solo quests (with NA stats at least, Dave Morris was creating his solo quests in the 2nd and 3rd novels about the same time--using EU rules) released officially, to be fair. They may have had a "play over and over again until you master it" mentality with these for all we know, because they are harder than the Trial.

The little note on "apprentice wizards" with just one spell looks interesting. So helpful NPCs or low level bad guys (we've seen the latter but not the former yet). There is a note on one of those pages about exclusive potions for the title Hero, so that seems confirmed and I would apply it to both which again follows precedent.

[Kurgan]

I think this topic is to big for a single thread. Could we get a sub forum for that?
- a thread for the rules section
- a thread for the artwork
- a thread per quest do iron out the things that need ironing
- easily a thread per playcard

I am going to agree with this... a main clearing house thread (much like HispaZargon did for his Japanese HeroQuest material) and then the individual threads linked for each quest pack at the very least would be good. And others could be added as needed...

[therealshrek]

The little note on "apprentice wizards" with just one spell looks interesting. So helpful NPCs or low level bad guys (we've seen the latter but not the former yet). There is a note on one of those pages about exclusive potions for the title Hero, so that seems confirmed and I would apply it to both which again follows precedent.

Ooh , I had not seen this. Maybe this is what was intended for the Wizard pack, since all the others had Merc Humans, Elfs, and now Dwarves. I like it.

And yeah, the first the time I played the Barbarian Solo Quest and my barbarian got hugged to death because there was no way to prevent it.....
That was a major OOPS. Personally I use the strength test from Ogre Hoard to move Stone Doors. But it would be interesting to see if they actually
noticed it, and had a fix for it. On the same note, once these two are done, "warts and all" That would be a great time to create an Errata for these.

[Kurgan]

Yeah the Barbarian yeti hug attack was probably designed to force the Heroes to tag along together for protection, but when it's in a solo quest it's a matter of sheer luck "don't open that door" kind of thing and feels like a dirty trick!

[HispaZargon]

I think this topic is to big for a single thread. Could we get a sub forum for that?
- a thread for the rules section
- a thread for the artwork
- a thread per quest do iron out the things that need ironing
- easily a thread per playcard

I am going to agree with this... a main clearing house thread (much like HispaZargon did for his Japanese HeroQuest material) and then the individual threads linked for each quest pack at the very least would be good. And others could be added as needed...

Yeah, I also agree with Anderas approach... even I suggest also separate threads depending on which questpack are we talking about, trying to avoid mixing conversations.

Anyone of us could do it but maybe Daedalus as administrator could properly help in such task as he did with the remake's threads.

[j_dean80]

Since the Dwarf pack had an original version and then they completely flipped it for another, it would be great to build both versions of the Pack.

[lucapaschi]

Since the Dwarf pack had an original version and then they completely flipped it for another, it would be great to build both versions of the Pack.

We'd have to rebuild quest 4, but it might end up being an additional Questbook...

by the way, rockmoles spit acid if no skull is rolled on attack. Probably the reason it was taken away, too dangerous!

[Kurgan]

Sounds like we'll need to carry around shotguns... for close encounters.

The RockMole (other than the acid spitting) is starting to remind me of my homebrew alchemist Hyrax pet...