6. HQ25 - New Equipment + Artefacts

[Gold Bearer]

Armoury
US armoury update.

Targets defend with one less dice when attacked by a crushing weapon.

Club: A1, crushing, can be used by the Wizard, 100gp.

Hand Axe: 175gp.

Hammer: As handaxe, crushing, 200gp.

Spear: 225gp.

Halberd: A3, Diagonal, Barbarian and Elf only, 250gp.

Bow: A2, Barbarian and Elf only, 250gp.

Mace: As broadsword, crushing, 300gp.

Flail: As longsword, crushing, 400gp.

Great Sword: A4, Diagonal, Barbarian and Elf only, 550gp.

Great Axe: A5, Barbarian and Dwarf only, 750gp.

Bastard Sword: A5, Diagonal, Barbarian only, 900gp.

Crossbow and Battleaxe now 400gp.

Bracers: Wizard only, raises defence dice by one, only available in magic shops, 200gp.

Cloak Of Protection: Wizard only, raises defence dice by one, only available in magic shops, 350gp.


Artefacts
Soul Sword: A3, target rolls as many defence dice as their current MP.

Rune Armour: Dwarf only, D4, hostile magic immunity, use the highest of the dice for movement.

Elven Power Bow: Elf only, A4.

Storm Wand: Wizard only, allows the wizard to cast combined and fully merged spells. http://forum.yeoldeinn.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2454&p=41262#p41262

Chaos Amulet: Wizard only, allows the wizard to use one of the three chaos sorcerer spells (Dominate, Mind Blast, Mind Lock) once per quest.

Chaos Spell Book: Elf and Wizard only, allows either the wizard or elf to draw one random chaos spell at the start of each quest.

Elven Spell Book: Elf only, allows the elf to draw two random elf spells at the start of each quest.

Talisman Spell Book: Wizard only, allows the wizard to draw three random talisman spells at the start of each quest.

I think the talisman and elf spell books should be available in magic shops rather than having them as artefacts, but the chaos spell book should be found, maybe in the same quest as the chaos amulet.


The four essential artefacts that they have to find could have these additional effects:

Barbarian - Attack on black shields in melee.
Dwarf - Defend on black shields.
Elf and Wizard - Wizards Of Morcar spells added. Wizard picks one, Elf picks one, Wizard picks two, Elf picks one, Wizard has the other two. Elf rolls three movement dice and ignores the lowest.

When they're all gathered they could increase in power to give these additional effects:

Barbarian - Black shields count as two skulls in melee.
Dwarf - Black shields count as two white shields.
Elf and Wizard - Wizard picks one, Elf picks one, Wizard has the other five. Elf has six random Elf spells.

[Teldurn]

Armoury
<weapon stuff>

My preference would be to keep HQ25 simple. I don't think we need new equipment nor the addition of crushing mechanics. Any new/special items can be doled out as Artifacts if we need it.

Artifacts
Spirit Sword: A3 or A2 if used by the wizard, target rolls as many defence dice as their current MP.

The Spirit Blade already exists. This has a confusingly similar name.

Rune Armour: Dwarf only, D5, use the highest of the dice for movement.

How do you use defense dice for movement?

Elven Bow: Elf only, A3, can shoot twice.

The Elven Bow already exists from one of the expansions and has slightly different mechanics. I think it shoots 4(5?) times before it cannot be used anymore.

Chaos Spell Book: Allows either the wizard or elf to draw one random chaos spell at the start of each quest.

Elven Spell Book: Allows the elf to draw two random elf spells at the start of each quest.

Talisman Spell Book: Allows the wizard to draw three random talisman spells at the start of each quest.

Chaos Amulet: Allows the wizard to use one of the three chaos sorcerer spells (Dominate, Mind Blast, Mind Lock) once per quest.

Storm Wand: Allows the wizard to cast combined and fully merged spells. http://forum.yeoldeinn.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2454&p=41262#p41262

The concept of a spell book is pretty cool, but I would really like to avoid referencing another completely unrelated game. If you want to add spells from Talisman, you're gonna have to go all the way and make it a proper HQ deck with formatting, images, etc. The whole shebang.

The four essential artefacts that they have to find could have these additional effects:

Barbarian - Attack on black shields in melee.
Dwarf - Defend on black shields.
Elf and Wizard - Wizards Of Morcar spells added. Wizard picks one, Elf picks one, Wizard picks two, Elf picks one, Wizard has the other two. Elf rolls three movement dice and ignores the lowest.

When they're all gathered they could increase in power to give these additional effects:

Barbarian - Black shields count as two skulls in melee.
Dwarf - Black shields count as two white shields.
Elf and Wizard - Wizard picks one, Elf picks one, Wizard has the other five. Elf has six random Elf spells.

I like the first set of upgrades, but I also think we should cap it there. No need to add the second tier of upgrades. The Heroes should be plenty powerful at that point anyway.

[Gold Bearer]

My preference would be to keep HQ25 simple. I don't think we need new equipment nor the addition of crushing mechanics. Any new/special items can be doled out as Artifacts if we need it.

Totally disagree with this. I think new equipment is a must and doesn't complicate things at all. The euro equipment HAS to be in and so does the halberd and bow in my opinion. Apart from the crushing weapons I'd strongly disagree with leaving the others out. I think the fact that some are only usable by certain characters adds much needed distinction to the heroes, and the barbarian needs the boost of being able to use all of them and being the only one who can use the best one. It would be nice to see the crushing weapons in and I think they should be as well (they're not exactly obscure weapons and the crushing mechanic really couldn't be simpler) but I could understand them being left out. They give the wizard another weapon option as well for the same price as the staff to create a nice choice.

Spirit Sword: A3 or A2 if used by the wizard, target rolls as many defence dice as their current MP.

The Spirit Blade already exists. This has a confusingly similar name.

Yea because it's a different take on the spirit blade. It's similar but I think it's much better. Another nice option for the wizard considering he can only attack with one dice otherwise because of the seriously weakened staff.

Elven Bow: Elf only, A3, can shoot twice.

The Elven Bow already exists from one of the expansions and has slightly different mechanics. I think it shoots 4(5?) times before it cannot be used anymore.

It's different enough then. A straight A4 might be better though.

The concept of a spell book is pretty cool, but I would really like to avoid referencing another completely unrelated game. If you want to add spells from Talisman, you're gonna have to go all the way and make it a proper HQ deck with formatting, images, etc. The whole shebang.

Yea, the spells rules are all done so it would just be formatting them properly. I don't think it matters that they're based on a spell set from another game, and it's not really completely unrelated, same world.

The four essential artefacts that they have to find could have these additional effects:

Barbarian - Attack on black shields in melee.
Dwarf - Defend on black shields.
Elf and Wizard - Wizards Of Morcar spells added. Wizard picks one, Elf picks one, Wizard picks two, Elf picks one, Wizard has the other two. Elf rolls three movement dice and ignores the lowest.

When they're all gathered they could increase in power to give these additional effects:

Barbarian - Black shields count as two skulls in melee.
Dwarf - Black shields count as two white shields.
Elf and Wizard - Wizard picks one, Elf picks one, Wizard has the other five. Elf has six random Elf spells.

I like the first set of upgrades, but I also think we should cap it there. No need to add the second tier of upgrades. The Heroes should be plenty powerful at that point anyway.

That would just be for the last quest though.

[Teldurn]

EU weapons, yes include them. That's fair enough.

For the crushing penalty of -1D, since goblins only have 1D, are they not able to defend against any attacks? (I presume you implied an unstated defense penalty of -1 with a minimum of 1, otherwise they are immune to the penalty.)

[knightkrawler]

I vote for

Halberd 3 AD, two-handed, reach two squares, no wizard
Bow 2 AD, ranged, no wizard
Sling 1 AD, ranged (squares = current BPx2)
Mace 2 AD, Skeletons and Chaos Warriors -1DD, no wizard
Greatsword 5 AD, two-handed, only Barbarian (incredibly expensive, but I'll be satisfied without changing the rules my way presented elsewhere )

I vote against general special rules for equipment when not texted on a specific card.
5 new pieces are a good number I say.

Artefact or Equipment:
Rapier 2 AD, only wizard, discard two spells when first used in quest.

The Greatsword could also be an artefact and given a name, like Fimireyepoker.

[Gold Bearer]

EU weapons, yes include them. That's fair enough.

For the crushing penalty of -1D, since goblins only have 1D, are they not able to defend against any attacks? (I presume you implied an unstated defense penalty of -1 with a minimum of 1, otherwise they are immune to the penalty.)

Actually no. I like that they all have at least one defence dice (there's no reason goblins should) so it works out well. You still have to score a skull obviously so I think it's fine.

I vote against general special rules for equipment when not texted on a specific card.

But general rules can, and would be specified on the weapons individually. There's just no reason to do that now.

[knightkrawler]

I vote against general special rules for equipment when not texted on a specific card.

But general rules can, and would be specified on the weapons individually. There's just no reason to do that now.

True dat.

[Goblin-King]

My preference would be to keep HQ25 simple. I don't think we need new equipment nor the addition of crushing mechanics. Any new/special items can be doled out as Artifacts if we need it.

Exactly! That's what I've been sayin'!

Fixing Spirit Blade and other existing artifacts?
Any artifacts used should be fundamentally different from those we already have, not slightly variants.
So a huge NO! from my side. We are not trying to "fix" HeroQuest. We are making a quest pack.

The way I see it, this pack is for people who already know heroquest but want to try some different quests than the usual. They may be novices or veterans- we don't know...
A quest pack should only introduce a couple of new concepts. Add too much and it starts to feel like a different game.
New monsters, new spell deck, new artifacts and the obligatory new trap. I don't think we really need much else...

My preference would be to keep HQ25 simple.

Listen to this guy!

[Gold Bearer]

I really can't get my head around not wanting new equipment. It's such a simple thing to do and doesn't make it feel any less like HQ. Don't listen to these guys!!!

Fixing Spirit Blade and other existing artifacts?
Any artifacts used should be fundamentally different from those we already have, not slightly variants.
So a huge NO! from my side. We are not trying to "fix" HeroQuest. We are making a quest pack.

Wow. What other existing artifacts? And it's not a slight variant of the spirit blade. Have you read it? It's very distict from it in practical terms. It's similar in, er, spirit. I'll call it the sodding soul sword if it makes you feel better.

[Count Mohawk]

I really can't get my head around not wanting new equipment. It's such a simple thing to do and doesn't make it feel any less like HQ. Don't listen to these guys!!!

I can. I like to think that Hero Quest's exiting set of equipment is a bit lacking both in variety and in depth, but I also believe that fixing it is better off as a separate system. It keeps complexity creep to a minimum in the various quest packs. The one downside, of course, is that doing things in this way makes it very difficult to have a written Quest, let alone a Quest Pack, that actually features those weapons.

Now, as for the Artifacts, given that this pack is 25 whole Quests long I would say we definitely have room for at least 6-8 of them. Four of these slots are taken by the powerful items the Heroes need to combat the greater evil in the last section, but the rest are free both design-wise and placement-wise. It is also good form to leave an additional Elixir of Life lying around somewhere - one per Quest Pack seems to be the norm.