After a long absence from gaming and an even longer one from Heroquest, I am picking up my magical staff and joining in the fray once again.
I first played HQ at christmas of 89 when a cousin got it as a gift and I was instantly hooked. BUT I had to wait until the following November to get me own copy for my Birthday. what a terribly long wait that was!
In my teenage years my brother, cousins and I had a very strong gaming group and played HQ until nearly every game piece was worn out, bent and tired!
when I went away to school I reluctantly left my HQ behind, as at that point in my life I was on a quest for girls rather than games... the first of many poor choices, I admit!
My sister sold my game at a garage sale for 2 bucks (along with my entire D&D collection, not sure what she got from that)
fast forward to 2013 and I'm back in my old neighbourhood at a garage sale.... and what does my wandering eye spot??? HEROQUEST!!!!!!!!
Sloooowly I approach the makeshift plywood and sawhorse table strewn with the carcasses of abused and forgotten games. As I inch closer the scent of long closeted musty cardboard hits my nostrils and the sense of the age of these games rings in my brain; indeed by this time Heroquest is over 20 years old! I'm close now as I reach out and caress the side of the wounded box... I push the other boxes and garage sale junk away from my prize so as not to crowd my vision as I take in the splendor and unbox my old friend with the same care I had used 20 years before, instantly I am 11 years old again and I am reliving that greatest of birthdays ....
could it be? is this my old game? how would I know it? I remove the lid and place it to the side all the while admiring the action scene depicted on the front, imagining myself and my group cleaving through monsters once again... my hand is moving nearly as fast as my eye as I snatch up the yellowed, curled up character sheets. Most are unfamiliar to me... the names and handwriting are unrecognizable until... there it is Gunther Hellbeard, my cousins dwarf! Vold the Miserable my mage! Ponan the barbarian(the replacement of the deceased Conan who was killed by the Witch-Lord) and Svina my brothers Elf!
In a Tolkien twist of the cosmos, my old game has found me again! To imagine the luck, the joy, the chance of being there on that day to reclaim what I lost so many years ago! I rushed to the old lady selling off her forgotten prizes and explained the story. Whether it was simply a gesture of kindness or primeval fear stemming from the crazed far off look in my eye, she gave me the game for free!!!
So here I am again, come full circle! However my co-warriors are far away to the East and my wife hates using her imagination. So here I wait until a new band of heroes is assembled in the frozen north of Canada!
If there are any gamer interested in the EDMONTON/SHERWOOD PARK area please help a brother out!
