Initiative & Integrated Turn Mod

[Redav]

I was going to start a thread about movement but figured this one had some recent, decent discussion.

I'd been thinking of a way to;

• combat heroes bottlenecking at doors
• trying to promote a sense of urgency in the players
• making the dungeon tactical situation more dynamic

So here's a couple of things;

• The EWP could move monsters between hero turns, the maximum number they could move is the rounded up average per hero.
• As mentioned you could randomly select the hero order
• I like the initiative idea so the hero order is based on what they roll
• The monster movement is used as scale after a hero so goblins move after the first hero, and mummy / zombies after the last

And the State of Origin has started (it's a decider) so I must go watch...

[Daedalus]

[Originally posted in Two-page Dungeon Crawl on 4/9/16]

...
Movement and Turn Order
This optional rule is for those who want a little more randomness in their games of HeroQuest. It integrates random die movement and "initiative", as defined in RPGs, into a rules light but drastically different way to play The Game.

•There is no Hero Turn or Zargon Turn. There is simply, The Round.
•All heroes roll their movement at the start of the round. They must use separate dice and place them in front of their character sheet for all to see.
•Zargon counts down from 12 to 2. When a hero's rolled movement, or a monster's fixed movement is called out, they will act. Heroes beat monster's on a tie; heroes tied among themselves decide mutually who acts first.
•Effects/spells that last a turn will now last until after the next turn of the hero or monster which created the effect/spell.
•The Round ends after all heroes and monsters have acted. Begin a new round by having the heroes roll their movement dice again.

Sorry if I'm highjacking your thread, but what does everyone think?

I like how monster groups can have turns between Heroes. This works in Imperial Assault, and will now be be implemented in Descent 2ND edition with the new cooperative app. Even though this isn't the first mention of this for HQ, I like your thoughtful description and may want to try it.

Spells that last a turn still need tweaking, in my opinion. Consider if the Wizard rolls below a monster's move score and casts Tempest on it. On the next round of turns the Wizard rolls higher than the monster. As stated, the spell duration then ends after this, the Wizard's next turn. This happens before the monster's next turn, ending the spell before it can take effect.

Following the text on the Tempest Spell Card should fix this, but Other spells such as the WoM spell Invisibility remain problematic as written. Perhaps a spell should last until the same turn number in the next round of turns. I'd use an extra set of dice and place them on the spell card, assigning it an initiative for the spell duration. As monsters have set initiative values, they would be assured to be affected by a next-turn spell, either later in the same round or before the spell expires in the next round.

[Daedalus]

[Originally posted in Two-page Dungeon Crawl on 4/9/16]

...
Movement and Turn Order
This optional rule is for those who want a little more randomness in their games of HeroQuest. It integrates random die movement and "initiative", as defined in RPGs, into a rules light but drastically different way to play The Game.

•There is no Hero Turn or Zargon Turn. There is simply, The Round.
•All heroes roll their movement at the start of the round. They must use separate dice and place them in front of their character sheet for all to see.
•Zargon counts down from 12 to 2. When a hero's rolled movement, or a monster's fixed movement is called out, they will act. Heroes beat monster's on a tie; heroes tied among themselves decide mutually who acts first.
•Effects/spells that last a turn will now last until after the next turn of the hero or monster which created the effect/spell.
•The Round ends after all heroes and monsters have acted. Begin a new round by having the heroes roll their movement dice again.

I've realized another consideration concerning the first round when Heroes enter a room containing monsters. If the Heroes all roll equal to or below the monster's movement, they will open the door and and get a chance to attack without monster attacks that round. That is equivalent to an ambush for the Heroes.

On the next round, faster monsters like Goblins will probably attack next, so no significant difference from a standard game. However, slower monsters like Mummies will likely be attacked a second time before they finally get a turn. This disadvantage also applies to corridors, where Heroes with low initial rolls wiill likely get to move and close twice before slower monsters can respond.

To avoid this low initiative advantage for Heroes, monsters should be allowed their turn at the end of the round if they haven't had a turn yet. I've since read this thread and see you have also considered this. Your reasoning concerning tactical options also sounds good, so take this suggestion with a grain of salt. [- edit]

Another point that is important to me is the constant resetting of initiative each round, which will slow play as it is called out. I'd prefer initiative is set for Heroes when they enter a room for combat. A new initiative order is then only needed for each new room with monsters.

As new movement or spells might require use of the red dice during a combat, I' d suggest a numbered initiative track to mind the turn order. It could fit on top of the long Hero Quest logo of the game board. If I go through with this, I'll most likely use a spare set if figures on the track, but Hero and monster chits would probably be less distracting.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

Spooky I had a long post all carefully pre-prepared and was just doing a little due diligence to make sure that I wasn't starting a topic that had already been done, when I found this one, and it is almost word for word what I was about to post. That said "my" idea was pinched wholesale from another game (but adapted for HQ) so I can't really be too put out!

Again as per the original post this was partially sparked by a post elsewhere on "hybrid" movement rates for heroes #+D6

So modify hero movement as follows:

• Elf = 5+D6
• Barbarian = 4+D6
• Wizard = 3+D6
• Dwarf = 2+D6

Obviously these figures can be argued back and forth but I'll cover the reasons why I choose these at the end as that isn't critical to this topic.

So I would suggest initially seating the players in descending order of the fixed part of this, so EBWD

1) At the start of each round (a round consists of a turn for each figure on the board in sequence, once all figures have taken their turn the round is complete and a new one starts), each player rolls a D6 adds their modifier, totals up and keeps the die in front of them as a reminder (you'll have to buy a couple more!)

2) Then, starting with the character with the highest score, each takes their turn (if two or more have the same total then proceed in order of the highest “natural” score i.e., excluding the dice roll aspect)

Simple

How would this work with monsters?

Let’s say on at the start of a round, our Elf (5) rolled a 4, giving them a total of 9 and putting them first in the play order, that player moves the character forward, up to the number of squares equal to that total (9) so no separate roll for movement required. As part of the character’s movement, they open a door or round a corner revealing monsters, a Fimir and 2 Goblins, the Elf continues with their turn until it has ended as usual.

Without the presence of the monsters, the next turn would be the Barbarian’s with his roll of 5, plus his base of 4 also gives him a total of 9 but as the Elf’s fixed score of 5 is higher than his 4, he would be second in the order. However we now have monsters on the board, so the character(s) on the board with the highest initaive score now is the Goblins with an initiative (movement) of 10. So the EWP would now take a turn with one of the Goblins (his hcaractrs, his choice) and having finished that turn he would then take a turn with the other Goblin.

Next in our order would be the Barbarian with (9) beating the other heroes and the remaining monster Fimir (6), so his player would take a turn with him.
After the Barbarian would be the Fimir (6) or the Dwarf or Wizard whichever has the highest remaining and so on until all characters have had their turn.

Then a new round starts with the heroes rolling again

Note: If a hero and monster have the same value I would suggest the hero takes precedence to reflect the surprise aspect, monsters are not expecting heroes in their lair!