An alternative set of rules for HQ - Tactical HQ

[gaijinJoji]

Wow. This looks massive. Will have a read thru the German version later. Just bookmarked it. Will try to give feedback.

Jōji

[MonsterMotor]

After more mid-to-high-level gameplay with my group, it is now time to post an update of the THQ rules to version 1.1.

First, there are no major changes to the version 1.0, which already plays smoothly and flawlessly. The most notable changes are additions: spells from Wizards of Morcar, including a spell research opportunity for the wizard which he can use to spend his gold. Some modifications were made to the elemental spells for improved balancing, which become mostly of relevance when playing with more experienced spellcasting heroes. Also, the document now contains all spells as cards in plain design ready for print-out.

Some monster stats were changed, too, e.g., the gargoyle is strengthened further and skeletons are granted diagonal attacks, which was suggested here in the forum and fits indeed very well into the THQ concept. Heroes, beware now in the ruins of Kalos!

I have also modified a few other things, including clarifications of text passages that were very brief or ambiguous. There is no need to give every detail here, as I have indicated all noteworthy changes to the previous version 1.0 in blue, for those of you who are merely looking for what was changed.

Finally, there is another upcoming addition, which is almost finished and will be announced in a separate thread very soon.

Now a few comments on some of the things discussed in this thread above but not changed in this update:

Giving the players ca. 5 seconds to choose between defence, evasion, or taking a hit voluntarily is appropriate and works well in practice. Players usually have much more time to think about these options anyway, because they will often consider them already during their tactical positioning in their own turn in anticipation of what might happen to them in the monsters’ turn.

The rule „searching while in danger“ was liked by the players and used on several occasions, but not excessively.

The probability for successful jumps (usually 75% or more) is good and gameplay with that is smooth. One thing I have added, though, is that an unsuccessful jump attempt ends one’s turn.

The pushback rule was considered but deemed unnecessary here because the old „door blocking problem“ (if that problem is really a problem) is already mitigated through the THQ ruleset as whole, which makes other tactics often the better option, so I did not include that rule here, either. Nevertheless, thanks especially to the Bareheaded Warrior for his useful comments.

Further questions, comments, and suggestions are always welcome!

[burglekutt]

I'm interested in how Defense and Evasion work in battle. What is the difference between the Heros based on, size? BodyPoints? Armor weight? Class?

If you could give a combat scenario please. The Wizard and Barbarian enter a room with two Orcs and a Goblin.

What is the starting Barbarians evasion and Dexterity value compared the the Wizards starting Evasion and Dexterity value?

[MonsterMotor]

Basically, the defence value is determined only by the armour you are wearing, e.g., 2D for a cloth armour. This is the same as in the usual HQ rules.

The evasion value is determined by your movement squares. The latter are usually equal to your dexterity value if you do not carry heavy equipment (certain armour, weapons) or less if you do.

Both starting barbarians and starting wizards have a movement of 8, which is their starting DX, because they do not carry any heavy equipment yet. This translates to 2 evasion dice for both of them.

Hope this helps.

[MonsterMotor]

Greetings again, folks! I have decided to prepare a summer update of the THQ ruleset to v1.2. Basically, the new content is all about heroes:

Firstly, the hero roster was extended and now comprises 8 HQ characters: bard, druid, rogue, knight plus the 4 standard heroes to choose from. I have altered some of the new heroes quite substantially from their official design, just in the spirit of THQ, and all of them will feel quite unique to play, yet they should be balanced in their strengths and weaknesses. Note that I personally see the original orc bard as a creature of chaos (rather a villain that a hero), but his figure can be easily replaced with a human-looking miniature from elsewhere, so there does not need to be anything orcish on that character. It will work fine with the other heroes from the rules perspective.

Secondly, and this is a real addition, each hero can now acquire a powerful legendary ability (for a small fee of 5000 gold coins), which offers a special but very simple possibility for late-game character development apart from gathering equipment, artifacts, and increasing the basic attributes. This will also solve the issue of vast amounts of gold piling up in the pouches of experienced heroes who do not want to become completely addicted to potions later in the campaign, e.g., after finishing the Barbarian Quest series, etc.

Noteworthy changes to v1.1 are indicated with coloured text in the document, just as done before. The THQ character sheet also received a small update. As usual, feedback on both the old and the new stuff is welcome.

I have a lot more finished content for THQ plus a few additional ideas, and I intend to publish at least a part of that some time in the future, so let’s see how things evolve... But for now, the present update should be sufficient.

Anyhow, have fun with intense HQ battles in the heat of the summer!

[MonsterMotor]

Dear readers,

it is time for another, smaller update of the THQ ruleset to v1.3. This time I have expanded the list of monsters, which now includes those from the Ogre Horde and Rise of the Dread Moon plus some common ones armed with ranged weapons. In addition, there is also a separate list with monster traits and respective descriptions now.

At the same time, this update also comprises a partial foresight on the Dread Moon setting in THQ, which I will not rework extensively because these quests are already really good as they stand. Instead, I decided only to mitigate the main issue arising in the campaign flow, which is the offset in difficulty between the rather hard Elf Quest and the moderate Dread Moon quests. In THQ this is now done directly via the rules themselves, i.e., here concerning the monsters and the scary spells they cast. Thus, there should be no larger drop in the challenge rating when both quest series are played after another. As a beneficial side effect, the Dread Moon monsters now also feel a lot more thematic in their THQ versions in my view. (The complete set of comments on the Tactical Rise of the Dread Moon are yet reserved for a future update.)

Finally, I have used this opportunity for a few corrections, clarifications, and smaller adjustments here and there, as I found appropriate. As usual, all noteworthy changes in the text are indicated with the blue colour. The documents in German and English can be accessed via the link in the first post.

[MonsterMotor]

Dear HQ fans,

time is ripe for another update of the THQ rule document. Everything that was added this time can be regarded as purely optional, but maybe not uninteresting for many. Just a quick overview on the changes here:

THQ version 1.4 comprises mainly another hero update. Now all 12 official heroes plus 2 extra ones I had neat ideas for (ogre and archer) are incorporated in THQ and are also balanced to stand equally powerful. At least, I hope I have tackled the principal issues some of the more recent official hero characters suffer from. Most of the 6 newly included heroes were changed only by their rules mechanics with not too many thematical alterations. The exception here is the warlock, which I always saw as a chaos creature, so I rethemed her entirely and let her become the flameborn, a fire-affiliated magic-user. Offering such a complete roster of different heroes enhances the new THQ rule document quite a bit, but I felt that all this is a worthy addition to have. I still aim to keep the amount of rules mechanics necessary for THQ play overall as concise as possible.

Other additions worth noting concern a few (and actually well tested) rule options for initiative plus some extended notes on the base game campaign. There is also a brief table of content now. All changes from the previous version are indicated with blue colour again.

Feel free to comment and enjoy this more tactical HQ experience!

[MonsterMotor]

Greetings, and a Happy New Year to all of you!

Let me announce a major update of the THQ rules to version 1.5. This time, I decided to clear out one of the messiest corners in the HQ rules: everything related to potions and alchemy has been re-worked and included in the document. Now there is a full list of available potions, each one with an adjusted price according to its utitily. Alchemy has become a legendary ability of choice for spellcasters, and it also got its own overhaul. Furthermore, the rogue hero got his character fully developed. He now has his own reason to increase his mind points, too, and can also access the black market for purchasing uncommon potions.

At this stage, I see the development of the THQ rules framework being generally complete. All major aspects of HQ I aimed to improve on are covered now to a good extent. The document had grown in size a lot over the past years, so I found it really necessary to include recommendations for a quick start because the gameplay is as easy as is had always been from version 1.0 on. All the key things one needs to know are still condensed within 4 pages, whereas the rest are mostly lists for reference and cards for printout. I also included a small example for movement reduction due to encumberance. The document should now be very well accessible for any people who know the original HQ rules only.

As usual, there are a few other, smaller changes at different places, mostly clarifications and adjustments for better balance. Everything noteworthy was marked in blue colour again.

In conclusion, Tactical Hero Quest is now not only a more dynamic, more magic-laden, and much better balanced rule system than standard HQ. It is also more structured and a lot tidier, and it still comes without need to have extra stacks of cards, dice, computer programs, etc., for handling its mechanisms. I will keep following these design principles, even if including more material from further expansions in the future. THQ is also guaranteed to remain 100% free of any kind of AI stuff. So, we’ll see what the future holds!

[MonsterMotor]

Dear interested readers,

summing up the experience from all previous quests played, it is time for another balancing update of the THQ rule system, probably the final one of major importance. This one is about hero levelling, overall campaign progress/structure, and everything related to that. A few other things were clarified or altered as well for various reasons, and you can easily recognise all the changes again; they are coloured in blue.

First important point to note here is the accelerated attribute-point gain interval, which was reduced from 5/10 to 4/7 quests. Although 5/10 was a functionating guess, 4/7 is more rewarding and it still allows heroes to play 60+ quests before mandatory retirement, which is by far enough.

Related to character progression over the quest series, a few notes on treasure searches were added, too. Importantly, all healing potions from the treasure deck are now set to heal 2 body points only, because they were far too valuable in comparison to the other treasures in the deck. This is a direct consequence drawn from the calculated potion prices that were added in v1.5, and it improves the utility balance of the treasure deck a lot.

All in all, gold increase and attribute progression in THQ v1.6 are now aligned to remain in very good balance with each other over many dozens of quests.

Secondly, any rule system that includes character progression must have proper connections to the series of quests to be played. All this is not developed in the official HQ game, and the designers themselves seem rather clueless here. This update is the right moment to expand a bit on the issue, so now some words on a possible structure of the adventure campaign that seems sensible to me:

Since nobody I know is interested in playing all available expansions in a row (or at all), any linear sequence of quest expansions is ill-advised. Therefore, I decided to include a major branching point in the campaign, set after Kellar’s Keep or Return of the Witch Lord. The continuation of the campaign in THQ is then determined by a selection of the difficulty level, which shall lead the heroes on a distinct path. The intention behind this option is not only to have things better structured but also to keep the game more attractive to different groups of players. Naturally, more conclusive updates on this topic will be required in the future. But the finalisation of this part will have to wait until the development of new official HQ expansions has ceased. I have not even determined, yet, which of the expansions beyond those already listed in the document can qualify to become a part of THQ. In addition to the balance of the difficulty level, consistent storylines must be maintained as well.

Feel free to comment. All files can be found in the repository linked in the first post, as usual. What will come next concerning THQ is not yet decided.

By the way, the general comments on Kellar’s Keep and Return of the Witch Lord were updated as well.

[MonsterMotor]

Greetings again,

time has come for an update of the THQ rules document to version 1.7, comprised of some additions and also a few revisions resulting from more gameplay experience. Some information on the most significant changes:

First, remember that reworking and balancing the spells alongside their thematic strengthening has always been a key element in THQ. Now, a selection of 8 chaos spells from Wizards of Morcar (2 from each wizard) I deem worth having in the repertoire were integrated into the list, some with strong alterations, as I found appropriate. I chose especially those spells suitable of causing a unique effect that sets them apart from the many (quasi-)doublettes of US/2021 chaos spells. Remember, the original (EU) game did not come with any chaos spells in 1989, and the present producer did not care to resolve this design mismatch in the 2026 box. Similar to the heroes’ spells, Zargon may use these 8 extra ones as substitutes for any of his standard spells throughout the campaign. This offers him a few extra and interesting tactical options that can create special surprises unspecific to a certain spellcasting villain. Some recommendations on where to employ them best are also given.

Second, the list of artifacts got its own section and there is now a complete list of them. All others that are not mentioned therein are out for now, however, a new and purely THQ-specific artifact was added instead. Now heroes who like to wear no more than scanty clothing also have something especially useful to put on.

Also worth noting is that I changed the awkward special combat ability of the mummies, finally. The Mummy’s Disease concept never had its anticipated influence on the course of combat, so it got replaced. Instead, mummies can now inflict direct mind point damage on their victims due to their dreadful appearance. This mechanism is a lot simpler and has proven to work very well already with spectres. It also fits thematically and has much more direct impact on how heroes approach (or loathe) mummies, which had been the main intention behind the introduction of the „Mummy’s Disease“ initially. The entire mind point „economy“ is fully developed and utilised in THQ anyway at this stage of the ruleset, so this decision is a very natural amendment.

The mechanism of the former Mummy’s disease, because it remains a useful concept in THQ, was not scrapped but got repurposed. It is now incorporated as an optional (difficulty reducing) rule to enforce a non-lethal penalty if a hero dies within a quest.

Apart from the points above, not many other things were changed, see the text passages marked in blue, as usual.

Concerning the campaign tree, I did not make any conclusive decisions, yet. But my recent analysis leads me to clearly favouring Jungles of Delthrak over Wizards of Morcar as potential sequel to the Ogre Hordes. The Wizards of Morcar quest series may even end on my full-scrap list, as it has always been a weak expansion. Its 2026 story concept does not convince me at all, either. I have enough ideas how to better deploy most of the material components of this expansion in other situations.

And this should be it for now. We’ll see what else will come up in the future. Find the link to the THQ material in the opening post and enjoy the reading!