The Door Problem of Combat Design

[RECIVS]

I came across this interesting article a few years ago; don't miss the other one linked in there. I couldn't agree more with the guy, by the way; although the article discusses solutions for an entirely different game, one can't help but notice it deals with the exact same problems present in AHQ. Almost everything it says may also apply to our game.

[Kurgan]

I will admit not having played AHQ, so this advice comes from remake HeroQuest (based on MB HQ) but it might be helpful:

Even though every edition that game (in the booklet) specifically encourages hero players to bunch up near doorways to limit monster attacks inevitably it gets complained about as making the game "too easy" or "too boring," that the strategy works too well because the quests are not laid out specifically to combat this strategy.

There are many things Zargon (the GM) can do to limit the effectiveness of this strategy if he wishes. He has total power to do anything in the game, as the Japanese booklet says "like a god." On the other hand, if he wishes not to make it seem like he's being a sore loser and "cheating" there are various things to try.

I suppose if we're talking about lack of a GM then it becomes a matter of adjusting the tables to introduce new characters to shake things up.

Rise of the Dread Moon (Avalon Hill's original content expansion from 2023) introduces specters (undead ghost type enemies with high movement) that have numerous advantages over standard monsters, making them far less predictable...
-Attacks against them only register as hits on black shields (or as skulls only if using a magical weapon or attack spell)
-they can freely pass through walls into previously revealed areas at least.
-They can use a spell every turn (never runs out, can hit at range), and get a strength boost being adjacent to another monster of the same spell ability.
-The spell ("channel dread" bypasses armor)

Prior to this, Against the Ogre Horde introduced standard monsters with ranged ability, and others with diagonal strike ability (so they too could bunch up near doors and still reach heroes with their attacks, similar to the player-characters). The GM was encouraged to have monsters hang out near trapped squares to trick heroes into falling into them.

So double doors, ambushes and "darkness" are cool ideas to keep heroes guessing, but see what you think. A creature that has teleportation ability could really shake things up.

[RECIVS]

I agree. Bottom line: regardless of our preferences and opinions, doorway fighting is a problem to fix, not a feature to keep and design around. This goes beyond the RAI-vs-RAW debate; it’s about basic game-design principles, in-game results, and common sense.

I mean, you can enjoy repetitive gameplay and nostalgia in AHQ as much as you want, but that only benefits you, not the game, its potential, or the legacy of its designer. Anyone saying that they can play the game the way they want hasn’t gotten the point of the discussion I’m proposing.

As someone recommended in another thread, you can stick to your own ideas and preferences, but how will you know what you enjoy if you don’t try different things to begin with?

[Kurgan]

So would adjusting the monster roster help?

Going back again to remake HQ (not AHQ) a similar idea to the article's (of adding "cover" for the bad guys) was introduced in "The Forsaken Tunnels of Xor Xel" online free quest from Avalon Hill. In it, "magical darkness" makes it so heroes can only see/search/target three squares away from their position in the dungeon and rooms are filled with blocks that monsters can hide behind. If a monster goes back into the darkness, they effectively cannot be seen until they move back out of the darkness, like a kind of "fog of war" effect.

Perhaps a table for generating random blocks and then another for the percent chance that a block has a monster of a certain type hiding behind it? And then apply the magical darkness rule to the whole (or certain segments) of the dungeon map? Maybe a table determines the extent of the darkness in a new room?

[RECIVS]

So would adjusting the monster roster help?

Of course! I've written about it in other threads here. Fix the bottleneck, and you wouldn't need to worry as much about limiting FPs, for example; instead, you'd adjust dungeon size and monster matrices.

[RECIVS]

As I posted here, from my perspective over time, the problem with AHQ is not so much that its Heroes become overpowered, but rather that the combat dynamics (and everything else) become inadequate as the Heroes train, acquire new equipment, hire henchmen, and accumulate Fate Points.

[Kurgan]

Imagine wandering through a series of long hallways full of pillars and columns... that rock up ahead is there a monster behind it or just darkness? Who knows!

That's scary and unpredictable, though I guess it might also feel "too random" after awhile. How much fun will the players have sweeping room after room? Maybe if the heroes have devices for decreasing their chances of being surprised (torches, lanterns, magical night vision) that could make it seem less so?

Or a way to try to draw out monsters from their hiding places, besides running up to them?

[RECIVS]

It's about survival rates (which involve starting wounds, combat healing, etc.). There’s simply no incentive to enter rooms and risk being surrounded by enemies; it may become suicidal even.