Thoughts on the New Orc Bard Hero?

[JCool]

I'm thinking we should turn the Orc Bard into an enemy and have him play for Zargon/Morcar instead. As the designers are taking inspiration from D&D, Bards (in D&D) aren't necessarily good or evil, they just love to tell good stories and wander and learn. They might be with a group of heroes on a noble quest, but they could just as easily be kicking back at the inn with the hooligans.

Just food for thought, might be a neat idea to put the Orc Bard on Zargon's side when first introducing him into a campaign. Maybe he turns against Zargon and joins the heroes at just the right moment, saving the heroes from defeat and rescuing the princess. Now that might be a story worth telling.

[Kurgan]

Who is this pretender? My people have made ME King!

[Kurgan]

On second thought maybe we can still use the miniature, just re-do the character class. Bard? How about a PIRATE instead? Sure he's an Orc, on his mother's side, he's mighty familiar, this old sea dog, with Orc methods, as you hear tell, matey.

Maybe he's better at finding treasure, there's a good lad, has special skill with a sword (maybe a one shot pistol too? if things be gettin' grim), and charm... don't forget the charm! (great discounts at the armory, good lass) Maybe he can, when the chips are down, invoke the rule of PARLEY? (parley???). The trick with these treasure is knowing how to detect and disarm these tricky trapped chests! Aside from chests mind ye, you'll be wantin' a dwarf, you savvy?

Maybe he gets extra gold through bounties on the monsters he kills? (they needed killin', nothin' personal ye understand) He has a letter of marque from the Emperor (signed it himself, see?)... yes, he's a mercenary, and what of it? Maybe he's in it for more than just the money? Also, don't talk back to the parrot.

[The Admiral]

An Orc Bard Hero? Nah, not for me, it just really feels wrong for the Orc race. A Shamen yes, but not a minstrel.

[Cael Darkhollow]

An Orc Bard Hero? Nah, not for me, it just really feels wrong for the Orc race. A Shamen yes, but not a minstrel.

yup.
as far from the feel original HeroQuest as they could have possibly gotten. Stupid and silly really, completely incompatible with the dark and grim adventuring world of HQ. Could have only been dreamt up by people completely unfamiliar with the original game. An NPC unique character not a new player class. The question must be asked: how common are orcs that are completely different from the standard evil orc minion of Zargon in HeroQuest? This is a one off character at best, not a new type of class to play.

[Oftkilted]

Does HeroQuest need to be “dark and grim” like some other fantasy series? Sure GW is great at the ‘grimdark’ and I have a crazy number of models associated with that.
Even if we consider other series, which also are pretty grim and dark, like the Witcher. As a comparable series to HeroQuest there are bards in that universe as well. There are Elves and there are sentient monsters. (Including dragons.)
Are we “expecting” orcs? No. But singing bawdy songs isn’t just a human pastime.

[wallydubbs]

Does HeroQuest need to be “dark and grim” like some other fantasy series? Sure GW is great at the ‘grimdark’ and I have a crazy number of models associated with that.
Even if we consider other series, which also are pretty grim and dark, like the Witcher. As a comparable series to HeroQuest there are bards in that universe as well. There are Elves and there are sentient monsters. (Including dragons.)
Are we “expecting” orcs? No. But singing bawdy songs isn’t just a human pastime.

Yes, it is supposed to be somewhat grim but hopeful. If you have a bad guy that's raising the dead, threatening the Empire with an army of skeletons and zombies,he's not going to dress them up in a to-to.

Heroes aren't sneaking into an enemy dungeon for the fun of it, they're putting their lives on the line for a cause they believe in.

It's supposed to fun for us because we're not actually dying, but if the characters don't take the world they're living in seriously why should we?

[Cael Darkhollow]

Does HeroQuest need to be “dark and grim” like some other fantasy series? Sure GW is great at the ‘grimdark’ and I have a crazy number of models associated with that.
Even if we consider other series, which also are pretty grim and dark, like the Witcher. As a comparable series to HeroQuest there are bards in that universe as well. There are Elves and there are sentient monsters. (Including dragons.)
Are we “expecting” orcs? No. But singing bawdy songs isn’t just a human pastime.

why yes it does need to be HeroQuest which is grim and dark; this is a rerelease of the original game not inventing a complete new one.

If they try to add material that doesn't fit well with the existing HeroQuest world it just looks out of place and stupid. If they add new material to the existing game world it must be plausible for that world.
Some of their silly ideas such as demon possessed halfling hero, Orc pirate Bard and Pacific Islander luau druid fit the game of HeroQuest about as much as power-up mushrooms and jumping on turtles to generate extra lives fit the StarWars Universe or Freddy Kruger and Pennywise the clown fits into the Harry Potter universe.

[Eudoxio]

There's only one Bard

[Oftkilted]

Does HeroQuest need to be “dark and grim” like some other fantasy series? Sure GW is great at the ‘grimdark’ and I have a crazy number of models associated with that.
Even if we consider other series, which also are pretty grim and dark, like the Witcher. As a comparable series to HeroQuest there are bards in that universe as well. There are Elves and there are sentient monsters. (Including dragons.)
Are we “expecting” orcs? No. But singing bawdy songs isn’t just a human pastime.

why yes it does need to be HeroQuest which is grim and dark; this is a rerelease of the original game not inventing a complete new one.

If they try to add material that doesn't fit well with the existing HeroQuest world it just looks out of place and stupid. If they add new material to the existing game world it must be plausible for that world.
Some of their silly ideas such as demon possessed halfling hero, Orc pirate Bard and Pacific Islander luau druid fit the game of HeroQuest about as much as power-up mushrooms and jumping on turtles to generate extra lives fit the StarWars Universe or Freddy Kruger and Pennywise the clown fits into the Harry Potter universe.

The great part about HeroQuest is that the backstory for the world that your adventures are in can be totally unique.

Let’s look at the Warhammer universe (which HeroQuest was nominally a part of) and be amused:
- Sigmar Heldenhammer is basically Conan the Barbarian. His mom died and he was born on the battlefield to a war chief of a Barbarian tribe. Exactly like Conan.
- The Warhammer 40K universe and Warhammer Fantasy / Age of Sigmar were/are all part of the same universe. You know this because daemons ended up “vanishing” to participate in major events in one end of the universe and that was cannon back in prior editions as well.
- This means that Necrons / (Chaos Androids), Genestealers, Tyranids, Eldar, T’au, Space traveling celestial dinosaurs, and Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka are ‘cannon’ for Warhammer Fantasy ... even though you’ve never seen them in game. And if you’re still playing HeroQuest in the GW universe ... that’s a thing.
- Orcs and goblins are mushroom hybrids. And they came from space traveling on the Star chariots of those celestial dinosaurs. Basically they’re what happens when space fungus goes bad. And tries to kill you.
- Ork Freebooterz Pirates are a thing in the GW universe.

Warlock? Not substantively different than a Wizard of chaos that’s ended up partially possessed. Look at the chaos possessed or chaos sorcerer lords from GW fantasy. The odd human Druid? Other than her being human she appears pretty darn similar to wood elves. Give her some pointy ears and she would fit right into the GW universe. The warlock ... cue the Dark Eldar Mandrakes, with crystal arms and daemon flame. (Same universe ... equally crazy.)

The Orc... probably a misplaced Ork Freebooter ... maybe he’s a cursed human? “I was cursed by the lady of the lake after I hit on her and I had to win the heart of a beautiful maiden even looking as ugly as I do.”

And all of that? It’s all GW. Hasbro doesn’t own that world or that universe. They can’t expand upon it, they can’t do anything with it. That is why you ended up with Quest for the Barbarian and the models in that expansion. Models for things that aren’t used anywhere else in the GW universe. They’re totally unique.

They can’t use them because it’s all owned by GW. It’s a game and expansion dead end.