Help with some rules

[Jafazo]

Note that a lot of this probably depends on which version of HQ you're playing. There are slight variations between versions including rules.
I use the North American version, these are my answers.

1. Yes, you can fight through an open door. A door can't be closed once its opened.
2. A hero would prevent a monster from passing, but heroes can pass through heroes so they wouldn't block each other. This is in the rulebook.
3. Yes, you can. Potions are covered in the rulebook under, "More About Treasures > Potions". You can drink a potion at ANYTIME. This means, on your turn, you could drink a potion of healing, move, drink a potion of strength, attack, drink a potion of defense. You can also drink a potion when it isn't your turn such as if a powerful monster attacks you, you can immediately drink a potion of defense then roll your defend dice. You can even drink a potion of healing immediately if your HP are reduced to 0.
4. You can choose to attack with any weapon in your possession on your turn. On your turn, if you own a staff and a battle axe, you could equip the battle axe & attack with it, but as a result, you wouldn't equip a shield. The game doesn't say anything about handling equipping/unequipping so it's possible to exploit loopholes in the intended design of armor, such as how if you equip a battle axe you can't equip a shield. A player could attack with his battle axe then immediately state he is equipping his shortsword and shield to gain the benefit of extra defense if he's attacked. This defeats the purpose of not being able to use a shield when a battle axe is equipped. You're left to handle this however you choose but by RAW, a player can do this.
*In effort to keep the game as simple as possible, I suggest simply keeping track of what the heroes have 'equipped'. 1 Body armor, 1 weapon etc. Add a free 'Equip/Unequip' action that can only be used once per turn at anytime throughout the heroes turn. You can over-complicate this idea as much as you like, many on this forum have, but I say, 'Keep It Simple', or pretty soon you'll find yourself playing Dungeons & Dragons.
5. There's no limit on the range as long as the target is within your line of sight.
6. As explained in question 4, you can equip and unequip it as much as you'd like, but I strongly suggest limiting equipping & unequipping as mentioned.
7. Yes, you regain lost spells.

About Treasure Cards - When a hero searches for treasure, he should record anything he finds on his sheet, like a potion of defense. The actual card goes into a discard pile near the unused treasure cards. At the start of each quest the same cards are reshuffled and used, the heroes should not be keeping any of the actual cards.
About the Armory - There's no supply limit to anything in the armory. Each hero can purchase their own or multiple copies of equipment, such as a crossbow. In fact, it would be smart to have a second copy of at least your weapon. "I'm looking at you Rust spell."

[Maurice76]

What about treasure cards? How do people monitor these? Do you put all the treasure cards back in the pile after each quest so have a full deck for the next one? Do you only put them back in once they have been used like potion of healing for example (if yes for this what about gold)? Or are any potions or gold treasure cards kept out until characters die or that campaign is finished and all characters start over again? Hope these questions make sense

We used to play by going through the deck one card at a time, without reshuffling. Reshuffling bad cards back into the stack while leaving the good ones out creates a weird artificial difficulty scale with regards to treasure searches: the further and deeper the Heroes progress into a dungeon, the less treasure they're likely to find at increasing risk. Doesn't feel right with me, from a logical point of view; it's too game-y to my tastes.

Going from memory, I think we kept the potion cards ... but didn't carry them over between quests, but I am not entirely sure.

[mitchiemasha]

Reshuffling bad cards back into the stack while leaving the good ones out creates a weird artificial difficulty scale with regards to treasure searches

That's the entire point. The longer you're there. The more time you spend searching. The more loot you've actually took. The more danger you are in. The less likely there will be anything good left. Unless by random chance you ain't found a good stash yet... You know there'll be 1 somewhere but you've already been here too long. Do you as a Hero risk it... or get the hell out.

The best thing about HeroQuest is the increasing danger to the treasure deck! It's another essential part of what makes it great!

[Maurice76]

Reshuffling bad cards back into the stack while leaving the good ones out creates a weird artificial difficulty scale with regards to treasure searches

That's the entire point. The longer you're there. The more time you spend searching. The more loot you've actually took. The more danger you are in. The less likely there will be anything good left. Unless by random chance you ain't found a good stash yet... You know there'll be 1 somewhere but you've already been here too long. Do you as a Hero risk it... or get the hell out.

The best thing about HeroQuest is the increasing danger to the treasure deck! It's another essential part of what makes it great!

I see the treasure among the treasure deck as something that's been there a while, collecting dust over time. Stuff that's hidden, that the monsters didn't find. By the logic you give, it means that most treasure is at the start of the dungeon, near the entrance and somehow these hidden treasures start to become less prevalent, the deeper you get. That just doesn't make sense to me.

[mitchiemasha]

I see the treasure among the treasure deck as something that's been there a while, collecting dust over time. Stuff that's hidden, that the monsters didn't find.

Yes. In many cases quite likely.

By the logic you give, it means that most treasure is at the start of the dungeon, near the entrance and somehow these hidden treasures start to become less prevalent, the deeper you get. That just doesn't make sense to me.

Not really... It's to aid the unfolding of a story. Similar but opposite to how those monsters aren't locked in time, in that square... that just happens to be where you meat them, before that point they could of been anywhere. The increasing danger of the treasure deck is a time mechanic, without adding time. When searching the dungeon the good stuff is purely random, deep with in or close to the door. You could be lucky and find things straight away or not. But, at what point do you stop pushing that luck?

become less prevalent

The more you've searched somewhere and found things, the less likely there will be more. The deeper you dig, the more likely you'd disturb something you shouldn't. There's always going to be that last hidden gem... but, to find it puts you at greater risk to the perils of a dungeon, at least by the fantasy logic that is HeroQuest.

The simplicity of it is beautiful. We don't need to think about the specifics of it under the hood. At the table it works, and it works well, the extra tension, do i, don't i, it could be seen as "gamey"... but not illogical. If you view it as you have, yes... but that's the same as imagining monsters frozen in time, not how the mechanic represents the world.

[j_dean80]

I remove any good cards drawn and place bad cards on the bottom of the deck. The deck all gets placed back in and shuffled between Quests. That way you do not run out of cards but if the Heroes search "too much" there is only bad cards left to get them to stop searching and speed up the quest.

[mitchiemasha]

I remove any good cards drawn and place bad cards on the bottom of the deck. The deck all gets placed back in and shuffled between Quests. That way you do not run out of cards but if the Heroes search "too much" there is only bad cards left to get them to stop searching and speed up the quest.

I could accept that... As an Ew, it would be interesting to watch how long it takes them to realise that they're in the bad part of the deck. I must try this next time we play.

[Maurice76]

I could accept that... As an Ew, it would be interesting to watch how long it takes them to realise that they're in the bad part of the deck. I must try this next time we play.

But then it becomes a matter of counting cards - in specific, the good cards. Once the players know that they've had everything worthwhile, they simply stop searching for treasures, thereby gaming the system.

[j_dean80]

I could accept that... As an Ew, it would be interesting to watch how long it takes them to realise that they're in the bad part of the deck. I must try this next time we play.

But then it becomes a matter of counting cards - in specific, the good cards. Once the players know that they've had everything worthwhile, they simply stop searching for treasures, thereby gaming the system.

Or just speeding it up...

[mitchiemasha]

But then it becomes a matter of counting cards - in specific, the good cards. Once the players know that they've had everything worthwhile, they simply stop searching for treasures, thereby gaming the system.

So you didn't hear my evil laugh when i made my comment... I was more entertained by the knowing they wouldn't of card counted, they'd be unaware that it's even a thing and is it the 1st, 3rd, 5th or even 10th card before they realise they're in with the bad... the look on the groups face when it finally clicks, "wait a minute!". Not that a dungeon would be big enough. We limit searches to 1 per room plus each item of furniture. They're not necessarily searching/finding the item in the furniture, it's simply a mechanic to represent more searches are available, giving more importance to furniture.