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Incorrectly Played Rules

Discuss the Rules of HeroQuest as set out by Milton Bradley Game Systems and Quest Packs.

Re: Incorrectly Played Rules

Postby Onan » March 24th, 2026, 12:36 pm

So you would replace the door by an open door and only reveal the monster right behind the door, not the rest of the room? Hmm, this feels a bit artificial.
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Re: Incorrectly Played Rules

Postby The Admiral » March 24th, 2026, 2:49 pm

Onan wrote:So you would replace the door by an open door and only reveal the monster right behind the door, not the rest of the room? Hmm, this feels a bit artificial.


Well actually, that situation does make some sense. The monster in the doorway is blocking access and sight into the room.

What doesn't make any sense is if the hero opens the door and kills the monster, but for some weird reason can't see anything inside the room, even a monster directly behind the one just killed. Then simply stepping forward one space magically reveals stuff you could normally see from where you were before entering.

Much simpler to just open the door and lay out the contents. For me, the doorway monster breaks the must enter rule and means fudges are now required to cope with the anomaly.

Yes, I understand that laying out the contents on opening means some things are put out that can't be seen, but it makes playing much simpler. Also if you didn't put monsters onto the board that were out of sight, those monsters might not get a chance to activate, which is odd because they would know something is going on in the doorway. They would see their companion fighting someone, they would hear his cries of help.

This is a simple game. Keep it so I say.


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Grin's Stone Map Slain a measly Goblin! Slaughtered an Orc! Killed a mighty Fimir! Shattered a Skeleton! Destroyed a Zombie! Unravelled a Mummy! Crushed a powerful Chaos Warrior! Smashed a massive Gargoyle! Encountered a menacing Chaos Warlock! Encountered all eight (8) Game System monsters.
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Re: Incorrectly Played Rules

Postby Onan » March 28th, 2026, 11:02 am

The Admiral wrote:For me, the doorway monster breaks the must enter rule and means fudges are now required to cope with the anomaly.

It's the same anomaly as with Pass through Rock: https://www.forum.yeoldeinn.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1281&start=160

In order to reveal an area you need to step in, but as it is revealed it turns out that you are not allowed to step in. Even after over 10 years of debate the HeroQuest sages haven't found a definitive answer.

But with the "step through to open door" rule we also get a slightly different anomaly:
revealedorcbehinddoor.JPG

The area behind the door has already been revealed by the barbarian. The wizard wants to open the door from inside, but he can't step through because of the orc.

So yes, some rule handling is required for exceptions, but it is not very complicated:
1) In the above case of a closed door into a revealed area, I would allow the wizard to open the door without stepping through.
2) In case of stepping into an unrevaled area (through a door or wall with the spell) and hitting an unpassable square, I would reveal the room, put the figure back outside, and his movements ends.

The purpose of the rule (in combination with no back stepping) is to commit yourself to the encounter. So ending the movement if walking into an impassable square is in line with the purpose.

But on the other hand, the poor wizard:
passthroughrocktrapped.JPG

Maybe ending the movement is too harsh for Pass through Rock if coming from a shaded area.
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Re: Incorrectly Played Rules

Postby Kurgan » March 28th, 2026, 9:04 pm

The entire room is supposed to be revealed the instant the door is opened (except in some notes it says monsters hidden behind objects don't appear immediately, or other quest specific rules). We played it once or twice where we said opening the door only reveals things that would be visible through direct line of sight, but once you step actually inside the room, THEN everything (that doesn't require searching) is revealed. It didn't change things much, but players who were afraid of the old "trap square directly inside the door" trick still got something to do and a reason to risk it...

Another time we played it such that when you searched for treasure, you found out what was in the chest, but didn't actually pick it up until you walked adjacent to the furniture it was hidden inside (didn't change much especially when the same player was controlling all the heroes).

We never forced the heroes to expend squares of movement from their movement roll to disarm a trap square (instead they kind of teleported onto it as long as they were within line of sight), but we could have. It wasn't until some of the later expansions we realized this probably wasn't how it was intended!


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Re: Incorrectly Played Rules

Postby Onan » March 29th, 2026, 7:15 am

I guess we all misplay the following rule:
1st Edition wrote:The player characters place their models on any square next to the stairway.

Everybody puts the heroes on the stairway, not next to it.

In Bastion of Chaos it is not even possible to put the heroes next to the stairway.

stairwaybastion.JPG
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Re: Incorrectly Played Rules

Postby The Admiral » March 29th, 2026, 11:33 am

Onan wrote:It's the same anomaly as with Pass through Rock: https://www.forum.yeoldeinn.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1281&start=160

In order to reveal an area you need to step in, but as it is revealed it turns out that you are not allowed to step in. Even after over 10 years of debate the HeroQuest sages haven't found a definitive answer.


Yes, an odd situation that. The way I handle it is if the square the hero is attempting to move to through the wall is blocked by a monster or wooden furniture, I just say you can't move into that square. No movement is wasted and the hero can move on and try to get through the wall from another square.


Rewards:
Grin's Stone Map Slain a measly Goblin! Slaughtered an Orc! Killed a mighty Fimir! Shattered a Skeleton! Destroyed a Zombie! Unravelled a Mummy! Crushed a powerful Chaos Warrior! Smashed a massive Gargoyle! Encountered a menacing Chaos Warlock! Encountered all eight (8) Game System monsters.
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Re: Incorrectly Played Rules

Postby The Admiral » March 29th, 2026, 11:35 am

Onan wrote:I guess we all misplay the following rule:
1st Edition wrote:The player characters place their models on any square next to the stairway.

Everybody puts the heroes on the stairway, not next to it.

In Bastion of Chaos it is not even possible to put the heroes next to the stairway

Yes, I've always done that right from 1990. It just seemed to make sense to me.


Rewards:
Grin's Stone Map Slain a measly Goblin! Slaughtered an Orc! Killed a mighty Fimir! Shattered a Skeleton! Destroyed a Zombie! Unravelled a Mummy! Crushed a powerful Chaos Warrior! Smashed a massive Gargoyle! Encountered a menacing Chaos Warlock! Encountered all eight (8) Game System monsters.
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Re: Incorrectly Played Rules

Postby BlackJax » March 30th, 2026, 6:34 am

Onan wrote:So you would replace the door by an open door and only reveal the monster right behind the door, not the rest of the room? Hmm, this feels a bit artificial.


My apologies I don't think I did a very good job of explaining my position on this one!

Other figures on the board have no impact on what you can see (they do have an impact on what you can shoot, but we are talking about seeing here and not shooting), the rule for what you can see is the basic LOS rule repeated below and this is based on the square that you are occupying.

BlackJax Guide to Line-of-Sight rules in HeroQuest wrote:A figure can be seen by another figure only if you can trace an unobstructed straight line between the centre of the squares occupied by the two figures. If the line passes through a wall, or closed door, then the figure is not visible.


So in the example you give where, if it wasn't for the monster occupying the square behind the door, the hero would open the door, be moved through into the square behind the door and would then be able to see everything in the room, as he has LOS to all squares within the room from the square behind the door. As he cannot move into the square behind the door as it is occupied (at least until the monster moves or is killed) then he must remain in the square in front of the door so the squares that he can see, according to his line of sight need to be calculated from that square, as that is the square he is occupying. So he would be able to see everything in the room that falls within the limits caused by the wall on either side of the open door, so in your specific example all the squares apart from the bottom left corner.

For clarity there is no "special" reveal rule required when a hero moves onto a particular square the line-of-sight rule is the same from any square, it is just that under most circumstances you have line-of-sight to every square in a room when you are in that room, but that isn't always true when you are on the square outside of a room.

And Onan on the stairway question, we've always played it like...

First hero player rolls their movement dice and starts their movement by placing their figure on any square next to the stairway tile (square 1) [or next to the entry door] then they move it onto the next square (square 2) and so on. Once they have completed their turn you move to the next hero player, who does the same.

At the end of the quest when a hero lands on the stairway tile then they are instantly removed from the board as they have escaped the dungeon, so hero figures are never placed on the stairway tile and monster figures aren't allowed to be placed on the stairway tile.
BlackJax HeroQuest Compendium
Line-of-Sight One Pager
Exploding Combat Dice
:blackshield: = "special skull" that counts as a "skull" but can be rolled again, once, counting as a normal "skull" if rolled again.
:skull: = "skull"
:whiteshield: = "shield" cancels out a skull (hero & monster)
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If you roll :roll1: :roll1: on your movement roll then the evil wizard player may immediately place a Wandering Monster
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