Ye Olde Inn

So, we're currently playing the Cold Halls from reutrn of the witch lord (EU version). We come upon the revolving room. We had a serious discussion about the mechanics of the room.
On a hero's turn, you roll 1 die to see what door gets opened by the room. It states something along the lines of: "roll 1 die to see which door the hero exits from."
Does that mean the hero MUST exit the room? And if so, does he/she get to move like normal, in other words: attack something first, then move back into the room to retreat?
And can ranged weapons be fired from inside the room?

That seemed unfair to our DM, because the monsters cannot enter the room. But we didn't want to risk getting trapped alone in a mummie-filled room all alone, especially if it's the wizard.
So we agreed on this:

Heroes may NOT do any action inside the room. You can only BE in the room, moving is useless, you may not cast spells or attack.
On a heroes turn, you roll 1 die, and the appropriate door opens.
The hero then decides IF he/she wants to play out his/her turn, meaning they MUST roll a movement die, move out of the room (with the first step being the first square of the outside room), and attack or cast a spell. If not, the hero automatically skips his/her turn, and remains inside the revolving room.
This way, you either skip a turn, or must enter the opened room, and face the possibility to be left alone in a hostile room.

All 4 heroes take their turn, rolling for the revolving room, and deciding if they want to stay inside or head out and play their turn.

Then Morcar plays his turn, attacking any heroes his monsters can attack (if he wants), but we decided he may not block the exits of the revolving room. This is done so other heroes may enter the same room to assist, because our heroes cannot attack while inside the room, so they could never clear the entrance if it was blocked, and the monsters can't attack those inside the room either. It's kinda like the revolving room rotates on and on, and the player who's turn it is decides if he/she wants to jump out of the revolving room during the brief period the door opens, or stay inside. If the doors were blocked by a monster, then there should also be a possibility to attack those in from of it, like a normal door, but our mechanics don't allow for that, so we had to add that little condition as well.

When standing outside of the revolving room, and opening the door to the room, the hero basically activates the room, and "waits" for the room's opening to pass the door, and he/she simply jumps inside. So you can always enter the revolving room from outside.

This seems to work very well for us, and it feels balanced as well. Let me know how you guys play it!

It never came up in our group. None of the monsters ever approached the room, and we saw it as the game mechanic it was - randumbizing the heros' locations.

I really like how you modeled it :

It's kinda like the revolving room rotates on and on, and the player who's turn it is decides if he/she wants to jump out of the revolving room during the brief period the door opens, or stay inside.

Maybe the openings just "line up" or not. The GM could simply have the monsters avoid the corridors leading to the revolving door as if its a 'blind spot' for them.
I think if I were GM I'd allow the monsters to use the room the same as the heros do - but only after they encounter a hero they can see and then pursue. Zombies only follow/attack the nearest living thing; skels lock onto a target and pursue that one relentlessly, goblins only attack from the sides/back and retreat when faced (so they'll probably never get into the room), Orcs will attack whomever is closest, then the last one to attack them...
all in all, the room door has to line up - there's no reason for me not to allow a monster into it if he's also pursuing a hero. Then the fight can spill out into another corridor. Maybe the monster has to roll to make sure it isn't crushed between the door frame and the wall being rotated into!

el_flesh wrote:I think if I were GM I'd allow the monsters to use the room the same as the heros do

We talked about that, but the rules clearly state they cannot enter, so we added some rules to even the odds better
It was a fun quest! We just finished it. Time for dinner!
I'll post my report with pictures soon! I've used my newly painted mantic skeletons as the spirit riders

I'm not sitting with my quest book, but I'm fairly sure that you are doing things the wrong way around!

If I understand you correctly: you roll a die - see which door is open - move the hero through.

The way I think it works: You move your hero out of the door - Then roll a die to figure out which door he actually entered.
Kinda like the quest with Ollar's gold. So you can never "see" through the door. You can't cheap attack the monsters either.

Also YES YES! We need pictures of painted minis! There are way too few. I'll need to start painting some more too!

Goblin-King wrote:I'm not sitting with my quest book, but I'm fairly sure that you are doing things the wrong way around!

If I understand you correctly: you roll a die - see which door is open - move the hero through.

How can you move the hero through a door if you don't even know which one of the 4 possible doors he can exit?

As the rule ssay: you walk into the revolving room, then on your next turn, you FIRST roll 1 red die to see which door opens, and then you must/may walk out. The first part was very clear. the unclear part was if you were required to go out, or if you could choose to stay inside. That's why we made our houserules the way they are.

ps: check the link to the blog in my signature for some pics of my skeletons

gaaa! You forced me to find my quest book!

This is the revolving room. Monsters may not enter the revolving room. When the players attempt to leave by any exit they must roll one die to see by which door they leave.

Entering the room is very simple. Just enter a door and you are there. Monsters can't enter by any means. We agree so far?

Once a player is in the room he can do everything he usually does. And he can leave by any of the doors. BUT once he uses a door he must roll a die to see which door he ACTUALLY choose. Because the room is revolving and he is confused. The die-roll is kinda an intelligence test for the hero to see if he can keep track of the revolving doors.

1. Move to a door.
2. Say "I enter this door".
3. Roll die.
4. Move hero to the other side of the corresponding door, no matter which door the player actually moved the hero to.

No doubt in my mind that this is how it works

Goblin-King wrote:gaaa! You forced me to find my quest book!

This is the revolving room. Monsters may not enter the revolving room. When the players attempt to leave by any exit they must roll one die to see by which door they leave.

Entering the room is very simple. Just enter a door and you are there. Monsters can't enter by any means. We agree so far?

yes.

Goblin-King wrote:Once a player is in the room he can do everything he usually does. And he can leave by any of the doors.

Sorry to say this, but look at the room tile: it has only ONE exit. The door turns along with the room, revealing only one of the four exits at a time. The die-roll decides which one is revealed.

I would argue that the quest map and the written notes overrules whatever graphics may be printed on the actual overlay tile.

...leave by ANY exit

This insinuates that there are several doors to choose from.
Also the map shows four doors.

When the players attempt to leave

This insinuates that the mechanic is activated when/after the player "uses" a door. If the player just stands still in the room, no rolls are made.

If the printed door on the tile was important you would have to actually rotate the tile all the time!
Because that would be too annoying, along with constantly adding and removing doors, the mechanic works as I described.


All that being said... I'm inclined to agree that in-game there might only be one door on the inside of the revolving room.

I think it's supposed to be like, that the four doors are actually there, but the room decides if they are blocked or not. One exit at a time like on the tile!
The hero is standing inside the revolving room. He knows there are four exit-doors. He just have to wait for the single door in the room to align with one of the four static doors.
Let's say he WANTS to go north. So meta-gaming the player moves him to the north-exit. This symbolizes the hero waiting for the room to align with the north-door.
But in-game the hero is confused, so while he thought he waited for the revolving room to pass the north-door, he instead entered the west-door.

This is where role-playing would really add to the wonderful game we know as HeroQuest, instead of playing it just
as a simple board game.

In old-school D&D, when there were very few boards and miniatures used, people used their imaginations. Using this
room in a quest would go something like this:

Evil Wizard (EW): You enter the room. The door closes and you hear a grinding noise as the floor beneath you
shudders.

Player 1 (P1): I go to the door and open it.

EW: You see a stone hallway, just as you exited when you entered the room.

P1: I step out into the hallway and look, and listen.

EW: The door shuts. (To those left in the room) The grinding noise returns and the floor shudders again.

P2: I go to the door and open it, again.

EW: You see a stone hallway.

P2: Where is P1?
EW: He is not there...

See...in this instance, the players would have no idea what the crap was going on until it was too late.
That is how I've always envisioned this room working. It is very difficult to do that with a simple board
game, though. They did the best they could, using the rules to randomize the exiting of the rotating room
to simulate what would actually happen.

But alas this IS primary a board game and secondary a roleplaying game...

When we discuss a rule and can't agree, we do have one rule... Evil Wizard decides in the end.
I've also found the game to be much more fun if the Evil Wizard is actually game-mastering instead of just reading out quest notes.
It gives way for more complex and exciting adventures.