Ye Olde Inn

Off the back of the Stoneform question... do people announce how many BP monsters have? Naturally as players play more games and gain experience with what BP regular monsters have, but when the specials surface, do you tell them up front or wait for them to ask or tell them nothing? I'd imagine if I were playing an Iron HeroQuest game then I'd not be handing out any info.

The base game rule instruct you to set out the Monster Cards to be referenced by the Heroes. There are no such instructions regarding special monsters. Chaos Warlock-portrayed enemies are done this way for obvious reasons--you can't use the same image for (x) number of Monster Cards. I do not typically announce special enemies' stats, but will report them if asked. Integral strategy in being a Hero is planning actions around these attributes. Its not D&D, its a board game. And board games rarely have secret rules.

That's the way I handle it.
If asked I'll even break the stats down to natural skills and equipment bonuses.

I never do, keeps the player in suspense, thinking it's a lowly goblin when its a champion.

That's outruled by me using special minis for special monsters.

In our games the DM keeps the monster cards behind the screen for reference. Players will find out themselves.

Seeing as I haven't played with a group in forever, I actually do not have any experience with this situation coming up.
Me personally, though, I would not tell them. As stated, the players will figure those things out on their own, and they'll
soon learn that MOST of a type of monster will go down after a certain number of skulls hits it.

yes, HQ is a board game, but a board game based on the back of role playing games, and I like to play as such as much as
possible. I'm sure everyone has figured that out from all of the additions and changes I've made through the rules and such.

That's just me.

Well the normal monsters' stats aren't secret so it never even occurred to me to keep special monsters' stats secret.

But the obvious case to drag into this discusion is the awesome Gargoyle BELLTHOR from RotWL.
As a plot device his poison gas knocks out the players and if they kill him he just explodes in a burst of poison gas, knocking the remaining heroes out anyway.
I think it's fair to say the Evil Wizard isn't supposed to explain these mechanics to the players before they actually happen.
If this represents the general way to do it or if it's just a special case scenario is anyone's guess.

Explain or keep it secret. Both work I suppose.
As long as none of you are super secret jerks and roll the defend dice one at a time to defend with as few rolls as possible to keep their actual defense a secret as long as possible!

Sjeng seems like the type who would do this

Goblin-King wrote:As long as none of you are super secret jerks and roll the defend dice one at a time to defend with as few rolls as possible to keep their actual defense a secret as long as possible!

Sjeng seems like the type who would do this

Huh? If you roll the defense dice one at a time, all the players have to do is count your rolls. If you throw them all at once, it's their guess how many dice you rolled. Unless it's just one. And I don't tell. I roll behind my screen

Sjeng wrote: And I don't tell. I roll behind my screen

Very Sneeky.

Behind his screen Sjeng secretly rolls:

but tells his players he rolled

Never playing with you