Hunting the Unreleased Quests

[Daedalus]

Speaking of Restoration Games, check out the Return to Dark Tower kickstarter. It has a few days left and should clear 3.5 million dollars or more. That's the power of nostalgia walking tall. Despite that impressive splash, I bet a Hero Quest reboot would easily surpass it.

[lestodante]

WOW!! It is even more that what someone did with his "25th thing"

[Spookyhappyfun]

Speaking of Restoration Games, check out the Return to Dark Tower kickstarter. It has a few days left and should clear 3.5 million dollars or more. That's the power of nostalgia walking tall. Despite that impressive splash, I bet a Hero Quest reboot would easily surpass it.

That's really cool, and while a reboot of HeroQuest would be awesome and get new people into the game, I have so much stuff for the original game that I'd want any reboot to be able to work with the original. Maybe have new furniture or tiles or characters/monsters in the same style as the original so while they could fit into a reboot game, they could also be used for the original for those of us who still have and love it.

[Daedalus]

Restoration Games' business model is to remake games with the pizzazz of the original, but with contemporary mechanisms and improved components. I'd expect components like furniture or doors would be usable in an older game, but they would probably entirely replace the older stuff. Something like Monster Cards or Character Cards that relate rule mechanisms would likely be made different enough to not work with original content.

The scale of the figures would likely agree, though the style might clash--who knows. I personally would like to see something of the toy-ish nature retained, but also improved upon with better detail and varied poses. As for the tiles agreeing, I'd hope the squares were a bit larger for the figures to fit upon. I'd also hope they had the some of the hand-created charm, however.

I expect the sandbox nature of Hero Quest would endure though, so if someone wished to put in the effort to convert fan content it could be done.

[lestodante]

But when I read the article I don't see a part when they talk about making a HeroQuest remake.. they just sayd they visiting this guy that own amazing basement and found a box with "unreleased HQ expansions".
But maybe they where just searching for other ideas. They talked about other games too, so not sure their purpose was to restore HQ. Or did I miss something?

[Daedalus]

You got it right--Restoration Games doesn't currently have plans for Hero Quest, though I understand it has been requested a lot and sits prominently on their potential to-do list. Almost certainly the hold ups are legal issues stemming from the Games Workshop/Milton Bradley split-up and the Hero-Quest-name copyright issue.

On the plus side, Hasbro wouldn't simply laugh off a deal offer from Restoration Games as had been done with the Hero Quest 25th Anniversary Edition. Should Restoration Games go forward with the project, they would be sure to do their legal homework first and would already know people inside Hasbro to pitch to.

Also, if the stars were right and a Hero Quest Kickstarter were launched by Restoration Games, participants could be sure to actually get the promised game on a timely schedule . . . unlike that other remake that still hasn't surfaced for how many years now?

[Thor-in]

I know wish I read this earlier.

The only thing I can say is this.....I really hope this comes true.

I'm going to have to follow this more closely from now on.

Daedalus

[wallydubbs]

The problem there in, lies in the name. Moon Design, I believe, has the trademark of HeroQuest, as they apply it to their Glorantha series. However it's uncertain if they either own the name or just license it from Hasbro. I assume they own it. In essence there is a difference.

If Milton Bradley completely sold the rights to the name, not even they can step up and Champion Restoration Games. However if it was simply a licensing agreement they can stamp that name to whomever they want (depending on the terms of the contract). But since it's been years I'm led to assume complete ownership lies with Moon Design.

However, owning the Trademark HeroQuest cannot prevent Restoration Games from copying the methodology, system gameplay, or even names (Zargon/Morcar) from the original. That, they need permission from Hasbro. If that requirement is met they can pretty much copy the same game (asides from the components provided from Games Workshop) but just publish it under a different name. It would take away the nostalgia aspect, and without the original title in use, they can't really say the games are related.

[Daedalus]

As I recall from the BoardgGameGeek HeroQuest 25th Edition threads, Moon Design bought the HeroQuest US trademark after Hasbro failed to renew it. Hasbro still owns the trademark in Europe, however. Dionisio from Games Zone Miniatures (located in Spain) bought or licensed the Spanish rights to use HeroQuest in Spain for his planned game. He critically never bothered to ask permission of Moon Design to license the trademark in the US, however. The animosity that followed led to legal issues regarding the US market.

Should Restoration Games ever elect to license the HQ trademark in the US from Moon Design, at least that barrier would be removed. Maybe Restoration Games is waiting for the trademark to lapse again--who knows? Regardless, I expect a Restoration Games remake wouldn't be produced without the Hero Quest name in it, as their other offerings legitimately carry the names of the original games.

[Daedalus]

. . . But wait, unpublished HeroQuest expansions?! ... I know a lot of us had probably submitted requests to Restoration Games (at least I know I did ) to have them take on a "Restored" version of HeroQuest. Could the addition of Mike Gray help make that come to light?? We can always hope. In the meantime I'm sure having Mike on board with Restoration will help them in countless ways. . . .

After reading this I had decided to submit a request to Restoration Games as well:

Please consider including Hero Quest for your release schedule. If you don't mind sharing, what would be the primary legal holdups?

And the response:

Justin regularly refers to HeroQuest as "his great white whale". That game in particular has a variety of people involved with it, so the legal holdups are generally just getting the sign off from everyone involved, and then finding anyone else that might pop up later.
And all of that before you even start working on the "Restoration".

So no plans--describing Hero Quest in terms of a nemesis isn't a good sign, to be sure. However, Ahab was obsessed with defeating that nemesis, so Justin (the full-time owner) still hasn't given up on the prize. Call me Ishmael.