Stig,
I’ve edited my earlier post to reflect your clarifications above.
So now I think I understand your rule mods, I’ll supply some feedback. This feedback is intended as constructive criticism and to promote thought and discussion, some might reflect my own personal preferences only, feel free to take none, any, or all of it onboard as you see fit! Disclaimer over…
a) Order of things found.
Whilst I’m a fan of giving the gamemaster creative license, and ultimately the gamemaster is the authority at their own table (I would almost say that goes without saying, but if I don’t say it then someone else will point it out!) I would prefer that the rules are clear and defined and the GM if they so wish can change the rules to suit. Leaving them open and ambiguous, in my experience causes issues with interpretation, assumption, people being unsure how to play it, or big variations in how it plays based on how it is interpreted. For example a search that covers an area with treasure and a falling block trap and the searcher rolls a 1, there is a potentially big difference in effect between them finding only the falling block trap (and would presumably just search again to reveal the treasure – as they know it is there – at least they know a treasure card is there) and getting the chance to disarm it, as opposed to finding only the treasure and then potentially setting off the otherwise avoidable trap and taking a big hit or sealing a route or whatever. Chance obviously plays a big part in HQ, hence the heavy use of dice, but here we would have the use of dice to decide how many things you find, but which of the items you find would be double random, based on a combination of dice rolls and whim of the GM.
I would recommend fixing the order, may not matter hugely whether secret doors or traps found first, although my preference would be traps, then secret doors, but I think it is important where treasure / treasure card is present that needs to be last in the sequence.
b) Use of Mind points as limiting factor
You are certainly not the first to suggestion some form of search limitations using Mind points, as the need to apply some sort of limit to the search range is recognised by most certainly in passageways, other suggestions have included limiting the number of squares that you can search along a passageway to your starting or current Mind point value, limiting the number of traps (and/or secret doors) that you can find in a single stretch of passageway to your current / starting Mind point value.
Whilst I agree that there is merit in limiting search ‘range’ or number of things found as the base rules are too generous, I’ve never been convinced of the correlation between Mind points and search ability.
Mind points are defined within HQ in several ways but typically like below from AtoH is it clearly stated that Mind points represent a character’s magic aptitude.
Mind Points are a measure of a character's wisdom and magical aptitude. They show how well they can use magic and, more importantly, how well they can resist it.
I don’t understand for example why the Wizard whose high MP value is presumably as a result of inborn magic inclination and talent, combined with years of studying magical texts, learning and loading spells, and Harry Potter style practise duels would be better at searching than any other hero and yet he has the highest ‘rating’ under your rule modification.
The Dwarf we know from standard HQ is great at disarming traps, so it isn’t too much of a stretch to assume he is great at spotting them, and therefore perhaps searching in general, but that isn’t reflected in his MP value, with him having the second lowest (the workaround here is to double his MP for searching but that is a workaround because his MP score does not correlate with his search ability).
The Elf, who in pretty much every fantasy incarnation Elves are known for their superior senses and higher than average initiative and quick wits, you would think would make them potent searchers but under your rules his search ‘ranking’ would be second from last.
Even our Barbarian, who some interpret as being dim-witted due to his physical strength, must still be fairly quick witted and observant with above average sense, to have survived being raised in the wilds of Barbarian land, where unlike civilisation, being dim-witted, clumsy or inobservant would likely prove fatal, so again I’m not sure that his bottom of the pile ranking is really reflective of his ability to search.
c) Inefficiency (Red / Standard Die Roll)
Most passageways and most rooms don’t contain traps and/or secret doors so typically will contain no items to find (or in the case of rooms 1 treasure item on the initial search and then none on subsequent searches) so your use of a red / standard die roll which comes with a minimum score of 1, will in most cases be pointless. In cases where the room/passageway being searched, does have secret doors/traps, and more than one of those exists and more than one falls within the MP range, which is a rare occurrence, it would be an even more rare combination that you would roll less than the required number. For example, the odds of NOT finding a trap / secret door that falls within your search area is as follows:
• 1 trap exists = 0%
• 2 traps exist = 17%
• 3 traps exist = 34%
• 4 traps exist = 51%
And so on, so to get to a significant chance of this occurring, say a 50-50 chance of missing a trap, you would need a search area having 4 traps, how often is that ever really going to happen?
On top of that, even in the rare occasion when you ‘miss a trap’, it would only matter if someone later stepped on it, which may not happen, in which case the whole ‘undetected threat of a missed trap’ would be wasted.
d) Inefficiency (Mind Point Search Range)
For most heroes, most of the time, in most of the rooms, the MP range restriction won’t have any relevance as the limit of the boundaries of the room will fall within their search radius so you could achieve a fairly similar effects with less inefficiency and less complexity by just modifying to say when you search a passageway the area covered is limited by your current MP, or the area is the same as under the standard rules but you only find the first x number of items in the search area based on your MP
e) Wandering Monster Frequency (Combat Die Roll)
Under the UK rules the odds of getting a wandering monster was based on one treasure card drawn per room (maximum), under your system that still applies
plus a 1/6 chance for every search you make (and theoretically there is no limit to the number of searches you can perform*), this potentially big jump in Wandering Monster Frequency could make Quests, particularly those with tougher Wandering Monsters, a lot more difficult in some cases the odds of getting through those Quest successfully might only be achievable if you severely restrict your number of searches potentially to none, which I feel would detract from the game – virtually eliminating the ability to find gold, treasure, secret doors and traps.
f) Combined Search
UK edition has 2 ‘search’ actions which for me was always one too many and defied logic, for reasons I never have been able to work out, the US edition made that bad situation worse, by splitting search for traps and search for secret doors into two separate actions, so I fully understand and agree with your desire to reduce the number of ‘search’ action down to 1! In my edition I have done that by scrapping search for traps and secret doors actions and instead made handling those part of the movement rules but combining the search action is some way is definitely a plus.
g) Finding Secret doors being conditional
Under the standard HQ rules, finding a secret door is sort of conditional, if you search the area, you find it, if you don’t search then you don’t find it, but it is conditional based on the players choice to search or not to search. In some Quests more than others this ability to miss a secret door, by not choosing to search for traps and/or secret doors, will ruin the Quest or make it impossible to complete successfully without players having to back-track through the already explored dungeon, searching for areas that they missed. Whilst limited back-tracking and retracing your steps is fine, on a larger scale this becomes very dull, frustrating, boring and unfun.
Obviously, this possibility exists in the standard game, which isn’t great, but your rule modifications make that existing issue even worse as even if you do search the area having a secret door you still might not find it. Later in the Quest players may realise that they cannot complete the Quest without finding a secret door that they must have missed somewhere, will potentially have to re-search the entire dungeon as they won’t remember which areas were searched and which weren’t and even if they do remember will have no way of really being sure that even if the area was searched that doesn’t mean the door wasn’t present. Even on their second sweep it is still possible even if the search the entire dungeon, that they could potentially still fail to find the door by which time they may well have just quit in frustration or died of old age.
h) Original flaws
Finally, as though this post was long enough already, I’ve compared your new search rules with my list of flaws in search feature in the US edition listed here
Search – The Binding Topic, and whilst I don’t hold you responsible for those flaws, I do consider it a positive, when a rewrite eliminates or at least mitigates, existing flaws.
1. Traps in a row flaw – still present in your rule set
2. Poorly defined/inconsistent search area flaw – I think this is now clearly defined in your rule set
3. Assumed movement ignores movement limits flaw – still present to a certain extent but partially mitigated
4. Unrevealed Monsters flaw – still present in your rule set
5.Inconsistent search conditions flaw – fixed as there is only one search action
6. Traps behind the door flaw – still present in your rule set
7. Volume of searches flaw – potentially worse in your ruleset but that may depend on your players
8. Handling Chests and Furniture flaw - fixed
9. Memorizing suspect trap locations – still present in your rule set
10. Searching inside a pit flaw – not clear, as a UK citizen I initially assumed you were basing your rules on UK edition, but with Zargon as your preferred Evil Sorcerer and secret doors being found closed I was thinking you were perhaps more US edition focussed or at least a hybrid like many of us – so do you allow searching inside a pit?
then as per Wandering Monster card (subject to my note above about WM handling), nothing found, WM placed, search action ends.
= cancels one hit
