Wizards of Morcar 2024 Remake Ideas/Suggestions

[Summerheim]

In my opinion, an important part of reprint work for WoM is to creat a true scenario for the quests. Except the last, where zargon player can play sorceres like heros, the other are cheaps.

It’s a personnal deduction, but I think that the prior goal of WoM’s conceptors was to creat a magic system for zargon/morcar in UE heroquest’s rules. It’s explain the diversity of sorceres team : it’s four archetypes of evil wizard in fantasy setting ; a necromancer, an ork, a traitor (high mage) and a old wizard.
I think Hasbro/AV go on a similar tracks that the WQP (with differences, of course) : an attack of a groups of sorceres.

One of my wish ? More tiles, please.

[Kurgan]

The HQ App isn't the end-all be all of rule clarifications. I recently tested in version 4.0 what "Twist Wood" would do to a Mummy, and it reduced his attack to 1 combat die, even though he carries no weapon! (maybe his fists are made of wood?)

And now the leak discussion has begun! Check it out...

[Jonfreeman]

i.m.o. the questbook needs an overhaul ...
- 5 quests are very underwhelming
- mercs (when we already have them in frozen horror) also seem lack luster

so yeah, i'd think that 10 quests would be a better idea.
- 1 prologue
- 2 for each wizard (obvs 8 total, could do a better job weaving those together)
- 1 finale with the boss rush. an XL tile to overhaul the center room would be awesome.

Then ... instead of mercs, rework the soldiers to be minions of each?
- another orc variant (low tier apprentice?)
- elemental/ethereal minions for the stormcaster
- undead cryptguard for the necromancer
- something or other for the high wizard

[Malcadon]

So, how I would make an official Wizards of Zargon Quest Pack? Hummm....?

As a Wizard-themed Quest Pack, it should follow the tradition of being a "Wizard Quest" set. Not just having enemy Wizards, but also the Wizard Hero proper. There need to be a female Wizard figure. She don't need to look overly sexy of over-the-top, but she needs to look different than the default male Wizard, and not just a distaff version of him. (although, I'm still annoyed that the Game System only came with four fix-gander Heroes)

This set could be the opportunity to introduce the Scroll Deck! Much like the Alchemy Deck from RotDM, they are all the Spell Scroll Artifact cards, but now as their own deck with an image of a scroll or a stack of them labeled "Scrolls". It would be nice if it could cover all scrolls printed: All twelve Elemental spells, the nine new spells from this set, the Elf spells and Treasure without Doom from MotM, the six Ice Spells from TFH, and the Lightning Bolt Dread spell. With this, two Treasure cards: One for finding a random scroll from the Spell Scroll Deck; the other for finding a random potion from the Alchemy Deck.

There should be Alchemy Cards for the new potions in this set. One mistake from the original WoM set that should be cleared is that one of the two "Potion of Magic Resistance" -- the one with the burning elf -- should be called "Potion of Fire Resistance" and work on any fire-based spell, trap or hazard (beyond just this set and the core game system). Although, I do like the idea of Potion of Magic Resistance being able to counter any spell inflicted upon them; not just damaging spells. The Potion of Magic would be perfect for this set.

I can see an Artifact akin to the Warlock's Wand, but allows for the Wizard to make ranged attacks. An artifact that one must place on the ground that protects anyone in the eight adjacent squares from attacks and spells, but they cant attack or cast offensive spells from within, allowing for a healer to mend near-dead Heroes. In keeping with the "Wizard Quest" tradition, there needs to be a Wizard-only Artifact that raises the Wizard's Body and Mind Points. Maybe a cute pointy wizard's hat? You know... to go with the Wizard's Cloak and Wizard's Staff?

I hope they don't do what they did with the the Spells from Against the Ogre Horde and create proprietary cards, with their own special backings, for each of the new evil wizard monsters. I would like them to be general purpose Dread Spells, with the normal Dread Spell card back. While the temptation to make the Dread Spells like their old counterparts, they were originally made to the baddies magic spells of their own as they were not part of the UK Game System. The US Game System have Spells that set the standard for the new line so putting them in, as-is, makes them feel out of place. On top of that, there are going to be repeats, like Lighting Bolt, Escape, Fear, Rust, and Summon Orcs, with Call Skeleton and Summon Mummy being less powerful versions of Summon Undead. So those are not needed.

I would not mind a reprint of Dispell from MotM and Ice Wall from TFH. Wall of Stone can work like TFH Ice Wall but blocks line-of-sight. Wall of Flame could be moved though, and not on, but doing so could result in taking fire damage. Raise the Dead could work by bring all dead Goblins, Orcs and Abominations in a room back as Zombies ("BRAAAINS!!"). Death Bolt and Skulls of Doom seems like necrotic versions of Fire of Wrath and Ball of Flames, but they are a great way to get around fire-resistance effects. Orc Berserker, Sharpen Blades and Shield of Protection all make for great buffs for green monsters (not just orcs), where they might even last for more than just one turn, while Spirit of Vengeance is an Orc Shaman's (or Goblin Warlock's) answer to the Hero's Genie spell. Summon Goblin should work like the US Summon Orcs in that a random number of Goblins appear. The rest are good. More cards can be invented to fill out the 24 new Dread Spells. For example, a spell called Summon Beast that would summon a monster as noted in the Questbook. This spell can be used in any homebrew Quest or set just to drop something big and nasty in the middle of a battle. Also...

Summon Mummy? Yeah, more like Summon Yo' Mama! *frying-pan wack*

The new Wizard Spells are good. Although, Chains of Darkness is a nurfed Tempest spell. I can see that spell requiring some roll to brake free. Likewise, I can see Invisibility lasting until the Hero performs an action, so they can move around but not do anything. I see the option for the Wizard to be able to dispell Cloak of Darkness at will.

The Magic Reference Card is not needed as it can be printed in the Questbook, just like any Special Quest Rules. I can see a greater expansion of Magic Traps and Tricks -- more so, things to keep players from huddling around open doors.

I don't mind having more Mercenary figures. As I like to have them as monsters, the more the merrier. Maybe some hired spell casters? Four of them -- one for each hero. They start with three random spells (draw from Scrolls Deck) and armed with a quarterstaff. They are not good in combat and serve as backup casters.

The Quest Pack could use more Quests. Maybe the players can vote on which evil Wizard they face first? Each Quest could have a theme, with monsters traps and hazards, that reflect each evil Wizard.

[Kurgan]

Having it as a "Choose your Adventure" branching adventure like JoD could be a cool way to handle it, instead of just tacking on a few extra quests to the beginning (or ending) of the 1991 original. Nutty idea, because there's a lot more to it than just the quests (new rules, new miniatures, much more in line with the Elf and Barbarian packs than anything from the EU), but they could grab quests from the unpublished Wizard Quest Pack, which would lead to a total of 15 quests (are solo quests still a thing for HQ? even if you subtract those, that's 12 total quests).

I get it that they want to give at least 10 quests in a pack but they've broken that number with not just JoD, we also had 13 in PoT and 14 in SQT, both in retail now.

[Senserazer]

Personally I'd like for them to keep it close to the original. Adding some extra quests is fine.
Some of the wizard spells seem a bit on the weak side, but I've considered allowing my wizard to choose any 9 spells he wants, instead of 3 schools. That might allow some of them to see use anyway. And help scale the wizard.

[wallydubbs]

Gee, Veil of Mist must rarely ever get picked in your group...

A new artifact to give the Wizard a 4th spell set would be nice. Even if they keep the lackluster Spells of Protection, they'd still give the Wizard something more to do.

[Senserazer]

Gee, Veil of Mist must rarely ever get picked in your group...

A new artifact to give the Wizard a 4th spell set would be nice. Even if they keep the lackluster Spells of Protection, they'd still give the Wizard something more to do.

I think the wizard definitely needs some help scaling. A 4th set might be a good idea yeah, one of the WoM sets in addition to 3 elemental ones. Veil of Mist might not be a bad spell to pick, if you can pick any 9 spells freely. It'll be situational for sure. You could also letthe wizard have access to all spells, but only be able to cast 9 or 12.

[wallydubbs]

The Wizards of Morcar Wizard spells are quite underwhelming, but I think a lot of us at the inn have come up with variations of these spells that help to improve them. For instance, the Arrows of Night gives the Wizard a ranged 2 combat dice in attack. I use it as automatic 2 hits, monster defends with mind points.

Back when there were only 4 heroes and having the additional Elf and WoM spells, I implemented at House rule of spells based on Mind Points: if the Wizard moves up to 7 mind points he can attain a 4th spell set. However, if he were to lose a mind point he'll lose 1 set of spells. The same would apply to the Elf, 5 mind points he can access 2 sets of spells. If the Dwarf gets to 4 mind points he'll have access to Earth spells. This wouldn't work now with all the new heroes, but I'd still probably alter the WoM spells. They didn't even try to improve them and made some of them worse by designating them to the Wizard alone.

[Kurgan]

Just a review of my suggestions it seems like they've followed or not as far as we can confirm...

NAME: It's "Wizards of Morcar" NOT "Wizards of Zargon" and Zargon is mentioned as a character on the back of the box, but we don't yet have any indication that he's making a personal appearance in any quest or what if any explanation will be given as to who or what "Morcar" means in this remake.

NUMBER OF MERCS: Other than changing the name ("mercenaries" instead of "men-at-arms") and sex-swapping them from how they were in Frozen Horror, the number of mercs is fixed at 12, though each type is now available in three colors (red, dark blue or black it's hard to tell, and purple/magenta). As before, unique sculpts rather than bolt on weapons.

TWEAKED SPELLS: Only a few spells have been shown, but so far all of them are the same as their 1991 WOM versions, except "Escape" which has been changed from the WOM original to the wording of the NA/remake GS version. Speculation as to what might change, but notably none of the other Spells that had the same names as 1990 NA/2021/2022 GS/FL spells have been shown in full to know if they have changed. The existence of the 1x6 "lightning bolt" tile implies that at least that Spell will retain its old function. We also don't know if they've decided to change the names of some of these other spells as they've done in most other cases of two items existing in the game though in separate packs that have different effects.

NEW THINGS: No new doors were added (only the expected magical doors which are now fully plastic sculpts) and no Alchemy cards. Only two Artifact cards and they seem to be brand new rather than Spell Scrolls.

MAGICAL TRAP TWEAK: The Fireburst traps have been slightly nerfed. The card is hard to read but the Magical Reference Chart (thanks to DungeonMaster) has been shown and translated. Before they could only be disarmed with a Tempest spell, now they can be disarmed also by any Water spell.

We haven't yet see any of the quest book inside and most of the new cards are not shown, so there's a lot to speculate about, but the 10 quests, 5 classic but tweaked ('re-imagined' interesting choice of words, does this imply more than conversion to NA rules and errata fixes?) and 5 new is advertised on the back of the box. Like ATOH it seems they're expanding the content that was available in the original, but probably allowing it to be played more like the original if players desire.

It is not yet known if Pits of Darkness are present, but they could still possibly exist as on the reverse side of some of the tiles as there are plenty of new tiles (Skulls and also Cloak of Shadows divided into 1x1 tiles as an alternative).

EVIL WIZARDS: There's one new evil Wizard, the Artificer, with all new abilities. The evil Wizards still are cast in dark blue (or possibly black) plastic and still have 6 unique spells for themselves each. They don't have their own monster cards. Only Escape has changed but most bad guy spells we haven't seen in full to know what, if anything has changed. Grawshak the Orc Shaman has been eliminated and in his place is Nyashak, his daughter who is called a "Warcastor." This plot point was introduced in the GenCon, free quest "Dread on the Horizon" by Doug Hopkins. So far however, despite the change in name and appearance, the character seems to have the same exact powers and same role in the expansion.

STORY: The back of the box mentions a new storyline that didn't exist in the original, about Zargon seeking the power of 1,000 wizards from an altar or something (are they dead? good guys trapped, or bad guys?), so I would expect a banger opening and ending explaining this in more detail.

SHOPPING: Far from restricting shopping in this expansion, it appears AH intends to expand it, giving us a "village" large map tile that has circles (perhaps representing opportunities to visit between quests) and a rather small deck of 6 cards to go with it. How precisely it will function is not explained, but hinted that it has something to do with a skill acquisition system or upgrade system, which Doug has hinted at working on in the past.

EXTRAS: No dice are included with this set and so far no news updates from FanRoll that they're going to release a tin of "Wizards of Morcar" fancy dice to sell separately or anything like that yet. No character pads or rubber boots in this one, it seems all of that was for Crypt of Perpetual Darkness only this year. Instead there are two "Golem" green statue monsters on double bases, a double base gray Minotaur monster, two other "contruct" models.... a green "door mimic" and a green "treasure chest mimic" that fall under the category of "Dread Shifter" and are considered monsters. There's also a female Wizard mini (but not the one from the Haslab campaign, though her card art is modified from that one).... this hero is identical to the male Wizard but has a new red sculpt that closely resembles the 1989 Wizard and pose is a cross between the classic card art and the mini from the original only female this time. And yet there is no other sign that this is meant to be the "Wizard Quest Pack" (The Sinister Sorcerers, still unpublished).

SKULL TILES: There are like 14 skull tiles included. So far the monsters don't go over 5 BP but distribution may dictate you'll need all those in addition to the ones in the GS to properly play, presumably you'll also want them to help track the damage on your mercenaries too.