Do the quests take too long?

[torilen]

Someone mentioned the fact that the trial took them 3 hours to finish.
That is way too long for one quest. I noticed this problem as well. We all
tout the HQ game for its simplicity and ease of play, and yet the quests
take, usually an hour or more (typically on the more side) to get through.

Has anyone found a way to reduce this time? Maybe to cut it to say...30 or 40
minutes per quest?

I had one idea...don't know if it would work. Instead of having Zargon roll for
the monsters...simply give the monsters what I call a Success Rating for attacks
and defenses. Take the Goblin for instance...it has 1 AD and 2 DD, I think. Perhaps
a hero would simply need to roll 1 successful AD to hit it (any more successful AD would
take more body points away), and would simply need to roll 1 DD to defend, and might
get a second chance, since the goblin only has 1 AD anyhow.

This, I think would eliminate the possible back and forth rolling when both sides are
blocking a lot of the attacks and no one is losing any body points.

Typically...I would give the monsters a minimum of 1 for any SR (success rating), and
usually make it 1/2 of the actual amount of dice they would roll...unless you think the
monster would be a little harder, then you could go with 3/4 (you know...the chaos warrior
uses 4 AD, so his SR for an attack would be 3...the hero would need to roll 3 DD to defend).

What do you all think about it...would it work? Would it speed the game up some?

[Ethica]

Ideas for speeding up the game-

1) Combine search for traps and secret doors into 1 search.
2) Only allow 1 treasure search in each room (most people do this anyway).
3) Fix movement for heroes at 7 squares.
4) Design shorter quests.
5) Stop the quest when the objective is complete (and all visible monsters are dead).

[darthjason]

those are some good ideas. i've always done #5, which is why i see item that let you warp back to the stairs as pointless for most quests and down right cheating on others (like quest 9, i think i was, where all you have to do is find your way out). I've never had any quest take 3 hours though, i can't imagine why any quest would take that long. i'd say avarage quest time for my group is an hour and 15 minutes. compared to some other games my group plays, thats kind of a long time. card game expecialy usualy take 30 mins or less and some board games often take less than an hour depending on the number of players. however, hq doesnt take long at all when compared to some other games we like to play too, talisman and heroscape almost always take more than 3 hours

[drathe]

1½ to 2½ hours. Most of this time is due to socialising. We usually have a two to three week span between game sessions and everyone likes to chit-chat while playing.

[ken]

1½ to 2½ hours. Most of this time is due to socialising. We usually have a two to three week span between game sessions and everyone likes to chit-chat while playing.

I guess this is about right. I must confess, like drathe, we only play about twice per month, and get lost in the game, so sometimes have to be reminded it's time for nourishment.

[Ryno]

In Gming around 20 games in the last few months, I find that I have to be on my toes by changing monsters, number of monsters, eliminating or adding rooms or shortcuts to speed it up the whole thing and trying to beat up on my heroes just enough to not kill them, or if I do kill them make sure I supply them with an elixir of life. This in essence is what keeps me from getting bored. Sometimes the quest really does take 3 hours, this is usually due to chatting, new players needing rules explained some more and if they have a lot of gear, spells, potions, tactics to consider.

Things I do to speed it up:
1. Combine search for traps / secret doors.
2. Use 3d6 to run when not attacking during that same turn.
3. Change the quest on the fly as mentioned above, oh and I only put 3-4 traps max per quest because they are annoying and morale diminishing to the game. The players get emotionally upset and it brings the spirit down of the whole session.

Things I'm considering doing:
1. Creating alternate versions of all the quest books for faster more intense quests.
2. Add more story and creative puzzle solving. Variety will at least make it feel faster.
3. Equipment cap to 6 or 8 items, so they don't take a long time trying to decide to use that magical throwing dagger or spell scroll or attack or use this potion or that potion.

[el_flesh]

You guys are nuts. We spend at least five hours on a quest! And we have a great time doing it! Man, we look for ward to our HQ all week long! It's STILL like drugs one year after beginning it!

[Ryno]

You are lucky. I worry on a constant basis that people that I get to play are just doing it to do something and because I want to SO badly. I work really hard to make them short enough games so that people MIGHT come back for more and not dread it.

[Rath of Un]

One thing that I have added to my games is 2 actions per turn. I also give the heroes a counter attack option, like an "on guard" If the heroes roll all White Shields for defense they then get to make a counter attack... Also they can elect to go "On Guard" as an action and they get to strike one monster on Zargon's turn before they strike you.

Example: you kill an Orc on your turn and there are none in range for your second action, so you could go "on Guard" when the monster move in to attack the first monster that gets in range you get to make an attack before they do. This allows the hero to not feel as over whelmed by multiple monsters, and also make the Game Master pick which monster moves in first. (Goblin or Orc, I would go with the Goblin to use the "on Guard" up)

[el_flesh]

Ya, you need to find players who are alot more into it...

good frikkin luck on that one.
Maybe there's a games shop in your town you can try posting at.