I first started playing HeroQuest back in the early nineties and played for the best part of five years, initially once a month but then with less frequency as AHQ took over (or at least an increasingly heavily customised version of AHQ). I played a few more games around the start of the millennium as an indulgence in nostalgia but since then I haven't actually played a game of HeroQuest although I have been working on documenting and refining up my own customized version of AHQ.
I now have the opportunity to introduce HeroQuest to a new generation and wanted your guys input and experience on a few points on how best to do this from scratch;
1. Which is the best to use as a starting point, the EU version or the US version and why?
2. Based on the decision in question 1, are there any simple mods / changes that are essential or at least recommended to include from the start, and if so what are they and what are the benefits of each?
3. Would you lot like a 'battle report' of how it all goes!
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Updating this post to provide a list of the House Rules that I am currently using, some may stick, some may not. Reasons and details for each can be found in the thread below;
#1. Both Heroes and Monsters need to roll
to defend.
#2. Heroes have fixed movement of 6 squares as standard but can declare a 'Run' action at the start of their turn, rolling a single die and moving that many extra squares instead of making an action.
#3. If you start your turn adjacent to a Monster you cannot walk away until it has been killed, no strolling out of combat!
#4. Heroes retain all items and equipment, including potions, from quest to quest. Artefacts and magical items, including potions can't be sold and have no gold value, can resell any mundane equipment between quests at 50% original value.
.
#5. Throwing weapons are only lost on a roll of all
but otherwise can be recovered by moving onto the target square or automatically when the area is searched.
#6. Potion upgraded effects;
Potion of Healing - restores Hero to full body points
Potion of Speed - "Run" action now has 2 dice added instead of one until a double is rolled
Potion of Resilience - Extra two defence dice lasts until no more visible Monsters on the board
Potion of Strength - Extra two attack dice lasts until no more visible Monsters on the board
Berserker's Brew - Extra die in attack and defence, lasts until no more visible Monsters on the board
Holy Water - 5 CD attack on Undead
#7. Healing potions and healing salves can be used on yourself even on zero points provided they are used immediately
#8. In close combat only both
and
count as hits
New Equipment; Shield (150GC) anyone wielding it gets
to count the as a defend aswell as an additional die in defence (cannot be used with battle axe or staff) [the original proposed
rule works fine logically but makes it a little awkward when having to check or compare results from rolls especially when multiple Heroes and some Monsters are equipped with shields]
Healing salves (50GC) restores D6 BPs
Bow (250GC) as Crossbow but 2CD only usable by the Elf
IMPORTANT EDIT: 5 years on and having played and discussed in depth my revised rulebook is presented in my signature below and I would advise anyone looking to introduce HeroQuest to the next generation to consider my revised rulebook, based on the US rules with a few tweaks for problem resolution, clarifications and removing inconsistencies, as that answers the questions that I originally posted on here.
It also doesn't include most of the changes that I made above, but does include some more useful material!
#1 - scrapped
#2 - scrapped
#3 - similar effect in new rules but handled better
#4 - sell back at 50% rule kept (although that is still debatable), retaining unused potions obtained from the treasure deck from one quest until the next is still in, but they are not returned to the deck until the quest AFTER they have been used to avoid stockpiling.
#5 - that one is still in
#6 - scrapped
#7 - that one is part of the US rules anyway
#8 - scrapped
New Equipment - scrapped