Ye Olde Inn

by **RECIVS** » March 12th, 2018, 3:57 pm

Personally, I prefer the appearance and darker tone of AHQ.

Thantos wrote:
Tryant wrote:I'm actually working on a combination of two systems- taking the best of both (in my opinion) and fusing them together.

Would be interested in that ^
Good luck with the project!

I think I will give AHQ a go again soon. Local pub has a board games evening this week, so will bring some dungeon stuff and have a few ales and quests

Thank you for the interest!
We felt how Adv. Hero Quest's rules for incorporating elements from Hero Quest was rather lack-luster, and also didn't consider the many (many) expansions.
We're reworking how Fate Points are distributed, remaking the old maps using the Adv. Hero Quest modular board pieces, leadership for henchmen, searching tables for all furniture, and increasing + varying the monsters to help balance the maps more. And a few minor bits & pieces here and there.
I'll post the link to it here (in this sub-forum) when it's done.

by **The Admiral** » March 13th, 2018, 9:22 am

Tryant wrote:We're reworking how Fate Points are distributed.

I do remember thinking that fate points were too easily obtained by the Heroes, and they became very powerful very quickly.

I use Evil Wizard cards in HQ to spice up the game and to give the EW player more fun. The trap/fate/WM tokens in AHQ were a similar concept that I liked very much.

by **RECIVS** » March 13th, 2018, 6:33 pm

The Admiral wrote:I do remember thinking that fate points were too easily obtained by the Heroes, and they became very powerful very quickly.

It depends. The game tends to be difficult, and it turns even harder as it progresses. If no fix is used for the "bottleneck" issue, then it may seem as if the FPs are too easily obtained. However, it may not be true later in the game, fixed or not.

In my variant, FPs may also be used to acquire Heroic Feats. I believe it's an effective way of limiting FPs while providing more depth and variety at the same time.

by **Valnar Nightrunner** » March 14th, 2018, 5:12 am

RECIVS wrote:
The Admiral wrote:I do remember thinking that fate points were too easily obtained by the Heroes, and they became very powerful very quickly.

It depends. The game tends to be difficult, and it turns even harder as it progresses. If no fix is used for the "bottleneck" issue, then it may seem as if the FPs are too easily obtained. However, it may not be true later in the game, fixed or not.

In my variant, FPs may also be used to acquire Heroic Feats. I believe it's an effective way of limiting FPs while providing more depth and variety at the same time.

There is another use for fate points : it represent the interest of the gods for the heroes, so if heroes are turning bad for a reason or another, gods can leave them alone, represented by a loss of fate points. It may be hard to restore those fate points, maybe by accomplishing a special quest or something. It may be interesting for a campaign

by **Spookyhappyfun** » March 14th, 2018, 10:36 am

I got HQ when I was a kid. My parents bought it for me from Toys-R-Us and I remember seeing the commercials for it on TV in between my favorite cartoons. It was a board game and I was a child who knew nothing about wargames or roleplaying games or miniatures. What I found was a game that was easy to understand and play, looked awesome, was filled with colorful monsters and heroes and had very neat little furniture. And you know how this story goes because you're all here and have heard this story before.

I did later discover and love D&D and heard about Warhammer but never played it or really knew much about it. Finally, one day in high school, I think, I saw AHQ in a catalog or booklet or something. I didn't even know it existed until then and I just had to order it and buy it. I got it and was very unimpressed. The characters were different and on a different base, there were only Skaven for enemies, and the box art was really offputting. I was surprised to learn that it took place in the Warhammer world and that put an interesting new spin on the old game, but I still didn't know anything about WH and didn't know anyone who played it. I tried to read through the game book but it didn't seem to resemble the classic HQ at all. I also wasn't even playing regular HQ anymore by that point since I had no one to play with, so I eventually ended up giving all of my HQ and AHQ away some time during college.

I think that now that I've reacquired HQ, that's the game that I really have the memories and nostalgia for. AHQ is just a strange addition to me now, and more of a source for HQ additions than anything. I really prefer the simplicity of the original and the really don't have the time or desire to try to learn a whole new system and prefer to just mod and expand the classic HQ that I have.

So nothing against AHQ, but I think it's just not for me.

by **The Admiral** » March 16th, 2018, 9:06 am

RECIVS wrote:
The Admiral wrote:I do remember thinking that fate points were too easily obtained by the Heroes, and they became very powerful very quickly.

It depends. The game tends to be difficult, and it turns even harder as it progresses. If no fix is used for the "bottleneck" issue, then it may seem as if the FPs are too easily obtained. However, it may not be true later in the game, fixed or not.

In my variant, FPs may also be used to acquire Heroic Feats. I believe it's an effective way of limiting FPs while providing more depth and variety at the same time.

Fair enough. I only played the quest in the box and never went any further with it. As I said, that was good fun, but it just didn't grab me like HQ.

by **Daedalus** » May 24th, 2018, 6:31 pm

As a quick disclaimer, I was a player in a group that didn't complete the Quest for the Shattered Amulet, if I recall correctly. I'm not very familiar with the game anymore.

Valnar Nightrunner wrote:. . . Don't forget that HQ was an MB game under Games Workshop licence. . . . Rules of AHQ are designed to use ALL models, elements and board of HQ. Don't forget that Advanced Rules was in fact the very first version of the rules for Heroquest. MB asked Games Workshop for more simple rules because it was destined for children. . . .

"Don't forget that HQ was an MB game under Games Workshop licence. "
I understand that certain GW ip was licensed to MB for Hero Quest, such as Fimirs and Chaos Warriors. Citadel Miniatures did the figure sculpts, of course. Previously licensed art was also thrown in and Gary Chalk licensed new work. (GW didn't purchase, but only licensed thier art from artists at that time. I got that from an article in Bell of Souls regarding Gary's testimony in a GW court case.) Les Edwards may also have licensed his work. After that, I believe Hero Quest was independently created within Milton Bradley's UK division by Stephen Baker. (Check the Baker interview link below.)

"Rules of AHQ are designed to use ALL models, elements and board of HQ."
Certain elements of Hero Quest aren't usable in AHQ, at least in their actual form. The Hero Quest dice won't work. Treasure Cards as a deck don't fit with AHQ, though individual cards can be represented on treasure, hazard, and monster tables, I suppose (the Wandering Monster Card is an odd fit.) Equipment Cards are useless, though those weapons exist in AHQ. The screen seems useless other than as a barrier. The big surprise is the board. I thought AHQ was made to be played with the modular rooms and corridors only. Do you mean the Hero Quest board can be used as a final objective level? I don't recall that ever being suggested before.

"Don't forget that Advanced Rules was in fact the very first version of the rules for Heroquest. MB asked Games Workshop for more simple rules because it was destined for children."
Do you have a source (hopefully English) for this--I'd love to check it out. The White Dwarf 115 Hero Quest preview cited at this topic claims Jervis Johnson was a co-developer of Hero Quest. However, it also erroneously claims John Blanche was involved. That fact casts doubt on the credibility of the preview, in my opinion.

Check out this post for the Stephen Baker interview with Kaos where he discusses Hero Quest history in questions 1 to 5. According to Baker, he left GW for MB in 1986. He states he wasn't a GW employee when he invented and developed Hero Quest. He further states he liked the idea of a game for 9 to 11 year olds in the style of Talisman.

Though Baker relates he and Roger Ford (MB Vice President of Research and Development) were discussing with GW designers interest in a mass-market game, Baker only mentions they were sought for their style of miniatures. Nothing about rules collaboration can be found. Also, in question 5 Baker states he invented Hero Quest and participated in its further expansion development with Ben Rathbone of MB (no mention of Jervis Johnson.) Lastly, he says AHQ was fully developed 18 months later without him. I assume that counted from the first meeting of MB and GW.

Could Baker have omitted Jervis Johnson's influence regarding an AHQ prototype rules set? Perhaps there was a legal reason for him to do so, though I wouldn't count it likely. If a documented source could verify Baker was shown a proto-AHQ before he began work on Hero Quest at MB (sometime between 1986 and 1988), then I could see the possibility.