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HeroQuest lost Quest Packs: Wizard and Dwarf Quest Pack

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HeroQuest lost Quest Packs: Wizard and Dwarf Quest Pack

Postby lucapaschi » Friday December 17th, 2021 4:12pm

Dear fellow Heroquesters,
I’m glad to announce I’ve managed to acquire early versions of the unreleased Wizard and Dwarf quest packs from a person who was involved in the development and review of the four north american quest packs in 1991-92.
Hasbro applied for registration of trademarks for the name of all the four quest packs in October of 1992, albeit only “The Frozen Horror” and “The Mage of the Mirror” came to fruition. The other two applications were abandoned a year later, never to be used again. Work was indeed proceeding simultaneously on all four packs, but apparently the Barbarian and Elf packs managed to secure a release, albeit being partly untested themselves as we’ve discovered. It has been confirmed the Wizard pack was further in its development stage compared to the Dwarf pack (final material ready VS. final material to be created yet based on latest notes).

It is my intention to work on the two unreleased quest packs to try and bring them to completion after 30 years for everyone to see. I’ve already asked and received support from some of the Inn’s members, and we plan to work on all aspects of the game release (minis, tiles, cards, etc). I dedicate this task to all those who have found out small details about the packs and have passionately told us about them in the past years. We couldn’t have made this far without their precious job.
This topic will contain the most up-to date information on the packs as we slowly discover them by reading through the original material and the revisions that were planned 30 years ago. See it as a 30th anniversary edition without shady Spanish guys! :)

For those who would like to volunteer, they can drop me a message indicating whether they have some specific game developing-related abilities (mini sculpting, resin 3D printing, board drawing, illustrations, graphic designing, you name it!) or if they would like to contribute in playtesting the packs after the initial drafts.

For those who would like to send a little help in avoiding me getting a divorce because of the (hefty) cost I had to pay to acquire the packs, you can send a donation here: https://tinyurl.com/HQlostpacks. It’s not necessary, as I did it for the love of the game, but it’s definitely appreciated. :) Supporters will get early access to complete pdfs of the Barbarian and Elf Quest development material that was part of the same pack (at least, as soon as I manage to scan everything! – it’s gonna take some time because there’s 100s of pages).

Future donations might be required to proceed with more professional content that can’t be sourced through the members of the Inn, or if we want to attempt to ask for the original artists to work on the material. We’ll keep you updated. If donations exceed the cost of the Quest Packs, they will be used toward a swifter, better release for the benefit of the community or donated to the Inn.

My idea is to prepare a complete package (box, minis, questbook, card and tiles) or to create a limited run for all those who want it, at manufacturing cost+ shipping. We’ll see what we can do.
And now, what you were all waiting for. HeroQuest’s lost quest packs.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wizard Quest Pack™ – “The Sinister Sorcerers”™
Synopsis: Zargon has sent the powerful Storm Master to retrieve the Tome of Darkness, a book that holds the secret of many long-forgotten Chaos spells, from the College of Arcane Lore of Snowtooth mountain. The heroes must stop the forces of Chaos and destroy the Tome before it falls in the hands of Zargon.
Questbook with 10 new adventures, 30 x cards (4 monsters, 24 Chaos/Chaos Wizards spells) and 1 sheet of tiles.

Miniatures:
2 x Giant spider
3 x Ratmen
2 x Minotaur
1 x Sabre Tooth
4 x Evil Sorcerers
1 x Female Wizard hero
Confirmed mechanics: multiple lightning tiles, rat tiles, spell book tile, great stone gate tile, Chaos/Chaos Wizards spells from WoM, wandering monster traps.
Development status: ONGOING - 10/10 Quests revised, cards completed, artwork under production - almost ready for the playtesting phase

Dwarf Quest Pack™ – “The Hammer of Hadrakka” (working title) / “Curse of the Hammer”™
Synopsis: Zargon has discovered the location of the lost dwarven mines of Borognogg, where the magical-imbued Dwarvmetal can be found. He will use it to create powerful items that will make Chaos forces unstoppable. Lying in the city is also the cursed Hammer of the ancient dwarf king Hadrakka: the heroes must find the hammer and destroy it in the dwarven forge it was created in, before Zargon has a chance to find it.
This pack was heavily redesigned in an early stage, changing much of the premises.

Synopsis 2: The Dwarf is tasked with a series of tests of maturity to prove his right to full adulthood. In the Mountains of Myst, where lies the former dwarf kingdom of Borognogg, the heroes have to find and rescue the legendary Hammer of Hadrakka, now lost. The once mighty Dwarf kingdom was destroyed by Zargon, envious of its power, and the dwarves have scattered into many tribes. The Hammer, once repaired, will be used by Chief Nordrudnud to unite the dwarves under his banner in the battle against Zargon.
Questbook with 10 new adventures, 30 x cards and 1 sheet of tiles.

Miniatures:
3 x Ogres (assembly required)
1 x Carnivorous Caveworm
1 x Stone Golem
2 x Rockmoles
1 x Female dwarf hero
3 x Dwarf Fighters

Confirmed mechanics: use of 2 outdoor zones (Mountains of Mist) - scrapped, 2 Twisted Tunnels tiles (mole/worm and dwarf made), worm/mole holes (special doors), multiple point markers, with special ones used for lost mind points.
Development status: 0%
Last edited by lucapaschi on Sunday July 31st, 2022 6:29am, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: HeroQuest lost Quest Packs: Wizard and Dwarf Quest Pack

Postby lucapaschi » Friday December 17th, 2021 4:17pm

Some extra Q&A I had a chance to ask the seller about (if you have some interesting question, drop me a message and I’ll try to get an answer on that!).
Q: Did the designers got copies of the miniatures?
A: No, they were told what they were going to be, seeing their stats and placement in the text. Playtesting was done by the designers and the reviewers, although probably not by MB itself with the final pack.
Q: Did the European and USA team had any connection?
A: Despite receiving material from the then-in-progress WoM and ATOH quest pack, there was no direct contact between the two teams. Each Quest Pack designer was assigned with one miniature sprue from the European packs, namely Barbarian-Men at Arms, Elf-Ogre Warriors, Dwarf-Ogre Command, Wizard-Chaos Wizards. Some pack features seem to have been developed independently.
Q: Why did the HQ line was discontinued?
A: Apparently, it was stopped because of sales, even if sales were pretty good. MB canceled both HQ and Battlemasters because “they would rather sell 5 million Holly Hobbie games rather than 500,000 HQ or BM games”. Probably, despite the good sales, component cost meant the margin was pretty low, or even 0.
Q: What was the name of the Quest Packs?
A: Apparently all of the Quest Packs changed name during production. We have:
Barbarian Blades > The Frozen Horror
The Struggle for the Elven Kingdom> Sinestra’s Mirror> The Mage of the Mirror
Wizard’s Academy of White Top Mountain> Sorcerers of the Black Peak> Sorcerers of Szarv Mountain> The Sinister Sorcerers
Curse of the Hammer> Hammer of Hadrakka
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Re: HeroQuest lost Quest Packs: Wizard and Dwarf Quest Pack

Postby Kurgan » Friday December 17th, 2021 4:31pm

Breaking news! Thanks for reporting this, can't wait to see more info...

Also welcome to the forums (Well, to active posting anyway I see you've been here since last year) |_P |_P |_P

As far as talents, I can use Heroscribe like the next guy, and I've made plenty of my own cards using Paint.net (but not original illustrations). I'm not really a sculptor or talented painter. Playtesting I'm down for also.


Does this mean the long promised (and never released) "Powerful magical items" that the Wizard was told to "save your gold for" coming in "future expansions" will finally be revealed in a "semi-official" way?

I'm most interested in the material that was "intended" back in the 90's more so than the homebrew "fixes" and "finishes" that fans will come up with, even if those things will be needed. If those can be understood in the finished product I'm cool with that. Hundreds of pages??? For all I knew there were some minis and some sketches and that was it. This is exciting news and very interesting, even if some speculate the quality wouldn't have been as good as the Stephen Baker backed releases.

Is there any chance Hasbro will step in and snap this stuff up? I guess it would be their right... I'm guessing Stephen Baker had no hand in these?
Last edited by Kurgan on Friday December 17th, 2021 4:58pm, edited 1 time in total.


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Re: HeroQuest lost Quest Packs: Wizard and Dwarf Quest Pack

Postby Nlinindoll » Friday December 17th, 2021 4:46pm

Christmas came early this year! Amazing news. Really, really exciting. I look forward to seeing what comes of this. I’m definitely interested In play testing or helping any way I can.
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Re: HeroQuest's lost Quest Packs: Wizard and Dwarf Quest Pac

Postby HispaZargon » Friday December 17th, 2021 5:01pm

As said, really amazing news!!!! Thank you!!!


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Re: HeroQuest's lost Quest Packs: Wizard and Dwarf Quest Pac

Postby Filo » Friday December 17th, 2021 5:10pm

Hi Luca thank you very much for the wonderful news and for having recovered this wonderful material
I'm an Italian 3D modeler (I've published here on the forum some of my models of goblins, skeletons, orcs and Fimir archers, based on 3D scans of the original models) it would be an honor to collaborate for this wonderful project, eventually I can contribute also for the layout for printing and editing images.
I'm really excited about this wonderful news, can't wait to hear more about it.
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Re: HeroQuest's lost Quest Packs: Wizard and Dwarf Quest Pac

Postby Kurgan » Friday December 17th, 2021 5:15pm

Resin miniatures look good, but I find them to be rather brittle, even when painted. Welcome Filo!


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Re: HeroQuest's lost Quest Packs: Wizard and Dwarf Quest Pac

Postby lestodante » Friday December 17th, 2021 5:17pm

Kurgan wrote:I'm most interested in the material that was "intended" back in the 90's more so than the homebrew "fixes" and "finishes" that fans will come up with, even if those things will be needed. If those can be understood in the finished product I'm cool with that.

The intent is to stay close to the originals. As rumored before, the WQP is a finished one but still in demo version. It means some mistakes still exists in the notes. An example can be the following: the heroes need to find 3 objects but there are only two of them in the quest because the designer forgot to include the third (and the reviewer put a note about this). It needs an errata as usual.

Kurgan wrote: Hundreds of pages??? For all I knew there were some minis and some sketches and that was it. This is exciting news and very interesting, even if some speculate the quality wouldn't have been as good as the Stephen Baker backed releases.

It is referred to all the questpacks together. Each questbook contains about 30 pages, featuring also other stuff (cards, hand drawn concept tiles) and designers notes.
Minis and sketches are what was shown till now form different people. It was rumored the questpack existed and known more than one person who had them.


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Re: HeroQuest's lost Quest Packs: Wizard and Dwarf Quest Pac

Postby Credulous » Friday December 17th, 2021 5:20pm

Amazing news. I’d be happy to help and have heroscribe and photoshop skills.
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Re: HeroQuest's lost Quest Packs: Wizard and Dwarf Quest Pac

Postby lucapaschi » Friday December 17th, 2021 5:33pm

Kurgan wrote:Breaking news! Thanks for reporting this, can't wait to see more info...

Also welcome to the forums (Well, to active posting anyway I see you've been here since last year) |_P |_P |_P

As far as talents, I can use Heroscribe like the next guy, and I've made plenty of my own cards using Paint.net (but not original illustrations). I'm not really a sculptor or talented painter. Playtesting I'm down for also.


Does this mean the long promised (and never released) "Powerful magical items" that the Wizard was told to "save your gold for" coming in "future expansions" will finally be revealed in a "semi-official" way?

I'm most interested in the material that was "intended" back in the 90's more so than the homebrew "fixes" and "finishes" that fans will come up with, even if those things will be needed. If those can be understood in the finished product I'm cool with that. Hundreds of pages??? For all I knew there were some minis and some sketches and that was it. This is exciting news and very interesting, even if some speculate the quality wouldn't have been as good as the Stephen Baker backed releases.

Is there any chance Hasbro will step in and snap this stuff up? I guess it would be their right... I'm guessing Stephen Baker had no hand in these?


Apparently... :) There are also some seemingly overpowered dwarf artifacts. The designers felt there should be no magic in the quest pack, as the dwarf is a non-magical race. They make notes about the huge amount of gold players have at this point, and method of spending it. It's actually as official as it may get.
I'm not sure I'll be able to publicly post the scans, for the time being we'll keep them in a smaller circle, and release them if possible after the release of the packs. As for the Barbarian and Elf development notes (which were also part of the pack), these will be released later on - being about published material, there should be no probem. I can guarantee those are really interesting to look at!

For the Wizard quest pack, I think the material will be very close to what was designed in the 90s. The Dwarf pack has all of the maps and most of the quest designed, plus a rewritten intro, so we might need some more work there.

I guess not, it was not in the possession of Hasbro. The trademarks expired, and we'll keep it non-commercial. Apparently, some ideas were explored in homemade quests anyway. The most trademark-prone part of the quests, the art, will have to be made by us anyway. This was not in possession of Hasbro, so there should be no problem with that. Apparently, a lawyer confirmed NDAs fell after the expiration of the trademark. No, we know the name of at least the Dwarf pack designer. No Stephen here.

As said, the more complete packs contain letters, note to artists, card drafts, token drafts, quest maps, multiple questbook reviews. The Barb and Elf must be at 100/150+ pages each. The Wizard has at elast two 30/40 pages revisions, plus tiles and cards. The dwarf has one review of the basic questbook draft, plus 9 quest maps and a few tiles.
Last edited by lucapaschi on Friday December 17th, 2021 9:15pm, edited 3 times in total.
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