Playing EU only expansions using US rules

[Just_Will]

Good evening all,

Has anyone here had experience playing either of the EU only expansions, using US base rules, but without adapting the quest book or monster stats? If so how does each one (Against the Ogre Hoard and Wizards of Morcar) play out? Too easy? Too hard? Somewhere in between?

I've recently reacquired Heroquest and both EU expansions are in the mail from eBay. It's catching on like wildfire with my gaming group (all of whom except me did not play it growing up) and I'd like to keep the experience challenging and rewarding. Any input on this helps greatly.

[Goblin-King]

Haven't actually tried, so this is all guessing...

Of course it all depends on how you play. Do you use strictly vanilla rules or have you added any house rules?
Are the heroes fully equipped and stacked with gold to buy additional potions? That sure helps!

The most important difference is that the US monsters are slightly stronger. Mummies and Fimirs having 2 BP, Chaos Warriors and Gargoyles having 3 BP. Chaos Warriors also hitting harder if I recall correctly?
So what you need to decide is if a room with 4 Chaos Warriors is too much.
From glancing through the WoM book it seems like it would definitely be a challenge!

Maybe plan to make them find a couple of extra healing potions to compensate.
Either mark them on the map in advance or just let them find them when you feel it's appropriate.
Sure you may be cheating a little on their behalf, but you also jacked up the difficulty.

[sajungzak]

Have you seen the remastered quest packs here at the Inn? They can be found when you enter the site through the NA portal.
Also, HeroQuest by Phoenix has remastered QP's.
http://heroquestbyphoenix.yeoldeinn.com/questdownloads.php

[Just_Will]

Goblin King, to answer your questions, no house rules have been implemented, but the group is open to anything that's "in the spirit of the game", which helps. The intent is to play all the other quest packs then play WoM last with buffed out heroes.

Also, even though I own the game/expansions, I have given the Morcar role (I know it's Zargon here but I grew up playing this in New Zealand so I'm still used to Morcar) to another player since I prefer playing a hero character and he prefers the DM role.

Some thoughts I had to rebalance it were as follows:
-Allow Elf/Wizard to take more sets of spells. (Eg Elf: 2 sets, Wizard 4-5 sets) maybe introduce a quest for a relic that allows this? (In fact a series of 3-4 custom quests with character specific relics would be fun)
-Re-Introduce the equipment that was taken out of the US version (bracers, cloak of protection etc) to make the Wizard more survivable
-create an 'underworld' dungeon for dead heroes to escape from, thereby reviving themselves
-buff up the men at arms (I saw this was done on the 'Wizards of Zargon' pack posted here)

Also, sajungzak, I did see the remasters here, though the only difference I caught was that men at arms have 2 BP in the US WoM (WoZ). I didn't compare the two precisely side by side though.

[sajungzak]

Cool.

Don't forget the artifacts in the NA version include buffs for the wizard.

The Wizards Cloak from the NA Game System replaces the Cloak of Protection; the Armband of Healing from RotWL will restore 2 BP once per quest, whereas the Bracers give you one extra combat die in defence.

[Just_Will]

Excellent points. I'm thinking a combination of US/UK rules, and a full play through of all the previous quests will go a long way. the remastered WoM should help too.

[Just_Will]

On a side note, I can't access the remasters..

[sajungzak]

Just a few more posts, you're almost there.

[sajungzak]

I'm thinking a combination of US/UK rules, and a full play through of all the previous quests will go a long way.

I prefer the US rules in every variance. I keep EU spells and the equipment cards that don't have US counterparts, but I've never used any of them. I do add the "nothing" treasure cards to the deck.

What I like about the EU versions are the equipment cards. I think the US version suffers a bit not having any (except artifacts and chaos magic, which probably makes up for it). So I've incorporated US style equipment and potion cards. I took the idea all they way and got tokens for BP, MP, and a fantasycoins set for gold. The game can then be played without character sheets, but it's still a good idea to record everything at the end of each playing session.

And that's the way I HeroQuest!

[Just_Will]

That all sounds like fun! Tangible things like cards and gold coins only further what makes this game fun. I'd still keep the pencil and paper character sheets though. Because y'know.... posterity!