Rediscovering HQ with the next generation

[TheWiseOldElf]

The forum has a huge amount of game resources, including custom record sheets and quests. Also tiles to put on the board (rooms), additional cards and equipment, potions, magic scrolls, monsters etc. But you'll need to dig a bit. Everything should be organized in seperate subforums, but there are so many threads, you might need to use the search function now and again.

Actually, since my last post I've discovered some of the great resources on the site - especially some of the tiles and cards, which I might incorporate into a custom quest for my girl's characters.

We also have a blog (see my signature), and I've placed many quests from the forum there as well, as well as character sheets and extra cards. Might be easier to spot them on the blog (it also has a search funstion, and categories you can browse).

Great - will have a look at that when I get time (as well as my 5yo daughter, I have a son who's only 6 weeks old, so as you can imagine, reading time is something that happens to other people!)

I have adopted Cornixt's token idea for body points, which is working well, plus I also knocked up some printed HeroQuest "coinage" to make keeping track of treasure a little easier.

[IvenBach]

I'm curious... Why didn't she want to enter the door? And what did she want to do instead?

make sure it's fun and don't force them to do stuff

And actually, this universal advice really goes for adult players as well...

It was a simple scenario I made for her where she had to get a treasure chest back to its owner, or something thereabout. She had gone through everything except the room I had the chest in. For whatever reason she just didn't want to go into the room. I asked her what she wanted to do and she would just laugh and giggle, she's 5. This went on for a minute or so and I figured she wouldn't mind if I chose for her and helped her finish the quest. I was wrong...

I've had a single person being an atrocious dingleberry ruin the fun for everyone. Simply because they didn't enjoy drawing all the trap cards at the beginning of the quest and failing every pit jump attempt. Not much you can do in that instance but when everyone is having fun it is much more enjoyable.

[Goblin-King]

I asked her what she wanted to do and she would just laugh and giggle, she's 5.

Kids! She was playing "How long can I keep this dummy on the edge of his seat"!

[alyndavies]

Playing the game with our children we have had to adapt a few little things to make the game enjoyable.
I tend to give the younger kids a little "look" or wink when they need to search for a secret door, or do something in the room. Or just generally look in a general direction when they are faced with a decision on which way to go in a dungeon. If their very low on body points and are about to fall in a pit trap then I have looked up in the sky and whistled innocently away so they focus a bit more.


Poor old Morcar (me) has been walloped more than once when the kids randomly get a wandering monster card, so to avoid that I bought lots of extra cards off Ebay to reduce their chances or getting one. Though I have bought far more Trap treasure cards as they think it's hysterical when one of them loses a body point from one. They love holy water cards and I have had the kids endlessly searching rooms to try and get them so they can randomly murder some poor zombie thats plodding about, so I bought a load of extra holy water cards too.

Kids these days simply don't have board games to play like we used to as kids, I remember loving Heroquest, Space Crusade, battle masters and crossbows and catapults, as well as having a ZX spectrum and Nintendo NeS. Yet companies seem to think board games like HeroQuest are not worth updating and re-releasing.

[Daedalus]

...Also, I'm aware that the game has changed a lot in the intervening years - I have the core game and KK, and was aware of RotWL, but I see that there's since been a number of other extension packs and mods - are there any major rule changes in these later additions that have been widely adopted for use in the basic game?

Thanks in advance,
Jim

One big rules change you may not have been clued on is the North American (NA) edition's use of monster Body Points. Many European and Australian (EU) players have adopted this for tougher games. Since you're playing with a young child, however, you may not need this yet. In a nutshell:

:goblin: 1 BP, 1 BP, 1 BP, 1 BP, 2 BP, 2 BP, 3 BP, 3 BP

Two further questions:
1.Does anyone know if there are printable record sheets that are better designed for the purposes than the original ones seem to be, with specific sections that allow tracking of attack and defend scores, as well as gold, equipment, potions etc. If not, I might try to concoct my own.
2.Can you recommend any really good one-off user-created adventures that work with the original set and rules, and are really worth playing?

1. Download these sheets at the Inn: Adventure Design Kit and the NA Game System

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2. While I haven't played through any user content yet, you could start a search of the Inn's Quests page. Scroll 3/4 down to find the single Quests. Shipwrecked! won a contest, so there must be something to it.

Also, be sure to check out Board index ‹ HeroQuest Rooms ‹ HeroQuest Additions ‹ Quests and Quest Packs. I remember Goblin-King's The Mirror Maze looked cool and it only requires two players--perfect for you and your kid. You may want to help her solve the riddle of the maze, however.

[Daedalus]

Edit to add: Just noticed I am a Scout now instead of an Arch Mage....so...? How is a scout more powerful than an Arch Mage?

The posting images are based upon difficulty of the Quests they are found in. That NA Mercenary image is from the BQP. EU Men-at-arms debut in the WoM expansion set. If you average those out, ordering the Mercenary posting image after the Archmage makes sense.