Definitive, Unofficially Official, HQ Cartography Discussion

[Anderas]

I see the black fire pass, but this is where the base quests are, roughly.

There is one thing known about the frozen horror, that is, it is somewhere to the north because all of it is around the winter theme. That, or high up in the mountains. Then I would prefer that central north south thingy there, as there are really many mountains it is easy to call one of them ice mountain. Also. Yeti. I mean.

So that means I am undecided. North or central high mountains?

[Pancho]

I see the black fire pass, but this is where the base quests are, roughly.

The map in the books says the Black Pass, which is different from Black Fire Pass.
Confusingly, we might be looking at different maps! I did a Google Image search of Dave Morris maps like you said and it come up with an early draft map that shows the locations of the base quests (such as Black Fire Pass) juxtaposed with the locations in the books, i.e Norsca/Northern wastes. However, we shouldn't be using this map as it was just a draft and its clearly wrong from a Warhammer world point of view. The final map that Morris used in the books Tyrants Tomb and Screaming Spectre show a map of just the northlands (with the Black Pass within the mountain range that I think should be the Cyberians), meaning that Black fire Pass would be off-map many hundreds of leagues to the south, which it should be.
This is starting to make my head spin.....

[Maurice76]

There is one thing known about the frozen horror, that is, it is somewhere to the north because all of it is around the winter theme. That, or high up in the mountains. Then I would prefer that central north south thingy there, as there are really many mountains it is easy to call one of them ice mountain. Also. Yeti. I mean.

So that means I am undecided. North or central high mountains?

North. The Quest Book specifically mentions the north several times. When Mentor opens the Quest Pack, he specifically states:

"It seems only yesterday that the tribal elders gave you leave to explore the many wonders of the warm lands to the south."
"An ancient evil, long thought banished, has arisen to threaten the Northlands once more."
"As we speak, the Frozen Horror is reviving its minions and enacting its plans to cover the Northlands and the Empire in a shroud of deadly ice."

The Quest Conclusion has the following reference as well:

"Zargon's plans in the Northlands have been thwarted, thanks to your cunning, bravery and skill."

So, yes, in the north - the Northlands to be precise .

[Anderas]

So it is probably the northern waste, and then turn until you face a mountain range, and then into the mountains.

So it is either the north part of the world edge mountains, the gianthome mountains or the mountains of Hel or Skadi Mountains...


Well. Won't get better from here on.

[Pancho]

Obviously the Frozen Horror should be set in the north.

We are just trying to find out where in the north. The Heroquest books by Dave Morris have a detailed map of the North (what in Warhammer Fantasy termed would be called Norsca and the Northern Wastes), but his map doesn't show the locations of the Frozen Horror such as the Cyberian Mountains. Neither, annoyingly, does it show some of the locations for his own stories (such as Stalag Tor where the Growl of Thunder quest is set.

So we can either throw out Morris' map entirely as a confusing crock of ****, or we can try to use it. I think it would be nice to use it since it does have some good material and I think the books and the adventures in them are really quite good.

If we do use it, the mountain range in the middle of the map would be a good shout for the Frozen Horror storyline in my opinion.

[Anderas]

The problem with Morris' Map is that it really is lacking.

Those posted on the first two pages of this thread are way more detailed and bigger, too, while being presented with the original HQ stuff exactly like the one of Morris.

I think his map rather represents what the figures in his book are having in mind if you would ask them to draw a map.

[wallydubbs]

Dave Morris makes a fairly detailed map of the area that The Frozen Horror is supposed to be set in, and yet none of the locations are used and entirely new ones are invented. There are those who say that the American expansions don't fit in with anything else and don't even feel like "proper" Heroquest. I don't go that far but they have a point.
To make matters worse Morris doesn't even include key locations for his own adventures on his own map! Where is Stalag Tor for example (maybe I'm too blind to see it). Looking at his map it looks to me as if Morris planned other books set in this world that he never got round to. A solo Elf and solo Dwarf quest would have been nice. Poor never gets his own quests.

I do feel the American expansions don't feel like "Proper" Hero Quest, although I wouldn't dismiss them as canon either.
The alliance between Milton Bradley and Games Workshop came to an end in the early 90's, although all other European expansion figurines were provided by Games Workshop, the North American expansions were not.
As my conversations with Donald Kueker revealed, with an exception for the Ogres, the figurines in the Elf quest pack were based off of his sketches, so I would assume things were done in like manner with the Frozen Horror (minus the mercenaries). Admittedly I've never delved deep enough into Warhammer, but I doubt Polar Warbears and the Frozen Horror fit into canon.

Although Hero Quest is based off of the Warhammer world, they are not precisely the same... at some point, particularly the North American expansions break away from the Warhammer canon and the European version of the game. This is probably due to the partnership with Games Workshop coming to an end.

I would imagine Dave Morris' map is based off of the Warhammer world as well. But since the North American expansions were breaking away from the Warhammer conceptualization, doing so without a map of their own, they fabricated names of places that don't exist in the Warhammer world.
Are Dave Morris' books Hero Quest canon? Though he provides names to a Barbarian, Wizard, Elf and Dwarf character there's no mention of Mentor or Zargon or the Emperor.

The games do indeed leave much unaccounted for, and without a precise map to go on, it's not wrong to use Warhammer to fill in the blanks. But as the HeroQuest world is only based off of Warhammer, any changes made in the game locations are susceptible to recording over preexisting places.

[Kurgan]

I just took a look at the map that i used: It is a map of the old world of Warhammer.

I really can't see the big differences except that we use only a part, and then a magnification in HQ.

I don't know if it is correct or anything... but it shall be a good basis for playing.

I used the questbook as basis,
made two story progressions,
added exactly one quest (find Gulthor)
and than came to this chart and this Map.
It is intended to provide some overland questing as well.
Plan is to add Kellars Keep, Ogre Hordes, Witch Lord and WoM as well, so the heroes have always something to discover if they travel somewhere.
Red quests are to be discovered only if the correct predecessor was already played,
Blue quests are for free discovering during overland travel, or if the EWP Card "Map" is drawn.
Purple quests are forced on the heroes. Here i want some more.

Target is in fact, to have in every fourth or fifth square some quest.
Well. First finish with the original HQ Questbooks.
Click for Big.




So shoot me now.

The Map is put together from two smaller pieces (Goblin King's "classic Warhammer Map"), in some hours of stitching and connecting broken lines and repainting some mountains. It is smaller than it could be, just because it is exported from Powerpoint. The original size, you can have here:

Pardon the noob question, but how does one download these full size images? Thanks.

[Anderas]

If you click on it, you will see in the bottom right corner a little arrow that points down to a line. click on that one.

[Lowery_79]

I think this idea is awesome, QorDaq did a good job explaining what this project would in tale. Having thought of this idea many times, just so I could show the Heroes where they are in the world. I'm glade that someone with better wording skills than myself started this post. I see this thread was started in 2016. Was this map with the information of locations ever finished? If it wasn't maybe this could help (Something I found online), I must admit this map information and map explanation was a little over my head.