Ye Olde Inn

I'm a very new DM here.
I've only played HeroQuest seriously when I was a kid, more than 10 years ago. Then I finished Game System and Kellar's Keep as the Elf.
The first time i tried to play as a DM, like 3 years ago, my group rage quit at Game System Q10 cause the gold was fake.
This time I have a serious group, pationate about the game (at least the 3/4 Heroes) and that makes me very excited as a DM too and I want to offer them the best experience.
I have a few questions so that I improve my game (and also some ideas that you might have not thought of).

The main thing is that I wanna make it a very complete experience, excite players all the time, so I do the normal quests but prepare them beforehand and I enhance them.
We ran normally the Qs from Q1-Q5 of the Game System and to me it seemed like it was just "I read the story, then we roll dices, find objective, the end".
Idk if you get me, maybe its because I'm a new DM and I can't paint great pictures to the players.
What I'm looking for is things outside of the box. Things outside of HeroQuest that can be added in, things that will make it more interesting but will be new for players.
Also it's the only dungeon brawling game I've ever played so some of you guys might have ideas from other games I could add.

by the way here are my suggestions, things I've tried from Q5-Q10 and how they turned out.
Riddles: I always use riddles that have something to do with the story or the reward or the clue. You can find riddles online that match the theme, players enjoy them.
Sound: I now prepare a sound experience beforehand. I re-write the story and use Garage Band my make my voice sound deep, I play it through a hi-fi.
First is the introduction, players like it. Then I added a "goblin laugh" effect every 15-20 minutes depending on the map, which is a signal for a wandering monster, players love
that, they get irritated by it but in a good way. Added epic music and dungeons sounds etc but players didnt like that, it got in their nerves after a couple hours.
Puzzles: Escape room kind, havent tried it yet, I've put one in the next quest they are doing, so idk yet if they'll like it. (by the way if you have any good ideas for puzzles let me know)
Random Events: an example "you found 2 prisoners in the same prison, free them or not? they can either turn against the heroes or help them".
Time: Set a time for the quest in the storyline, example "you have 1 hour to escape or the army of orcs of the black mountain will pass from this dungeon and extinct you."

With all these examples I hope you got what I mean by "things out of the box". Weird things that normally wouldnt happen. Let me know what "extra" you do in your dungeons.

Another topic I'm concerned about is the story. The thing is I only own Game System and Kellar's Keep and this group seems to be serious about the game so hopefully we'll get far.
I think that players will be convinced to pay so that we buy Return Of The Witch Lord since I've found it complete from 50euros.
by the way if any of you have it complete and selling it let me know, UK version preferably.
And I've also downloaded all the "extra" but official quests that can be played with only owning Game System and the first two expansions.
Those are "The Maze", "Inn Of Chaos", "Return Of The Weather-Man" and "The Plague Of Zombies".
The rest of the expansions are very expensive for us to buy and even if I print them I won't have the required figures which is a huge turn off.
So here are my questions about the story:
1 - Are there any other "official" quests I could add to my whole story (without needing latter expansions)? Or I've already covered everything? How to expand the story.
2 - If not official what are some good fan made expansions that can be played with only the Game System and the first 2 expansions? If so in which order with official expansions?
3- Which exact place do you think the 4 side quests I mentioned should go? Ik "The Maze" should be before the Game System but we already are in Q10, I'll have to enhance it and
change its story. However supposedly I had GM, KK, ROTWL where should these 4 quests go? You can also recommend me between quests of an expansions (random example: KK
between Q4 and Q5 play "The Plague Of Zombies").

THANKS A LOT everyone for reading all of those and wanting to help.

Here's the thing... The base game was made for kids. The story doesn't really offer much level of twists and turns for people to figure out or realise.

If you have a read of this https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzUqo ... FkyU1BJT0k it shows some ideas I implemented. It was rushed for a newish group who wanted to try modular, reusing a lot of the original elements. That Gold isn't fake if they figure it out, it's actually worth more than gold, it was the "wealth" intended to build his army, it's rare ore.*

I always wanted to rewrite the entire original as the next generation at the INN, chatting about 4 ancient Heroes and the Spirit Blade... The constant bar tails and stories before deciding for themselves to embark on the journey to find it, only to ignite an ancient chaos. The idea being you, an old man, playing HeroQuest with your Grankids. The game starts basic but all the new ideas are implemented as the game evolves, which fits perfectly with the games fast set up and learn premise. The idea being, not turning people off explain complex rules on the first quest.

The first thing you need to decide is on your mishmash of EU and US rules.

Most of us have links in or signatures to the variants we use. We all have our preferences but most are a community effort wrote into our own print outs, shared ideas.

*Edit: I only created those ideas for our pack as I notice the group kept coming up with more than what was in all the quest we played. All the "what if this was meant for that", over reading everything, it was clear they needed something a bit deeper. Everytime I was like "Yes, that would of been amazing" very imaginative group. BUT, we didn't RP much, more strategy planning, rather than direct Role Play, non of us have really Role Played, as in character.

I love the puzzle idea...I gonna look into a few online.

There are plenty of people here who will be able to help, I am starting out myself so I am still figuring out a lot of the DM stuff myself. What came to mind when reading your post is www.tabletopaudio.com and their soundpad....I think you gonna have a blast with this. You can select any soundeffect you think off and save it under your own padselection, so you can fire it off at the push of a button. I used it two times combined with some music playlists I made and it really adds to the athmosphere.

Have fun!

Hi Drew, welcome to the Inn. This place is an incredible source of information and ideas for customising Heroquest. The only problem is knowing where to begin! There are a lot of people here who will love to help though.

Weaving all the official stuff into one large coherent story, padded out with some of the best fan made stuff, was one of the most enjoyable aspects of getting back into Heroquest for me a few years ago. Hopefully you’ll find a similar experience.

In terms of the official quests, don’t forgot ‘the Halls of Durrag Dol’ and ‘the Eyes of Chaos’.
There is also ‘the Dark Company’, which can add to the storyline. Considering it’s about one of the Emperors best knights, Hinsgrim, who turns to Chaos, and the same thing happens to Sir Ragnar earlier in the chronology, I just made them the same person. Sir Ragnar Von Hinsgrim. Regardless of whether you combine them or not, Ragnar has a pretty interesting character arc. Be sure to check out the ‘Chronicles of Sir Ragnar’, which was a collective project here at the Inn.

thanks for your responses everyone. Love adding new things to my game nights. Keep em ideas coming

Pancho wrote:In terms of the official quests, don’t forgot ‘the Halls of Durrag Dol’ and ‘the Eyes of Chaos’.
There is also ‘the Dark Company’, which can add to the storyline. Considering it’s about one of the Emperors best knights, Hinsgrim, who turns to Chaos, and the same thing happens to Sir Ragnar earlier in the chronology, I just made them the same person. Sir Ragnar Von Hinsgrim. Regardless of whether you combine them or not, Ragnar has a pretty interesting character arc. Be sure to check out the ‘Chronicles of Sir Ragnar’, which was a collective project here at the Inn.

Im aware of ‘the Halls of Durrag Dol’ and ‘the Eyes of Chaos’ but as I said I want quests that can work with only Game System, Kellar's Keep and Return of the Witch Lord.
These 2 quests need later expansions so I cant do them, I mean I can modify them, but these 2 are BASED in future expansions, if it was just a monster or two from future expansions id do the modification but I dont wanna completly remake a quests. Thanks though.

The Dark Company is very interesting I think I can work with it, maybe have it as the final quest and write an epiloge or something.

Ah I see. You would need ogres to do Eyes of Chaos.
Durrag Dol is scaven, so technically none of the expansions would be of use to you. You would need a small supply of ratmen from somewhere.

Pancho wrote:Ah I see. You would need ogres to do Eyes of Chaos.
Durrag Dol is scaven, so technically none of the expansions would be of use to you. You would need a small supply of ratmen from somewhere.

Which can be scored from Advanced HeroQuest. Now you'd have the Chaos Tokens for the EW mod and lots of extra game tiles, not to mention a modular dungeon to change it up a bit after playing the standard board for a few months.