Ye Olde Inn

I'm hearing on HQF discord that there are still issues with the Spanish translation of the Remake edition, on the new cards, can others confirm?


The S.W.A.G. (stuff we all get) freebie given at GenCon (and also generously available for free download on HasbroPulse) seems more of a demo than anything. The symbols I suppose are there for reference (models for your own sketches), for the would-be quest writer to hand draw onto the blank quest map. Really only the quest map grid is useful for creating new content because the symbols are too big to cut out and paste without resizing them digitally. PDF editors (rather than readers) tend to be expensive, so this isn't the most accessible way to do it, but a person could take snapshots and copy 'n' paste after a fashion with it.

At the very least they should have given numbers next to each one to show how many are included in the set. I think it was probably done more to get people excited than to serve as a true "Adventure Design Kit." I really thought perhaps it would be a preview of a real digital quest maker. But no explanation was given. So I guess we have to wait for an official explanation...?

I'm thinking of tweaking Bard slightly.
I liked the idea of a Hero being nimble and quick, (although does he LOOK nimble and quick??) and I think the defense dice are related to ABILITY to defend, not just what defensive items are equipped.
For instance, any normal person would have a chance to hit a heavily armed Knight in full armour, but a Ninja would be very hard to hit!
I think the Bards Rapier needs to be special, and as it can be swung quickly, it is also useful to parry a blow, so to me should have defensive ability as well.
So when I play the Bard, I'm considering this.
Start value of A2 (+diagonal), D3 (Base 2 +1 for the Rapier)
If he gets the bracers it's +1, and the +1 bonus as written, so making him durable enough for harder Quests on 5D dice. Remember, he only has 5bp as well!
I will also allow a special ability to the Rapier, allowing 1 die re roll each attack, as lightning speed attacks can be made with it. So it increases chance of a hit, but limits it to up to 2
Alternatively I could let it roll 2 black dice for attack, again increasing chances of a hit, but not the damage caused.
Of course he can change to a better weapon, but then loses a defense die, but will be on 4 , which is on par with any other Hero using a battleaxe.

Kurgan wrote:I'm hearing on HQF discord that there are still issues with the Spanish translation of the Remake edition, on the new cards, can others confirm?

Do you refer to Spanish expansions errata? Spanish Game System errata were already listed here.

Maybe I misunderstood. I thought that someone was saying they got replacement cards but the new cards didn't fix all the issues. Since I don't have the sets in Spanish (and my grasp of the language is extremely poor) I couldn't say.

Yes, that's true. The replacement cards solved the heroes starting weapon errata, but the rest of translation mistakes in the cards, especially in spell ones, were not fixed in the new deck.

Another small error... Frozen Horror (BQP) Quest 5 (Deadly Depths) actually calls for two Sorcerer's Tables in the same quest. Oops!

Kurgan wrote:Another small error... Frozen Horror (BQP) Quest 5 (Deadly Depths) actually calls for two Sorcerer's Tables in the same quest. Oops!

Yup, just seen it, but the looks of the map, the one on the left room with a trap, could be the Rack

Maybe I’m mistaken, but whenever Mentor or Zargon are mentioned with accompanying artwork its always the same person. It’s like they use the same artwork for both characters. The facial expressions in the artwork is also evil in appearance.
This could mean:
Mentor is Belgian (because they are so damn evil according to Austen Powers),
Or
Mentor and Zargon are actually the same person (this, many will know is a long-standing joke theory at the inn).

Perhaps Avalon Hill should post side by side artwork to clear up the confusion. I don’t even think the heroes can tell the difference. It was probably Zargon masquerading as Mentor when he sent the heroes after the Frozen Horror. I mean, who can survive 4 polar war bear attacks from a failed treasure search in the last quest? That has to be Zargon’s doing, and the heroes fell right into his trap. Perhaps if the players and heroes were better informed, they could make better life decisions.

Eudoxio wrote:

Kurgan wrote:Another small error... Frozen Horror (BQP) Quest 5 (Deadly Depths) actually calls for two Sorcerer's Tables in the same quest. Oops!

Yup, just seen it, but the looks of the map, the one on the left room with a trap, could be the Rack

True, you could substitute whatever you want to take up the same space, or move the sorcerer's table... it's just decoration.
Nevertheless, the game only comes with one of these types of furniture. Sometimes quests will seem to have "too many" of something like this and the quest notes will clarify what (maybe the furniture magically changes or is destroyed, or some other explanation) but there's no clue to that here so I think it's just an error.

***

The Mentor/Zargon conspiracy rages on!

I guess if we start with the 1989 game, officially the "evil santa" character is meant to be Mentor. This is less obvious in the NA edition many of us grew up with, but more strongly emphasized in the 2021 remake (and clarified by comments from Stephen Baker around this time). To me, Zargon looks like the guy on the GM screen, because that's what we always assumed, but I can accept the designer intent.

The Marvel Winter Special (again for the European audience) depicted the red cloaked, white bearded sorcerer as explicitly Mentor, and gave us a first glimpse of an alternate design for Morcar (his original name before it was changed to Zargon in North America, and Grimdead in Japan) showing him looking very much like Skeletor from Masters of the Universe, but with a hood obscuring his face in darkness with glowing eyes, blue skin, bone decorated armor, etc. a stereotypical fantasy evil overlord if I ever saw one.

The Sticker Album (released in Europe) portrays in its cartoony artwork that this figure is Morcar, and gives us a new character, who looks like his twin brother, but wearing a blue cloak instead of red, and wearing a white skullcap and with elf-like pointed ears. This is kind of the interpretation I go with these days, but you could argue it was a one off and most of the world has no idea about the Sticker Album.

This version appeals to me the most (not that it matters) because it is in keeping with the fact that HQ draws on many popular forms of epic fantasy and sword & sorcery. Conan the Barbarian is obviously the inspiration for the cover Barbarian for instance, but I think the Mentor/Morcar thing reminds me most of Gandalf/Saruman from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. So if they both happen to be kind of similar looking old wizards, that would seem like a natural enough depiction. Then again if you compare them to the hero players, you have the archetypal designs of the miniatures but your particular version of it might be different. The Les Edwards paintings gave us a pretty clear depiction of each hero, but for instance the Dwarf (based directly on the Gamesworkshop "White Dwarf") is different than the Dwarf shown on the cover of the game or on Kellar's Keep (the game card version having much darker skin). Maybe your character is short and stocky while another's might be taller and thinner. Maybe your Barbarian has a beard and an eyepatch, while someone else's might be bald and have a distinctive scar. In 1989 players were encouraged to paint their figures, so you could customize and individualize them further besides just giving them a name and choosing their equipment. Your imagination did the rest. In a similar way Zargon has a painted picture, but he could look like anything.

The 1991 PC game of HeroQuest (the DOS version anyway, the fanciest of the platforms) showed a brief animated prologue cutscene which depicted a wizard type figure as Mentor who is shown far away or obscured in shadow. It cuts away as Mentor begins speaking about the history of Morcar, to a closeup of an aged sorcerer with pointed ears (no blue skin), and a thin, scowling face. Are we meant to think this is Mentor scowling as he recalls the sordid history of his former student... or a mental portrait of Morcar himself? Later we're shown an image of a bearded, white haired man sitting at a desk talking... is this Mentor speaking? There is no voice acting here, only inter-titles. One could interpret this to mean that's what Morcar looks like (the elf eared man, and Mentor is the white bearded fellow). Later in the game itself it shows the white bearded man overseeing the battle. Is this Mentor's watchful eye? Or is it Morcar plotting the turns of the bad guys? The Amiga version shows a different more caricatured looking sorcerer face on the screen with a wild kind of expression (is this meant to be Morcar?).

In the remake all references to Zargon have been stripped of their male pronouns. Was this done out of a sense of political correctness only, or to try to make "Zargon" a blank stand in for any person who might be controlling them (doesn't turn into "Zargona" if a girl is playing the GM role)?

Many kids were confused about this... is the GM board meant to be the "Mask" that the Zargon player is wearing, showing what he looks like, or are you Zargon and the image below is Mentor trying to warn you about the monsters? 2021 Remake I think has clearly defined "evil santa" as Mentor, and we simply don't know what Zargon looks like.

I'm not sure this is an errata with the Games so much as an ambiguity... one not helped much by the conflicting info in the supplemental material (which granted, US players probably never saw back in the day).

There's another connection, to Warhammer fantasy lore. Although Hasbro has disentangled and downplayed the formative aspects of GWS's presence in the formation of HQ for legal reasons, WHF lore fans have pointed out there's a character called "Morkar" though he's living in a much earlier time period to the time HQ is supposedly taking place in (then again, he's supposed to be many centuries old) but is a Chaos Warrior, not an evil wizard type character. Of course there is a historical figure called Morcar as well (who wasn't an evil sorcerer or a chaos warrior!). Zargon was a commonly used fantasy name in the 80's/90's and is likely derived from Sargon of Akkad, another historical figure (similarly not a fantasy wizard or whatever). We get into the realm of ambiguity and speculation here, away from actual errors.

Sorry for the tangent. Interesting, nonetheless...

I was always confused by the original 1990 game screen.
It clearly shows a Wizard reading a large tome which is clearly meant to be Loretome, so hence the Wizard should be Mentor.
This is more distinct and confirmed in the 2021 version.
But in the 1990 version, his face just looks like evil personified to me, and given he is shown above all the Chaos minions below, it just made me think HE was Morcar/Zargon. Though I didn't know of Zargon then, of course!
On the subject of Skeletor, He Man's nemesis, has there ever been a better bad guy?
The guy is a legend!