Ye Olde Inn

I think that Zargon's twitter account has officially commented that benefits gotten from Druid's Shapeshift Spell may be added to the Druid stats also considering the equipment she owns at that moment:

This may be a controversial one (apparently social media has been ablaze with people debating it and this was then asked on the official Avalon Hill Discord):


I think, much like the Crossbow clarification, I'm going to be ignoring this when I play. Cards for comparison...

In all fairness to him of course he posted this shortly afterward...

About Courage spell card I dont see any errata there, correct? So I dont understand the controversy. The only thing is LoS is mentioned in the remake card instead of saying "see" but LoS is another discussion, or am I missing something?

Not sure what you mean about the crossbow. Sorry, did Zargon twitter account say something about it?

I wasn't present at the Facebook debate (or one that was held on BoardGameGeek too apparently) where people were apparently "confused" over whether Courage lasted for only one attack or if it kept on going. The answer above was in response, so apparently it's like 1st edition again, just one attack. I guess he is interpreting the rest of the text to mean that if you cast it on a hero and then the monsters move away (or there were none within LOS to begin with) it is simply wasted. I just asked him about Rock Skin next, I guess we'll get to hear whether that only lasts for one defense too (similar logic ought to apply, unless it really is an attempt to nerf the game in response to these "debates"). There was a rather long thread on the Inn many years ago about this very topic, but it seemed more that once people noticed that Courage had changed from version to version, that they started asking what was the best way.

Very few clarifications were made in the actual text of 2021 remake vs. 1990 NA edition. The clarification on the Borin's Armor card was to explain to people that helmet in the artwork didn't mean you couldn't add a helmet to make it even stronger... that the Spell Ring and Wand of Magic work for any Spell Caster (not just the Wizard or Elf since there are now other heroes out there that use magic, though notably all of them were in the pledge version thus far as the Knight and Rogue use "skills" instead) and the Courage clarification (I thought) was to say it means line of sight (not some other interpretation of "see" like any monster anywhere on the board for example). Bracers were made more expensive because they opened it up to use by any hero (and it was meant to be the other piece of the "no metal armor" puzzle that was introduced with these new heroes).

I haven't tracked all of the "rule clarifications" but it was on Twitter that someone asked whether the crossbow is able to hit the four orthogonal adjacent diagonals close to a figure, and the answer was "yes." Found the image now (I am starting to forget what I have seen on discord vs. here, sorry!) thanks to seekhasem for capturing it:

Kurgan wrote:I haven't tracked all of the "rule clarifications" but it was on Twitter that someone asked whether the crossbow is able to hit the four orthogonal adjacent diagonals close to a figure, and the answer was "yes." Found the image now (I am starting to forget what I have seen on discord vs. here, sorry!) thanks to seekhasem for capturing it:

With this most would consider a longsword pointless, but I would like to point out the crossbow does require line-of-sight, meaning you should not be able to shoot a monster diagonally through a door or around a corner like you can with a longsword or any other diagonal melee weapon. So if you find a diagonal weapon it is worth keeping, but probably not worth buying.

Kurgan wrote:I haven't tracked all of the "rule clarifications" but it was on Twitter that someone asked whether the crossbow is able to hit the four orthogonal adjacent diagonals close to a figure, and the answer was "yes." Found the image now (I am starting to forget what I have seen on discord vs. here, sorry!) thanks to seekhasem for capturing it:

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Thanks Kurgan, very good and historical issue officially solved at the end!! (at least for remake's edition of HQ...)

I want to clarify my own position here: that I completely disagree with some of their decisions when it comes to these things. My point is not to belittle the hard work they do (I'm sure it's much harder to "patch" a popular board game than say, a computer game), but at the end of the day we all play the game the way we want to (which is something Avalon Hill constantly publicly affirms, as is right). This may come across as an entitled fan speaking, but I think if we've been playing this game for all these years, we can be trusted to "know" the game, perhaps even better than some folks who only recently started working on it (as talented as they obviously are, and willing to talk to the fans which is something many modern companies could learn from).

I really appreciate that they released "Into the Northlands" and the revisions to the Elf Pack were quite welcome (a few more would have been nice in both cases but they certainly did more than some companies would have, and I am grateful for that acknowledgement and willingness to reach out to the fans and hear our concerns).

I'm happy to help catalog these online "updates" and "rulings" and "clarifications" (talking about the tweets and discord posts, which I treat separately from the official releases like the PDF quests or the App updates as supplements to the physical boxed versions) but at the same time I consider some of them to be silly, confusing, or just bizarre and won't be using them in my games. I figure if it isn't even printed that way in the first place, I think it's impractical to rely upon a tweet or discord post to revise some rule that really wasn't broken to begin with.

The fact can't be escaped that this is a re-release, a remake (you could even call it a "new edition") of an existing property, so it will always be compared to the source material and what came before. So they have a delicate task whenever they go to change something, and I admire especially how (for the most part) even the Companion App leaves a lot to the players to decide, rather than forcing you to do it according to a specific interpretation. Quite a balancing act they have maintained!

That they take the time to answer when fans ask, is in their favor, however. Sorry for the mini-rant!

Yes, of course, maybe some of the official (or pseudo-official) clarifications could make controversy, however I think in this case they have decided to go in the direction which most of the players used to play in the past about the Crossbow, and they prefered not to complicate theirselves. You know taht Crossbow/Diagonal is a very old debate, no doubt this decision will downgrade the value of just-diagonal close combat weapons (and Halberdier mercenaries compared with Crossbowmen ones), but it is true that Avalon decision about Crossbow simplifies the game rules, probably the main reason to do it in such way.

Nevertheless, the best thing about HeroQuest is that you can play with the rules you consider better.

Yeah I just treat the Longsword and Crossbow as opposites... one hits all eight squares around you... the other doesn't hit those squares (but can hit all of the other squares out from it, assuming not blocked. To me that is simpler.

The "crossbow" issue to me is that it was a loophole in the original writing. Then again they clarified the hand axe, and that's was a loophole that benefits the Wizard!

I'm just waiting for the time when they say you need to walk up to a treasure chest to get what's inside. I mean, I'm sure a lot people played that way...

At least it's easier to ignore and not argue about if it's just in a social media post vs. printed on the card staring back at you.