Tuesday Night HeroQuest!

[knightkrawler]

Say, how long does your average quests take?
Shortest and longest aside from these three and a half?

[lucasdp]

Say, how long does your average quests take?
Shortest and longest aside from these three and a half?

We usually average about two hours, depending on the analysis paralysis and bathroom breaks. I think our shortest quest ever was about one hour.

[knightkrawler]

Basically same as back when we played regularly with the vanilla rules.
Sounds about right for my plans for 4-hour sessions and quest packs that only contain 3, 4, or 5 quests.
Thanks.

[lucasdp]

So we finally made it through the Forbidden Caverns. It took another two-hour long gaming session but we did it.
Having had a week to think on it and refresh, the Heroes made a valiant plan to push forward through the hallways, leaving one hero on each spawning space until they were ready (which wasn't until the exit door was revealed ). So, they moved forward, one space each round, with Gizzard the Wizard still hanging out on the first X. Lady Darwin the Dwarf stopped on the second X, and Vrag the Barbarian and Miranda the Elf pushed forward. When Miranda fell in the pit trap, Vrag went north, setting off a falling block trap, but eventually making his way around to find the exit. From there, it was a pretty methodical effort to clean out the last of the undead. Gizzard made good use of his Pass Through Rock spell to catch up and everyone was almost out when Vrag and Lady Darwin decided they wanted to search a couple rooms for treasure. So, Lady Darwin had to fight a room of nasties basically solo, and Vrag found another pit trap. Then, finally, the heroes left the exit, with one last zombie that I was able to spawn on their tails.

Totaling about 5 and a half hours altogether, this was a long, grueling, and sometimes boring quest. My heroes were good sports about it and I wouldn't say it was no fun at all, but I could tell this was no one's favorite quest. Once Zargon is able to get a good string of three or four undead in the hallways, this quest moves at a snail's pace, with the heroes literally only moving one space each round. I know Gizzard was frustrated and bored, as he was basically just standing on one spot until the rush to the exit at the end.

I'm not saying this is a bad quest, but it is definitely one I may skip if/when I run through RotWL again in the future. There are no special artifacts or anything that is necessary to complete the quest pack. Sure, there's the swords in the one treasure chest (which I was going to replace with a relatively equivalent amount of gold coins), but that's it, really. And most smart heroes will figure out that the best way through this quest is to just keep going forward. By the time they got to the room with the good treasure, my heroes had decided not to waste time in rooms (which, I guess is the point of putting the treasure in that room anyway, but...). Just be aware that this quest will likely take about twice as long as your normal quests, maybe even longer. If we had sat down to play this early on a rainy Saturday morning and spent all day doing it, this might have been more fun. But trying to do it in the "usual" amount of time and then having to split it between two sessions was frustrating, to say the least. Looking forward to a more typical quest next week; then, the Heroes will face the Witch Lord again the following week!

[Anderas]

Thanks for that feedback. I was always wondering if that quest could be fun and you confirm it is likely not fun. I may skip it then.

Did I already tell you countless times how I appreciate those reports?

[knightkrawler]

Did I already tell you countless times how I appreciate those reports?

I get a bad conscience everytime I don't...

[lucasdp]

Did I already tell you countless times how I appreciate those reports?

I get a bad conscience everytime I don't...

Haha! Thanks, friends! I'm lucky enough to get to play HeroQuest on an almost weekly basis, and I certainly enjoy sharing it here. This is a great community that helped relight the passion for one of my favorite games, and gaming in general, to be honest.

[lucasdp]

Time for an update!
So, last week we played RotWL Q9: The Last Gate. This was a pretty good one, and we were all thankful to have a more "normal" quest after the grueling, two-session Forbidden Caverns.
When planning this quest, what I found most interesting was that there were two paths to the stairway and the heroes could have stuck with one path and only encountered Kessandria or the Doomguard. There is no requirement to face both to get through this quest. Of course, if your Heroes like to explore (and they probably do, if you're playing HQ ), then you may see the whole dungeon unfold.

On our table, most of the Heroes went south towards Kessandria, but Vrag the Barabarian went north to explore the other rooms on his own. Lady Darwin , Miranda , and Gizzard made it to Kessandria before Vrag made it to the Doomguards, so he hurried back to help fight her. Well, I managed to shoot off a couple good spells with Kessandria:
Fear on Miranda the Elf, rendering her Spirit Blade as useless as a common knife.
Cloud of Chaos on everyone except Vrag (who hadn't made it into the room with everyone else yet), but Gizzard the Wizard was able to break the spell immediately. Wizard + Talisman of Lore = lots of mind points

But after that, Gizzard dispatched her pretty quickly with Fire spells. She wasn't able to make it to the secret door to attempt escape, and the heroes didn't think to search for secret doors in that room, so they started heading back up towards the Doomguard. Some decent combat there, then they searched for the secret door and eventually made their way to the trapped room. A couple of heroes got hit with spear traps while fighting those skeletons, but they paid attention to which spaces seemed clear and found the safe path out and to the stairway.

We were supposed to play Q10: The Court of the Witch Lord tonight, but Vrag had to cancel at the last minute. Usually, I have no problem postponing or rescheduling, but I'm a little frustrated this time. Partially because I think he knew he would have to cancel and could have told us earlier, but also because we were really looking forward to wrapping up this quest pack. Some members of our group have summer vacations coming up, and I really wanted to finish this campaign before that all started. Ah well, what can you do? Whenever we get around to playing it, I will be sure to let y'all know how it goes.

[Gold Bearer]

Well at least playing the end of the quest pack when they come back will remind everyone of where they were. It could seem a bit too much like a new game otherwise. Are you doing against the ogre hoard next. Watch out if you are, there's a tone of mistakes in that quest book. You'll need to go through it first and sort them out, it's much less annoying than finding them as you go.

[Anderas]

I like how that played out! Thanks for that one.
I really have to read that witch lord book in detail soon - but i am looking forward to playing it soon, so i don't want to spoil it for me.