Re: HeroQuest - Amped Edition (custom rule & quest book)
Posted: Thursday August 24th, 2023 12:50pm
Bareheaded Warrior wrote:I’m also interested in your approach to making a “combined” ruleset, and why you chose this approach and how you found it, in the sense that I think there are 3 possible approaches.
I am taking all the rules from both versions and making them work together. If I can't for some reason then I make my own.
Bareheaded Warrior wrote:Preface
1. Whilst I don't oppose the use of the term "Dungeon Master" the original game already has the generic term "Evil Wizard Player" that represents that role which is distinct from any characters that player may play such as “Morcar” or “Zargon” (or indeed “Mentor”, or “The Witch Lord” and many others). This distinction is reasonably clear in the SE version (EWP is used 36 times and Morcar only 4 times, specifically referencing the character), but the NA edition blurred the lines here by using the specific character name "Zargon" instead of the "Evil Wizard Player" generic role label. Changing “Evil Wizard Player” to “Dungeon Master” won’t break anything (apart from possibly D&D IP ) but in my opinion doesn’t add anything either.
2. Referring to the Dungeon Master / Evil Wizard Player and other players as “they, them or theirs” would be equally consistent as referring to them as “he, him or his”
As stated in my book. I hate that the game has such a confrontational feel to it and makes it feel like the Heroes are against the EWP when they are in fact just facing the dungeon. The EWP/DM/whatever is only putting out what is laid out in the quest book. They are just the story teller.
Bareheaded Warrior wrote:3. Just an observation that in the preface you mention expanding the character sheet use and moving away from cards to reduce clutter and create more space around the table (I have incidentally gone the other way and reduced the role of the character sheet to be almost entirely used solely between quests as a permanent record of your characters development, and in-game use of cards and tokens, but each has advantages and disadvantages) but in a later section you mention that the new character sheet is A4, so roughly four times the size of the original A6ish and recommend the use of a clipboard for each player to save space around the table.
Cards are a nuisance! Plain and simple, so I got rid of them. The end.
Bareheaded Warrior wrote:Character Creation and Sheet
4. You mention under Body points that being “reduced to 0 or lower Body Points could result in being killed” and refer the reader to the combat section but in that section it states “if a player character is reduced to 0 Body points or lower then he dies!” but also “Important Note – If a character has 1 Body Point left and takes multiple points of damage, they are only reduced to zero Body Points”. This last statement contradicts the two earlier statements around a Body point total being lower than zero.
I will have a look and make it more standardised. This has been changed to be more clear (hopefully).
Bareheaded Warrior wrote:5. In terms of general layout, having 19 pages – 1 “Schools of Magic” page and 18 pages of spell tables - to get through to arrive at the starting the game feels odd and I think would put off many new players having their first read through of the rules, perhaps all of that could be moved to later in the rulebook, possibly an appendix?
It is there to give easy access to what spells are available to starting Heroes.
When I started my play through with the wife she had never seen HeroQuest let alone played it. During character creation I simply presented her with options to pick from; what race, what class etc. If she wanted further information about something (like spells) then that information was made available to her but not everything was dumped on to her at once which is what you are implying it seems. That is down to the DM in how he treats their players and is something for them to decide, not me.
Bareheaded Warrior wrote:6. On a similar theme, perhaps for speed of getting players playing their first game you could introduce a new section, giving them the option to get started with a limited number of “pre-generated” characters, such as “Human Barbarian” and so on, and then moving the 2 full pages of Character classes tables to later in the document, to digest once they have played a few games (and died) and are familiar with the basic rules.
Never going to happen. I hate pre-generated characters! I like to make my own decisions. If they want pre-made characters then play the vanilla version of the game and not mine.
Bareheaded Warrior wrote:Schools Of Magic
7. Last line reads that “adjacent” includes diagonal is that a specific exception to the general meaning of the term adjacent for the purposes of spells or does that mean that “adjacent” cover both orthogonally adjacent and diagonally adjacent squares in general?
I will look for this and see if I can clarify it better.
This is specific to spells hence the whole line which reads "A spell that states “adjacent” includes diagonal squares from the caster (including the square the caster is stood on) or the area in which it was cast unless the spell specifically states otherwise". This was done due because many spells can be cast while being diagonal and saved me typing it for every single one. Generally (from what I can recall right now) only things like healing spells etc is where you must be adjacent (horizontally or vertically). For spells which this is the case they state "must be adjacent (not diagonal)" for clarification.
Bareheaded Warrior wrote:Starting the Adventure: Order of Rules
8. You state that rules need to be interpreted in the following order:
i. Quest Notes
ii. Monster or special monster rules
iii. Equipment and magic
iv. This rulebook
However this is a little confusing as both “monster or special monster rules” and “equipment and magic” appear in this rulebook so categories ii, iiii and iv are essentially in the same order, this may just be wording. This also doesn’t establish a precedent if one is needed between Equipment rules and Magic rules (which may be intentional)
Equipment and magic rules I will take a look at and fix.
Monster and special monsters are monsters in the Bestiary and those listed in the specific quest notes.
EDIT - I think I see what you mean here. I have now changed this to just "quest notes" and "this rule book". In addition I have also added that multiple spells are dealt with in the order that they are cast which should prevent any major issues but we will see I guess
Bareheaded Warrior wrote:Starting the Adventure: Order of Play
“Play moves round until it comes back to the Dungeon Master who can then move any and all monsters on the game board that have been discovered by the players. Monsters who have not been found cannot be moved until they are discovered”
9. This piece of text is confusing to me, the use of the word “found” and “discovered” in the same sentence implies that the two terms are different but the difference is not explained. The DM is restricted to moving monsters on the game board, would any monsters that have not been “discovered” or “found” be on the gameboard? Also no restriction around whether the DM can move monster 1, move monster 2, take an action with monster 1 and so on.
10. List of what you can do on your turn includes movement, perform an action (actions are listed out separately), drink a potion, use a fate point. This implies that drinking a potion and using a fate point can be done on your turn but are not actions, but there are no restrictions mentioned around whether these non-actions can be done once or multiple times during your turn and no mention of other non-action like opening doors, opening chests, looking and so on
11. Your optional rule of unthreatened movement, I think is flawed. The general idea is fine and is common to many similar games, but HQ doesn’t have any way of discriminating between turns on which monsters are present and those where they are not, in fact monsters can appear during a characters turn. The great thing about HQ rolling for movement is that it contains an in-built initiative function, you open a door revealing a monster 8 squares away, you roll your movement dice, a high roll indicates you have got the jump on the monster and can reach and attack first, a low roll indicates that you have failed to get the jump and your movement falls short and the monster takes the initiative and moves into attack first. This optional rule allows a player to exploit this by ‘taking the option of a fixed 8 square movement’ (as there are no monsters on the board) then opening the door and revealing the inevitable monster, and ensuring that he gets first strike, which defeats the richness of the HQ movement roll mechanism.
Enough for now my fingers are getting tired…
9. A monster that is not discovered or found is not placed on to the game board. I will have a look though and see what I can do. This has now been changed to be more consistent with wording.
10. Potion drinking and using Fate Points are not actions and can be done at any time as explained in the book. As for the rest I will take a look. The sections on Drink a Potion and Use a Fate Point clearly state how many times they can be done in a single turn. Chests are considered furniture and as such require to be searched which follows the normal searching rules (see the Search section).
11. This is taken directly from one the official quests. Your exploit example is flawed... a Hero starts their turn at the door with it closed and no monsters present anywhere else so they may move 8 squares. They announce they are opening the door which presents a monster. Unthreatened Movement no longer applies, they now MUST roll for their movement since a monster/s is now present. In addition in your example of a Hero is 8 squares away from a monster and rolls low so they can't reach it to engage in melee combat... what about a ranged weapon?
Stoner81.