What new cards?

[Anderas]

Hello everyone,

Let's go fishing for some ideas in this thread.

What game card(s) are you missing most?
Is there any gap in the equipment you think is really obvious?
Imagine your want to add just one spell to each of the existing groups, which one would you add?
Is there a spell group you think should be available for heroes which is not today?

Which potion is missing in the treasure deck?

[Stig]

I think the popular ones are

- The Evil Wizard deck
- Skill Cards
- Injury Cards
- Parley Cards

One thing I'm working on are "Settlement" cards - between Quests you can either go to a Town/City/Village.

You draw a card from the appropriate deck, and it tells you:

- What locations there are (armoury/healer/wizard's tower etc)
- What is in the armoury and how much it all costs
- How much it costs to lodge there, and how quickly you heal BP/MP

So cities are better stocked but more expensive etc

I may even go to town and make a hex for each location to assemble the settlement between quests

That keeps the simplicity of Heroquest - looking at clear cards with simple instructions, yet adds variety

[BigDaddio]

I think it would be fantastic if there was a deck of "Heroic Feat" cards. Each one, when earned/bought/found/whatever provide a hero with a specific ability to use up to once per quest. These feats would not simply be skills or bonuses...they would be kind of like a "scene" where the hero acts in a dramatic manner not typically permitted in the standard rules. Examples are things like a ricochet shot with a bow or jumping up to grab a chandelier and swinging over to the other side of a monster or such. There are lots of different feats that could be included. They wouldn't necessarily be automatic, either...maybe require a roll to determine how successful they are, with different rolls causing different results.

**EDIT: maybe the rolls could introduce a press-your-luck element....decide how many dice to roll; the more "good" icons you roll the better your result, but if you roll at least 2 of the "bad" icon the feat backfires

(by the way sorry if this idea has been mentioned or done already...I'm new and still exploring the depths of this site, which is like a dungeon crawl in itself...in a good way lol!!)

[Anderas]

That's food for thought indeed!

It could be along the lines like the ancient game of Warhammer Quest - Heroes could go to a temple between the quests and p(r)ay. Gods would grant them their grand moment (or nothing at all) which they could use during the next quest. If you pay a lot, you can take two or even three cards and keep one. If you don't p(r)ay enough, it coul the other way round, morcar draws two cards and discards one, the other goes to the hero.... well i get into RPG again

[Stig]

That's just what I was thinking, it's what gave me the idea. The taking several cards and keeping one is exactly like the card Brainstorm (& similar) in Magic The Gathering. There are so many neat, simple mechanics in more recent games that would be a perfect fit for Heroquest homebrew. Food for thought indeed!

[Anderas]

Was thinking about your God blessings today.

If you go to a temple of hmm or a church of erm, you don't want to buy an effect like a potion. It should be a blessing chosen by the God.

Also, you don't want it to be reliable, otherwise, back to potion shop.

So me and my father did a little brainstorming today. He said, easiest way would be if it is like buying lottery tickets.

Prepare a godly card deck, lots of "nothing" cards inside, even a few bad cards. Some medium and some really good. You can go praying once between the quests. For every 10 gold you get one card, however you have to pay the full amount in advance, no second try. Then you can choose one out of those cards and keep it for the next quest.

If you don't pay enough, you'll just get one or two cards, with a risk of getting just nothing or even a bad card. If you p(r)ay enough, you get multiple cards so that you have a decent chance for something good.


I was thinking of changing the price per card with 3d6 behind the screen so that you never can be too sure, but now I am not sure if that becomes too much.

Now we just need some good special action cards you can get as blessing if you win the lottery.

What do you think?

[Stig]

That’s a really neat idea, I was thinking of having a temple to go to between quests but had no idea of a good temple prayer mechanic, but this is genius! Classic HQ, nice and simple. I think a fixed price per prayer card is simpler and more HQ, along with the option of praying 1-3 times.

I’ve got a prayer mechanic up my sleeve for in game prayers, but that’s another story.

[Count Mohawk]

I really like this idea of making offerings at the "Church of Him" in exchange for the potential for a blessing of some sort.

How large would the "prayer deck" be? The more cards you put into the deck, the greater the variety of effect you can stock in it. For comparison, the Treasure deck starts at 24 cards and has, roughly speaking, 3 different types of cards (Gold, Items and Hazards).
As for what kinds of things the Gods can do... NetHack has a good set of possibilities one could crib off of: (External link to Prayer page; be warned against spoilers if you care about that)

• Grant you a boost of vigor! (+1 to starting and maximum Body Points for the next Quest)
• Blesses your weapon or armor (+1 combat dice when using it for one Quest. A lesser blessing would give +1 just against Undead, much like the Spirit Blade has)
• Grants you a spellbook (i.e. a Spell Scroll)
• Calls down divine lightning upon foes (to be invoked as a Cast action during the following Quest)
• Or, if you piss off the gods, they might smite you!

[Anderas]

Smallest deck size in Printerstudio in my favorite format 2.5 inch by 3.5 inch is 18 cards, next step is 36, then 54 cards.

54 is a lot. 36 would be nice I think

If I make one or two cards with the rules for this, that gives a design freedom of of 34 cards.

There is no pressure to fill the deck, though - gaps are filled with nothing, like in the lottery.


* Jackie's Jump: After attacking, you may move two squares. You can also move through squares occupied by monsters. Discard this card after using, or at the end of the quest.
* Urma's Fan: Attack all enemies on squares adjacent to you with your next dice roll.
* Bilbo's feet: Move digonally this turn. This may even pass between diagonally standing enemies, like a long sword attack.
* Holy Vision: Close a door you just opened. Monsters in the room do not count as activated.
* Apple of Discord: Switch out your Hero model with another one. Use all of the other heroe's stats and cards as if they were your own. After your turn is over, switch the models back. Used items remain used.
* Dripping Windmill: After killing a 1-BP-Monster in close combat, move up to one square and attack the next 1-BP-monster. Repeat until you fail to kill a monster.
* Surge of Power: Use as many spells this turn as you like. None of them may restore BP or MP to anybody.
* Clattering of Bones and Chatter of Teeth: If you killed Skeletons in this room, summon a Bone Golem. It has as many AT, DE and BP as there were Skeletons; Move 4 and 0 MP. At the start of each of your turns, remove one BP from it or from you, until it is dead again.
* Pin them: An Arrow you shoot may hit two enemies standing behind each other, who are in adjacent squares to each other. Roll to hit as normal, any excess skull from the first is transferred to the second figure.
* Unravelling: Exchange a Mummy figure with a Zombie Figure and gain one Bandage equipment card.
* Trap Karma: Take a trap of a type you discovered or sprung earlyer this quest, and place it on a square of a monster. The monster suffers the trap effects. (Thanks for that idea Mohawk )

Neutral cards and bad cards (you don't want)
* Nothing: Nothing happens. Discard this card before you start your next quest.
* Robbery!: On the way back from the temple, you're being robbed. Roll a d6 multiply by ten: Remove that many coins from your hero sheet.
* Curse!: Start the next adventure with one starting BP and MP less. If this has impact on your abilities or equipment, so be it.
* Curse!: Roll one white die less in attack during your next adventure.
* Curse!: Movement rolls greater than 6 count as 6 during your next adventure.

muaa maaahaha mua HA HA HAAAAA

[Stig]

Wow, I only didn't check for a few hours and this deck is basically done - pure awesomeness! With 36 cards, there's about a dozen effects, which seems about right. There's always the classic "fate - reroll any one die".

My 2C:

Dark Favour: Tthe Chaos gods smiling upon the Hero, granting them the use of one random Chaos spell during the quest
Lifeleech: The gods mystically link the hero's body and mind. They may transfer MP to BP and vice versa during the quest
Curse: The hero receives a random injury from the injury deck
Divination: The Hero may cancel the effects of one EWP card next quest