New EU monster idea: Vermin

[Patroclus]

The Attack 1/Defense 1/Body 1 are too low… I prefer the same stats as Goblins but with some skills.

For example, spiders could choose to hit your Mind with poison but only one time per each spider. If you fall to 0 Mind, follow the “shock” rule (from the barbarian booklet) but only until the end of this battle, if we talk for small spiders though… If we talking for giant spiders the shock will last longer (for more encounters, and not rounds, or else the hero will choose to stay in the same position and spend some turns).

For snotlings, put a sacrifice skill, that each snotlings can sacrifice its life to try a hit of 3 combat dice. Because GM could do a massive attack with this option, try to use the sacrifice only if the snotling succeeds to make damage. For example, a snotling hits a hero with one skull, then the GM chooses to sacrifice the snotling to make a second attack with 3 combat dice and then remove the snotling from play.

For snakes you could keep the Attack 1/Defense 1/Body 1 but always damages your Mind points using poison.

For Rats you could use a disease counter, and each 2 counters remove 1 additional Body.

For Bats because they drink blood, put a Drain skill, that adds one body point each time they do damage.

I like the idea of passing traps but it is not a great advantage… Try to use skills to make the difference…

ps: keep some notes with skills you like and every time you want to add a new monster do some cooking.

[Sjeng]

Of course, traps are treated a bit strangely elsewhere in the official EU rules, so I expect everyone houserules them anyway. (Apparently when you search for and find a falling block trap you're supposed to place it on the board, which makes no sense.)

I play it like this: you search for traps, DM says the ceiling looks unstable at "this" point (places block trap tile upside down on board). Then you can either avoid it, or try to disable it by standing next to the square, using the toolkit. If you succeed, the tile is removed. If you fail, the block is placed, blocking that tile permanently.

[Patroclus]

by the way my monsters looks like this:
Giant Scorpion: A 2; D 2; B 3; M 1; MV 8; Poison, Push Back

[Zenithfleet]

The Attack 1/Defense 1/Body 1 are too low… I prefer the same stats as Goblins but with some skills.

[here follow many interesting ideas for creature skills]

Thanks Patroclus - those sound pretty cool.

For my own games, though, I'd rather keep the Vermin as weaker than Goblins. If I start giving them skills then I'll want to give all the monsters skills too - f little spiders have special abilities then surely highly trained warriors will too. Then I'd have to remember what they all did, and think of Hero skills to counter them. Before I knew it I'd be on the slippery slope to Advanced D&D: HeroQuest edition. It's always tempting to add more and more detail and complexity, but as I said, I like to keep HQ as simple and fast-playing as possible.

This is also why I've just put all the different creatures under one category (Vermin). Lots of people have come up with nifty rules for individual critters, so I thought I'd go the other way and lump them all together, just to be different.

As for ignoring traps, that's just a bonus. The really important bit - or so I hope - is the ability to move through opposing models. (If the Heroes are defending a door, you can scuttle a couple of spiders or rats through to harass the cowardly Wizard further down the corridor.) That's another reason why the Vermin have weak stats. Because they break an otherwise universal HQ rule - that enemy models can't move through each other - I don't want them to be too much of a threat. Just a nuisance.

Of course, traps are treated a bit strangely elsewhere in the official EU rules, so I expect everyone houserules them anyway. (Apparently when you search for and find a falling block trap you're supposed to place it on the board, which makes no sense.)

I play it like this: you search for traps, DM says the ceiling looks unstable at "this" point (places block trap tile upside down on board). Then you can either avoid it, or try to disable it by standing next to the square, using the toolkit. If you succeed, the tile is removed. If you fail, the block is placed, blocking that tile permanently.

Yeah, we play it that way too (borrowed the rule from the NA edition). Believe it or not, though, it wasn't until just last week that we thought of placing the tile on the board upside down. We used to just point at the square and expect the Heroes to remember

[Goblin-King]

Some monsters DO have skills. Like the warbears and ice gremlins.

[Zenithfleet]

Some monsters DO have skills. Like the warbears and ice gremlins.

*hands over ears* La la la, I can't hear you...

Fine, yes, good point.

Anyway, I've been working on a Vermin monster card, but I can't figure out what kind of artwork should go on it.

Because the card can represent any small creature, I was thinking of something generic for the central artwork, like dozens of beady little eyes peering out of a dark crevice. Any suggestions?

Maybe that grinning toothy thing in the shadows under the Witch Lord's throne on the cover art?

NB: For my cards, I only use official HeroQuest art, or artwork that fans have made and given permission for use.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

I also use vermin/swarm type creatures, I have rats and spiders (based on the figures I have available rather than any other reason), and the rules for both are identical, except spiders are poisonous, if you use poison rules like I do.

The vermin swarm figures are not placed on the board like usual monsters, they are activated and placed when a condition is met detailed in the quest notes, generally this is a hero being in the indicated room/passageway on the EWPs turn, but can also be when the noted room is searched, or when a particular chest is opened. Once activated six of the appropriate figures are placed*, on the board, adjacent to and shared equally between the heroes in the affected area.

Each figure attacks by rolling a single combat die, a score of a skull, means the hero loses a Body point (no defend roll). On a hero's turn they may choose to attack one of the figures and do so by rolling one combat die, on a roll of a skull then the figure is removed (no defend roll).

*I usually use 1.5 per hero, so 6 assuming all 4 heroes are potentially in the affected area.


This keeps them simple, but also a little different than the standard monsters, a bit of a twist, after all, even your muscle-bound, battle axe and crossbow wielding, armour plated Barbarian might find having a handful of poisonous spiders on the inside of his breast plate a little disconcerting!

Of course, traps are treated a bit strangely elsewhere in the official EU rules, so I expect everyone houserules them anyway. (Apparently when you search for and find a falling block trap you're supposed to place it on the board, which makes no sense.)

I play it like this: you search for traps, DM says the ceiling looks unstable at "this" point (places block trap tile upside down on board). Then you can either avoid it, or try to disable it by standing next to the square, using the toolkit. If you succeed, the tile is removed. If you fail, the block is placed, blocking that tile permanently.

This sounds fine when you read it through with the Falling Block trap but try substituting Spear Trap, or even a chest trapped with a Dart, and it seems to come apart a little, what tile would you use, in the case of the chest where would you place the tile, in the case of thee Spear trap what difference is there between a successful or unsuccessful disarm roll, success: you remove the spear trap, fail: it goes off but doesn't affect you as you are on an adjacent square, and then it gets removed. I'd interested in seeing the full version of those rules.