Character Development

[Von Necron]

We wanted character development but also wanted to keep it simple so we wouldn't be adding up die and looking in rule books. So experience points were given every quest for characters to use on new spells and skills. For instance a knight may get to play a card on his turn that allows him to attack twice. But he only gets to use that card once unless he buys multiples. Boss monsters got cards and defended with white shields as they were also heroic villains. This was great because they could improve their characters and stay simple. I made elaborate skill trees for each hero. Each hero had a weapons class sword, mace, axe, whip, spear, archery. Armor I always wanted to change but I never felt good about the systems I thought of. I did incorporate gauntlets which did not provide missile protection but other them that we left the armor alone.

[Daedalus]

What weapons class did the Wizard use, or was he excluded?

I think Hero progression is a worthwhile way to expand HeroQuest. I'm not sure if I want to go the XP way or not. Currently I'm favoring Gold Coins as an XP substitute. Did your Heroes get a flat-out award, similar to Quest treasure, or did they earn it indivdually as they overcame monsters and traps?

Have you had a look at the combat cards featured at Phoenix's site (there's a link button on the Homepage)? Your rule sounds similar, and you might find them interesting if you haven't checked them out yet. Also, his rules for progression are probably the best-received set to date, and are also worth a look.

[Von Necron]

I'll check it out. I just don't know when I'll get the time or group to play agàin. Each quest each hero got 50 xp sometimes I would have side quests or rewards for who got the killing blow. Or they would get xp subtracted from the 50 if they could not achieve a goal. The spell casters I gave specific weapons and gave them limited variation in there weapons. The necromancer had different skull toped staves or a sacrificial dagger. The Druid had spells that enhanced his stave. Like a thorn staff. I remember in the beginning I was letting them buy spells but I couldn't control how much gold they found so by giving them xp I could keep them from out growing the monsters to fast.

[sadkitchen]

I remember in the beginning I was letting them buy spells but I couldn't control how much gold they found so by giving them xp I could keep them from out growing the monsters to fast.

Question: If you were the Zargon/Morcar player, couldn't you alter the rules to fit your style?
If the heroes are finding too much gold, then just lower the amounts listed in the adventure notes, or remove a couple of the gold/gem cards from the treasure deck. Or am I just too cruel to my heroes? (very good chance for that.)

-SadKitchen

[Von Necron]

Remove a couple of treasure cards! I thought I was so creative but that had never occured to me.

[cynthialee]

Hell I go you one better....I stack the treasure deck so it gives out the treasure and hazards at my desired rate of return.

[Von Necron]

My heroes owned a garrisoned keep in the warhammer worlds Reikland. So their moneys mainly went to their estate which was run by a halfling hero they met and made him steward. The xp worked well for us. My only mistake was that I made a spell to powerful that the Necromancer bought. He had the ability to once per quest raise a zombie monster he had slain. I didn't like retracting what I had given them. So for a while I suffered allowing the zombie to use the hero dice. I eventually changed the card to make the zombie use black shields and raised the xp of the card price so he wouldn't buy more. I restricted who it could be used on like boss creatures. Still with all that I had to account for his ability to turn one of my larger creatures against me.

[gravaillon]

personaly, I think that the upgrade of the characters in HQ is made by buying equipement or finding some powerful artifact... If you give some upgrade by XP gain, the heroes will become too strong and invicible, and... JUST LOOK AT THE HEROQUEST BESTIARY ? What would the GM do if a barbarian with 36 attack dices and 6 attacks per turn faces 3 Orcs ? That's just ridiculous....

Upgrading can be made like this : you make a "talent" deck card specific to each heroes. For example, each ten quests succesfully done, the heroes can keep a talent card he choose. He can keep the card between quest. When he decide to use a talent, he pick a talent card at random and apply the effects that the card indicate. That's fun, simple, and it doesn't break the balance with other monsters.

On the other hand, the GM could also have some talent deck card for his monsters too if he kills one hero, he can take a talent card which he can keep between quest...

What do you think about this simple idea ? Anyone interested in making some talent card deck? Those cards could also make the heroes more unique and customisable...

[Von Necron]

I like the idea. If it works for you and your group its awesome. My heroes used their xp to buy skills that they used like dpells once a quest. Example once per quest the thief got to add one attack die if attacking from behind. And at some point they did get powerful so my way won't work for everyone but since I've been painting since 98 I have had plenty of monsters to move onto. The last time we played they were fighting off one of the Von Carstein vampires. So the monsters were tough to.

[sadkitchen]

I like the skill card idea and have toyed with it myself. It seems rather similar to the combat cards presented somewhere on this sited.
I would be able to create PDFs for the cards themselves if someone else would be able to do the artwork. (Unless you want to see stick figures and blobs on the cards you will like that I stay away from the artwork. )
And I'm sure that we will all enjoy arguing... I mean discussing what the Skill Cards should be.

That just gave me an idea for a great game; Stick Figures vs. Blobs. (Well maybe not great.)

And there is no way to avoid power creep regardless of what you do. Heroes with The Magic Item of Awesomeness will eventually find the Magic Item of Awesomeness +1or start complaining that the baddies never drop anything useful.

-SadKitchen