HQ: Heroes & Villains (knightkrawler) - DISCUSSION

[knightkrawler]

So, here's a sneak peak into what kind of language I utilize for my ruleset.
It's pretty much described in the rulebook itself why I do this.
The excerpt is not the beginning of the rulebook, but an early chapter. There will be unclarities because it is torn out of context, but then again, as I said, I just want to give a sneak peak here into what I do and why.

Questions, discussion, and general outrage welcome.
Organizational stuff, for example setting terms in italics when first used, is only possible as the last step, as well as cross-references between chapters and things like that, so fret not when I announce it in this text and it doesn't happen.

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1 - Learning the Rules

The first thing you have to get accustomed to when playing HQ – Heroes & Villains' is that whatever you learn in this book is overruled when two rulings are incongruous. In these circumstances, rulebook text becomes subordinate to what a card or a quest note tell you to do.

All text used in the instruction booklet, any questbook, on cards, or in appendices, are rule texts. They are aimed to be as unambiguous as possible, which is one reason why there is an extensive glossary in the back of The Book of Rules that contains all terms and expressions that have a specific in-game meaning. As long as you do not know the nomenclature by heart, use the glossary and look these terms up to avoid unnecessary debate and unclarities. In fact, look over the glossary now to get a general view of what the in-game terms are.

An important feature of how the rules of HQ work is cross-referencing. In some rule texts you will find italized terms, so-called attributes. Some cards list one or several attributes under their title, seperated by dashes; some use them in their descriptive text. The item the card represents has all these attributes but no other listed in the glossary. That means if item A has an effect on attribute X it only has an effect on item B if item B has attribute X.
If item C has no effect on attribute Y it only has no effect on item D if item D has attribute Y.



a) The Morcar Player

One player must assume the role of Morcar. This will be the player who controls all the villains pitted against the heroes from achieving their goals.

Aside from being the other players' opponent, Morcar, as the player himself shall be called from here on, functions as the sole referee in rule questions and other ambiguities that might come up. He or she therefore has to have a very tight grip on all the rules in this booklet as a knowledge basis. If they are overruled, the new rule is bound to the situation and imposes itself through semantics and cross-referencing with the rule booklet. To allow for some rule variation and different tactical play among all parties some optional rules are presented in this booklet and the modular questpack books. Before each new quest, all players together or Morcar alone may decide on which optional rules they want to incorporate into play and which they do not. There is an Optional Rules Table among the appendices which you can use to keep track of what optional rules are used in what quest.

Morcar's third function in a game of HQ – Heroes & Villains is that of a gamemaster, very much in the vein of pen & paper role-playing games. He oversees where his forces are and what they will do. Only he knows where the treasures and traps are and how exactly missions can be accomplished. Houserules – rules the players write themselves – may expand considerably on this role and the RPG potential of HQ – Heroes & Villains. Every addition can easily overrule existing rules by using the concise in-game nomenclature this game tries to implement.



b) The Hero Players

The other players – ideally four – play the roles of the heroes, one each from these four classes: Warrior, Quester, Adept, and spellcaster. Together, they play a cooperative or competitive party with each member trying to accomplish the task Mentor gives them for every quest. At this point the heroes should become acquainted with the rolesheets.


c) Scores

Each individual figure has a set of scores – numbers representing the level of ability or expertise in a certain area. The scores of a hero are found on their corresponding rolesheet and might be constantly modified. The scores of a villain are found in their corresponding Villain card and the villain chart. There are the following scores:

Base Attack: The base attack score is the number of combat dice a hero may roll to resolve their attack. It is usually modified, for example by an Equipment card.
Base attack +/- modifiers = attack, determining how many combat dice a hero rolls for the current attack.

The attack score for a villain is the number of combat dice they may roll to resolve their attack.

Base Defend: The base defend score is the number of combat dice a hero may roll to resolve their defence. It is, more often than not, modified, for example by an Equipment card.
Base defend +/- modifiers = defend, determining how many combat dice a hero rolls for the current defend.

The defend score for a villain is the number of combat dice they may roll to resolve their defend.

Mind: The mind score is the number of mind points a figure may lose before they die. At the start of a quest, each hero takes a value of mind point tokens equal to that number. Their current mind points may never exceed these starting mind points during a quest. Each time a hero loses a number of mind points, they discard that value of tokens.

Body: The body score is the number of body points a figure may lose before they die. At the start of a quest, each hero takes a value of body point tokens equal to that number. Their current body points may never exceed these starting body points during a quest. Each time a hero loses a number of body points, they discard that value of tokens.

Additionally, villains have a Move score, a rigid number of movement points that villain may spend per turn. In contrast, all heroes roll two D6, adding up their results, to determine their movement points.


d) Death

When a hero discards their last body or mind point token, they die. The figure is put face down in the square it last occupied. That square may be freely moved through, but a move cannot end there. If a hero starts their next turn with 0 mind or body points, their figure is taken from the board and their player is now free to make sandwiches and chili dips.

The gold in possession of the dead hero are immediately discarded. Their Artefact and Equipment cards, however, are not lost by default. They are freely divided among all heroes currently in the same room or corridor section where the hero died. Only if no hero is in that room they are discarded immediately.

A villain dies when losing their last body or mind point and their figure is taken from the board immediately. Note that those villains with 0 starting mind points can only die by losing body points.

The best way for Morcar to keep track of villains' body and mind points is not using tokens, but with the help of the Villain Tracker sheet found in the appendices and inscripting the bases of all villain figures, numbering all individual figures of each type. When utilized this way, there will be an 'Ork 1', an 'Ork 2', a 'Revenant 1', and so on, connecting each individual villain figure to an entry in the Tracker.

Dead Villain Markers
Put a marker into the square last occupied by a dead villain. It is no obstacle to movement, and a move can even end on such a square. You can use these markers for looting corpses. There are many monster looting houserules to be found on yeoldeinn.com.

[Anderas]

One little failure - you wrote that the body points may never exceed the starting mind points.


Now, the rest sounds good! Do you intend to have a quick start guide?
I think the exact ruling could be somewhere in the book for discussions, and a sloppy but short quickstart page could help starting.

Now go on, i'd like to see the rest!

[knightkrawler]

One little failure - you wrote that the body points may never exceed the starting mind points.

Duely edited. Thanks.

Now, the rest sounds good! Do you intend to have a quick start guide?
I think the exact ruling could be somewhere in the book for discussions, and a sloppy but short quickstart page could help starting.

I'd like that. But linguistically I'm anal, so I doubt a Quick Start Guide would even be possible. I consider the original EU rules, 2nd edition somewhat of a sloppy quickstart.
The way I probably will do it is put together a startup learning campaign of 3 or 4 quests (The Arena, The Maze, The Trial, Rescue of Sir Ragnar) to introduce rules, mays and cannots, combat, spells and all that gradually over an evening where the players didn't read the rulebook but learn while playing. The book is for consulting. I have to have the rules down of course, and the players would have a second evening with further easy quests to re-learn after most likely some months of not playing. Then, from the third campaign on they'll start playing tactically and I'll start to really try to kill some of them each quest.

As a piece of preliminary knowledge: I'll put together small campaigns of 3 to 5 quests each out of the existing quest packs and self-written stuff - probably I'll also incorporate quests from you guys with proper license and credit - for these campaigns to be played in one gaming night each. Maybe two in some cases. Everything kept modular, introducing new villains all the time, a wide variety of monsters with substitute suggestions for those that only have the original minis. A solo quest sprinkled here and there for nights when not everybody can show up. I'm really trying to think of everything.

[QorDaq]

So, it would appear that the oft discussed or cited, and perhaps somewhat now infamously mysterious, KnightKrawler ruleset begins to coalesce.

Does this mean you are getting close to publishing in earnest?

[Teldurn]

KK, is this the thing you're working on where you gave the Barbarian an effective +1 strength (I forget how you did that), so that even if he and another Hero were holding the same weapon, Barbarian still ends up ahead?

[knightkrawler]

KK, is this the thing you're working on where you gave the Barbarian an effective +1 strength (I forget how you did that), so that even if he and another Hero were holding the same weapon, Barbarian still ends up ahead?

That's it, yes. More about that along the way.

So, it would appear that the oft discussed or cited, and perhaps somewhat now infamously mysterious, KnightKrawler ruleset begins to coalesce.
Does this mean you are getting close to publishing in earnest?

At least I have a week of time to do something.
I plan on publishing a snippet of the rulebook every day during the week here for voluntary proofreading by whoever is interested.
I'll edit along the way and will do cards next. Then campaign book after campaign book, hopefully.
After each book I feel is finished I'll "publish" it on an even more mysterious cloud.
Even more probably, I'll ask the mighty drathe to host it at this here inn where it belongs.

[knightkrawler]

Next snippet, following up immediately after the last.
Again, orthography and things like consistent capitalizing of in-game terms might not be a given at this point.
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2 Setting Up the Game

The heroes need not read this chapter, but Morcar is required to. By addressing 'you' it means Morcar who must take care of proper game preparations as presented here.


a) Board, Screen & Questbook

Lay out the game board so that the HeroQuest logo is in front of you. Set up your screen in front of you and open the questbook between you and the screen for your reference and only yours.

The questbook is only for your eyes! Open the questbook Trials & Tribulations where the quest to be played is. On the top half of the left page you see the map, the rest of the double page encompasses the introduction and the notes.

Introduction: This framed part is Mentor's briefing of the heroes, describing the mission for the quest and sometimes containing hints and recommendations. You always have to read the Introduction to the heroes aloud.

Map: This part shows you how you must set up the various components on the board as the game progresses. The icons used in the map are explained in the Icon Legend. They show you the starting position of components like villain figures, furniture, traps, or doors. In addition, there are letters and numbers that refer to the corresponding paragraphs in the notes. They explain what happens in the room or corridor sections that contain them.
Do not yet set anything up! Components are only set up as the heroes progress through the quest.

Notes: Read this part for yourself and try to memorize as much of it as possible before you start the quest. Sometimes the heroes encounter places or events that require specific gameplay. The notes describe exactlywhat to do in situations not covered by this rulebook.
As a general rule, you do not read any part of the notes section to the heroes except passages in italics and quotation marks and only when the situation unravels to the heroes.


b) Components

Sort out your components near you so that you can easily reach everything at any given time and quickly set up newly discovered map areas. Preferably the heroes do not have an overview of your assortment, but this is not required.
Put the dice somewhere close to each player's reach. You might even have enough for each player to have their own dice.
Body point and mind point tokens are put in containers all players can easily reach. Heroes use these tokens to discard and restore body and mind points to keep track of their constantly changing score.
Gold tokens are put in a container all players can easily reach. This is called the hoard. When a hero draws a treasure card that describes a find worth gold he takes the corresponding value in tokens from the hoard. When they buy Equipment, they discard the price in tokens into the hoard.


c) The Cards

There is a number of cards for HQ. Sort them out into their various decks. A deck is defined by including all individual cards that share the same back, which shows a thematic picture and the name of the deck on a parchment roll. The other side is called the face of the card and contains, from top to bottom: a title, a list of attributes, a picture, and a descriptive text. Note that not all cards have all these features.

Sort the Treasure cards into the following decks: Golden Treasure, Silver Treasure, and Furniture Treasure. Shuffle each of these and put the decks next to each other somewhere all Heroes can reach.

Keep the Artefact cards on your side of the screen. They represent unique items that cannot be purchased, but only found under very specific circumstances. Notes will describe those.

The Villain Spell cards are exclusively for you. Keep them on your side of the screen. If there is a villain in the quest that may use some spells, pick them from the deck and put these individually face up in front of you. Make yourself familiar with them and soon you will know when and how to use them strategically.

The Morcar cards are also exclusively for you. However, after shuffling them, you put the deck face down near you in such a way that the Heroes can see you drawing a card.

The Equipment cards are kept in sight of the heroes. When they have enough gold, they may purchase Equipment cards. Discarding an Equipment card always means that it is put back in the Equipment deck immediately.

If a card lies 'face up', you can see and read the face. A card face up in any player's deck is in play and usable until it is either discarded or turned face down. Discarding a card means that it becomes useless for the remainder of the quest for all players. Turning a card face down means the same, but it stays in the player's deck and after the quest it is turned back face up to become usable again.



Creating the Heroes

Before each quest, Morcar should observe, assist in, and also referee over the players' picking and preparing their heroes. From here on, this chapter refers to the hero players or any one hero player by addressing 'you'.


a) Picking a Hero

Morcar groups the rolesheets into the four hero classes. Each rolesheet back shows the hero class it belongs into.

Warrior: Talented and trained fighters with different sets of codes.
Quester: Adventurers with various areas of dungeon expertise.
Adept: skillful disciples of innate but rarely mastered abilities.
Spellcaster: Devoted scholars of weaving the threads of reality.

Morcar spreads all rolesheets in front of you. Decide on a method of determining who gets to pick their hero in what order.

First, each player takes all rolesheets assigned to one class by the art on their backside until each class is represented by one player. Then, each player narrows down his choice to one of the rolesheets. This pick determines their scores at base attack, base defend, mind, and body they start each quest with and most importantly their special rules.

This way of picking heroes accomodates for five players. However, in case only two, three, or four players are available, nevertheless, all four classes should be represented to provide for the heroes' success. That means one or more players should play more than one hero.
In case even six players want to take part there is still enough room on the board. After four players have each picked a hero, the fifth player may choose any unchosen hero for one class represented by two heroes.

When a player has picked a hero type, they take the corresponding rolesheet and an appropriate figure. In between quests, Morcar may allow the hero players to freely exchange their classes and pick new heroes. He may even let one of them to swap roles with him and play a hero himself if he hasn't become acquainted with the current campaign. A newly chosen hero starts a game with the scores and items listed on their rolesheet. They do not carry anything over from a hero the player played in the past.


b) Building the Card Deck

The rolesheet contains every piece of information you need to start a quest. There is the character term (in short, the 'hero'), an introductory text describing the hero and a table of scores.
Next, there might be some special rules.
Special rules change some aspects of gameplay or give you some restrictions and do so permanently. They cannot be discarded which is why they are specified on the rolesheet rather than represented by cards.
Some special rules are instructions on what cards from what deck you may add to your own. Simply follow these instructions and build your deck that way. All cards that you have now are your deck for the next quest. Before it begins, lay all cards face up unless otherwise noted.
Look up your starting body and mind points.
Now, take from the body and mind point pools the respective values in tokens. The tokens have values of '1' and '5'. They stand in for 1 or 5 points respectively.
Last, each hero takes a turn marker and lays it green circle up in front of them, easy to see for all.
From here on, a hero player is simply called 'hero'.

[knightkrawler]

I just decided to allow a search for secret doors even though monsters are present.
- it allows for tactical play, heroes escaping and being followed, opening up possibilities for flooding the heroes with monsters in the next room
- it makes the game faster or at least less tedious with the three search actions.

In addition, a room can only be searched for treasure twice.
That means, four heroes take a full round and not more to do everything they gotta do in a room cleared of monsters.

1st hero - search for traps
2nd hero - 1st search for treasure
3rd hero - 2nd search for treasure
4th hero - search for secret doors

Now, this beggars the question why not make it all even faster and including my search for tresure in a piece of furniture in the same round. There are no monsters anyway.
So, the search for traps could reveal secret doors, too.

1st hero - search for traps & secret doors
2nd hero - 1st search for treasure
3rd hero - 2nd search for treasure
4th hero - search for treasure in piece of furniture

There might be two wandering monsters now.
Then, there's my rule for Morcar having no monsters (villains, as I call them) at his disposal at the beginning of his turn:
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Concluding Your Turn

After you have completed a turn for each of your villains, your full turn is ended and a new round begins with the first hero. However, if at the beginning of your turn there are no villains you could move and take an action with you now draw a Morcar card.

Read the text on the card carefully for yourself and decide how and if you want to use its effect most efficiently. You may
either discard it immediately so that the card takes effect immediately
or keep it face up behind the Morcar screen to discard it between the full turns of two individual villains. The card then takes effect immediately.

When a Morcar card is discarded, it is immediately shuffled back into the full deck.

As an alternative to drawing a Morcar card, you may also activate any one villain figure in any square within a room where last a 'Wandering Villain' was found and immediately move and attack with it.

OPTIONAL: On Heroes' Heels
You may both draw a Morcar card and activate an additional villain in case there were no monsters you could have moved and taken an action with at the beginning of your turn. Alternatively, you can choose to incorporate either a Morcar card draw or the activation of an additional villain at the end of your turn regardless of other villains being on the gameboard. Or both.

OPTIONAL: Villains Opening Doors
Any villain with at least two current mind points may open a door if the room or corridor section into which it leads contains at least one other door or secret door that has been opened.

Any villain that is given a proper name in the questnotes may open any door or secret door. However, Morcar only activates the doors, not the other contents of a room they pass through. These are only activated as soon as they are in a hero's line of sight.
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Morcar cards are similar to what many of you guys here presented as Fate cards, just coincidents and encounters that open up the game more for Morcar when he's got no figure on the board to actually have a useful turn.

What say you?

[Showdown35]

Any villain that is given a proper name in the questnotes may open any door or secret door. However, Morcar only activates the doors, not the other contents of a room they pass through. These are only activated when a hero enters such a room.

Wouldn't it make more sense to activate it when a hero can see into such a room? Or are you assuming the Villian closes the door behind him? In that case, shouldn't it be activated when a Hero re-opens the door? Perhaps I'm being a little nitpicky, but it's my understanding that you want this rule set to be un-misinterpret-able.

[knightkrawler]

You're right. Thank you very much. Will edit.
As for the uninterpretable thing, I probably cannot do this alone without someone editing this and that.
That is exactly the reason why I present perliminary snippets here.
Reaction is underwhelming because the language used is overwhelming - I get that -
which is why I appreciate any comment all the more.

Even a "Jesus! Way to difficult to read!" helps more than no reaction.
But editing by people other than me, or even questions that I can answer and thus see that I did everything right in that respect, is more awesome.