Probably ever since I started seeing those custom heroes people were releasing online about a decade ago, I've wondered what it would be like to have more than four heroes playing a quest
together.
I guess I put that idea aside being at first not too excited about the idea of changing too many things about the game (other than just adding "more" of everything, or creating quests from
the materials already provided). Now I have fully embraced the joy of trying to keep the "spirit" of HQ while adding new things to make it seem fresh and new (suppose we all have an opinion
where that "line" should be, or if there should be one). I love playing HQ, but I don't want to turn it into D&D or Warhammer, even if a few aspects of those games seem compatible and even
desirable to be adapted to this system.
Growing up we rarely had more than 2 players to go through a quest anyway, so we were used to controlling multiple heroes at a time. We didn't have BQP and we didn't even know about WOM
(being in the USA), but now I see that with mercenaries, it seems pretty common and well within HQ's boundaries without serious rule modifications or specially designed quests to make
this work out.
Having multiple magic users just means the newbies have to either have pre-set ones or we need more spells (EQP and WOM help a bit with this).
Then I thought of just printing extra spell scrolls and handing them out as starting equipment... but then balance is the issue.
Considering the extreme difficulty of some of the official quest packs, it actually seems desirable to have more players (who can always bow out if they get iced early on). The EQP
explicitly says only one Elf per quest in a party, and I can see the point of the rule of only one Barbarian from the BQP (for balance issues). But then if it's that hard, perhaps that rule
could be bent...
The only major downside I can see is quests that formerly took 2-2.5 hours taking twice that long, and people starting to get bored. I often hear fans saying "just add more monsters"
or "remove some of the good cards"... so it won't be "too easy" but I wonder if that won't mess things up more. The gold will be divided among more people, and Zargon has to keep track of
more things (which in casual games isn't so important... and lets face it, most games are going to be casual for most of those involved).
I went ahead and designed some little tiles to make it easier to keep track of which mercenaries belong to each character, but I am really interested in trying out a campaign with 5 or
even 6 heroes. "Group tactics" really interest me, but I suppose with a big group, players could just wander all over the board (maybe complete it faster than normal) or just get in each
other's way.
The UK version of HQ strikes me as being a little less "team" focused, so maybe a "competitive" mode would be neat, where you can do friendly fire and compete for gold. I saw one guy on
youtube had made a video talking about playing casually with big family groups, and there was another person on a blog who had a "6 player mod." Any other experiences?
Only play-testing will tell if it's worth the while or if it would turn newcomers away from the game for good. So then I'd like to hear from people who have tried it, and how they made it work
(or didn't).
Dreaming here, but imagine playing the "Dark Company" not just as a four part quest, but actually with four boards going on simultaneously, with heroes spread out all over the place!
Maybe then it would be time for Zargon to have an "assistant" ?