Lurchbrick's HeroQuest module for VASSAL

[drathe]

I still don't know what this looks like, and what VASSAL exactly is. can anyone post a video or screens?

VASSAL is an open-source board game engine that allows people to play various table-top style board games on their PCs, online with other people. There are hundreds of "modules" (games) available designed by fans of various board games. Lurchbrick is one such fan who has painstakingly created a HeroQuest "module" for all of us to play HeroQuest online as closely matching the real style of the game as possible via their PCs. At this point, other than the ability to add fan tiles, monsters, cards, etc. I don't see how the current version could possibly be improved upon. It has all the facets of the Game System and each official expansions (plus tiles from the Marvel Winter Special) available on-screen to play.

I'll see about grabbing some screen shots later this evening.

[drathe]

Just a sample screen shot showing the board (zoomed at 70%), some monsters, rooms, furniture, treasure card drawn, Wizard movement, dice windows and Barbarian's inventory screen. (Each player has a different colour background to help identify quickly) There's many more things you could see based on the quest and how much is revealed. (Morcar player can preset the quest and have board contents hidden and reveal them as the Heroes see them)
Not shown are the sub-menus for the various cards, game pieces, tiles, etc. Nor the connection window which shows the "game rooms", players and spectators that are connected.

[Sjeng]

looks awesome! Although the top-down views of the minis make them a bit hard to see. Love the alchemist shop image I see in the background of the cards.

[LurchBrick]

Thanks for supplying that quick summary drathe.

Fan made tiles, cards, etc can easily be added as an extension.

An extension is basically a mini addition to the module that only contains whatever new features you want. So if some one had a quest pack with new cards, monsters, etc, then they just need to add those items to the extension. You can even add new hero inventories as well. Then all the player would need to do is load the main module, load the extension and you've got access to everything.

[AerynB]

looks awesome! Although the top-down views of the minis make them a bit hard to see. Love the alchemist shop image I see in the background of the cards.

You get used to the top-down view, and drathe also zoomed the board way out so you could see that the whole board was there. Each player has the ability to zoom in on their own screen so they can see figures more clearly, or zoom out to get a comprehensive view of the board.

I suppose Lurch could've gone with little circular icons for the minis, but since I've never played with the new minis from the rare expansion sets, I really, really like seeing the 3D figures.

I think Lurch did an awesome job with the module! I'm so impressed.

[AerynB]

Thanks for supplying that quick summary drathe.

Fan made tiles, cards, etc can easily be added as an extension.

An extension is basically a mini addition to the module that only contains whatever new features you want. So if some one had a quest pack with new cards, monsters, etc, then they just need to add those items to the extension. You can even add new hero inventories as well. Then all the player would need to do is load the main module, load the extension and you've got access to everything.

What's this?! We can add fan stuff to the module. You, sir, are an HQ god!!!

[el_flesh]

OK how about a bunch of us actually joining up online to play?!? I'd sure like to take a crack at that advanced quest that has several of the game boards interjoining...

[torilen]

maybe I just did something wrong. I downloaded and installed vassal, and then the heroquest mod.
I tried to run it to check it out...nothing happened. No board. It would let me look at the game pieces and
cards...but no board to speak of. ??

[Patroclus]

maybe I just did something wrong. I downloaded and installed vassal, and then the heroquest mod.
I tried to run it to check it out...nothing happened. No board. It would let me look at the game pieces and
cards...but no board to speak of. ??

It may be hidden on the bottom. Try to drag and drop the bottom or something.

[AerynB]

maybe I just did something wrong. I downloaded and installed vassal, and then the heroquest mod.
I tried to run it to check it out...nothing happened. No board. It would let me look at the game pieces and
cards...but no board to speak of. ??

Don't panic. There should be a menu bar at the top with File (I think) and then you can choose New Game or Load Game or other things. I don't know for sure since I'm still at work, but when I get home I'll double check.

EDIT: Yep, at the top of the Vassal window is a normal Menu bar. Under File, choose New Game. You will be asked if you want to be an observer in the new game, or Morcar, or a hero player. For now, choose Morcar so you can really look around the module and play with a lot of the pieces. I'm not sure how much you can do if you choose to be an observer or a hero player.

EDIT2: Just checked really quickly, if you choose to be a hero player when starting a New Game from the File menu, you can do a lot of the same things that Morcar can do (place furniture, pieces, game cards) but you can't see Morcar's inventory. If you choose to be an observer, you can see all the various pieces and cards and even look inside the heroes' inventories, but you can't place anything on the board or look in Morcar's inventory. Hope this helps.