by Cael Darkhollow » Friday November 5th, 2021 10:33am
Well with much anticipation I read Baker's new quest written many years after the original quests. spoilers ahead***
I was amused and it certainly has some intriguing ideas. It is certainly a continuation of story lines in the HeroQuest game of old, a true sequel of sorts. Nothing contained herein conflicts with the world of HeroQuest of old per se, just swap the name changes (was there any?) back I suppose. Abominations are summoned as if they were some demon from the netherworld rather than a naturally occurring monster race of the world that the Fimir they replaced were, so there is that.
We get some more generic-could-be-anywhere place names and whatnot such as the tower on the cliffs of Turekk Tor, the wizard Melar's tower.
new baddie: The Dread Sorcerer King FellMarak. I can't tell if that is supposed to be the Witch Lord or not.
The heroes must return to Melor's Maze the wizard who created the Talisman of Lore, which puts this as mandatory after the main quest book quests AND it must be played strictly in order as it is a linear story so no picking and choosing or skipping around out of the 14 quests contained therein. There is a very interesting stairwell climb and a not so interesting arena battle. Serious player spoilers abound from page one in the questbook, don't let anyone but Mentor/Zargon/the gamemaster touch it. It also assumes that the hero wearing the Talisman of Lore is the wizard character so the script would need to be altered if another character happens to be wearing it.
Speaking of Mentor, the questbook makes abundantly clear that the wizard painted on the rule book cover and the game master's screen is in fact Mentor, putting to rest the long held controversy that the screen perhaps depicted Zargon/Morcar unleashing his forces, when instead it is actually Mentor forseeing/scrying/remote-viewing/predicting them using Loretome.
There is a spell that turns all the player characters into orcs, which also means defacto that it shouldn't be played after Teos Abadia's questbook if that is indeed where the infamous orc bard playable character figure debuts (I haven't read that yet)... or ignores the orc as a possible playable character as a snub perhaps? Maybe Baker did not read, have access to or care about the Orc Bard specifically or the other new questbooks.
By Crom I'll split you crown to crotch to see if your guts are yellow as I think they are nithing BARBARIAN Ulrich
The last music you shall ever hear will be my bowstring as your forehead sprouts a feathered shaft, pity ELF Cael Darkhollow
Tomes grimoires manuals atlas formularies compendiums codexes bestiaries folios scrolls... Am I missing anything before we leave? WIZARD Eldritch Heironymous KigamMagister
Some quick axe work an' we can count the coins and gems DWARF Wulfram Magnussen