Advancement - how to do it?

[Zenithfleet]

Fascinating stuff here. I've argued in the past that gold to buy equipment is HQ's equivalent of XP/advancement, but I haven't sat down and thought about it properly to anywhere near the extent you have, BW.

For the moment I just want to pick up on one point:

• Introducing rules that lead to your equipment breaking in certain circumstances, yes that is realistic in-game that weapons can break, but at a player level rather than in-game level, the weapons represent your Hero XP / Advancement Level, how exactly can you break your upgrade by hitting someone with it (and this would cover Rust spells)

This is an interesting one. I see it as more of a feature than a bug - opening up gameplay / design options.

A standard XP advancement system is strictly one-way, as far as I know. You get better over time and nothing takes your XP away. After all, it's a number representing your experience. The quests therefore have to accommodate this by assuming heroes will continually get stronger.

However, because Heroquest uses gold and equipment as its equivalent of 'advancement', it becomes both possible and believable for heroes to unexpectedly go backward in terms of advancement. If they lose a weapon to Rust or some other effect like being taken prisoner, they can be knocked down a couple of dice, at least for a while. Players will intuitively understand how this makes sense in terms of realism, whereas it makes little sense to subtract 'experience points' from someone (unless they suffer sudden amnesia or something ...)

The two systems might be achieving the same thing, but they feel different. Players may accept something in one system that feels wrong in the other. In HQ you can have a situation where you must work to maintain your current level of 'XP' / power level, rather than assume it's permanently earned. To risk another videogame comparison, it's like the Metroid games, where you upgrade yourself with new items rather than XP. In some games you will temporarily lose some or all of your items and be reduced in power until you find them again.

In HQ terms, it can be as simple as those quests where everyone's gear is stolen and they have to run around relying on their basic stats / unarmed stats until they find their equipment again.

A more elaborate effect could be to take the gear away for several quests--suddenly making weaker monsters like Orcs and Skeletons threatening again, leaving the players feeling vulnerable and nervous and increasing tension, until the cathartic moment when they finally get their stuff back and can go to town on the monsters again.

You could even have quests that permanently remove the heroes' equipment and/or gold, forcing them to essentially start the advancement process all over again. Because HQ has issues with a low advancement ceiling and maxing out early, this could actually be helpful over the course of a long campaign to maintain interest ... as long as it happens very rarely (like a one-time disastrous setback during the plot progression). Many people play Morcar/Zargon as a kind of theme park showrunner instead of an adversary, making sure the heroes have an exciting time without total party kills. Occasionally knocking them back down the advancement ladder with equipment/gold loss is another way to 'injure' a hero for several quests--and make them want revenge on whichever in-game villain did it--without outright killing them off.

(I've been playing around with permanently removing all the heroes' gold and equipment after the Gate of Bellthor quest in Return of the Witch Lord--albeit giving them the chance to find some of their Quest Treasures again a couple of quests later.)


Some people have suggested adding skills that you can buy with gold. I've been thinking along similar lines. The advantage of skills could be that they don't count as equipment and so can't be taken away by any of the effects above. The downside is that you can't give them to anyone else, or sell them (even if you're using sell rules).

The simplest way to include skills might be to just make them cards with a cost value on them that you can buy, just like equipment. No other restrictions apart from when you can afford it. The gold represents the training cost to learn the skill. A few skills could be Barbarian-only, giving him more options to advance.

[Shark]

I have added an Unfortunate Event Card to the treasure deck, as well as the tables I use when people search furniture. When you get this event you roll 2d6, and it tells you which equipment has failed, weapons, armour, shield, helmets, etc

I also like the idea of buying skills, rather than just adding attack / defend dice BP or MPs.
Extra dice for specialising in a weapon, Strong (+1 on all attacks), nimble (+1 on all defence), Tough (+1BP), Smart (+1 MP). Two weapons, new spells, hiding, finding, spotting / disarming traps, make scrolls / potions.

I also level up monsters as well as add a few more, plus extra traps, which slowly expend BPs even on the toughest hero’s.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

Yes, there is a balancing act there, using Gold-Equipment as an in-game overlay to XP-Levelling Up does open up the acceptability of losing Gold-Equipment that isn’t really present in a pure XP-Levelling Up mechanism. I accept that, and don’t have any issue with Heroes temporarily losing their equipment for example*, in fact that is a great twist and reminds players of the importance of their equipment, but it is a fine line and I would object to ideas that for me take the in-game overlay aspect too far and ‘forget’ or ignore and therefore break the XP-Levelling Up framework behind it.

Like HQ2021 introducing the ability to sell equipment back for 50% of its value, which effectively halves the cost of all equipment, doubling the speed at which all Heroes advance, so that they hit the maximum quicker, and they advance faster than the difficulty of the Quests ramp up, making the game too easy.

*Although I do have a couple of issues with how that was implemented in Lair of the Orc Warlord

1. Spells are lost, this is the only place that I can find in the whole of HeroQuest where the assumption appears to be that spells have a physical component. I would rather spells were retained even if equipment is lost as this would ‘boost’ the importance of the spell casters as part of the group

2. The room in which the Heroes find and recover their lost equipment should be on the critical path but isn’t. The problem with it not being on the critical path is that Heroes can successfully complete this Quest and achieve the objective and move onto the next Quest with or without recovering their equipment (if they fail it doesn’t matter as they have to replay the Quest), which means the difficulty of the next Quest and subsequent Quests becomes impossible to balance. The next Quest would either have to be easy enough that the Heroes could complete it without their equipment, in which case it would be too easy and dull for equipped heroes or vice versa, making it extremely hard for Heroes without their equipment. That would lead to them failing and retrying the next Quest or Quests repeatedly, possibly losing Heroes as a result, causing a serious dent in their progression from that point forwards, all based on whether they went left or right at a particular junctions.

But specifics to this Quest can be discussed on that thread!

Equally I don’t have an issue with permanent loss of equipment, if it is a rarity, and takes place at a point when the heroes are likely to have plenty of equipment, back ups available, and the rewards from Quests are larger so that even a permanent loss can be replaced between Quests. So, a Fimir with ONE rust spell is fine*, a Fimir with THREE rust spells is too much (especially as that breaches the already established principles in the game as to how magic works).

And if you are considering events that could cause a significant loss of equipment then those events must be on the critical path so that you can guarantee that it happens so that you know what ‘state’ the Hero(es) are going to be in for the next Quest(s).
*Again, I do have an issue with the lack of clarity around the wording of the Rust spell and how that is supposed to work (I’ll include the link to that topic here when I can find it)

My intention with this topic is to first establish a baseline / benchmark on how long it takes for the Heroes to max out on equipment in the base SE game. And then present and consider options for how to tweak that, so that I can measure each proposal against the benchmark to see how effective it is.
So first I’ll assume my assumptions are valid and get on with the benchmark exercise and then I’ll circle round and start to post some ideas to improve the balance of the existing advancement mechanism.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

As part of establishing a baseline I've prepared the document linked to below that shows for each of the Game System / Gathering Storm Quests, the monster type and number (needed for a later stage), the number of rooms, passageways, quest treasure, gold in chests, quest rewards and other such information.

I'm sharing this partly for general use but mainly in the hope that someone will be kind enough to double-check the data before I use it!

Gathering Storm Quest Data

Also on a related note I'm not ignoring the various comments made around Purchasable Skills on Cards (at least 3 different people have suggested these on this topic alone), I'm just coming back to them because...

I'm less keen on this idea because it involves introducing a new concept that is similar to but not identical to some mechanisms that HeroQuest already has. This isn't necessary a 'Red Flag' but perhaps more of a 'Amber Flag' (proceed with caution) because this kind of change increases the opportunity for confusion and complexity and needs to be heavily play-tested to avoid unintended consequences.

"Purchasable Skill Cards" are...

Similar to the innate skills that Hero "Types" (and some Monster Types like the Witch Lord's Invulnerability and Chaos Sorcerer's Spell Casting skill) have like the Wizard and Elf' spell casting skill and the Dwarf's disarm skill but not exactly the same as they are not innate, they are not always intrinsically built in to that hero or monster type, they are acquired and they are not recorded on the Hero Character Boards (or Monster equivalent)

Similar to the existing Equipment Cards in that they are card based, can be bought, maybe restricted by Hero type (or not) but not exactly the same as unlike Equipment Cards they cannot be lost or swapped or gifted

Similar to the existing Spell Cards in that they are card based and restricted to certain Hero and Monster types but not exactly the same as these cannot be bought are replenished automatically between quests and so on.

For instance, and this is only one example, there is a debate raging on in the context of Lair of the Orc Warlord, about whether spells have a physical component and whether they should be treated like Equipment and be able to be taken away or whether they don't have a physical component so should not be able to be taken away, wherever you stand on this debate, adding another type of card that sort of sits between the two, would add another layer of complexity to that debate, if spell cards are 'confiscated' then should skill cards also be confiscated, as innate skills are not 'confiscatable' then should skill cards be treated the same, does that mean spell cards should be treated the same and so on.

I hope, time permitting that I will shortly be unveiling an alternative to skill cards that will render them unnecessary for the purposes of advancement...watch this space!

[Zenithfleet]

2. The room in which the Heroes find and recover their lost equipment should be on the critical path but isn’t. The problem with it not being on the critical path is that Heroes can successfully complete this Quest and achieve the objective and move onto the next Quest with or without recovering their equipment (if they fail it doesn’t matter as they have to replay the Quest), which means the difficulty of the next Quest and subsequent Quests becomes impossible to balance. The next Quest would either have to be easy enough that the Heroes could complete it without their equipment, in which case it would be too easy and dull for equipped heroes or vice versa, making it extremely hard for Heroes without their equipment. That would lead to them failing and retrying the next Quest or Quests repeatedly, possibly losing Heroes as a result, causing a serious dent in their progression from that point forwards, all based on whether they went left or right at a particular junctions.

But specifics to this Quest can be discussed on that thread!

I've posted one of my typically long-winded and contrary replies over on that thread:
https://forum.yeoldeinn.com/viewtopic.p ... 87#p124987

However, on this thread, this one sentence of yours leaps out at me like a Goblin from a cupboard:

The next Quest would either have to be easy enough that the Heroes could complete it without their equipment, in which case it would be too easy and dull for equipped heroes

You may or may not be pleased to hear that this sentence caused me another one of my minor epiphanies. (I really should see a doctor about that.)

I've mentioned before that, in my view, one of the great joys of Heroquest is the exploration. For this reason I've disagreed with you elsewhere about the necessity of a 'critical path' and argued that there should be multiple routes to the objective, as well as bonus side branches and the like.

I've also argued that the EU base game (though not necessarily the expansions) was designed to let the players wander off on their own, or in pairs, if they wanted to compete or explore, instead of being so difficult they had to stick together all the time.

What this means, then, is that advancement outpacing difficulty is more complicated than a starter-level quest simply becoming 'too easy and dull' for a well-equipped hero.

Consider:

There are multiple hero characters, and they can stay close to each other or go in different directions.

A quest will generally be easier for the players to complete if they stick together. If they go off on their own, the danger level rises, even in the easiest of base game quests.

But a better-equipped hero is more capable of wandering off down the corridor by himself and tackling any tough monsters he might meet.

Therefore, from a certain Jedi point of view, advancement in Heroquest can mean more freedom for independent exploration. A weaker hero may need to stay close to at least one other player for protection. A stronger hero can dare to go off alone and seek treasure. That is, if the quests themselves are staying at roughly the same level of difficulty for a good while.

Therefore, levelling up in the base game--which doesn't scale in difficulty to match the heroes' advancement--brings with it a kind of gameplay reward beyond just getting stronger at dealing death to monsters. It means you can explore on your own and live to tell the tale more often.

In other words, it lets you enjoy one of the best things about Heroquest even more.

It also retains one of the defining tensions of EU Heroquest: should this bunch of bolshy 11-year-old kids cooperate or compete? They may learn that working together means they can survive more easily ... but at the same time, the more equipment they buy, the less they need each other's protection, and the more feasible it becomes to go haring off alone for wealth and glory.

(Assuming the designers remember to build the quests for exploration, that is. And assuming it occurs to players to do this, instead of staunchly sticking together in a group all the time.)

[Bareheaded Warrior]

I've replied to the previous post on the other thread but back to our heroes advancing through the Game System / Gathering Storm...

• Q1 earns 250GC, so Helmet for the Dwarf and Shield for the Elf, 30GC remaining.
• Q2 earns 520GC, so Shields for Barbarian and Dwarf, Helmet for the Elf and Staff for the Wizard, 100GC remaining
• Q3 earns 380GC and a bonus Spear, so Elf takes the Spear, Helmet for Barbarian, Shortsword for the Dwarf and Bracers for our Wizard, 10GC remaining
• Q4 earns 500GC, so a Broadsword each for the Elf and Dwarf, 10GC remaining
• Q5 earns 300GC, so no purchases this time, although someone gets the Talisman of Lore, 310GC
• Q6 earns 285GC, so a Battle Axe for the Barbarian, resulting in a Shield for the bin, 195GC remaining
• Q7 earns a big 840GC AND Borin's Armour, assuming our Dwarf gets the Armour, a Crossbow for the Elf and Cloak of Protection for the Wizard completing his advancement path already, 335GC remaining
• Q8 earns a whopping 1115GC, Chainmail for our Barbarian, Battle Axe for the Dwarf and Elf (more shields for the bin), 200GC remaining
• Q9 earns 455GC, Chainmail for the Elf, 205GC remaining
• Q10 earns a modest 150GC only, Crossbow for the Barbarian, 5GC remaining
• Q11 earns 750GC and a Shield (why!) and Orcs' Bane, Crossbow for the Dwarf completes his advancement path, Orcs' Bane for any Hero that can carry it!, 405GC remaining
• Q12 earns 565GC, Plate armour for the Barbarian completing his advancement journey (and presumably his chainmail goes in the bin also), 120GC remaining
• Q13 earns 470GC plus the Spirit Blade for any Hero, replacing their Broadsword possibly, 590GC remaining
• Q14 earns 330GC, plate armour for the Elf completing his advancement path, so all heroes now maxed out, more chainmail in the bin, 70GC remaining

Obviously there is a very large number of different ways that Gold could have been used to buy equipment for different heroes in a different order, but this confirms what I suspect we already knew, that the Gold/XP for Equipment Upgrades path works and is balanced very well for the Game System alone, but once you expand to include KK and ROTWL, you are immediately left with a barren wasteland of advancement. The NA edition tried to fill that gap with a handful of measly and over-priced potions via the Alchemist's Store which, whilst better than nothing, doesn't really hit the spot!

[Bareheaded Warrior]

So from my last post we see that the “acquisition of XP via the medium of Gold then Levelling Up through spend on Upgraded Equipment” system works fine solely within the context of the Game System / Gathering Storm, but then falls off a cliff once you consider the expansions, lets consider some options for extending out the Advancement system.

Note: Initially I just want to cover and consider the “big ticket” items, rather than the numerous tweaks like a ‘special ability’ to reflect the Barbarian’s combat prowess that isn’t equipment based corresponding to the Dwarf’s trap ability and the Elf & Wizards spell casting, swapping Rabbit Boots and Borin’s Armour locations. Not that these tweaks aren’t valuable but it keeps the picture cleaner for now if I focus on the high-level big stuff rather than the details.

#1 Reduce the rate of acquisition of XP via the medium of Gold

WHAT we are trying to achieve with this is fairly obvious, slower rate of acquisition, extending out the time taken to max out on Equipment, but the HOW is a little more complex.

I’ve considered various options over the years, and am still open to other ideas, but one of the most simple, effective and lasting (by which I mean it works across expansions) is to scrap Searching for Treasure in passageways. If anything needs picking up, such as Equipment for a dead hero, then you just auto-collect it as you step onto the square. Thematically I think this fits as passageways tend to be relatively bland and featureless in comparison to rooms that contain furniture and other potential hiding places, like bundles of clothing or bedding and so on, and the restricted space of a passageway tends to mean that you cover the area, simply by moving through it, in contrast to a room, where moving through only covers a fraction of the available space.

In terms of the overall effect, on the Game System / Gathering Storm alone that reduces the total max yield from 6910 down to 5220, around a 25% reduction in acquisition, which obviously would carry on into each expansion. Not a bad start.

#2 Increase the costs of equipment

Again the WHAT is obvious, if all Equipment costs 20% more then the rate at which you acquire it slows, but again the HOW is less obvious. I’ve considered just increasing all equipment costs by a certain % but that didn’t feel right, so I let the concept percolate around in my head for a bit and it started to fuse with other conversations around equipment in the SE and NA editions.

Rejigging the Equipment Card Deck [SE]

Rather than just an across the board equipment cost increase, instead why not increase the range of equipment available so that more Gold can be spent on ‘standard’ equipment (as in permanent weapons and armour) in total.

Fill the Gaps

EA version has some gaps in terms of equipment function…for example there is no 3AD diagonal attack weapon (a gap covered by the Longsword in NA), equally NA has gaps … for example there is no 2AD diagonal attack weapon as the Spear was scrapped and the Shortsword had the ‘diagonal’ property stripped so…combine the best of the two to expand the equipment range to fill in the gaps and provide more ‘standard equipment’ that can be bought.
Within HQ SE other weapons are mentioned that are not represented by Equipment Cards, and therefore cannot be purchased by Heroes…like the Short Bow that AtoH Goblins are armed with (essentially a 2AD version of the Crossbow), so create equipment cards for these and add them to the deck

Throwing Weapons

EA version has two available throwing weapons, NA reduced that to one. Throwing Weapons are one-shot, great for disposing of Gold, but they are priced in such a way that no-one every really buys them and if they do they are too expensive to throw away. You can’t really make them much cheaper due to their other properties, in that they can also be used for close / hand-to-hand combat, so make them more than just one-shot, but still limited use.

My proposal here is to strip the throwing property from the SE Spear, retain the Hand Axe, and add a new Equipment Type of “Throwing Knife” 1AD – 25GC but modify the throwing weapon loss and recovery as follows:

Throwing Weapons are lost when you miss on your attack roll, that is throw all shields, otherwise they can be automatically recovered when you step onto the target square or search the area in which the target square is contained.

This keeps them as a limited-use gold sink, but makes them last longer, so they become more cost effective and might actually be purchased and used

#3 Introduce a new ‘breed’ of Equipment Card

Equipment Cards in the base game (with the exception of throwing weapons) are all permanent, you purchase them and the benefits are permanent, but throwing weapons introduce the concept of single-use (or limited use, see above) equipment cards. Extending the range of single or limited use cards acts as another useful way of spicing up the game, increasing the range of equipment that can be purchased, extending out the effective lifespan of the advancement mechanism.

Under SE all the “Quest Treasures” are what I refer to as Artefact type, that is they are unique (only 1 Talisman of Lore) permanent items with permanent effects (although they may be limited in scope like only affecting Undead). NA Edition introduced a new type of item to the Quest Treasure Deck (although obviously all Quest Treasures are referred to as Artefacts under NA) in the form of single or limited use, some examples:

‘Elixir of Life’ – introduced as an Artifact Card so you can only get it through the Quest Notes but it is single-use not permanent and isn’t unique (but is rare)

‘Dust of Disappearance’ – as above but not ‘proper’ artifact cards (production costs!)

‘Venom Antidote’ – similar category of item but introduced in an entirely new and different way, via the Alchemists’ Store with no corresponding card

My proposal is that we list out and identify all of these Quest Treasure items from all editions and recreate them as a new breed of Equipment Cards that are of limited availability, only one, or maybe in some cases a couple, of copies of that Equipment Card, so that it isn’t available to be (re)purchased until the original has been used and returned to the Equipment Deck, between quests, so there is no issue with stock-piling and the overpowering effects that can cause.

Rejigging the Equipment Card Deck [SE]

#4 Buying Spells

The Wizard’s advancement through purchasing equipment path is pitiful, which kind of makes sense as Weapons and Armour are not his thing, so my proposal is to create a parallel path of advancement through purchasing spells.

Some (permanent) artefacts lead to a (permanent) increase in MP – for example Talisman of Lore (either +1 or +2 depending on your edition), in the hands (or around the neck) of a spell caster this could be applied to the unstated but commonly recognised ‘rule’ in HeroQuest;

• MP4 = Base 3 +1 so 1 spell set (of 3 cards) = 3 Spells
• MP5 = Base 3 +2 so 2 spell sets (of 3 cards) = 6 Spells
• MP6 = Base 3 +3 so 3 spell sets (of 3 cards) = 9 Spells
• MP7 = Base 3 +4 so 4 spell sets (of 3 cards) = 12 Spells
• And so on

Note for clarity: This refers to the maximum limit of the number of spells that you can ‘load’ and take into a Quest with you for use but not necessarily a maximum limit to the number of spells that you know.

A number of different ways to implement this but the same principle;

Elf uses Elf spells from the start, getting any 3 to start with, freeing up the 4th set of 3 elemental spells for the Wizard to purchase for say 1000GC once his MP gets a +1 boost. Elf, if he got a MP +1 boost, could purchase for say 1000GC, a second set of 3 (or at least an extra 3 cards as these aren’t in sets)

Use the Wizards of Morcar extra 3x3 spell sets to allow Wizard to purchase additional spell sets for gold as and when MP updates permit

And so on

[Shark]

So I still think there are other ways to slow the gathering of gold, and give the Heros more to spend money on while still keeping it simple and to a degree within the spirit of HQ.

What your can Carry.
I have added Backpacks, Sacks and Belts to the equipment deck.
A belt allows you to have 2 potions (these can be used free as per the rules) plus 1 medium or 2 small weapons (can be a spare alternative or one to be sold, or daggers to be thrown) Cost 25gc.
Small Backbacks allow 2 potions, 4 small items and a medium weapon, Then a Medium Backpack-as small plus 2 Medium Items, Large Backpack-as small plus 4 Medium Items. Cost 50/100/150gc.
Sack can carry 4 medium items but is carried by hand so limits you to a 1 handed weapon and no shield. 50gc

Treasure
I have replaced gold with items. Ornaments, and Paintings (Medium), and Gems, Jewellery, Glasses, Plates and Books (Small) to name a few. Once they are home these can be converted to gold.
It usually means they run out of space early on, so have to choose what they take.

Henchmen
I use the a generic Henchman who can also carry stuff. He starts with a short sword and small backpack. He can be upgraded by buying him better weapons, armour, and backpacks. The fun part is if he is killed, then unless they can carry the stuff out they lose it.

First Aid Kits, Rations and Mead.
Healing is rare, 2 spells, and maybe a potion. So i have added a First Aid Kit which restores 1 body point for 25gc, rations and mead both +1BP 10gc (once per quest only). All are small items and requires a turn to use. Now they can buy a few of these for quests, but will want to use them as they take up treasure space. Of course once used they are lost, so will need to buy more between each quest.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

What your can Carry.
I have added Backpacks, Sacks and Belts to the equipment deck.
A belt allows you to have 2 potions (these can be used free as per the rules) plus 1 medium or 2 small weapons (can be a spare alternative or one to be sold, or daggers to be thrown) Cost 25gc.
Small Backbacks allow 2 potions, 4 small items and a medium weapon, Then a Medium Backpack-as small plus 2 Medium Items, Large Backpack-as small plus 4 Medium Items. Cost 50/100/150gc.
Sack can carry 4 medium items but is carried by hand so limits you to a 1 handed weapon and no shield. 50gc

I’m not convinced that carrying capacity limits on their own really count as a way of extending the advancement system (although they are discussed elsewhere and certainly have merits in their own right). If under the current rules you purchase a broadsword (3AD) for 250GC and later a Battle Axe (4AD) for 400GC. Then you total expenditure is 650GC and the effect is 4AD in attack, that expenditure and "upgrade" remains the same whether you chuck the Broadsword away or choose to still carry it around. Carrying capacity limits might discourage the latter, and if you choose the latter, then you may have to pay even more to extend your carry capacity, but ultimately you could still choose to throw away excess equipment.

Treasure
I have replaced gold with items. Ornaments, and Paintings (Medium), and Gems, Jewellery, Glasses, Plates and Books (Small) to name a few. Once they are home these can be converted to gold.
It usually means they run out of space early on, so have to choose what they take.

This change on its own also doesn’t extend the advancement system but combining this with carrying capacity limits as you suggest would certainly throttle back gold acquisition, but for this to work you would have to introduce carrying capacity limits across the board, add additional equipment to boost carrying capacity AND convert all the Gold treasure cards (and potentially Gold chest content) into ‘items’ with sizes, certainly not impossible, but I would question whether that is as ‘simple’ as some of the earlier proposals like scrapping treasure search in passageways for example.

Henchmen
I use the a generic Henchman who can also carry stuff. He starts with a short sword and small backpack. He can be upgraded by buying him better weapons, armour, and backpacks. The fun part is if he is killed, then unless they can carry the stuff out they lose it.

The Henchman mechanism in whatever form is another option for spending your Gold and introducing that earlier in the game has the potential to extend the advancement mechanism effectively (but personally I don't like the HQ Henchmen/Men-At-Arms concept/implementation so I don't use it) but you are correct that is a valid option for those who like it.

First Aid Kits, Rations and Mead.
Healing is rare, 2 spells, and maybe a potion. So i have added a First Aid Kit which restores 1 body point for 25gc, rations and mead both +1BP 10gc (once per quest only). All are small items and requires a turn to use. Now they can buy a few of these for quests, but will want to use them as they take up treasure space. Of course once used they are lost, so will need to buy more between each quest.

Healing is rare in HQ by design, increasing potential for healing makes a game that many argue is already too easy, even easier. I have play-tested a number of similar options over the decades, healing salves, bandages, elven waybread, dwarf stone bread and so on and realised that any ‘purchasable’ BP boosters that were no extremely restricted and/or expensive (like the option to purchase a Potion of Healing for 500GC but only ever one available) rapidly lead to a group of Heroes starting every Quest fully laden with a ton of healing stuff, and gradually topping up their BP through the quest, filling the gaps made by using these items with treasure from the Quest and therefore never being in any serious risk of dying. The game essential becomes a case of …between quests exchange treasure for healing stuff, and then in-quest you gradually trade healing stuff for treasure, rinse and repeat.

[Shark]

Reading both UK and NA rules - They both state searching for treasure in rooms only, and that’s what I have always played.
So curious about searching for treasure outside of rooms.

Also I do like you spell progression as the wizard really loses out on buying stuff.

Have not implemented any magic buying generally otherwise can they sell unwanted magic items? And did not think the prices seemed right.

In the end it’s still about what makes the fun for you and your friends, and I think how often you play it. Is part of the goal to grow your Heros, or just play the game.