The Search for the Three Scrolls of Battle

[Kurgan]

Wait, why are we still using scrolls? They have books now in HeroQuest right? Oh, it makes the knowledge within them seem old and special, I see...

These will use those special German colored HeroQuest Dice from Spielwarensaloon.

So I am going to introduce this new rule into future quests with my gaming group, wherein if a Hero searches a designated room with a Bookcase, he finds one of the "Scrolls of Battle."

The Hero is given the option to "read" the scroll, which will end his turn and cause him to lose another turn. But once he has done this, he and soon any Allies (Hero or Merc) he encounters will have "learned" a special new tactic.

The tactics are as follows:

Shield Wall
The Heroes must be touching either adjacently or diagonally from one another. They must also all be wearing some form of armor BESIDES chain mail. Mercs are assumed to be wearing applicable armor for the purpose of this exercise. When one of these Heroes rolls for defense, he will substitute one GREEN die if there are two good guys, two if there are three good guys, and three if there are four good guys.

See how it works?

Unfortunately, the same will be true of the BAD GUYS after this (you think only you can read?). The bad guys use Blue Dice to defend instead of Green in this case. For the sake of fairness, we'll assume the bad guys are all using some appropriate type of armor (even if its just bracers... or braces as the case may be).

Flanking Attack
Heroes (and their allies of course) surround a foe to deal more damage. Multiple heroes touching a monster adjacently (or diagonally when they can attack) roll Black Dice. The good guy attacking substitutes 1 Black Die if there are two good guys; 2 Black Dice if there are three good guys, 3 Black Dice if there are four good guys. This encourages coordinated attacks on big targets.

The bad guys can do the same against you now, of course!

Coordinated Shooting (need a better name...)
Much like the Shield Wall, except the characters must be armed with ranged weaponry. When one of them fires a ranged weapon at the enemy, he gets 1 Black Die if there are two good guys, 2 Black Dice if there are three good guys, 3 Black Dice if there are four good guys.

The bad guys get the same, of course!

The only other thing to consider is that I may have it so that if a person already would be using Black Dice, a Scroll feature that gives them Black Dice will turn those into Purple Dice...

Check my Hero Upgrade System...

[Anderas]

I like the way how you are introducing the new rules. Slowly, one by one, an item can be found... That's how it is fun to learn new rules.

Then, to make multiple heroes stronger against a single enemy is a nice tactical element. Did you try that? I fear for the poor Monster Bosses whose life will be severely shortened.

[Kurgan]

Not yet...

But another motivation for introducing these new rules is trying to get the Heroes to stick together more. So often they spread out all over the board and either get killed or it takes forever for them to all get to where they need to go.

[torilen]

I think scrolls are used for spells because they are one use - you read it and either the ink disappears as you
read it, or the scroll burns up upon finishing the spell. Harder to do that with books.

I have always wanted a few sets of the colored dice. Haven't been able to get my hands on them yet. SO...
I typically go with just plain six-sided dice. Harder to do things, you roll 6, or 5 and 6. Easy things, or
a better chance to do something (like a REALLY good attack), you roll 3-6 or anything except a 1.

I've always thought doing things like that, though, instead of simply adding or subtracting combat dice,
makes things work a little better, and offers a much wider ability to make unique spells, armors, weapons, etc.

[Kurgan]

Yeah, you can do that easily. The Battle Scrolls become permanent abilities, they're just suggestions to the heroes that make sense.

You can also use White Dice:

For "Black Dice" (benefits an attacker) count the Black Shield as a Skull.

For "Blue Dice" (benefits a monster defending), count White shields (only) as Black Shields.

For "Green Dice" (benefits a good guy defending), count the Black Shield as a White Shield.

The other colors are more difficult because they introduce doubles of certain things (like you could roll two black shields on single die face).

I also noticed that the "White" version of the German dice is actually different than the original dice (apart from the size and material used). The faces themselves are arranged differently. Some guy on Ebay is selling White dice that have just little transparent stickers on each face showing the images, and his are identical to the original dice. However, despite the faces being arranged differently on the "ink stamped" German white dice, the distribution of faces is the same, so it should NOT affect the randomness of getting a Skull, White Shield or Black Shield when rolling in gameplay.

[torilen]

The big thing I would want in specialty or custom dice - which I am not sure if the German dice have
this or not - is some faces with two of something.

Example: the normal combat die has 3 skulls, 3 WS, 1 BS. I would want a yellow die with 2 Skulls, 1 double skull,
2 WS, 1 BS. Orange die would have 1 skull, 2 double skulls, 2 WS, 1 BS. Red die would have 1 skull, 1 double skull,
and 1 triple skull, then 2 WS and 1 BS.

Blue dice would have more shields, some double shields and a triple shield. Green dice would have some other stuff
going on. And black dice would simply have 5 skulls and 1 face with 1 WS and 1 BS.

(I have it all planed out, and I made PDF's to print on sticky paper to create my own dice, but never did because
it wouldn't work too well. I also created print-offs for spinners to use in place of dice.

[Kurgan]

Yes. I own them (the ones from the Spielwarensaloon website) and here is what they show:

Purple Die (white details): Skull, Skull, White Shield, Double Skull, Double White Shield, Double Black Shield
(2 skulls, 1 white shield, 1 double skull, 1 double white shield, 1 double black shield)

Orange Die (white details): Double Skull, Double Skull, Double White Shield, Double White Shield, Black Shield, Double Black Shield
(2 double skulls, 2 double white shields, 1 black shield, 1 double black shield)

Yellow Die (black details): Skull, White Shield, Black Shield, Double Skull, Double Black Shield, Double White Shield
(1 skull, 1 black shield, 1 double skull, 1 double black shield, 1 double white shield)

(for the ones I don't own):

Grey Die (red details): White Shield, White Shield, Double White Shield, Black Shield, Black Shield, Double Black Shield
(2 white shields, 1 double white shield, 2 black shields, 1 double black shield)

"Red" Die (fire orange, white details) = same faces as standard White dice
(i.e: 3 skulls, 2 white shields, 1 black shield)

Pink Die (black details) = same faces as standard White dice
(i.e: 3 skulls, 2 white shields, 1 black shield)

Olive Green Die (white details) = Skull, Skull, Skull, Double Skull, Black Shield, Black Shield
3 skulls, 1 double skull, 2 black shields (NO white shields)

White Die = same faces as standard White dice, though the faces are arranged differently on the die than the original HQ dice.

White "Ivory" Die (with red details instead of black): Skull, Double Skull, Double Skull, Black Shield, Black Shield, Black Shield
1 skull, 1 double skull, 3 black shields (NO white shields)

There are also "Skull/Key" dice that have no shields of any kind.

Black: 3 skulls, 3 keys
Blue: 3 skulls, 2 keys, 1 blank
Green: 3 skulls, 1 key, 2 blanks

All of these special dice have rounded corners like the original HQ dice, but are 16 mm opaque plastic and the details are hand stamped onto the faces with some kind of paint. most seem to have a dull or matte finish rather than a glossy one. [Edit: not a shill post, just for informational purposes!]

[Kurgan]

In the original version of this system I thought that for the monsters, it would only work if they were the same monster type... or maybe only if they were the same "color." Or that undead could coordinate with each other and with the figure who summoned them. For the sake of fairness for the bad guys, probably just any monsters, period... (will make the Return of the Witch Lord a lot tougher!).

[Kurgan]

I see now they've added "Potion" dice. Like the key dice, these look cool, but seem of limited value for adding any variety to Heroquest. They come in blue, black and green.

Is the thing you just guzzled down poison, something good, or does it have no effect? (I guess)

Green: Bottle, Bottle, Bottle, Bottle, Skull, Skull
Blue: Bottle, Bottle, Bottle, Skull, blank
Black: Bottle, Bottle, Bottle, blank, blank

And yes they did come out with a "trick" die that has a skull on every face. So now we're going to have to inspect the (white plastic at least) dice before each game to make sure nobody is cheating.

[cynthialee]

what do you even use those for?