HeroQuest - Amped Edition (custom rule & quest book)

[Stoner81]

Just got Protection, Cold and the Elf spells to add and then I think spells are pretty much done other than creating sheets for them on the character sheet. Speaking of the character sheet, I have jigged it around a bit so hopefully it's a bit better.

I have also introduced a new mechanic called Insanity, basically every time a Hero dies they must roll 1 Combat Die and on a roll of a black skull they gain 1 Insanity point. Upon reaching 4 points total they go completely mad and must be retired. Being resurrected has its price...



Stoner81.

[Anderas]

Just downloaded it. So let's see if I have the head for reading tomorrow.

[Stoner81]

Just downloaded it. So let's see if I have the head for reading tomorrow.

OK bud no worries, as it turns out I am having to go back through my spell lists and jig some formatting round a bit, it's mostly just flavour text to get everything to fit on a single page. My rule book is a long read now at 52 pages but it does contain every trap type in the game

Oh and the table of contents page numbers are completely wrong pretty much but I will sort those out towards the end, I see little point in doing them now



Stoner81.

[Stoner81]

Finally given my rule book a name so I welcome you all to...

HeroQuest - Amped Edition!



Stoner81.

[Anderas]

ok, i start here with feedback. I will edit this post until you answer, then start the next one.

I start on page 2; and then goes on through all pages: It would be nice to have two columns of text for readability. Maybe you ask Mitchiemacha for some comments on text layout as he is good in those things.

Page 4, preface:
A new line after "Greetings and welcome to HeroQuest!"
There's enough space on the page. I am a fan of little drawings in the empty spaces but that is of course up to you - i am fan of drawings but can't draw, for example

Page 6, character creation & sheets - would be nice to have an image of the character sheet in here.
By the way I had to crank up the zoom to 150% to read it - chemotherapy does strange things to the eyes and that was a little bit to small. It would not have been too small a week ago; crazy as it sounds.

Character classes: I like the special rules you invented there, on first glance nothing seems too strong or too weak. However, i did not see the rest of the rules yet so I better don't judge yet. I couldn't resist to go cleptocreative on the Inventor special rule.
The stealth special rule seems to be made for single player games? It is a step to go for my long-dreamed-of dark-and-light-and-sneak-around scenario i dream of since 2012 but couldn't quite get a grip on so far. Rule stolen.

Schools of Magic: You state

Monsters and Heroes may always have at least 1 movement die, 1 attack die and 1 defence die

That's a general rule, but it is stowed away under schools of magic. Might there be a better place for this sentence? Is there a contradiction with the monster movement rules (no dice)? Oh well, i did not yet see your monsters, though.

Spells:
I like to separate cards in cost, range, target, effect and flavor text.
You set up some general rules for range and target but you said nothing on cost. Do I assume right that the spellcaster must discard the card as cost? If yes, it might be worth a sentence under the headline "Schools of Magic"

Allows movement through walls, if you move in to a new move you must stop and allow the DM to place the room’s contents on to the board. You may not travel through furniture nor monsters unless you have Veil of Mist cast on you.
If you end your movement inside a wall then you die instantly and lose all items and gold.

First, it's nice to have the double action directly mentioned on the card. Second, i marked a word in red that should be different possibly?

Choose 3x3 squares. No missile or spell can be fired/cast in/out/through those squares. Anybody in those squares may only move 1 square per turn and may not Dash. The effect lasts for the rest of the quest. Room only.

I like to have all range specifiers in one place, so i would maybe rephrase it_

Choose 3x3 squares inside a room. No missile or spell can be fired/cast in/out/through those squares. Anybody in those squares may only move 1 square per turn and may not Dash. The effect lasts for the rest of the quest.

There is no mentioning of close combat - is it easy to cc in complete darkness? ? By the way, that's a spell that might well fit into detection, if you widen the concept to anything connected to detection; also the protection from detection. And yes, it has been stolen.

Monster must roll equal to or less than maximum Body Point score on 2D6. If they fail then they are turned to stone and may not move, perform any action or defend themselves. At the end of their turn the monster may repeat the roll to try to break free if they fail then they lost 1 Body Point without being able to defend.

You specifically mention a monster as a target. Is that intentionally? If it can be used on Heroes, Men-At-Arms and others, too, I would reword it like so; i also added some interpunction:

The target figure must roll equal to or less than their maximum Body Point score on 2D6. If they fail then they are turned to stone and may not move, perform any action or defend themselves. At the end of their turn the monster may repeat the roll to try to break free. If they fail then they lose 1 Body Point without being able to defend.

There is a second remark: It is pretty much an autokill-spell or maybe I misunderstood a detail. It is difficult with 2d6 to roll 4 or less, and many bosses have just those 4 or 5 BP; also our own beloved wizard.

Does the target lose 1BP each round until it dies or de-stones or does it just lose 1 BP?

I propose one of those alternatives in comparison. (sorry I don't know the forum's table format very well - just import to excel, it's comma separated)

rolling same or below the BP with
1BP, ,
2BP, 3%,
3BP, 8.4%,
4BP, 16.7%,
5BP, 27.8%,
6BP, 41.7%,

rolling same or below the BP with
1BP, 16.7%,
2BP, 33%,
3BP, 50%,
4BP, 67.7%,
5BP, 83.3%,
6BP, 100%,

rolling 1 white die per starting BP, looking for
1BP, 16.7%,
2BP, ~31%,
3BP, ~42%,
4BP, ~52%,
5BP, 60%,
6BP, 66.6%,

rolling 1 white die per starting BP, looking for :
1BP, ,
2BP, 11.1%,
3BP, 25.9%,
4BP, 40.7%,
5BP, 53.9%,
6BP, 64.8%,


That's it for today. Tomorrow's another day.
Yesterday they gave me something that made it difficult to keep the eyes straight so I just streamed Dr. Who.

Today I wasted much of the chemo time on Warhammer Quest.

Let's see tomorrow.

[Stoner81]

Just a quick reply here bud to say that I have glanced over a good chunk of what you have posted so far and I like what I see and thank you for the feedback it is very much appreciated. It is coming up to dinner time for me so I will hopefully be able to go through it all later on tonight



Stoner81.

[Anderas]

Could you give me some basic data? Do you use the same monsters and monster numbers and roughly the same equipment strength like the original?
Otherwise it is incredible difficult to say something about balancing.

[Stoner81]

Could you give me some basic data? Do you use the same monsters and monster numbers and roughly the same equipment strength like the original?
Otherwise it is incredible difficult to say something about balancing.

Approximately, the monster stats have been beefed up somewhat but it's mostly an extra body point here and there. The Bestiary lists all of the original monsters and has their UK stats in parentheses in case folks just want to use them (UK stats that is). Weapon strength for the original stuff is more or less the same I think with maybe a few buffs here and there. My aim was to make the game harder since it was stupidly easy once the Heroes got a few bits of kit.

Going to go through your feedback now so will post below in a while once I have everything sorted



Stoner81.

[Stoner81]

It would be nice to have two columns of text for readability. Maybe you ask Mitchiemacha for some comments on text layout as he is good in those things.

Doing this now would mean having to redo the entire thing and to be blunt I hate layout I much prefer the way it is currently.

A new line after "Greetings and welcome to HeroQuest!"
There's enough space on the page.

Makes sense so done!

Page 6, character creation & sheets - would be nice to have an image of the character sheet in here.
By the way I had to crank up the zoom to 150% to read it - chemotherapy does strange things to the eyes and that was a little bit to small. It would not have been too small a week ago; crazy as it sounds.

The character sheet is at the very end of the rule book after the Bestiary and is currently 2 pages long and it will be longer once I add in spells (I have removed cards from the game completely, trying to put everything on the character sheet instead).

As to the sizing, I write the whole thing at 150% it's just the way Office was setup so I did it that way. Once it is actually it is small but readable. Bumping up the font size would drastically change everything now but we will see.

Character classes: I like the special rules you invented there, on first glance nothing seems too strong or too weak. However, i did not see the rest of the rules yet so I better don't judge yet. I couldn't resist to go cleptocreative on the Inventor special rule.

Glad you like it

The stealth special rule seems to be made for single player games? It is a step to go for my long-dreamed-of dark-and-light-and-sneak-around scenario i dream of since 2012 but couldn't quite get a grip on so far. Rule stolen.

The rule isn't designed for solo play it was just designed. Stealth lasts until an attack is made so it gives the player some room for creativity (I hope).

Schools of Magic: You state - Monsters and Heroes may always have at least 1 movement die, 1 attack die and 1 defence die
That's a general rule, but it is stowed away under schools of magic. Might there be a better place for this sentence? Is there a contradiction with the monster movement rules (no dice)? Oh well, i did not yet see your monsters, though.

Good point! I will add this to the Movement section so it is easier to see/find. Monsters do not roll movement dice as per the norm so I will clarify that as well.

Spells:
I like to separate cards in cost, range, target, effect and flavor text.
You set up some general rules for range and target but you said nothing on cost. Do I assume right that the spellcaster must discard the card as cost? If yes, it might be worth a sentence under the headline "Schools of Magic"

Spells are ALL one time use unless the spell caster can get them back again some how. There are a couple of exceptions I think that specifically state that they may only be cast once per quest, I will also need to clarify this with the Amplify spell *grabs a notepad*.

Allows movement through walls, if you move in to a new move you must stop and allow the DM to place the room’s contents on to the board. You may not travel through furniture nor monsters unless you have Veil of Mist cast on you.
If you end your movement inside a wall then you die instantly and lose all items and gold.

Nice catch! Changed to clearly state "a new room or corridor".

Choose 3x3 squares. No missile or spell can be fired/cast in/out/through those squares. Anybody in those squares may only move 1 square per turn and may not Dash. The effect lasts for the rest of the quest. Room only.
I like to have all range specifiers in one place, so i would maybe rephrase it:

Choose 3x3 squares inside a room. No missile or spell can be fired/cast in/out/through those squares. Anybody in those squares may only move 1 square per turn and may not Dash. The effect lasts for the rest of the quest.

There is no mentioning of close combat - is it easy to cc in complete darkness? ? By the way, that's a spell that might well fit into detection, if you widen the concept to anything connected to detection; also the protection from detection. And yes, it has been stolen.

Makes sense so altered and I see your point about melee so I will add in that melee combat is prohibited inside the affected area.

Flesh to Stone - Monster must roll equal to or less than maximum Body Point score on 2D6. If they fail then they are turned to stone and may not move, perform any action or defend themselves. At the end of their turn the monster may repeat the roll to try to break free if they fail then they lost 1 Body Point without being able to defend.

You specifically mention a monster as a target. Is that intentionally? If it can be used on Heroes, Men-At-Arms and others, too, I would reword it like so; i also added some interpunction:

There is a second remark: It is pretty much an autokill-spell or maybe I misunderstood a detail. It is difficult with 2d6 to roll 4 or less, and many bosses have just those 4 or 5 BP; also our own beloved wizard.

Does the target lose 1BP each round until it dies or de-stones or does it just lose 1 BP?

The Dungeon Master does not have this spell hence Monster being specified. It is designed as an auto-kill spell. A lot of my named monsters have higher stats than the original. The target does lose 1 Body Point per round until it either dies or breaks the spell (I have clarified this in the spell description).

I propose one of those alternatives in comparison. (sorry I don't know the forum's table format very well - just import to excel, it's comma separated)

rolling same or below the BP with
1BP, ,
2BP, 3%,
3BP, 8.4%,
4BP, 16.7%,
5BP, 27.8%,
6BP, 41.7%,

rolling same or below the BP with
1BP, 16.7%,
2BP, 33%,
3BP, 50%,
4BP, 67.7%,
5BP, 83.3%,
6BP, 100%,

rolling 1 white die per starting BP, looking for
1BP, 16.7%,
2BP, ~31%,
3BP, ~42%,
4BP, ~52%,
5BP, 60%,
6BP, 66.6%,

rolling 1 white die per starting BP, looking for :
1BP, ,
2BP, 11.1%,
3BP, 25.9%,
4BP, 40.7%,
5BP, 53.9%,
6BP, 64.8%,

I am not exactly sure what I am looking at here. I am guess these are percent chances of success depending on how many body points are left.

That's it for today. Tomorrow's another day.
Yesterday they gave me something that made it difficult to keep the eyes straight so I just streamed Dr. Who.

Today I wasted much of the chemo time on Warhammer Quest.

Let's see tomorrow.

I hope you feel better soon! Thank you again for taking the time to do this, it is very much appreciated!



Stoner81.

[Stoner81]

Still going through spells to alter the flavour text so that they all have the same format.



Stoner81.

EDIT - Spells are all done finally! Man that took forever!