Ye Olde Inn

Interesting idea. However, I wouldn't prevent the hero from passing a monster on an adjacent square entirely. Instead, I would work it more like a spear trap. In order to move beyond a square adjacent to a monster, roll one combat die. If a skull is rolled, the hero is blocked by the monster and cannot proceed. If a shield is rolled, the hero evades the monster and may continue their movement.

What you describe sounds like a rule I thought about for another game I'm making myself.

Basically you can never move FROM a square adjacent to a monster to another square adjacent to a monster.
The logic is that you can't just wade past a monster. It will try to hit you and you will have to deal with that.

But you can always move away from a monster.

I'm sorry I think I wasn't clear, but I was wondering if you can pass a monster i.e. adjacent to it not through it. Blocking is an essential part of the game, the way i used to play somewhat increased this.

My youthful logic was that a monster or a hero couldn't pass a monster without the urge to attack. I also used to play that a hero or monster had a sort of 'zone of control', not allowing anything offensive to pass/move through in the four adjacent tiles around it. The character would be considered 'locked' in combat. Hope I've made sense

I don't let anyone pass through a place a monster or a hero is occupying. Combat or not.
Makes for some interesting tactics.

Thank you all for your suggestions, especially cynthialee for the brilliant dwarf campaign idea!! That really flouted my boat and I have already started working on it. Rise of the Dwarfs
I plan to give each dwarf an additional special ability, along the lines of your suggestions, with the aid of then carrying them through to the quest campaign.

I am aware of the downloadable material available through this site, an absolute treasure trove which I have mercilessly been downloading, many thanks to daedalus for your pointers. There is so much I often become lost or lose my trail of thought, this is to your credit drathe- Leg End!
I have created additional treasure cards (solely containing gold) which I plan to add to the deck when my group have just started with new heroes, with the aid of speeding up their hero development.

I received my HQ game when I was 7! It was a choice between HQ and some other game called 'key to kingdom' which I have now played and is total pants!! Each time I open my set up I think to the xmas decision I made all those years ago. Oh my.... HQ may of never entered my life!!
My father wasn't into role play board games and couldn't fathom the rules (I remember playing xmas day and my dad making the school boy error of placing out the contents of the rooms at the start). The following year my best friend also got the game and it was then we started, at the age of 8, to interpret the rules. Two decades later, with many revisions of 'our' own rules, we are now playing HQ currently and have been for the last 2 years. Unfortunately some of rules my best friend and I created, to fill in our inability to read let alone understand the rules, are now fondly missed by my group.

Example: Now being able to pass by monsters. We never allowed passing through monsters but also we didn't allow heroes or monsters to move through adjacent tiles where combat was possible. This lead to some strange circumnavigation of rooms to pass foes.

Am I correct in believing that you can do this?? conformation much appreciated.

The alchemist shop has been available since we started kellers keep but it little used. My group go straight to the armoury to blow their money. I have the additional potions from the BQP and EQP. I going to add some dwarf only potions, all alcohol based, I love the drunken dwarf idea cynthialee. to you and to all evil wizards

Ta very much!

Nerrad72 wrote:...In my group I'm the true HQ fan. I'm willing to try anything to keep the game fresh and true to original style of the game. I need to find a good balance soon as I have found my group starting to cheat; not removing BP, making up money and not removing healing potions; no doubt because they keep dying. I use the golf saying of 'your only cheating yourself'

Does anyone use/have any 'Tokens' with a HQ feel, for which I could use to represents gold and healing potions. I'm going to use monopoly money for the time being!

Welcome. You've come to the right place- the Inne is rife with downloadable material!
That's the good news. The bad news is you'll need to make the game aids yourself.

Go to the Homepage and and click the Quests button. Scroll about 1/4 of the way down to find the Marvel Winter Special. It has skull markers within that have red backgrounds- those should do nicely for damage markers.

Though not ideal, you could also print up extra treasure cards from the quests that contain gold coins. In the European editions you can get denominations of 10, 20, 25, 50, and 100 GCs. To find the cards, go to the Homepage again, click the Gamesystem button, then the English flag (or flag of you choice). Scrolling about 2/3 of the way down you will find the treasure card PDFs.

If you're willing to go a step further and have a graphics program, you can create your own Gold Coin treasure cards of any denomination. Homepage once more, but scroll to the bottom. There you click the Design & Game Tools button, then scroll about 2/5 of the way down to get the European Card Template. You'll also want the HeroQuest Font Pack to get the card text right- it's found 2 entries below. The treasure art is found on the same page as well, a little more than 1/2 of the way down.

Hmmm... HeroQuest Monopoly money. It's a lot of work, but maybe I should should print some.

As for potions, rather than discarding a potion card and recording it, have the player simply keep the card by his character board. You will need to print extra potion cards if they are retained between quests, but if you're with me this far then this shouldn't be a problem. They are found with the gold coin cards in the treasure card PDFs. Alchemist's Shop potions from Kellar's Keep and Return of the Witch Lord can also be printed as cards. Click the Cards button at the bottom of the Homepage, then scroll about 1/3 down to find them. You'll also notice many other potion cards available form other expansions you may be using.

If you're willing to DIY, drathe has made the Inne a candy store- enjoy!

Hi and welcome!

Never forget your heroes can buy gear, (armor, weapons and potions) between each quest. That plus the extra spells and mercenaries should do to get them through the next quest book. You could always download some unofficial (player made) and "semi"official (magazine) quests from Phoenix's website to play inbetween.

Some more Dwarf ideas:

Drunken Dwarves are -1 dice on all actions but regenerate 1 body point at the beggining of the Heroes turn. Dwarves have a hearty constitution and rapidly become sober and must constantly be drinking to remain drunk. (eats up gold and keeps the Dwarf questing for the ultimate brew that will actually get him plowed.)

Dwarven Champions could attack with one extra combat dice when wielding an ax.

Dwarven Lords (those who finish at least 20 quests or more perhaps) may always attack Orks, Fimir and Goblins with an extra combat dice regardless of weapon type ussed. May be combined with the Dwarven Champion ax bonus.

Dwarves may take a last great act of defiance right before they die. This action may only be a combat action and is taken imediatly out of turn as soon as the Dwarf is technically dead. (this would be a good Barabarian buff also, but it isn't like he needs buffing)

One of the things I do when I know that the game is more dificult than the players can typically handle (every game) is to issue a few artifacts from the 'Emperors Armory' before they even get on the trail to adventure. Typically I hand out one random artifact per player plus one extra. (One Hero gets 2 artifacts.) Of course before I randomly generate artifacts I pull out the ones that will not fit the dungeon or are going to be a quest object for that dungeon. After the dungeon is over the players must surender any artifacts that survive the dungeon back to the emperor.

To make the Dwarf more desireable you could buff him slightly.
Say he has a case of the a$$ for Chaos Warriors due to a pack of them burning his Village, so whenever he fights a choas warrior he may roll one free dice for attack and defence.
Or perhaps pick one type of trap that the Dwarf may always disarm without a roll.
Another good one for a Dwarf is to allow them to pass through stone twice per a dungeon as a racial power. (Explains how the Dwarves are so good at finding ore.)
If you have some of the modified HQ dice you could allow the Dwarf to always roll one of thier combat dice as a more favorable dice. If you have the purple or orange dice this could be a major beef. If you have the black dice and the green dice it would be a minor buff.
Perhaps the Dwarf may forge his own weapons and armor between quests for half cost.
Maybe Dwarves could have a racial ability to resist poisons. Let the dwarf roll a combat dice for each point of body they have and if they get a black shield then the poison doesnt even effect them.
If you have D4's then you could rule that the Dwarf may move 2D4 when in plate male instead of a D6.
Or give the Dwarf access to Dwarf only potions that provide the above buffs when imbibed.

There are so many ways you could buff the Dwarf.

In my opinion as an Evil Wizard that Dwarf is the biggest thorn in my side. It blows my mind that your group can not see the tactical advantages a Dwarf gives.

I just had a cool idea!

An all Dwarf campaign. Everyone plays a Dwarf. One of the Dwarves is the Hero that goes on missions with the normal heroes, but there is an issue in Dwarf lands so the Dwarf needs to go home. The other players take the roll of NPC dwarves and getting the Hero Dwarf through the missions will etermine how powerful the Dwarf is for future missions with his normal Hero friends. Or each is playing a PC Dwarf and they may play them in future quests but only 1 Dwarf at a time of course...
This makes all of them get some Dwarf time in and gives them a chance to get a feel for the Dwarf.
For my HQ dollar the Dwarf is where it is at.
The combined dungeon skills and access to arms is great combination.

(still thinking on other potential Dwarf buffs)

The game "Zombies!!!" has heart tokens that could be used for an instant heal spot, or for potions.
The d&d board games (Ravenloft, Ashardalon, Drizzt) have many components that can be made to work with heroquest as well. Especially the modular tiles.