Heroquest remake by Hasbro - The BIG discussion thread

[Pancho]

In Warhammer fantasy the Empire is actually loosely based on late medieval/early renaissance Germany (in terms of its location, and also the naming conventions, fashion etc). Bretonnia to the west is obviously based on medieval France and Kislev to the north east is Poland (Winged Lancers etc). Albion lies to the north west of Bretonnia, and is obviously Britain. Ulthuan, the ancient Kingdom of the High Elves, lies between the old world and the new, and is loosely based on the Atlantis legend. Fantasy versions of Spain, Italy, the Middle East, Far East and Africa are also shown.

[Davane]

Also, for those that are wondering about the link between HQ and the Warhammer World, AHQ is grounded very heavily in the Warhammer World, and explicitly stated in news releases and sales copy that it is part of the Warhammer World. A major selling point of AHQ was it's compatibility and continuation from HQ, and as such, it's fairly easy to infer that the two games are set in the same world. WD Issue 118 shows the sales copy for AHQ, which also shows off HQ.

Also, the introduction of the Eyes of Chaos adventure in HQ specifically mentions the Empire, and the western land of Bretonnia. This provides even more proof that HQ is set in the Warhammer World, because Bretonnia can be considered product identity of the Warhammer World, unlike references to The Empire. Therefore, I would argue, canonically, that since GW considered HQ to be set in the Warhammer World, that this SHOULD be the canon for HQ.

Which should make the 2021 reprint interesting, as we see exactly how Hasbro gets around NOT using the Warhammer World...

[Shadzar]

The concern with the D&D angle is quite similar - D&D itself WAS a very generic fantasy setting, but D&D has evolved away from this kind of approach in later editions. D&D has also evolved over time, much more than the Warhammer World ever has, and some of the modernity of D&D can seem at odds with HQ, rooted in the past of the Warhammer World like it is.

Has it? HAs it really? I see everything from Space Wars, to medieval diplomacy in modern D&D.. it is more generic now than ever. Even with its heavy reliance on Forgotten Realms because Ed Greenwood sold out compeltely to TSR long ago, it is hte only setting WotC can fully control so got the emphasis from it. Strahd, written by Tracy Hicks, still isnt fully owned by WotC because Hicks owns part of his creation there the same as DragonLAnce.

Ed Greenwood is owned by WotC, they can control him, so that is why the Realms are their main stay for D&D and is is more generic like Greyhawk was without being tied to Gygax's world.

For HQ, the last thing to do would be tied it to D&D proper in any way, and thus why HASBRO took Avalon Hill away from WotC, to preevnt a "game system" being too tied to D&D to get shoehorned into being jsut another D&D to compete with D&D. Likewise why HASBRO ended BD&D/AD&D because they dont want 2 competing products. They deal with that with Monopoly and USAopoly versions enough. they need a stand-alone game that is not hindered with the controversies surrounding D&D and HASBRO kows this.

HQ doesnt nee dto evolve, is HASBRO wnted an evolved game though could buy Gloomhaven, they can afford it, and make it their own for a more modern game. They want more simple kids games like Axis & Allies, Risk, etc in their AH line that isnt hindered by modern morality, but just games that brig back the days of Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley, since they have nothing new to compete with the Kickstarter flood of games and Eurogames.

HQ is their one chance to make sure Asmodee doesnt take over as the #1 game manufacturer in the world.

D&D is entering a time of turmoil, the things that may create a new edition as they are revamping the game not unlike 4e where D&D lost its customerbase, and the fear of 6e is causing that. The wrong mistake being made with HQ will cause HASBRO to itself lose customers and its market share as a game manufacturer. HASBRO is smart to tread lightly. The shame is we lose out being a Pulse campaign in that no info will come out until the final game releases to backers. But it will all come out in the wash when it does release and if it is too woke, then HASBRO will lose face and Eurogames will eclipse it and damage control will have to be done at HASBRO, not just WotC, unless they then use it to blame WotC for tarnishing their brands and take greater reigns from WotC and shut down D&D as nothing more than IP to make board and card games... which is something HASBRO has done to MANY brands over the years.

[Shadzar]

Also, for those that are wondering about the link between HQ and the Warhammer World, AHQ is grounded very heavily in the Warhammer World

Here is the problem. HQ isnt AHQ. AHQ tried even more to be D&D and failed because of it, so WQ was made with its own thing. People wont leave D&D for HQ tryig to be AHQ.

AHQ is where you put the modern D&D nonsense into it. More people request HQ and WQ than do AHQ to be reprinted, thus why we are getting HQ.

GW owns WQ so they are making their own Gloomhaven style games under a new name, but in effect are similar to WQ jsut modernized.

Maybe peope will get AHQ reprinted int he future, but not as long as D&D is so popular because as above, why would HASBRO bother with 2 games that are identical? That is why their D&D board games truggle that aren't based on existing board games. D&D theme House on Haunted Hil, etc.

[Shadzar]

did HASBRO pull a bait and switch and are releasing a card game instead?

https://www.amazon.com/HeroQuest-adelante-Aventura-fantas%C3%ADa-Jugadores/dp/B08PFWJSLZ/

[Davane]

did HASBRO pull a bait and switch and are releasing a card game instead?

https://www.amazon.com/HeroQuest-adelante-Aventura-fantas%C3%ADa-Jugadores/dp/B08PFWJSLZ/

No, I don't think so. There seems to be a common trend of trying to release card-game versions of board games. FFG did it when they acquired the Warhammer Quest license briefly, as they didn't want WHQ competing with Descent. GW didn't like that approach, and FFG lost the license petty sharpish...

[Davane]

Here is the problem. HQ isnt AHQ. AHQ tried even more to be D&D and failed because of it, so WQ was made with its own thing. People wont leave D&D for HQ tryig to be AHQ.

I strongly disagree. AHQ didn't try to be D&D. AHQ was always designed to be a dungeon crawling board game, but with a strong campaign element, and some character advancement.

AHQ was GW's biggest selling board game at one point, but because GW only had a minor market in the US, it didn't succeed because HQ outsold it in those markets where GW wasn't already dominant. MB had the advertising power to push HQ more than GW had to push AHQ.

WD only covered two adventures for HQ, because GW had to get MB's permission to publish material in WD, as it was MB, not GW, that held the license for HeroQuest.

In an ideal world, GW would reacquire the rights to HeroQuest, because it's soul is with GW, who designed the rules and the setting. But then HQ would have to compete with WHQ, and I don't see GW bothering with that.

[Kurgan]

I wrote a novel-length response, but decided it would be better to just sum up my main points. I don't mean to hate on you or anything you said, and I am not trying to tell you how to have fun, believe me.

0) I have never said, nor do I believe, that the NA version of HeroQuest is the "one" or "definitive" or "ultimate" "only" or "final" version of the game. I think it would be silly to say the same thing about the EU version, even if it was released first. I think there's room for these different versions to exist side by side today, just as they have for 3+ decades, and that won't change when the Remake comes out this fall and any future releases. It won't die until fans stop playing and creating content for it.

1) Hero Quest is not Warhammer. They are two different things. It's not Battlemasters or Dragonstrike or Dungeons and Dragons or Heroscape or Fantasy Battle either.

2) Clearly there is some inspiration from Warhammer mixed in, and not surprising consider who worked on it, but it was a collaborative effort. There's less of it in the version I grew up with.

3) It has never been officially declared that Warhammer and HeroQuest are the same. The closest statement was a line in a couple of novels (that we never read) which state it is "loosely" based on the same world.

4) The NA version and the EU version grew up side by side, they were both official, both have nostalgic, ancient fanbases who still love the product today. In NA, we didn't have the maps "tying it to the Warhammer world...loosely."

5) You're nostalgic for the version of Hero Quest you grew up with (just like I am for mine), but that doesn't mean other fans can't be nostalgic for their DIFFERENT (but equal) separate continuity Hero Quest versions.

6) This is fiction, fantasy entertainment. "Canon" is irrelevant unless you're using it as some kind of guide to ensure continuity in your series of writings. They aren't making new Hero Quest adventures anymore (well, until next year). The writers of Heroquest are YOU AND ME because that's how the game was made, it was supposed to continue however you wanted after you defeated the included quests. All fantasy fiction is loosely based on real life in some sense, but unlike reality, we can mold fantasy to our hearts content (just can't profit off of it unless we hold the right papers!).

7) Even if Stephen Baker himself, or Hasbro the current owners, or even if somehow GW got involved again and made a decision to "unify" the canon, if you, me, or any other fans didnt' like it, we would IGNORE it and go back to the "tradition" we liked, the one we grew up with.

8) Our imaginations allow us to make up whatever we want about this "world." The official stuff is vague enough and different enough that there is no need to fight about it or try to get everyone on the same side.

9) If you love Warhammer, play Warhammer. Use all your favorite Warhammer stuff in Hero Quest. Hasbro doesn't care, I don't care. Enjoy! I don't see the big deal, because that's just not the version I grew up with, and since I didn't play Warhammer (I knew plenty of people in college that did) I don't care to expend the effort to try to learn it all and make it "fit" somehow on my own.

10) We're all going to do what we want to do anyway and have fun on our own terms, no matter what Hasbro does with this IP.

I think it's great that you love GW and Warhammer. I've seen some of their character designs and some of them look absolutely awesome and if I had more money to burn and time I'd probably get some of them. Otherwise are just not to my taste at all. Not everybody shares your love of it, maybe I'm alone in that. I wouldn't assume that anyone who loves HQ must automatically love WHF as well.

So maybe something exists in WHF, or works a certain way in WHF, that doesn't impose that standard onto HQ at all. It will never even come up, unless A) you do it yourself in your own creation or B) Hasbro puts it into one of their new products (which as a fan, you don't HAVE to buy, and you can still mod it to something else!). So if you're writing a quest, it doesn't have to conform to some map, especially not one in another version of the game you never heard of until decades after you put the game into mothballs.

PS: I was 11 when you got Hero Quest, and we started playing it the year after you did. I visited the Inn around '02. No street cred battles needed here.

Peace!

[Kurgan]

...and I agree, it would have been cooler if GW was involved in this remake. Absolutely. But nobody can take classic HeroQuest away from me. Maybe this remake will be super popular and in time "outshine" all other versions. Or maybe it will be forgotten in a few years and just become something fought over by collectors. Only time will tell. Either people will embrace it or they won't.

I won't turn down an invitation to your Warhammer party, if it comes to that. Reminds me of how Street Fighter has had crossovers with other game franchise (like King of Fighters and Tekken or Marvel Super Heroes). That doesn't mean all Street Fighter players have to master those other games too. It's just a way to make more money off of collaborations. That's cool. Mortal Kombat and DC Heroes were mixed together, that didn't seem as cool. George Lucas was inspired by (some say ripped off) Dune, Flash Gordon and Commando Cody serials (and even in a small way, Star Trek). Doesn't mean everything can, or has to fit together perfectly, but in your imagination and your fan fic or game sessions, anything is possible.

[Kurgan]

did HASBRO pull a bait and switch and are releasing a card game instead?

https://www.amazon.com/HeroQuest-adelante-Aventura-fantas%C3%ADa-Jugadores/dp/B08PFWJSLZ/

No, I don't think so. There seems to be a common trend of trying to release card-game versions of board games. FFG did it when they acquired the Warhammer Quest license briefly, as they didn't want WHQ competing with Descent. GW didn't like that approach, and FFG lost the license petty sharpish...

Maybe we'll get another a video game too (what I ORIGINALLY thought this whole Hasbro thing was going to be)!

For your sake, Davane, I hope they don't put any maps in the new Quest book(s), just because it probably wouldn't look like the one you remember. Then you can more easily insert whatever you want into that blank space! But we both know, you'll do that anyway... as would I!

Edit: Good catch on the card game Shardzar. I had no idea this existed!

You and your fellow heroes are surrounded by Zargon’s most deadly threats. To survive, you must battle the Undead, the Dread Warriors, the Orcs, and other evil forces. Work together to assess the threats and fight back before the dungeon closes in around you! Can you get to the dungeon exit before you all perish? If 4 wounds are accumulated, the game is over and Zargon and his hordes of monsters win. The HeroQuest card game is for 2-4 players, ages 14 and up.


Currently unavailable.
We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.

HEROQUEST THE CARD GAME: Players try to make it out of the dungeon together in this card game based on the fantasy adventure board game
DEFEAT ZARGON: The goal is to defeat Zargon by depleting the dungeon deck to expose the dungeon exit before any one hero sustains 4 wounds, including permanent wounds and wound cards
CHOOSE A HERO: Each player chooses a hero to play as, and takes the corresponding hero champion tile. The tiles are double-sided and players can decide on which side they prefer
ACTION PHASE: After playing a card, the action phase begins. Choose one of 3 possible actions: Attack a threat on the dungeon floor, attempt to heal a wound, or search for treasure
DUNGEON CRAWL EXPERIENCE: Don't have a lot of time? The HeroQuest card game is quick to play, and makes a compact dungeon crawl experience