Heroquest remake by Hasbro - The BIG discussion thread

[Edge]

I want high quality, rounded dice, too. But if someone at Hasbro is monitoring this forum, I don’t think hyper-aggressive negativity is the way to get what we want. It keeps coming up, so there’s no way they aren’t aware of it. It’s good to keep pointing out, “This is a thing we care about. This is a part of the brand for me. This matters to my HeroQuest experience.” They might actually hear that. If you start with accusations and end with, “You fools!”, your message is likely to be completely ignored, if not resentfully dismissed.

If HASBRO can't handle being called foolish for their decisions, then:

1. They shouldn't be in business to sell products to the public as customers don't have to agree with their every decision, and this is a case they took the money first and changed later, after mailing our dice that looked like what everyone wanted.

2. HASBRO shouldn't have called people racists and bigots last year, if they don't like name calling.

the minis colr chang was in response to Youtube complaining all the minis are grey. HASBRO has allowed this palc to exist for 20+ years, and it wodl be foolish of them to not know what goes on here since they decided to re-release HeroQuest.

HASBRO doesn't have a palce to say anything to them, no real customer support, only glorified secretaries reading off teleprompters with canned scripts.

We all want god product, that is what we thought we are paying for, but there is really no place else to inform or voice our opinions without being forced to... get a Twitter account? HASBRO is now run by Jack Dorsey?

I prefer to discuss HQ in a place for HQ, not filled with raving lunatics, and this is the ONLY place on the net that has been about HQ for its ear entirety of its absence form the marketplace. The HASLabs Q&A for HeroQuest proved Mark Twain correct

It is better to keep your motuh shut and let everyone think you a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt.

When they had no answers for anything not even the direction they were going with the game, and have since provided none either and only want to play games. Customers can play games also. Does HASBRO want mass refunds? Can they handle the revenue loss after the damage Disney Star Wars has done? Will HASBRO end up a subdivision of WotC? Do they think the MtG failures recently and changes, as well the D&D changes will make for any future revenue streams?

...No, I will not go quietly into the night...

Each new bit of information is putting more an more people off their purchases, and the delay in information isn't helping HASBRO's case at all for the world's largest toy manufacturer to be this tight lipped and slow.

We can also see evidence of other problems from the "Summer of Lore" for D&D being changed to "Lore Week" before summer even gets here... so what other changes are there going to be?

When you take $4 million of people's money, they have a right to expect something of value in return.



EDIT: oh and if the twitter "jokes" came with updates to the website that was last updated in 2020/oct/21 then maybe it would be less concern for people what they are doing on Twitter, but they have neglected that entire site for 8 months.

https://heroquest.avalonhill.com/en-us

I agree that they really do need to start thoroughly and actively updating the Avalon Hill site. It’s time to start building momentum, especially if there’s going to be a retail release. As a community, we can help them build this momentum, but it’s true they need to give us some tools and resources to do that.

I have loved Agin’s Inn since its inception, and HeroQuest has been a defining part of my creative thinking. I really don’t want the new HQ to only appeal to nostalgic old guys like me, though. Not only hardcore tabletop gamers, either. I want it to be marketed effectively to have broad, casual, mainstream appeal. I want it to be in the homes of young people and families, next to Monopoly and Scrabble, a fun time for game nights and Sunday afternoons.

That’s gonna take some real work. They’re barely keeping the hardcore backers optimistic and energized right now. They need to get this ball rolling. I have wanted this official reprint for almost literally my entire life. I really don’t want to see HeroQuest perceived as niche – or worse, a flop.

I do see evidence that they’re trying to course correct, though. I hope most of the HQ fan community is able to remain positive, because Hasbro is really going to need that energy to get mainstream casual players onboard, which, for me personally, is a significant goal. What I always loved about HQ is that it was for everyone. There’s no intimidating learning curve. It’s so adaptable that it can be anything from a “roll and move” board game to a story-driven RPG experience, all depending on who’s at the table at the moment. It can be taken down and set up again at a moment’s notice. They need to start marketing this stuff, because it’s gonna take the public a while to understand it. But I really want to see whole new generations of people overjoyed to unwrap and play HeroQuest this Christmas. I really, really want it to succeed.

[Shadzar]

I have loved Agin’s Inn since its inception, and HeroQuest has been a defining part of my creative thinking. I really don’t want the new HQ to only appeal to nostalgic old guys like me, though. Not only hardcore tabletop gamers, either. I want it to be marketed effectively to have broad, casual, mainstream appeal. I want it to be in the homes of young people and families, next to Monopoly and Scrabble, a fun time for game nights and Sunday afternoons.

That’s gonna take some real work. They’re barely keeping the hardcore backers optimistic and energized right now. They need to get this ball rolling. I have wanted this official reprint for almost literally my entire life. I really don’t want to see HeroQuest perceived as niche – or worse, a flop.

I do see evidence that they’re trying to course correct, though. I hope most of the HQ fan community is able to remain positive, because Hasbro is really going to need that energy to get mainstream casual players onboard, which, for me personally, is a significant goal. What I always loved about HQ is that it was for everyone. There’s no intimidating learning curve. It’s so adaptable that it can be anything from a “roll and move” board game to a story-driven RPG experience, all depending on who’s at the table at the moment. It can be taken down and set up again at a moment’s notice. They need to start marketing this stuff, because it’s gonna take the public a while to understand it. But I really want to see whole new generations of people overjoyed to unwrap and play HeroQuest this Christmas. I really, really want it to succeed.

People keep saying this, and i can't figure out why? "nostalgia"... if they aren't going to make HeroQuest but turn it into something else, then why use the name?

and I have no idea what you are talking about "roll and move". No clue what that is. and HeroQuest isn't an RPG. Sure you can use the board and furniture for a makeshift dungeon for one, but then yo you aren't playing HeroQuest. so nothing needs to be added to HeroQuest to allow people to do that. People have been using Mage Knight miniatures for HeroScape little 3d hex based game for years after it went out of production, and no rules were needed to use the better minis.


HeroQuest is nothing about telling stories. its about defeating dungeons, it is a dungeon crawler, so there is nothing there that should be added either. If they make an expansion for that fine, but including it in the core game, means it is no longer HeroQuest they are selling people. it is called a Game System for a reason, so it can be expanded. and if HASBRO wants to compete with Eurogames, like Gloomhaven, well that ship has sailed, and the expansions is where they would need to do that, or just they should have made Advanced HeroQuest instead of defrauding people saying they were releasing HeroQuest again.

They are 2 different games for a reason. HeroQuest isn't D&D. not even Basic D&D. It drew on elements form it like all games that have come from it, but at no point should it try to emulate it, no matter what failures Baker had when creating it and GW fixed when the game was designed. I have never once looked at HQ and thought "D&D in a box" because board games are not D&D, and D&D is not a board game the same as video games are not D&D and D&D is not a video game. D&D cannot be bound by the code limitations of either board games in their rules, or a video game in its actual code.

They sold people HeroQuest, that is what they should get. Some things have to change due to legal reasons, but no real reason to change everything in the base game or the expansions sold (RotWL & KK) beyond the legal reasons as that all can be added as supplements to the game if they want to expand it in new directions.

I didn't pay for Wokes & Dragons the board game, HASBRO already makes that.

It to was released form HasLabs.

I paid for HeroQuest and expect to get HeroQuest from my money. They can sell whatever expansions they want after sending me HeroQuest, and I will have the choice to buy them or not, same as everyone else.

HQ was and will always be a niche, the same as every other board game.

[Edge]

I haven’t seen any indication that they’re changing the core rules or adding anything any group of players can’t choose to simply ignore. Everything I’ve seen makes me confident what we’re getting is a faithful HeroQuest Game System. I can’t wait to play it again!

[iKarith]

I've never seen evidence they're changing rules—only a suggestion (and not from anyone at Hasbro) that they might take some time to clarify some places where people seem to have strange interpretations of the rules at present and have spent time arguing about it.

They've added characters. Play with them or don't. They've done a pretty lazy search and replace "chaos" for "dread" etc. because they don't own Warhammer (yet! Hasbro: Till ALL are one!). Maybe that search and replace was left lazy on purpose so that they don't have to change any more of The Gathering Storm's overarching story than a few words they shouldn't use, I don't know.

They've redone the art—normal for a new edition. They've replaced sprues and chipboard sheets that need to be punched with no-assembly-required models in PVC vacuform trays that probably will want replacing by serious fans with some organizer made of foam or MDF or both, assuming those fans don't just flip them on eBay because it's not the game they know and love from 1989-1994.

And we still don't know what kind of commitment Hasbro has made beyond sending it to backers. I certainly hope they're not waiting for "the fandom" to tell them whether or not they like it. Good God that's a recipe for disaster—you can't get a "fandom" to agree that the sun rises in the East without some asshat arguing the opposite loudly enough to make it "controversial". And that's on the best of days if you haven't done something profoundly stupid like … taking sides in "fandom" disputes, bringing outside politics into a game, name-calling large segments of a fan-base in fact or by virtue of doing the first two, etc. And Hasbro has done all three of those things.

I could offer them advice on responding to fandom mobs (same as SJW or any other mobs really): Make good products and services, and try to do the right thing. Make changes when you fail to do those things because you need to make those changes, and people will vote with their wallets as to whether or not you're on the right track. You will screw up from time to time—if you owe someone an apology, make that apology directly, personally, and try to make things right. And never empower a mob, even if you did screw up. You can't apologize, appease, or satisfy a mob, ever, and the more you give them the more they'll demand.

I mean, it would've been great if someone had given them that advice before they f**ked up D&D, but they could still reverse course. They've just thrown a number of depth charges off the stern in the process of not following it, and they're going to have to navigate carefully. Or not. People will vote with their wallets either way, not with their social media accounts.

[Edge]

…They've done a pretty lazy search and replace "chaos" for "dread" etc. because they don't own Warhammer (yet! Hasbro: Till ALL are one!). Maybe that search and replace was left lazy on purpose so that they don't have to change any more of The Gathering Storm's overarching story than a few words they shouldn't use, I don't know.

This actually sounds pretty plausible to me. I’m lucky that I actually prefer “Dread” to “Chaos”. It sounds closer to dark evil to me. I've never really thought of “chaos” as “evil” or even “bad”. I hear “chaos” as wild, natural, free. That’s maybe personal, though. I also love the way the artwork is simultaneously “new”, yet committed to recreating the classic art.

And we still don't know what kind of commitment Hasbro has made beyond sending it to backers. I certainly hope they're not waiting for "the fandom" to tell them whether or not they like it. Good God that's a recipe for disaster—you can't get a "fandom" to agree that the sun rises in the East without some asshat arguing the opposite loudly enough to make it "controversial". And that's on the best of days if you haven't done something profoundly stupid like … taking sides in "fandom" disputes, bringing outside politics into a game, name-calling large segments of a fan-base in fact or by virtue of doing the first two, etc. And Hasbro has done all three of those things.

These are great points. I really do wish we saw Hasbro demonstrating more commitment to HeroQuest. I hope we see at least all of the original expansions released, and the new dragon. I’m not actually very familiar with what exactly Hasbro to anger fans. I get the feeling it’s something about Star Wars? I definitely saw Disney doing those things, setting itself in opposition with its fans, with the young cast members of the new films caught in the crossfire. I don’t collect Star Wars toys, so I didn't see Hasbro’s specific actions. Could someone tell me what it’s about? And are there already specific examples of them doing the same thing with tabletop gamers? I’ve seen some people complain about D&D5E, but I feel I see a lot more people singing its praises. I don’t know.

*I also get the sense you don’t like the word “fandom”. Is “fan-base” preferable? I don’t always know how terminology feels to different people. I just mean the group of people who enthusiastically enjoy a thing. I have no associations beyond that.

I could offer them advice on responding to fandom mobs (same as SJW or any other mobs really): Make good products and services, and try to do the right thing. Make changes when you fail to do those things because you need to make those changes, and people will vote with their wallets as to whether or not you're on the right track. You will screw up from time to time—if you owe someone an apology, make that apology directly, personally, and try to make things right. And never empower a mob, even if you did screw up. You can't apologize, appease, or satisfy a mob, ever, and the more you give them the more they'll demand.

This is good advice for any business, or really just dealing with people in general. They did add color to the figures. Hopefully they’ll cut corners off the dice, too. We’ll see.

I mean, it would've been great if someone had given them that advice before they f**ked up D&D, but they could still reverse course. They've just thrown a number of depth charges off the stern in the process of not following it, and they're going to have to navigate carefully. Or not. People will vote with their wallets either way, not with their social media accounts.

I kept thinking that with Disney, that they were making bad PR moments into bad business choices. I don’t know the story with Hasbro and D&D, though. I'm interested if it’s not too off-topic.

[Kurgan]

I've never really thought of “chaos” as “evil” or even “bad”. I hear “chaos” as wild, natural, free. That’s maybe personal, though.

Zargon, is that you?



As for "they better not do this or that" I think if we focus on what Hasbro has actually done, vs. what some unrelated corporation has done, that would at least keep it on topic. I'm as much in favor of ranting as the next person...

[Shadzar]

I’m not actually very familiar with what exactly Hasbro to anger fans. I get the feeling it’s something about Star Wars? I definitely saw Disney doing those things, setting itself in opposition with its fans, with the young cast members of the new films caught in the crossfire. I don’t collect Star Wars toys, so I didn't see Hasbro’s specific actions. Could someone tell me what it’s about? And are there already specific examples of them doing the same thing with tabletop gamers? I’ve seen some people complain about D&D5E, but I feel I see a lot more people singing its praises. I don’t know.

I kept thinking that with Disney, that they were making bad PR moments into bad business choices. I don’t know the story with Hasbro and D&D, though. I'm interested if it’s not too off-topic.

I try to keep my posts on D&D related to the direct connection of the HASLab team form the "Guest Designers" listed on HeroQuest campaign page, but if you are searching for more information then i can offer you short my playlist you can watch, and search similar things from March 2020 onward in regard to D&D on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPalEDK7vVHj24eHdt9RW9yIxY0td8nXg

Big ones came last year during Celebration in September 2020, where they flat out called people racist, ableist, etc for playing D&D prior to 2019.

look for Sara Thimpson and he Combat Wheelchair on DNDBeyond channel as well as.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abR-xUvNC3Y

Daniel Kwan the Chinese-Canadian and his Asians Represent series where he wishes to create a new game all the while calling D&D players "Asian fetishizers" and "racists" and even calls the editors of Oriental Adventures book "not Asian names" for the contributors on many of the things included in that book from circa 1984.
https://web.archive.org/web/20210303155515/https://dnd.wizards.com/dndcelebration_guests
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbQUmmaVBxqob5bR9O4nggup8mhxEsJd5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWg4k8Yl0KA

None of these people are involved in HeroQuest that we know of, but were all paid by HASBRO as they sign all the WotC paychecks for the things they did for D&D.

Teos Abudabi, and Joe Macaroni on the other hand are directly involved in HeroQuest in some fashion.
Teos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5seuZ50yk-Q
Joe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlvTgFFxJkg

Also not to mention the Twitch personnel and employees that have weaseled their way into D&D as part of HASBRO.

AnnaProsser and the adultery case of ProJared and Commander Holly.
https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/news/new-weekly-dd-stream-chris-perkins

Marcus "djWheat" graham and his allowance of .. well just watch the videos linked here in (Not Safe For Work)

[Reveal] Spoiler:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUoenthEiHA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y21hx6FEPE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYonGyQiILQ

So there is concern for all those that buy games from HASBRO. and this doesnt even delve into the Zak S stuff.
https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/news/dndstatement

or the fact as you see in the D&D Celebration 2020, as Satine Phoenix was the forum Community Manager for D&D and her past job was working on The Hub as an "actress". Which is not something you probably want your 10 year old kid looking up and finding about her while she is being given a paycheck by WotC/HASBRO.


There is so much stuff, and if you see the Joe video, your comment about the Star Wars connection isnt that far off, because Disney an HASBRO are tending to waver the same way on many of these issues.

Sorry, the videos are not embedded, but these are things people should choose to see, not even have their thumbnails appear here as they are not directly related to HeroQuest

Other research you can do on your own over D&D and controversies...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_controversies#Cultural_representations_and_racism

People just dont want to see the same things that were injected into D&D to happen to HQ, and HASBRO controls them both. People just want to play a silly little game of dungeon crawling murder-hobo that is quick, simple, and not much to think about just kick in the door, kill some monsters, and take their treasure when they sit down to HeroQuest with their friends or family. Anyone else that wants to add more to it than that, can do so on their own, we dont need combat wheelchairs s default. There is a LARGE community of modders here at Ye Olde Inn that have made numerous house rules to accommodate vast changes to the game to be able to do just about anything you want with it, and they are all OPTIONAL, as HQ should allow for and be as a GAME SYSTEM.

Hope this explains the connection to the responses in regard to D&D and HASBRO on a whole in at least a small part, so that we can wait and laugh at the next thing "Zargon" posts on twitter as we could care less about his "dread anchovies" preference for his sandwiches.

https://twitter.com/heroquest/status/1404455287638081542

Sandwich evolution Twitter game! QT and change ONE ingredient, except the one changed previously, denoted *like so.*

Sourdough roll
Chicken Cutlet
Garlic aioli
Tomato
*DREAD ANCHOVIES*
Avocado
Lettuce

YES YES THIS IS DELICIOUS ALL HAIL ZARGON

I am never calling Abominations "dread anchovies". "Fetch" is never happening Zargon.

[Kurgan]

I myself think "dread anchovies" and "combat wheelchairs" sound interesting, but I agree, that's not heroquest, and I'm kind of a weirdo like that.

Unless they're breaking the law, I don't care what creators are doing in their personal lives, as long as it doesn't interject negatively into the product they're selling. Then again, putting down your fans and paying customers isn't good for business any way you look at it. The idea of for-profit corporations as morality police for the common man is a pretty ridiculous concept, but I'll leave my thoughts there for fear of getting too far into banned territory for the peace of the community here.

The lengths we have to go to these days just to get a quality entertainment product without a lot of insane baggage... !

[iKarith]

[…lazy s/chaos/dread/ may be intentional to avoid changing the story more than legally necessary…]

This actually sounds pretty plausible to me. I’m lucky that I actually prefer “Dread” to “Chaos”. It sounds closer to dark evil to me. I've never really thought of “chaos” as “evil” or even “bad”. I hear “chaos” as wild, natural, free. That’s maybe personal, though. I also love the way the artwork is simultaneously “new”, yet committed to recreating the classic art.

You might be in the minority here. I've seen lots of "it's too digital" complaints. Granted, most crafting YouTube channels to me look like "50 shades of black". In some cases I think that's a style choice. In others it seems the crafter looks closely at it and says to themselves, "this looks like paint on craft material". Yes, and the Mona Lisa looks like sloppy brush strokes on canvas up close. Back up a couple of feet and look at it on the wall as a whole. It's much more impressive that way.


I realize Warhammer implies Chaos = Evil, but it also suggests the world tends toward chaos. I kind of like the notion that Lords of Order and Masters of Chaos represent less good vs. evil and more literally those things on a separate axis. That means the Masters of Chaos might do things that are deemed "good" and the Lords of Order might do things that are "evil". And certainly the other way around. Not a new idea, certainly. *glass shatter, Wild Eep!, wind chime* I have always been here. (And that wasn't the origin of the idea either, it's just the first media I encountered where I fully understood it.) Something like …

Lords of Order: Conflict and division destroy what is created, and that which is good is lost as a result. Serve us and do as you are told because we know what is best for you. Order allows beauty and splendor to flourish, both hearty and delicate. Noble strength has no need for ugly aggressions! Serve us, and we shall step aside if something greater takes our place, but nothing greater shall ever be born of chaos.

Masters of Chaos: Nothing really changes during the stagnation of order. Chaos and conflict breed creativity, innovation, and advancement. True beauty lies in strength of body and mind, and those things these have wrought. Adapt or perish has always been the way of the world: You conquer and lead, or are conquered and serve. You will serve us because you know your place, or you will challenge us and we shall see who survives.

You can see how either could do evil or good, or might do one for the sake of the other.

Sure the ugly, stupid orc would be a servant of Chaos. He's strong and provides the means for conflict but he's not very bright and will follow the orders of the cunning and dangerous wizard because he knows to fear the wizard. If he forgets, he'll be given a few object lessons… He's still got a life, he's a soldier or mercenary, part of a people—a people created from fungus by the Chaos Gods, but still. They're more "people" in Warhammer than they have been in D&D, actually. Sure, in HeroQuest they're just fodder, but still.

Likewise the Emperor and his court will serve the Lords of Order. Look at what they've built! The empire is grand indeed! And it grows as neighboring principalities are peacefully annexed to stand against the darkness of Chaos, or as factions start wars on the borders and lose ground when the Empire defends its lands. And those must be defended, of course, because should the brave and valiant soldiers of the Empire fall, many fair things will fall with them and be lost…

But I get trying to not change it, however it is meant to be interpreted. The thing about "dread" this and "dread" that is … it sounds dumb! "The Dread Wastes…" "Dread Warriors." "A Dread Sorcerer!" It's like, "Ya, mon! What problem ya got widda sorceruh who's got dreads? We can learn magic as well as this bleached clown ya got witcha, and at least we know how to wear colors that go togethah!" (Genuine apologies for anyone whose accent I probably did not just murder. I mean, I took it out back, strangled it, shot it, stabbed it 40 times, and then really decided to hurt it, so … yeah, sorry.)

What's wrong with my colors? Why didn't you guys tell me? I'm red-green color-blind you know…
You'd … almost have to be.

These are great points. I really do wish we saw Hasbro demonstrating more commitment to HeroQuest. I hope we see at least all of the original expansions released, and the new dragon. I’m not actually very familiar with what exactly Hasbro to anger fans. I get the feeling it’s something about Star Wars? I definitely saw Disney doing those things, setting itself in opposition with its fans, with the young cast members of the new films caught in the crossfire. I don’t collect Star Wars toys, so I didn't see Hasbro’s specific actions. Could someone tell me what it’s about? And are there already specific examples of them doing the same thing with tabletop gamers? I’ve seen some people complain about D&D5E, but I feel I see a lot more people singing its praises. I don’t know.

There's two issues and I think it's best they not be conflated.

One is purely mechanics of the game. Everyone's a high-level superhero with samey-samey darkvision, spellcasting, abilities, darkvision, etc. Pure melee fighters are so rare and so disadvantaged by comparison they had to be given magical abilities because otherwise everyone else is a powerful spellcaster now. Humans are so pathetically outmatched by literally everything else that there's no a variant rule allowing for humans that have been buffed to compensate. You can apparently just about turn to any page of the Monster Manual and declare "I wanna be a … THAT!" and somehow you're supposed to be able to do it apparently. And as a DM you're lucky if that's all your players are asking for.

High level combat involves players hitting for hundreds of HP in damage every round while monsters hit back for dozens. A boss fight can take one to four HOURS to resolve something that's about three minutes of game time with movement, action, secondary/minor action, multiple attacks, and the way everybody just chips away at each other's impossibly large HP pool. These aren't desperate and heroic adventures, they're power fantasies where the DM goes out onto the Internet and deeply apologizes for causing a villain to do a dastardly deed like … kill the hero they've been fighting who knocked themselves unconscious leading to "permadeath". (Because like a *fraggling* comic book, death is meant to be undone. Not "cast your unused spell or drink your healing potion with your last dying moment and survive", but "Well, I died, but my companions came along after a bit later with a minor action Healing Word and I'm feeling much better now."

Some folks remember the days fondly when you'd slash at an orc and, on a lucky roll his head would fly from his neck in one stroke … but two or three bad rolls in a row and you'd be rolling a new character we'll meet up with at the next clearing or open cavern and immediately take up with for adventure and glory, because although we've never met this stranger before, we believe we can mostly trust them, yeah…

The other … is a touchier subject: The SJW angle.

You can have a game going on for months or years and someone decides they want to join. And they've taken the liberty of preparing a part-celestial, part furry fox (used an elf for base stats but also gets a speed bonus) who has an infernal affinity and is a multi-classed war-casting wizard-rogue. Here's the eight page backstory they wrote for their character about how they're a loner who's used to being hated by others for their appearance—but of course everybody just loves them on sight because they have a 19 Charisma! Oh, and they're a transgender pansexual and yes that's going to come up at least twice a gaming session. And if you don't let them play that exact character they took the liberty of preparing before meeting anyone here, you're all automatically evil, racist, sexist, homophobic bigots who are guilty because of nothing you said but because of how your response to all of the above is perceived and THEY WILL *FRAGGLING* DESTROY YOU!!! and sit back and watch with glee as you're banned from the FLGS where you play, kicked out of the online D&D groups you're a member of, banned from any event officially sponsored by WotC/Hasbro, doxxed online, and start receiving death threats.

You might think I'm being overly dramatic there, since nobody plays a character like that. You'd be surprised how nearly i described the characters I know a couple of people to be playing. Maybe not all of those contradictions in the same character, but I did literally describe the contradictions that exist within one party. (I know half the players in it. They're good people, but … from the description of their high-level party full of contradictions… nah.) The rest? If the Book of Erotic Fantasy—yes, I've read through it— would make a valuable supplement to your game, then I'm a couple decades too old to new that in my game. Otherwise, have fun.

While to my knowledge nobody's been cancelled out of this group, I recently did learn of a DM who had a proper "session 0" about his snake people campaign, discussed how they'd be going up against the cult of the snake people, asked what players wanted to see in the campaign, anything they didn't want to see, limits and boundaries, etc. and a couple of sessions later the party was in a temple battling a giant snake when the snickers bar on the table (for lack of anything else) attacked a character who waited until after this attack to declare the DM a bigot for disrespecting and bullying him for his (undisclosed) mental health disability of a snake phobia. This now ex-DM did get all the bans and anonymous death threats and whatnot.

What, am I taking that on some third party's say-so without further evidence? Nah, not really. I live in Portlandia (yes, the TV show, sometimes I swear I live in the TV show in real life) and I have seen this crap play out in real life. I've got three such stories that impact me personally and … they go some pretty dark places that aren't fit for this board, so … let's leave it there.

I shouldn't hold Hasbro responsible for some people who are really awful out in the real world … except Hasbro has declared that yes, these people are simply demanding inclusivity and equality, and any players who won't give it to them are bigots, racists, homophobes, etc. and they don't deserve to play the game.

In other words, they have endorsed the crybullies who go around using accusations of bigotry as a club to get what they want and sanctioned players who failed to give it to them. They have decided that these SJWs are right to call out Hasbro for racism against indigenous people by having things like "orcs" (which is really just racist code for "tribal/indigenous person who rightfully owns the land you have stolen from them") and promised to foster inclusivity and stamp out bigotry and cultural appropriation in the D&D community.

They went full woke-tard. Never go full woke-tard.

*I also get the sense you don’t like the word “fandom”. Is “fan-base” preferable? I don’t always know how terminology feels to different people. I just mean the group of people who enthusiastically enjoy a thing. I have no associations beyond that.

It's not the word "fandom" I don't like. It's the individuals who declare "the fandom" insists on or demands this or that because they've decided they are going to do these things, and they presume to speak for everyone else. There are some fandoms that are pretty open and welcoming to new people despite the few loudmouthed jerks who like throwing their weight around. I've never been big on respecting authority figures. Particularly self-appointed ones who bully other people and corporations into giving them what they want.

My point is that you'll find a couple of those in any group of people who enjoy a thing. My sin, as such, is that I don't mind pointing out the emperor has no clothes. It has gotten me ejected from a couple of communities when the residents decided that the emperor's clothes were in fact just invisible because their quality was just that amazingly fine.

[… don't cater to the whims and demands of a mob, you'll never win that way. Just do the best you can, correct where necessary, and make what you sell worth paying for. …]

This is good advice for any business, or really just dealing with people in general. They did add color to the figures. Hopefully they’ll cut corners off the dice, too. We’ll see.

It may be too late for corners on the dice, actually. (I know just a little about plastics toolmaking. The process is expensive, the money's been spent, we're at the "factory samples" stage, which is the last step before they start cranking them out, which takes months 3-5 months between now and delivery…)

They did add color. They might have started with the notion of "all gray because people are gonna paint these anyway" and then been asked, "Hey, are these going to be multi-color like the original? A lot of us have them unpainted and that's part of the game's nostalgia for me, so I hope you're going to not make them require paint." And they might've said, "Oh, okay, we've gotten dozens of people asking us this, let's make sure we do it the way the old game was…"

Then again, a common sight on programming forums is, "Hey, how do I do X?" … "Oh hey, I figured it out right after I asked. Thanks guys!" Reply: "Behold! The problem-solving power of <where you posted the question>!" The models might've been gray because they were using digital models and those are always gray by default or something, and then, "Yeah, we heard you: You want the pieces in color like the original game. We'll make sure they are," which may have been the plan from the start.

[iKarith]

I myself think "dread anchovies" and "combat wheelchairs" sound interesting, but I agree, that's not heroquest, and I'm kind of a weirdo like that.

Unless they're breaking the law, I don't care what creators are doing in their personal lives, as long as it doesn't interject negatively into the product they're selling. Then again, putting down your fans and paying customers isn't good for business any way you look at it. The idea of for-profit corporations as morality police for the common man is a pretty ridiculous concept, but I'll leave my thoughts there for fear of getting too far into banned territory for the peace of the community here.

The lengths we have to go to these days just to get a quality entertainment product without a lot of insane baggage... !

Combat wheelchairs…

"Wheelchair Rugby", as it's officially known by the IOC when it's played in the Olympics.

Players know it by its true name:

MURDERBALL

Seriously, look it up.