RISE OF THE DREAD MOON discussion

[Kurgan]

Its a shame that mercenary eleves are just re scuplted human mercenaries. I hope they have some special rule. If they dont it is a big flop.

Not everyone who will buy this also owns the Frozen Horror, so it would give them mercenaries in HQ for the first time (but there are only 4 of them).

I suspect they will not just be straight copies of the BQP mercs, though at this point that's the only evidence we have. I suspect there may be some kind of perk system that can be unlocked by completing the solo quests. But this is admittedly speculation on my part. We still don't know the function of the various "tokens" included in this set (the crescent moons, raven's veil golden shields, domino masks, tokens showing the faces of each merc and also the chain-sickle she elf).

Amalgamash mentioned a lot of things that I can agree with (I don't doubt that Sir Ragnar is "in" the quests because of the box art and back of box text) which you can view here.

(the Frozen Horror originally had a second appearance of the boss character that was left on the cutting room floor, also EQP only had one appearance of Sinestra who got her own miniature; one could also point to the Haslab game system as another instance of where a named character was given a miniature despite only appearing in a single quest).

He's right that we don't fully understand how the Alchemist system works, or the function of the various tokens or what if any appearances Sir Ragnar will make in the actual quests (he may simply be a background character at this point... does this mean we should expect another character pack perhaps with a "good" and "evil" version of Sir Ragnar in plastic form or maybe a "third" installment in this "Elf" quest pack trilogy, again with more original content from Avalon Hill?).

I also agree that a lot is riding on this set, because although they certainly have other HQ projects in the works (not just the already confirmed and surely completed by now "Prophecy of Telor" for retail pack; my guess is ATOH or Dwarf quest pack are next after that, unless we get a staggered re-release for retail of the other Mythic content too), this one doesn't have any nostalgia riding behind it. It has to find that balance between innovation and also being true to the foundations laid by the legacy HeroQuest releases. If it flops, it's possible it could sink original content releases for the franchise (or else force a radical direction change perhaps... we saw what happened with HeroScape and we all thought it was gone forever then they announce a new company working to release it after that Haslab campaign failed).

[Kurgan]

I don't use Twitter, but seekhashem from our HeroQuestFansDiscord has posted an image from Avalon Bill that tomorrow (6/30, a Friday) they will reveal more details about one of the monsters. The "Assassin" or the "Magus Guard." Presumably the first one is what Ash guessed, the dirty faced she-elf with the chain (in blue plastic) vs. the "elf dread warrior" as we've been calling him (the big tank dude in armor) also in blue plastic and they are doing a poll.

So go ahead and vote and see what they show us tomorrow...

[LucaRocks]

I appreciate innovations but I also appreciate keeping the game simple and easy to run/play.

If my group can play once a month, we are fortunate. Even in that short a time frame, people forget rules all over the place. And if they neglected to write one thing on their character sheet, it turns into a discussion of "didn't you already use your (item) last time?" And for me as Zargon, more rules means more to keep track of. Because again, they may forget a rule that's critical to the game mechanics. I mean it's all in good fun so it's never too serious of an issue. But stacking more rules or options to the game veers away from the reason it became so popular ... The simplicity of it all. And yes, house rules exist etc but I'm talking about the game as written.

So I'm cautiously optimistic at this point. That crafting stuff has me a little anxious for one thing. But the simpler they keep ithe game, the better in my opinion. If I wanted to run DnD campaigns, I would. But I play HQ because there is way less baggage and rules to keep track of.

[LucaRocks]

I don't use Twitter, but seekhashem from our HeroQuestFansDiscord has posted an image from Avalon Bill that tomorrow (6/30, a Friday) they will reveal more details about one of the monsters. The "Assassin" or the "Magus Guard." Presumably the first one is what Ash guessed, the dirty faced she-elf with the chain (in blue plastic) vs. the "elf dread warrior" as we've been calling him (the big tank dude in armor) also in blue plastic and they are doing a poll.

So go ahead and vote and see what they show us tomorrow...

EVERYONE VOTE FOR SIR RAGNAR!

[Kurgan]

I was mistaken.. it's not on Twitter, but on the Avalon Hill discord... try clicking here: https://discord.com/channels/861979021418692620/1065288545524261044/1123980267812565034

This poll will end Friday, 6/30 at 9am CT

[SirRick]

I’m still hoping for a Sir Ragnar figure that is in the box, but not shown or mentioned anywhere except in the quest book. It just seems odd if they make you use a regular Dread Warrior figure, for example.

[Kurgan]

On HeroQuestFans Discord, Rafa_el_Vikingo shared this, apparent delay for the pack's release in Europe...

[Kurgan]

As promised, Avalon Hill revealed details of one of the two monsters ("Magus Guard" won over "Assassin") so we know the official name of the "Elf Chaos Warriors." In fact, they seem identical other than that there are only half of many of them (2 instead of 4), they have 1 extra movement square per turn (otherwise stats identical) and two spells: Ball of Flame and Tempest each.

Why bother making these when you can just give those upgrade/bonuses to any "Dread Warrior" in the notes? Maybe we'll see some quests where we face 4 regular CW AND some of these guys? Nice excuse for a new design, though the whole rabbit whole of creating new minis just for lightly modified characters is a slippery slope to the Warhammer collecting mentality in my humble opinion, but that's neither here nor there. Nice reveal!

Thanks to covernerd and ribby for posting these in HeroQuestFans Discord!

[Nlinindoll]

Why bother making these when you can just give those upgrade/bonuses to any "Dread Warrior" in the notes? Maybe we'll see some quests where we face 4 regular CW AND some of these guys? Nice excuse for a new design, though the whole rabbit whole of creating new minis just for lightly modified characters is a slippery slope to the Warhammer collecting mentality in my humble opinion, but that's neither here nor there. Nice!

I think one advantage of having unique monsters, new sculpts for enemies with unique skills (spell casting) is simply to broadcast what that monster can do to the heroes. If they simply gave a standard Chaos/Dread Warrior a spell set, how is the heroes supposed to identify which target to aim for first? Sometimes surprises are fun, but in standard play, I like the heroes to know exactly what they’re facing at a glance.

[Kurgan]

Yeah a new card means they instantly know what stats the new guy has, because that's the basic rule (Zargon places out the monster cards within reach of the heroes... he already has his own monster stats on the inside of the GM screen and back of the quest books(s)).

Elvyler shares his thoughts here


Thought of something just now... what GOOD is it for a bad guy (like the new Magus Guard) to have Tempest? I know it's an existing Dread Spell, but I can see it serving only a few functions... it can hold one hero there IF the rest run away to abandon him to his fate...

It means the bad guy is forfeiting his action for that turn, so he doesn't get to attack anyway. IF he's part of a bad guy group, okay maybe (as Chaos Warlocks, the usual wielders of chaos spells are rarely alone), but if he's a regular solo monster it would seem almost pointless.

Now IF you allow the spells to stack I could see a nasty combo of Tempest on a SLEEPING hero making it so he forfeits this round's chance to "wake up" meaning he's more likely to get killed by one of the other monsters.

Thanks Elvyler for the zoomed picture of the card....