Heroquest remake by Hasbro - The BIG discussion thread

[JeffJedi]

I'm about to play my first game with the new set tomorrow. I'll be Zargon and two friends will be playing two heroes each. One of them, a female, was happy to hear of the alternate versions of the heroes. Both have never played a game like this at all and seem to be excited to try it out.

I may give each at potion of healing since the Trial is kinda rough.

[cynthialee]

I'm about to play my first game with the new set tomorrow. I'll be Zargon and two friends will be playing two heroes each. One of them, a female, was happy to hear of the alternate versions of the heroes. Both have never played a game like this at all and seem to be excited to try it out.

I may give each at potion of healing since the Trial is kinda rough.

I would save the trail for later and start with Melars Maze.

The trial is a brutal quest for no gear heroes. It is pretty much going to grind them into dust.

[Gatch]

Speaking of reimaginings, my brother came up with a hilarious backstory for the Bard...and the funny thing is, it came from a quest he wrote a decade ago, that he completely forgot about until he randomly looked in his notes

It was designed to be an even easier quest; you could probably solo this as the wizard if you so pleased. He wanted to get a handle on designing quest, so he deliberately made this one very easy. It was a quest where an Orc was stealing things, and you had to go beat him up and teach him that stealing is wrong.

You don't even kill him at the end; he actually says "Okay, fine, you win! I won't steal again!" before running away.

A decade later, this Orc bard came about, and my brother thought of something perfect; his personal Orc bard is the very same orc that was beaten up in that quest so many years back. He has seen the light after his defeat, and is now helping the heroes.

It's canon to me, dangit.

Love to see it! Canon for me now, too, though I’ll merge it with whatever the official line is. I love the “pirate theming” of the Bard and the Zombies. I hope after they reprint everything — Frozen Horror, Mage of the Mirror, Ogre Horde, and (I hope it’s called) Sorcerers of Zargon — I hope the next big expansion is a sea adventure. I don’t actually even know how I’d design it or make that work, but I’d love it! And once we have seafaring, we open up the world to endless possibilities for which players can jump onboard, or completely ignore.

EDIT: I’d really like to see your brother’s Quest or hear more details of the story, if you have it? *I was sure I’d typed this, but apparently I just thought it. Oops.

There really isn't much more to it than that; he threw it together, and he thinks he set it aside for being too easy. It mostly existed for him to get a handle on designing quests. Heck, he literally forgot he wrote it until he randomly looked in his old HeroQuest notes. He doesn't remember writing it at all, but it's in his handwriting and everything, so he knows he wrote it.

[arntisdale]

I'm about to play my first game with the new set tomorrow. I'll be Zargon and two friends will be playing two heroes each. One of them, a female, was happy to hear of the alternate versions of the heroes. Both have never played a game like this at all and seem to be excited to try it out.

I may give each at potion of healing since the Trial is kinda rough.

I would save the trail for later and start with Melars Maze.

The trial is a brutal quest for no gear heroes. It is pretty much going to grind them into dust.

And there's the Rogar's Hall training quest. Also brutal, but it's a conjured illusion theme with Mentor following them around flinging the occasional healing potion on them when they're about to bite the dust.

I think when I get these fired up, I'm going to throw a beefed up "The Maze" at them, then Rogar's Hall, then probably the Trial after that.

[Kurgan]

Hiding something worthwhile in Felmarg's Tomb is probably a good way to entice them to go there instead of just rushing to beat Verag. The Trial is a test of heroes to be sure! The Maze is fun but more teaches them basic gameplay while not teaching them to work together, a skill they need to complete the rest of the quests.

[Pancho]

The Trial gives the players too much too soon, making what comes next anticlimactic. It’s a spoiler really. I quite often start them of with either the Maze or the Rescue of Sir Ragnar. The competition aspect of the Maze is actually the best thing about it, it’s a good way for Morcar to subtly feed the Heroes the idea that they don’t have to work together. The early game can be too easy, let them work it out for themselves the best tactics. But if i think the players will get bored playing the Maze, I take them straight into Sir Ragnar.

Melars Maze is one of the finest quests ever made (part of the reason being that it also splits the group so beautifully). I’d leave it where it is in the sequence and build up to it to be honest. It’s think it’s also the first time they meet the undead, if you don’t run the Trial, so it comes as a nice change of pace at that time from Green skins.

[Kurgan]

In case anybody didn't see the video from Asmodee UK hyping up the UK release...

The video reveals that the Knight's Equipment card for the shield uses custom artwork different from the remake Game System.

Dr. David plays the Trial here.

[HispaZargon]

The Trial gives the players too much too soon, making what comes next anticlimactic. It’s a spoiler really. I quite often start them of with either the Maze or the Rescue of Sir Ragnar. The competition aspect of the Maze is actually the best thing about it, it’s a good way for Morcar to subtly feed the Heroes the idea that they don’t have to work together. The early game can be too easy, let them work it out for themselves the best tactics. But if i think the players will get bored playing the Maze, I take them straight into Sir Ragnar.

Melars Maze is one of the finest quests ever made (part of the reason being that it also splits the group so beautifully). I’d leave it where it is in the sequence and build up to it to be honest. It’s think it’s also the first time they meet the undead, if you don’t run the Trial, so it comes as a nice change of pace at that time from Green skins.

Fully agree. I am preparing HeroQuest sesions for a new group of players, not too familiarized with HeroQest and I will start with The Maze instead of The Trial. I think the story flows better and yes, The Trial shows too much... The Trial could be a good quest for backlog in case of Heroes lose any artifact for example.

[Gatch]

I tried soloing the trial. I had my butt handed to me. I do agree that The Maze is a better starter, if a bit boring.

I decided to shelve a more ambitious idea for now, in favor of one that's instead made from the perspective of one of my OCs literally running a game. The DM isn't Zargon; it is my OC trying to be Zargon and having no idea what she is even doing. She just wants to play a fun game with her friends, and she's worried her cluelessness is ruining everything. It is up to the other players (the heroes) to make sure the game goes well despite their DM's cluelessness. And defeat a boss enemy that was literally thrown in at the last minute.

The problem is now figuring out how to design this from a perspective of someone who has no clue what they're doing while still making it a fun quest.

[arntisdale]

This re-ordering talk got me thinking.
What order do you recommend playing all of the original game system quests in?
also...
Now that there are old and new expansions, in what order does it make the most sense to play them?

Probably a topic for another thread.... or two.