Heroquest remake by Hasbro - The BIG discussion thread

[Orc26]

Sure, Evil comes to all races... But does good come to creatures created of chaos (or dread if you are worried about GW lawers)? If they are changing the lore then I'll grumble about it and/or ignore the new lore. If they try to keep that orcs are magic murder machines... that also have feelings and have decided to go on a kill their own kind spree... To that I call BS.

[arntisdale]

There is also a website that makes a custom Heroquest "mat" from the same material you'd get in a mousepad. I have one and it is excellent as well as having squares 30x30mm

Is that the X-Raypad shop? If so, any potential to do a quick review of it?

This one?
https://shop.x-raypad.com/shop/soft-rubber-heroquest-gaming-boards-custom-playmat/

It looks like they only have one size available, with options for thickness and some other stuff.

[Cael Darkhollow]

I want this project to do well... But! If we DON'T reach $3 million, that means the lame misunderstood orc empires and bards won't become canon...
Tough choice
SO much better. I'm absolutely okay with this.
I'm not even sure if she is still wearing the yoga pants underneath

In a way I feel a little bad for the designer.
This is what you do for a living and the entire fandom hates your creation

It will probably be better if we don’t hit 3 million to be honest. Everybody is saying that they’re hoping for new content, but do they really want it if that content revolves around misunderstood orcs in pirate outfits and advanced orcish civilisations? That stuff needs to die before it is ever properly conceived (or else stay in the D&D world).

The Druid is now MUCH better. Six or seven more iterations and I might even allow her on the same board as my old minis. But she’ll always be known to me as the Extinction Rebellion Druid.

At this point I'm cool with just the 2 million stretch goals for that very reason. I don't want to see this as HQ canon in published material.
Sure, I will happily take more stuff (why not) but I don't care for the design or story of the druid and orc bard. The cover art for that questbook sure looked cool though, I could write a cool story about that myself. I wish the extra monsters were priority as far a stretch goals go.

They’ve updated the Druid Picture again.

Definitely an improvement and less yoga mom.


Not entirely sold on the banana leaf/feather. But definitely doable.

A vast improvement over the old gym clothes to be sure. lost the stump too, that's two checks in the win column. Hasbro is listening and adjusting based on constructive criticism (well more like angry fan quips) that is pretty cool. Good job Hasbro on being flexible to customer wants.

That said, I think it looks like a Hawaiian hula dancer now though, that is a bit of a stretch to find in an old world fantasy dungeon crawl...

"In a way I feel a little bad for the designer. This is what you do for a living and the entire fandom hates your creation "

yeah bwahahaha sad but true. She did a fantastic painting of a Inuit looking arctic druid, but it seems she is too stuck on depicting real world civilizations instead of fantasy characters. She needs to go down the fantasy art rabbit-hole on Google images for a few hours, especially Frank Frazetta, Boris Vallejo, and most important Les Edwards before she attempts to add anything to HeroQuest.

I'm not a fan of the Warlock either.
I absolutely loathe the Orc-bard. Orcs aren't that smart to be able to pull off a bard class, they aren't misunderstood "good" guys either, they are an evil race bent on destruction and pillage; and the main combat reoccurring foe of the HeroQuest game (look at just about any HQ quest map published to prove my point besides the Witchlord undead themed ones.)
More importantly it sadly looks like Shrek dressed in a pirate costume singing boy band tunes. A truly terrible model design that absolutely doesn't fit with the old vibe of HeroQuest or even the rest of the newly designed figures for this version either.
I would have much preferred standard fantasy trope old school classes rather than a World of Warcraft or a 5th D&D edition amalgam. I really love the flavor of the old HeroQuest, and these 3 figures just don't seem like it at all to me.

[Cael Darkhollow]

Someone on Facebook posted a response from Hasbro to an email or twitter inquiry about if the HQ reboot stuff would be available at retail after the Haslab fundraiser.
The response was an alarming "no, they won't be available. Only people who back will get it." [paraphrased]
Does that mean that nothing will ever hit store shelves?????
I had assumed that the base game and perhaps even the rebooted quest packs for KK an ROTWL would eventually be sold retail, and was hoping for future quest pack expansions to be released eventually. Why establish a new fan base for HeroQuest and then NOT develop new stuff and sell it to them???? They are a toy/game company who wants money from customers right?
Perhaps the comment was misconstrued by me and they mean only the stretch goals exclusives like the new figures for character classes will only be available during the fundraiser, instead of the whole shebang. Here's crossing our fingers that HeroQuest 2021 or "HasbroQuest" sees stores eventually, or what was the point?
I'm getting mine, but it seems a huge mistake to not sell this for years to come and make it a staple popular game again instead of a one time online exclusive.

[Kurgan]

Yeah, that sounds to me like a blatant contradiction. The site repeatedly instils the idea that these items will be sold AFTER the fundraiser ends. So backers are just the ones who get access to the "exclusives" (Witch Lord, Ragnar and fake Mentor aka Zargon ; Edit: Not sure about the "gender swapped" Heroes pack).

Now if they meant they will only sell this as an online print to order thing, that would be the height of stupid. At the very least I would expect it to be sold at high end hobby/game shops.

Of course we're all wondering if it will be sold anywhere else. But the idea that it would ONLY be sold through their website, I find hard to believe, and only to backers that's complete garbage (I don't believe it).

The Pandemic will be over, surely, 13 months from now, so why shouldn't they sell it?


As for the Warlock, I like the changes! And before you make fun of dancers, they tend to have strength, agility and stamina, which can be useful in a fight too.

If they're going to have one comedy character, a singing Orc pirate doesn't sound so bad, and it looks like he's going to be a toss-in when the real goal (the second new Quest book) hits anyhow. He looks silly, but that's it. Orcs being too stupid to sing isn't a good excuse, they're smart enough to use spells on occasion, so what's wrong with the odd chanty about slaughter and pillaging.


The sad tale of Barthbog, the young orc... an outcast from his tribe, because he took no pleasure in rending the flesh of villagers and having it for a BBQ. No advanced weapons training for him! They saddled poor Barthbog instead with the most menial of tasks, a virtual slave to the other orcs who mercilessly bullied and degraded him.

He was always late to the chaos hate meetings and nothing he did was ever good enough for his superiors who treated him like the runt of the litter. His secret dream was to sing in the Opera houses to the thunderous applause of adoring crowds. Every night he snuck out of the dungeon hall to study scraps of sheet music tossed on the garbage pile of the refuse from the raids. Until one day he was caught. The cruel Chaos Warrior boss lashed him a mighty beating, as he had many times before. But this time Barthbog had a secret plan... he pretended to be weak from the lashes, though his hope was giving him strength he never knew he had... and as the evil Chaos Warrior turned away to fetch more instruments of torture to "Finish you for good," he grasped in his hand the mandolin he had painstakingly repaired over these long weeks... its elegant wood was like gold in his hand, but he knew what he had to do, the sacrifice that would make him finally free. KABONG!!!! the wooden instrument crashed onto the head of the Chaos Warrior sending splinters of wood flying like a swarm of angry bees, and strings flailing out wildly from the wreckage... doing no damage, but distracting him by knocking off his unlaced helmet. In a sudden daze, the tryannical brute scrambled in the dark for his face-mask, and Barthbog shoved his tormentor from behind causing him to fall face first into a nearby latrine trough. Filled with a mad glee and exuberance he had never felt before, Barthbog sprang away into the night to be lost in the shadows...


... he wandered far, across the empty wastes... half starved and half crazed from his ordeal... but clinging on to life and hope for a better future...
... until he was glimpsed from afar by Mentor...

This one is different...

He can aide the cause...

He shall be called "The Comic Relief"... !

[Pancho]

Everybody is saying that they’re hoping for new content, but do they really want it if that content revolves around misunderstood orcs in pirate outfits and advanced orcish civilisations?

Yes.
You don't have to use all of it.
But I want it all so that I *can*.

Wouldn’t it be entirely dependant on the amount of material you could actually use though? If for example 50% of the new stuff is usable then I can almost understand why you wouldn’t mind ripping up existing Heroquest lore and canon. But would you really do it if you end up using a couple of new spells? The pay off wouldn’t be worth it, surely?

[Goblin-King]

That said, I think it looks like a Hawaiian hula dancer now though, that is a bit of a stretch to find in an old world fantasy dungeon crawl...

I would paint her in an brown/orange/purple autumn theme - that is, if they would actually allow me to buy the damn thing.

Everybody is saying that they’re hoping for new content, but do they really want it if that content revolves around misunderstood orcs in pirate outfits and advanced orcish civilisations?

Yes.
You don't have to use all of it.
But I want it all so that I *can*.

Agreed. I'm really excited for the new content, myself. I was actually hoping for more than one Orc hero, really!

I just don't agree with the "just don't use it" sentiment.
If anything goes, it cheapens the brand and sets a precedent for things to come.
NEW! Easter bunny costume barbarian! One week only at $29,95!

If we HAD to have an orc "hero", why not something plausible like an orc barbarian or shaman?
Heck, I could actually go for a grizzled old orc shaman reluctantly teaming up with the heroes to free the spirits of his ancestors.
As a shaman, he's the only one of his kin who understands and cares about the terrible fate that has fallen upon his fellow orcs.
I don't even mind expanding the lore with ruins of an ancient orc kingdom, just cut the part of them having been wannabee high elves.
(Writing it up like this, this actually sounds salvageable)

The orc bard is just so far removed from everything, he feels like a tour guide at a cheap tourist trap.

[Kurgan]

Somewhat agree. Gauntlet Legends had the Jester who didn't ruin the whole thing, but the entire game had a bit of a comic, over-sized cartoon stylistic undertone to it, so he wasn't totally out of place.

If the Orc Bard is a bonus character that at best comes packed with the Mythic set, most of us can just forget he exists easily enough...

I hate to say it but I'm assuming that the new extra Quest packs will be written with one or more of the new Heroes in mind. But then that should still be easily mod-able.

[torilen]

Sure, Evil comes to all races... But does good come to creatures created of chaos (or dread if you are worried about GW lawers)? If they are changing the lore then I'll grumble about it and/or ignore the new lore. If they try to keep that orcs are magic murder machines... that also have feelings and have decided to go on a kill their own kind spree... To that I call BS.

I have always viewed it as any intelligent or semi-intelligent creature can be good or evil/chaotic. The evil/chaotic side comes from:
1 - Actively worshipping an evil or chaotic deity or power, and follow their rules, laws, and demands.
2 - Not so actively worship an evil or chaotic power, but may have delved into this aspect of life, and was slowly consumed by it.
3 - Accidentally crossed into an evil or chaotic activity, and again, is slowly consumed
4 - Is magically forced into evil or chaos by a powerful and immediate possession of evil or chaotic powers

The more semi-intelligent creatures...closer to natural animal type creatures...would act as animals do. Some are more
chaotic and aggresive by nature (or grow into that as a basis of their environment). Depending on the proximity of any
evil or chaotic magic or powers, and the strength of that power, these creatures will be more chaotic/evil/aggresive
from birth.

How all of this fits in with HQ or GWS lore - I have no idea, honestly.

[wallydubbs]

I'm not a fan of the Orc Bard either, I would more favorably have picked a Siren of sorts.
I wouldn't play the Orc Bard anyway.
It does seem, though, that Hasbro would be leaning more towards a younger demographic with characters like that, but if I remember correctly, didn't they place an MA rating on this or am I misremembering...
If that's the case, perhaps the demographic isn't for children but Gender Identity?