THE SPIRIT QUEEN'S TORMENT discussion

[Kurgan]

"unconcious" Where is that mentioned please?

Return of the Witch Lord questbook, page 17 (remake/NA edition), note B, Quest 5.

Would it be good to copy and paste similar text into the revised version of Spirit Queen's Torment (which I predict will be revealed Oct 6th at SPIEL ESSEN convention, hopefully)? Absolutely. I hope they do. After all, not everyone who plays the new retail version will have ROTWL and shouldn't have to flip through that book to find out what happens (whereas the Mythic tier where SQP originally appeared was bought by superfans like us who are already familiar and have that expansion available).

At the very least I expect a revised text (they've had 2 years to fix those typos and clarify things), with a version of the Bard miniature in the box with the entrance/exit doors. I wonder what extras will be included to "fill out" the box and make it feel up to the standard of a KK/ROTWL size box? Perhaps they will divide the Mythic stretch goal figures (minus the Dragon) into this and Prophecy of Telor boxes. Perhaps we'll get the green figures in this one (and the yellow/white ones in PoT). Then divide the gray figures between them? (there's an odd number...)

Then again it wouldn't have to be that way, it could be anything. Why only include 2 of each of the stretch goal alternate monsters. Would the sex-swapped heroes that haven't made it into retail make an appearance? (no Sir Ragnar prisoner and no Witch Lord... at least not that sculpt of him).

Perhaps they would include all of the Mythic stretch goal characters (minus the "exclusive" and "proprietary" ones above) in both boxes. Put them together and you have your full "alternate army!" Just an idea. Of course others would want more fancy dice in those boxes (perhaps a different design for each box!) or some other cool SWAG we haven't thought of.

But recalling that KK and ROTWL included 16-17 plastic figures each (and the doors)... there's only 16 alt monsters (9 designs: 3 green characters, 3 white/yellow, 3 gray; 2x each of the greens and white/yellows, 1x each of the grays). If they wanted to give us more of each they could do that too and leave room for other stuff. So it wouldn't have to be exactly 2 goblins, etc. Would you rather see the exact same stuff in both expansions (and people who buy both now just have double the figures) or assume everyone is going to buy both and wants unique stuff (meaning yet another set of designs perhaps... so all new monster sculpts). Many possibilities.

If they just want to churn these out as fast as possible and get them into the hands of all the fans who didn't get the Mythic box, I don't mind if it's literally the same stuff, though the revisions to the quest books I think are sorely needed to raise the level of quality, unless they want to spend the next few years fielding endless questions on social media about the various anomalies of these books!

[Kurgan]

More updates, sorry I'm hopping back and forth between the two threads: More Updates, on Prophecy of Telor page.

[wallydubbs]

Since I got the Mythic Tier I'm not really sure I want to get this expansion. They could touch up the quest maps, but what else could you really add to the box? Adding miniatures of preexisting monster, or will they change it up and add Specters into this pack?

I want a complete collection, so this is kinda disappointing to me if I have to get it again.

[Kurgan]

I think they will probably tweak it ever so slightly, and while hardcore collectors like yourself will grumble, I think the number of people who never got the Mythic and want that content, is much greater. They try to appeal to the most fans they can, but I think they are leaning towards those who "missed out" vs. those complaining about double dipping.

Since at this point we can safely assume they are not just releasing the "Mythic box" (minus the Joe Mangianello content) into retail, it's only a question of how they divide that other stuff up and what other extras might be in there (other than the expected missing cards and typo fixes).

[wallydubbs]

I think they will probably tweak it ever so slightly, and while hardcore collectors like yourself will grumble, I think the number of people who never got the Mythic and want that content, is much greater. They try to appeal to the most fans they can, but I think they are leaning towards those who "missed out" vs. those complaining about double dipping.

I've heard the same thing said about the Guardian Knight, since they included a new one in Rise of the Dread Mood, since the original was only of limited edition.
Oh, I would've bought the original had I known anything about them. But getting RotDM only fueled me more about obtaining the originals. It was costly finding them, but I don't regret it.
I guess I'll just have to buy these quest packs again just for whatever changed content there might be... I will do so, like you said, begrudgingly.

[The Admiral]

Thanks for that Kurgan. I think you are right that SQT will have stuff out of the mythic tier box plus doors. Bard and female sorcerer (Kavra) seem obvious to me. There is a room with 2 undead Chaos warriors with 1 less defend die. The two skeletons with shields would fit this. A new figure for the main evil character Nelath would be nice. Figures for Sigill and Udred would be great too.

This will be a purchase for me anyway. I hope the quest book is corrected as well, as it is a mess as currently presented.

[Kurgan]

With the Guardian Knight we got a new sculpt, that was like a mixture of the two designs (male and female) with a new helmet on top. The extra lore card, fancy box, and alternate artwork Shortsword/Shield cards were not included. In fact, we got new hero character and skill artwork on those cards. So in a sense it was "completely different" than the limited release Hero Collection. However, what's important is that the design was SIMILAR (and in my humble opinion cooler, even if there was only one figure and it was more "generic" with the face hidden, still good for painting) and the game mechanics were IDENTICAL. No directions were given for using this hero, allowing the freedom of players to treat the Knight as a new hero to replace one of the four... or perhaps as an NPC or mercenary, or (as was my suggestion) as a proxy for a certain treacherous knight (instead of a generic Dread Warrior, as suggested by the actual quest notes).

So collectors who got what they wanted with the limited edition and those who just wanted the character and mechanics got a cool design packed in with another expansion that sort of had something to do with him (Guardian Knights are named dropped in the story, but the actual character is not tied in, he or she is just there if you want).

The idea of adding in the "one off" named characters as full sculpts is not a normal thing for HeroQuest. Only a few examples exist (Frozen Horror and Sinestra bosses are the first example, possibly you could include the "Ogre Lord" from ATOH but who knows if they might add more encounters with this character with those extra quests). Of course this encourages you to make your own adventures as well... but usually HeroQuest gives you a set number of models then the quest notes further expand that.

A good excuse to release these alternate characters? I suppose if they have room in the box. I think their first priority is to get the Mythic designs (or something very close to them, see the ROTDM Knight example) in there. But even if they include the exact number of figures, they have still enough room for another 16-17 figures... and would new designs be preferred over more duplicates? Many would say yes I'm sure. Rather than just getting four total Hammer Orcs or something instead of only two more (remembering that the Mythic stretch goal monsters were identical to the Game System ones... just given for more visual variety, or to inspire your imagination in homebrew adventures... not to mention the painters who never have enough to paint!).

I see the Mythic set as being the "fan nostalgia deluxe" presentation. It gave us a Sir Ragnar prisoner figure despite that character only being called for use ONCE in a portion of one quest (still fodder for the imagination and the paint studio!). At least the Witch Lord figure would be used several times. The Mentor figure was only in one (digital) Quest, but again, inspiration for homebrew... and that's what any of these "deluxe" figures if added would be. Would it be cool to have a Dread Warrior with a skull face and some roughed up looking armor? Or a Gargoyle with more of a "daemonic" fiery presence? Sure.

Given their attention to correcting the small issues with the Helmet and Hand Axe cards in the revised Game System box... and the corrections to ROTWL's book, I think it is a given that they will correct the things that have been pointed out so far (hope they catch them all!). It would be a complete shame if they didn't try. But we have seen clearly they have polished up every retail release beyond what the Haslab set has offered (not including the very first Game System retail boxes that came out Nov-Dec 2021... and there was still a stock of them being sold off at GenCon this year!).


But as far as extras I would expect at a bare minimum SQT retail would have the alchemist shop and artifact cards called for in the quests, the brown door and gray door, the revised quest book, and the red "bard" hero figure with his cards. After that it's all their opportunity to make it something worthwhile! Maybe to balance things out, PoT will include at least one hero figure as well? As others have suggested, they could always treat the Druid and Warlock as "Hero Collection" fodder in the future too I suppose if those characters were popular enough to justify expanding them each that way.

[j_dean80]

I think they will probably tweak it ever so slightly, and while hardcore collectors like yourself will grumble, I think the number of people who never got the Mythic and want that content, is much greater. They try to appeal to the most fans they can, but I think they are leaning towards those who "missed out" vs. those complaining about double dipping.

Since at this point we can safely assume they are not just releasing the "Mythic box" (minus the Joe Mangianello content) into retail, it's only a question of how they divide that other stuff up and what other extras might be in there (other than the expected missing cards and typo fixes).

I don’t like the new figures, so I’m only buying again if it contains new tiles and/or furniture.

[Kurgan]

I'm not expecting any new furniture (same doors as KK/ROTWL) and for tiles it's possible they could have a couple of large room times in PoT, not sure about SQT. They'd both be expected to include new cards (the ones in SQT would be duplicates from KK/ROTWL).

Will they do alternate art and alternate sculpts to keep Mythic collectors happier? That was strongly hinted by Avalon Bill recently... check it out here.

[Kurgan]

I think we can safely say now that indeed the two Mythic boxes already predicted will be the "unbox" reveals tomorrow. Sad to see no Ogre Horde info yet, but there's always tomorrow...

Thanks jasosa for the alert! THANK YOU Dungeon Master (german youtuber) for the original post! https://www.youtube.com/@DungeonMaster_HeroQuest/community

Other than both having pretty holographic sheened covers, we don't know what else is in there as far as bonus extras... maybe all the figures will be wearing helmets this time?

DungeonMaster hasn't gone live yet on youtube but I expect it soon... watching when I can (distracted at work, oops).