Back to HeroQuest ... and here's my homebrew rules.

[Nickolaidas]

Greetings, everybody.

I've played the original HeroQuest on my Amiga and ended up buying the tabletop game when it became available in my country. I loved the game, even though I thought the vanilla set of the European edition was extremely easy and the monsters lacked uniqueness.

When I learned about Avalon Hill's remake I was intrigued and happy with the production values of the project, but as a Greek it was near impossible to back the kickstarter (and honestly, I prefer to buy retail, not kickstart projects).

So, the game finally went to retail and a select few shops even brought it to Greece! And I just came back from work with the vanilla game set in my hands. Really impressed and happy with the quality of everything. The miniatures, the furniture, the cards, everything is top-notch.

To celebrate, I wrote down a few homebrew rules to make things more unique and challenging for the heroes.

Read them if you like and tell me what you think:
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GENERAL RULES:

MONSTERS: Defend like Heroes do, with Lion Shield.

ATTACK ADVANTAGE: The Monster Shield counts as a Skull when attacking, which is added to your regular Skulls.
ATTACK DISADVANTAGE: Only the Monster Shield counts as a Skull. The regular Skulls are ignored in your roll.

DEFENSE ADVANTAGE: The Monster Shield counts as a Lion Shield, which is added to your regular Lion Shields.
DEFENSE DISADVANTAGE: Only the Monster Shield counts as a Lion Shield. Your regular Lion Shields are ignored in your roll.
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SPECIAL ABILITIES:

HEROES

BARBARIAN - Rage: You lose one Body Point. You gain one extra attack on the turn you activate this ability. You can sacrifice a number of defense dice equal to or lower than your total number of defense dice in your turn and turn it into attack dice until your next turn where the dice balance is reset. During that time you also gain immunity to fear and mind control.

DWARF - Goblinoid Wrath: You have Attack Advantage against Orcs & Goblins.
DWARF - Short but Grand: You have Defense Advantage against Ogres & Giants.
DWARF - Trapmaster: You lose one Body Point. You create a trap for the monsters (use either a Rat or Skull decor to mark the Bomb on the game map). Any monster that steps into the trap must roll a white die. On a Skull, it loses 1 Body Point. On a Lion Shield, it loses 2 Body Points. On a Monster Shield, it loses 3 Body Points. You cannot have more than three traps set at the same time. Your allies do not spring those traps.

ELF - Miracle of Nature: You lose two Body Points. You gain two extra attacks (you can swap any of those attacks with a spell) on the turn you activate this ability. You multiply your movement roll by two. You can spend your movement points and your attacks in any order that you like. Attacking does not negate your remaining movement points.

WIZARD - Magical Lottery: Roll one white die. On a Skull, you regain 3 random Spell Cards that you've used and lose one Mind Point. On a Lion Shield, you regain 1 random Spell Card that you've used and lose one Mind Point. On a Monster Shield, you lose two random Spell Cards, one Body Point and one Mind Point.
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MONSTERS:

GOBLIN - Sneaky Little Bastard: If you attack an enemy who has one of your allies adjacent to them, you have Attack Advantage.

SKELETON - Sticks and Stones: Any creature attacking you with a blade or piercing weapon has Attack Disadvantage.
SKELETON - May Break my Bones: You have Defense Disadvantage against any creature attacking you with a blunt weapon.
SKELETON - Sunlight Aversion: You have Defense Disadvantage against any attack caused by a Cleric or Paladin.

ORC - Reckless: You have permanent Attack Advantage and Defense Disadvantage.

ZOMBIE - Already Dead: Whenever a Physical attack drops you to 0 Body Points, roll a white die. On a Skull, you gain one Body Point. This ability doesn't work when attacked by Clerics or Paladins.
ZOMBIE - Sunlight Aversion: You have Defense Disadvantage against any attack caused by a Cleric or Paladin.

ABOMINATION - Neptune's Trident: You can attack diagonally with your Trident.
ABOMINATION - Pupil of the Deep One: You can make a second attack on your turn (Claw: 2 white die)
ABOMINATION - Fire's Dread: You have Defense Disadvantage against any Fire attack.

MUMMY - Terror Personified: Whenever an enemy attacks you with a physical attack, they must first roll a white die. On a Skull, they are under the effect of a Fear Spell. If they break the spell on a subsequent turn, they cannot fear you ever again. Paladins are immune to this effect.
MUMMY - Sunlight Aversion: You have Defense Disadvantage against any attack caused by a Cleric or Paladin.

DREAD WARRIOR - Champion of Tyranny: You have Defense Advantage against any creature that attacks you with an diagonal or adjacent physical attack.

GARGOYLE - Carnage Galore: If you don't move on your turn, you can make two Attacks.
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P.S: Really happy to have stumbled on these forums!

[CosmicJive]

Thanks for posting these! I've been thinking of ways to increase the challenge for the heroes and spice up the game a bit. How has using lion shields as defense for monsters been?

[Nickolaidas]

I never playtested those because my team of players backed out. I recently started buying HQ Avalon stuff (expansions and the like) and I got some new implementations. I will probably post the new ones in the future.

Having monsters use White Shields for defense does wonders to their buffs, however. Currently Dread Warriors have White Shields count as Black Shields in defense which gives them a 50% chance of shrugging off some damage. Need to do more playtesting though.

[lestodante]

ATTACK ADVANTAGE: The Monster Shield counts as a Skull when attacking, which is added to your regular Skulls.

OK! so it's basically a Black dice attack roll (4 skulls per dice).

DEFENSE ADVANTAGE: The Monster Shield counts as a Lion Shield, which is added to your regular Lion Shields.

OK! So it's basically a Green dice defense roll (3 white shields per dice).

WIZARD - Magical Lottery: Roll one white die. On a Skull, you regain 3 random Spell Cards that you've used and lose one Mind Point. On a Lion Shield, you regain 1 random Spell Card that you've used and lose one Mind Point. On a Monster Shield, you lose two random Spell Cards, one Body Point and one Mind Point.

I guess it is too risky to use this skill! I would never do. Also, is this only once per quest or unlimited use?

ABOMINATION - Fire's Dread: You have Defense Disadvantage against any Fire attack.

Fire attacks require movement dice to defend, not combat dice.