by Our friends from YouTube channel Heroquest Italia performed during Lucca Comics and Games 2024 event a live interview with Doug Hopkings, better known as "Wandering Monster" in social media. At the time of interview, Doug was the principal game designer of HeroQuest remake's products.
The interview with Doug Hopkins can be found in Heroquest Italia's channel here, however, they gave me permission to transcript it on this post for eternity... nevertheless of course I encourage you to watch the full video if you are interested in listening to Doug.
On behalf of all members of Ye Olde Inn, Thanks a lot to Heroquest Italia for performing this great valuable interview!
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INTERVIEW WITH DOUG HOPKINS "WANDERINGMONSTER" by Giuseppe Sapori from Heroquest Italia Team, published the 9th of November 2024 at their YouTube channel, @joalbo
- Giuseppe Sapori from Heroquest Italia Team (GS): Hi Doug! Just an intro...
Doug Hopkins "WanderingMonster" (DH): I am just really proud to be here, this is my second time to be here, and everyone here that I interact with just treat me so well and I get a lot of respect and lot of kindness and a lot of passion so that is a long weekend that passion from the fans keep me going.
GS: First Light is a new release of HeroQuest, in a certain way is a second chance to enhance HeroQuest. Why did you feel this need?
DH: Well I mean, we want to bring more people into our hobby, right? we want new players to join on hobby, so that we can play with them and show them how great this game is, so this is a very accessible way if you were sure you wanted to try HeroQuest, maybe this is your opportunity for the first time to put this on your table and give it a try and see how great it is, and then of course we hope that our fans over the years see this and go "oh there's some things for me in there, they thought about me too! there's some things I want!" and also it allows them as you've made a lot of HeroQuests, maybe you haven't played with the new characters, new Heroes, so you could start First Light with the Berserker or Explorer or you never tried the... maybe this is your opportunity to start right from the beginning with new characters.
GS: What have your design goals been when designing new content?
DH: Yes, my design goals are... first of all to make sure that our current fans are excited about our product, right? I don't want to straight too far away from what the essence of HeroQuest is because it's been supported by the fan Community for 30 years, and I don't want to disrupt that, there's a magic there, there's a magic about this, but I will say we also want to do some new things with HeroQuest, so you'll see that when we release things we keep the magic of the original, but also try to push the boundaries of modern design here and there, and test it and see if you like it, so an example that would be the Arena, which you guys have been using eh? [Laughs]
GS: What didn't make it in that you wish had?
DH: There's so many Heroes I would like to play with, ok? so it's hard to say... it's hard to pick one, but I will say that I have a lot of thoughts for new Heroes, we'll see what the future brings with that.
GS: You clearly decided to re-publish HeroQuest with 100% original rules. Had you decided differently, which rules would you have changed?
DH: Uh... I would love to see diagonal movement because I think it's intuitive for people to move diagonally, but sometimes I think that the simplicity of it is also good, so I struggle with that, it's something I'll have to think about. I see a lot of people saying they want a leveling up system for characters, and of course I see a lot of questions about by having a two-handed sword or a big sword, large weapon which can I that like attack with the large weapon and take out my shield and my sword or, so like I think it would be, if I was starting from the start maybe you would have locations for Armor, so Helmet location, Chest location, Hand location... that could be interesting, but again let's fans tell me what they think, that's a good idea.
GS: Can we expect more non-linear questbooks in the future?
DH: Well I would say "tell me if you liked it", like "did you like the nonlinear questbook?" so like in Rise of the Dread Moon we gave you options to go one way or another way, depending on your choices, in Jungles of Delthrak we had one Quest or another Quest, so we're trying some things in these expansion packs, and we look to you to tell us what you like and what you don't like.
GS: What is your favourite HeroQuest expansion to date? And what about hero and monster? Which is your favourite?
DH: We're standing in front of Jungles of Delthrak here [DH points to an exhibited JoD copy], I do like the Jungles of Delthrak's jungle theme, and that ape, I really like the Giant Ape quite a bit, but I also have a spot for The Ogre Horde because how those Ogres came out as models were really fantastic, Max Dunbar did the art for the Ogres, what we call turnarounds like an illustration that shows the model and Max Dunbar's art style translated to the models perfectly, the models came out really great, so maybe I'll choose the Ogre Lord.
GS: What do you think about fan made stuff?
DH: I love them, need stuff, it's the passion that the Community put to the game that's going to make this game be around for another 30 years, you've kept it alive 30 years and now you're going to keep it alive your passion to put into the Game System. The Game System is ingredients for you to cook something really tasty and I love it all, right?
GS: We feel the need for a new, renewed Wizard. Are you thinking about it? Or do you not feel this need?
DH: So the Wizard is some people's least favorite Hero and some people's most favorite one, so I will say just like the Barbarian, some people think the Barbarian is too simple, some people love play the Barbarian, right? so all Heroes are not for all people. Some Heroes are for some people and some Heroes for other, so there are people who love the Wizard, so if I was to make a new Wizard, I would probably... like I did in Jugles of Delthrak, we have a Barbarian and a Berserker that's very similar, so that some people who like to play barbarians can still play them, some people who want to challenge of something a little bit more difficult, can play that. I would think of something like that for the Wizard. What could I do with the Wizard to have a little bit more strategy, both for the player and for Zargon? That would be interesting, so if I was thinking about doing the Wizard, or redoing the Wizard, I was thinking about that, but I think the wizard is right the way it is.
GS: Thank you, Doug!
DH: Thank you!
End of interview.
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Links to many other relevant interviews about HeroQuest are compiled in this thread.
