Re: Getting into HeroQuest, advice for a beginner?

[MonsterMotor]

[The opening post was deleted as it was changed to spam by banned spammer.]

The rules are pretty simple, albeit not completely unambiguous concerning some details. I would not worry about expansions right from the outset. Just ignore them for now and play the base game campaign. It is really good, and you will notice the shortcomings of HQ and identify the direction how you want to progress further soon enough. Only then ask again.

[cornixt]

It's the most basic dungeon crawl that has defined quests, so it is ideal for beginners. Expansions aren't necessary but they do add to the depth of the game.

There isn't actually any role playing in the rules or description, but the players are certainly free to add flavour to each encounter with how their character does the in-game actions, like yelling "Die!" as you kill a goblin or humming a little tune as you search for traps. The game is really based around simple combat with some minor strategic elements and a bit of exposition.

[Daedalus]

Welcome to the Inn, Karina83!

To your first question, I'd say the rules aren't so complex. There's a bit more than Risk or Ticket to Ride, but it's not difficulty that increases as much as more rules to cover dungeon crawling situations. When I learned with my Dd&D group I started as a Hero player. It.was pretty much sit down and play, everything was easy to grok. Rarely, rules issues cropped up, but we were able to agree on our game direction with a bit of discussion afterwards. The Zargon player (think a game referee who runs the monsters) made all in-play rulings with little difficulty.

You can jump right in with the base game for 14 playthroughs known as Quests. Each generally can be played in an hour or two. After that, any player who wants to can design a Quest and run it as a play session.

If you prefer pre-made Quests (usually 10), some new monster and even Hero figures, and new tiles for the gameboard, then it's time for an expannsion. They also come with a few new rules and cards to play with. Most fans of the game try at least one expansion to enrich and continue their gaming experience with little effort.

As far as the role-playing element, it's very light. You get a short introductory explanation of the Quest, then it's time to ride the murder-hobo express. Dialogue is rare as the game is more about exploration. Players are free to ad-lib as they please for more role-play, but the game is designed for beer--and-pretzels roll-play.

,Finally, the adventure side of Heroquest is very light. There isn't an outdoor map, tiles, town or wilderness event cards, or character training. Instead, Heroquest provides between Quest advancement through equipment purchases. Later expansions also provide advancement power-ups through potion and potion crafting, as well as mercenary purchasing options for some etra beef.

[Daedalus]

Since the game purchaser usually plays the Zargon (DM) role, read the rules before starting (it shouldn't take much more than an hour). The game has a section that is read to new players at the start, so just let them choose their Heroes and jump in--you can explain any rules as you play. Be warned that the first Quest of the full game (not First Light) is deadly; it is designed to teach the Heroes that they need to stick together to survive. If you think this will discourage your group from playing again, skip this Quest until after Quest 5 or so when they will be powered up a bit.

[Kurgan]

Imagination is very key in this game. Many things are there to spark your imagination.

Hi everyone,

I’ve recently heard a lot about the board game HeroQuest and it really caught my attention. I love the idea of a mix between dungeon crawling, adventure and role-playing, but since I usually only play more traditional board games, I’m not sure how easy it is to get into.

For those of you who know the game well: how complex are the rules for someone who has never played this kind of fantasy adventure before? Do you feel the base game is enough to start having fun, or are expansions pretty much necessary to keep things interesting? I’m also wondering about the overall atmosphere – does it really capture that role-playing feel everyone talks about?

I’d love to hear from people who’ve played it, especially if you have tips for beginners or little tweaks that make the experience smoother.

Thanks a lot in advance!

Short answer, Roleplaying is strictly optional. The basic game is relatively simple (as far as Tabletop fantasy games go), some would say even antiquated in terms of modern gaming, but for others that's its greatest charm. Start with the basics and add things as you see fit, is my advice. Prepare for 2-5 players to sit down for 90 minutes or more (don't recommend playing more than four hours though, unless you're that type of marathon gamer, it can set false expectations so the next time people may grown and say it's too much... better to break up the adventures over many sessions over weeks, months...). The 14 quests in the booklet can be burned through in a summer for kids, but for adults who don't find the time for regular gaming, it'll last a long time. Just enjoy the ride!

Now for the longer answer...

A lot depends upon what other types of games you've played before. If you're like me, you've spent much of your game playing life being impatient... you want to get into the game right away... it's a chore to sit down and read a big rulebook and be confused (the great thing about HeroQuest is that its rulebook is relatively short... a fraction of the length of many similar games). Most adults I know are like this too, they want you to know the game like the back of your hand and guide them rather than have to spend a lot of time learning... no "homework."

HeroQuest was the first (and for a long time has been the only until recent years) of its kind for me. Monopoly, chess, Life... those were the type of games I played prior.

I wouldn't say there's much role playing in HeroQuest at all. The characters are given to you, the story is spelled out, the things you do are move around the dungeon looking for gold to buy better equipment, and kill monsters. Rarely are you doing anything else. HOWEVER, many players just start to naturally kind of add little flourishes to their play. Cracking jokes, referencing pop culture stuff the game reminds them of, maybe making little sound effects. Sometimes just the act of naming your character will set it off in someone (our character names were either directly copied from other stuff like naming the Dwarf after one of the ones from the Hobbit) or joke names that just sounded funny to us in our tweens.

So while getting into the mindset of a dungeon crawler is a bit of a curve for people who haven't played a game like that before, once you do, it's no big deal. Many modern gamers dismiss or criticize HeroQuest for not being more like Warhammer, or Dungeons & Dragons. But the beauty is that sometimes you want a break from those games, which some find more stressful than fun at times... and if you want to make HeroQuest more complex like those other games, you easily can. It provides the framework from which you can "homebrew" your own stuff. But the game itself can be quite fun with people who are into it.

Rise of the Dread Moon kind of hints at Role playing in the prequel quest (Knightfall) as does First Light (which further explains if you want to do this, you're welcome to incorporate some improvisational stuff).

Usually the type of thing I'm thinking of is Zargon adding little details (like the Japanese edition suggesting little lines to flavor the experience "the goblins run off in fear!") or maybe the heroes saying stuff like "I chopped the zombie in half with my mighty blade!" or whatever goofy thing you might think of. It's not required. Some people just get into it more than others.

But like Rise of the Dread Moon has several places where it makes sense for you to insert some lite role play. Like you're supposed to check the door to see if there's a townsperson who can give you information on the secret cadre you're looking for. In reality it's just roll dice, success or failure, move on. But you could be like "hello, who's that at my door? I don't want any trouble!" "Hello, we're friends, fighting against Zargon's forces to restore the peace of Elethorn... can you please tell me where to find the secret cadre?" "Uh... I know nothing, leave me alone! Or I'll contact the authorities!" "Oh, so you too are in the good fight with us, brave sir, I support you, please find others like us to the north..."

But everything you do could become an opportunity for elaboration and storytelling. Open the door, search for treasure. Found 15 gold. Or "I must up my courage and kick open the door!" "the door flies open with a groan... the dust settles and nobody is around. The treasure chest opens to reveal a bag... it appears to be stuffed with something heavy... it is filled with gold! 15 shiny coin jingle into your pockets..."

My best advice would be to not worry about all that. Just take the basic game out of the box, let Zargon read over the basic rules, read the intro to the heroes like it says, let them name their heroes, divide up the magic, read the quest and start playing.

The only adventures that to me require "HOMEWORK" from Zargon are Rise of the Dread Moon and Jungles of Delthrak. These quest books were created to counter the "Zargon doesn't have enough to do / it's boring to be the GM in HeroQuest" complaints. Zargon SHOULD review the new rules AND read over the quest notes carefully before each adventure. Lots of new gimmicks and twists and turns that otherwise would require him to be flipping all around the booklet trying to figure things out every time there's a note. Most of HeroQuest is much simpler once you have the basics down.

"The Trial" really is a difficult beginning for many heroes. Some suggest skipping it entirely, or playing a quest or two before it (like New Beginnings) to build up gear and get some practice in. As kids we took the Trial as a rite of passage. Several parties of heroes died before we got going.

The "solo quests" of Frozen Horror and Mage of the Mirror are a disaster. These are proposed as a way for a basic hero to get started but in actual practice they are more like torture for that one character. You are now outnumbered and subject to multiple attacks. Certain monsters, if encountered too early (like the Yeti) can finish off a character who doesn't get amazing rolls. There are ways to make these adventures more forgiving so they don't frustrate a new player to the point of giving up... I find the easiest way tot make them FUN is to simply dispense with the whole "solo" thing, and just let 2 or 3 heroes play them as is, and just increase the rewards to compensate for the greater number of players. Other suggestions are to still keep it as one Hero but let him have one (or more) allies like an Animal companion or some mercenaries. Technically it says you only get ONE helper, but I think these quests are so difficult that breaking this "rule" is actually a beneficial thing. Of course you're still back to having one person control multiple characters. As long as they don't mind! Otherwise Zargon SHOULD go through these quests and modify the difficulty be removing some of the monsters and/or traps and/or adding more healing potions. I think these two packs were designed at a time when they expected players who got this far to have played many quests already and saved their character sheets... so they'd have the strongest armor and weapons already and lots of potions so it would be no challenge unless they were fighting dozens and dozens of monsters (some of those quests will take you 4 hours to complete, even if you are cruising along).

So I would not start with those expansions if you can help it, or at least Zargon should study them before just diving in. Of course designer Doug Hopkins would say just play what you want to, don't worry about the story order or whatever. I would also say that Rise of the Dread Moon is very difficult at the end if the heroes have not found many Artifact weapons (these are mostly found in the Game System alone, the ones you can use over and over again vs. used up when consumed).

Have fun with it!


Remember, MOST quests in HeroQuest are designed for FOUR HEROES, but one person can always control more than one character at a time. Many of our games as kids were one of us as Zargon vs. another person controlling all four. Just keep in mind that the turns will be longer as that person has to decide the actions of all of their characters.

The Companion App is nice, but doesn't teach you everything. It takes the role of Zargon with some generic flourishes (mostly the same voice clips played over and over, but also some text popups). This encourages the players to kind of collectively become Zargon because someone is reading (or not reading) those messages, and the monster dice rolls for defense (and the hero attacks) still have to be done, and you still have the cards to draw yourselves. HeroQuest generally is much more fun when you have a human taking the role of Zargon, but sometimes you have everyone who wants to be heroes. The other drawback is that you can only play official quests this way, no remixes of quests (Zargon is supposed to modify the quest if it ends in failure and you come back to replay).

Again, I wish you well, don't worry if things don't go well the first time. Just keep in mind a lot of us love the game not just for what has been written but for the potential. The blank quest map lets you create your own adventures and the designers are pretty gung ho about empowering the players to craft their own rules, characters, stories.

If someone doesn't like how you ran the game as Zargon, offer for them to do it next time. Just like with the heroes.. some people pick the Barbarian because he seems the strongest... they want to do a lot of fighting, while others pick him because he seems simple, not a lot of things to stress about. Meanwhile some pick the Wizard for the extra challenge, or they want to cast the spells. Or maybe you're controlling both!

But some basic strategy is make sure you play a four hero quest with four heroes... and have the heroes work together. Zargon is most likely going to put out traps so they should search for traps first if nothing else. Also they should be ware that there are still "dirty tricks" in the game like traps on the other side of a doorway that you just stumble into, and hazards in the treasure deck that just hit you with no recourse. The nice thing about the North American rules (upon which the remake are based) are the death saves. If your hero "dies" by going to 0 Body Points, and has any way to heal himself, he can do it, unless he just used an action already on his turn so can't cast a spell to save himself (like if he searched for treasure and got a wandering monster or hazard that killed him... or if let's say he searched or attacked then walked into a trap that killed him... otherwise most heroes will die on Zargon's turn, and thus he can ALWAYS save himself immediately by casting that unused healing spell or drinking that potion).

The fans are great too. Most of them are eager to help. In the end you do it your way.

[MonsterMotor]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been thinking about the idea of a world postal codes database and how useful it could be in so many different areas. Whether it’s for sending packages internationally, creating apps that need address validation, or even just researching how postal systems are structured, it seems like having a central resource would save a lot of headaches.

What I’m wondering is: do such global databases actually exist in a reliable way? And if they do, how are they usually kept updated, since postal systems can change over time? I imagine accuracy must be a real challenge.

Has anyone here tried using or building something like this? I’d really love to hear about your experiences and any insights you might have.

Thanks in advance!

What the hell is going on here? This text has nothing to do with what was originally written in the first post!

[Daedalus]

Right you are, MonsterMotor. A few days ago, a spammer posted a generic but legitimate-sounding post about wanting help deciding as a boardgamer to get into Heroquest or not. I gave it the benefit of a doubt but clearly this account needs to be banned.

Perhaps AI makes fooling us a new consideration. Oh well, that's why Wizards of Zargon are empowered to deal with such underhanded schemes.

[Kurgan]

a good test though... we all were welcoming and helpful as always! good riddance to scammer/spambots