The Dark Company Redesign by HispaZargon

[HispaZargon]

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TDC_Box_Front_by_HZ.jpg

Dear all,

After posting this Teaser Trailer one week ago, I am glad to finally share with all members of Ye Olde Inn my latest fanmade project for print & play: my very personal Redesign of The Dark Company! (see the NEW Release Trailer here!!)

I was wondering how to make this redesign since decades ago, but I seriously started to work on this project in Oct/2023. It basically consists in a full revision of the classic super quest The Dark Company from 1992, made by Stephen Baker and included in Advanced Quest Edition's basic box of HeroQuest board game. This box was officially released in Europe only, however the present fanmade redesign has been fully adapted to the philosophy, rules and aesthetics of classic American Game System. I have even took a time machine, and tried to emulate how I think this Quest Pack may had looked like in the 90's stores, if it had been actually released in North America, as a standalone expansion set like Kellar's Keep or Return of the Witch Lord.

As design starting point for this project, I used under permission the quest maps designed in 2019 by our legendary member Pancho (more info in this thread), to split the original super quest in four different Levels or "sub-quests", to make easier playing the whole adventure in four different game sessions and to also improve its narrative and general rules, but at the same time without losing the authenticity, the charm and the epic of the original quest.

This digital project includes a complete questbook with a new Alchemist's Shop, new tiles, new cards, and also includes some dedicated new artworks (actual drawings, no AI was used) for the front cover and the new artifact cards, created by artist Alberto Macari "The Maal", who kindly collaborated with me on this project. Creating new artworks encouraged me to also design a complete box for the expansion set, which files you will be also able to enjoy.

I would like to highlight that this redesign of The Dark Company is supported on three humble -but different- campaigns of playtesting performed in years 2023 and 2025, which were used to iteratively adjust the difficulty of the pack and detect which topics of the expansion required improvements. The second playtesting campaign was performed in collaboration with HeroQuestFans, the Discord/Twitch servers managed by our legendary member Kurgan. Playtests required 21 game sessions and more than 50 hours total. Video recordings of all playtest sessions of 2nd and 3rd campaigns are already available for watching in this YouTube playlist

And finally, I would like to remark that this project also includes an exhaustive Designer's Notes booklet, where I explain the reasons behind all the design decisions I took through the redesign.

The ZIP file at the end of this post includes the latest available version of the files of this project, in both English and Spanish languages. All shared files include both digital-reading version of the documents and their equivalent print-friendly ones to ease creating at home a physical copy of the expansion, if someone is interested.

THIS PROJECT AND ALL THEIR DIGITAL FILES ARE A FAN-MADE PRODUCT FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE ONLY, NOT FOR SALE IN ANY CASE OR FORMAT. SELLING ANY COMPONENT OF THIS CREATION IS NOT AUTHORIZED BY ITS AUTHOR/S, SO PLEASE DO NOT DO IT.

Thank you so much to everyone who directly or indirectly collaborated with me on this personal project, I especially think in our members Pancho, Kurgan, Lestodante and Lucapaschi, but of course there were many other kind people who contributed, so they all are accordingly credited in the corresponding files.

Now, I will have a bit more time to continue with the other many projects I have in hands...

Best regards,


HispaZargon.

ZIP file is HERE (v.1.02)

Video explaining the handcraft process of all expansion components may be found here.

And here you have some media coverage of the project for anyone interested:

16/Dec/2025 - La Guarida de Morcar: Unboxing video by Cristóbal of The Dark Company Redesign box & DungeonFest 2.0 auction prizes. (Spanish)
19/Dec/2025 - TheRantCastPodCast!: Unboxing video by Kurgan of The Dark Company Redesign box (Minute 1:45:30)
20/Dec/2025 - AshQuest: Unboxing & Review video by AmalgamAsh of The Dark Company Redesign project
29/Dec/2025 - The Fair-Weather Man: News video by The Fair-Weather Man presenting The Dark Company Redesign project (Minute 14:00)
06/Jan/2026 - Heroquester: Unboxing article by Rafa el Vikingo of The Dark Company Redesign box (Spanish)
13/Jan/2026 - Dungeon Master: News video by Markus presenting The Dark Company Redesign project (German)
01/Feb/2026 - Les Joueurs du Dédale: Review video of The Dark Company Redesign project (French)
28/Feb/2026 - HeroQuest Italia: Article by Lestodante about The Dark Company Redesign & Barrow of the Beastmen projects (Italian)
05/Mar/2026 - El Absurdeta: Unboxing & Review video of The Dark Company Redesign project (Spanish)
11/Mar/2026 - The Fair-Weather Man: Unboxing & Review video of The Dark Company Redesign project

Remark: All physical copies of this expansion seen in different media and channels through internet are handmade copies I gifted to those channels to promote the project, boost the value of fanmade creations, and get the attention of more people who could be interested on knowing about it, but I would like to clarify that no economical transaction has existed between the involved parts in any of those cases, as said, all them were gifts from my side.

[TCSTigersClaw]

This is so professional made and so much detailed !
Bravo HIspaZargon! You are a big contributor here as always .
Will there be a 2021 version ?

[TCSTigersClaw]

Just saw the presentation in LA GUARIDA DE MORCAR channel.
I think you should sell this for Classic and 2021 Edition.

It is so much work and an overhaul so you are not selling the same DARK COMPANY .

Lots of sales on ETSY of fan quests but not good at all , rushed and AI art , cashgrabbers and not real HQ fans .

I think this deserves to be on sale HZ

[Spookyhappyfun]

This is great! Thank you!

[HispaZargon]

Hi, version 1.02 of the project files has been uploaded in first post.

This is so professional made and so much detailed !
Bravo HIspaZargon! You are a big contributor here as always .
Will there be a 2021 version ?

This is great! Thank you!

Thank you so much both, waiting for your gaming reports!!

Just saw the presentation in LA GUARIDA DE MORCAR channel.
I think you should sell this for Classic and 2021 Edition.

It is so much work and an overhaul so you are not selling the same DARK COMPANY .

Lots of sales on ETSY of fan quests but not good at all , rushed and AI art , cashgrabbers and not real HQ fans .

I think this deserves to be on sale HZ

About this, I understand your approach, there is a trend last years of selling everything in the Community, but with some exceptions, I generally don't support that, and less in projects like this one since it really tries to recreate a 90's official product in all terms, so sorry selling it is absolutely forbidden if you don't have the rights to do it. Other situation would be if lauching this project had needed some previous funding to develope something, in that case a crowdfunding campaign or similar to get the funding may be acceptable in my opinion in exchange of a fanmade product, otherwise some projects could never be made, but that's not clearly the case with this now since everything is already finished!.

I made this project just for fun and to be enjoyed by everyone interested. All material I provided is prepared to be printed at home or local papershops, obtaining rather similar quality as the official 90's products with most of regular laser printers. I honestly don't see any need of selling it if you don't want to make business, something, as said, I totally oppose with fanmde material of this kind

[Kurgan]

Wow! Thank you so much, HZ!

[AngusMacBaine]

Thanks for all of your hard work you put into this!

[wallydubbs]

Ok, I'm curious. Unfortunately my phone doesn't support this file.

[Polsevani]

Very impresive. Congratulations and thank you! Looking forward for the Playtest sessions in your channel

[Polsevani]

Hi, version 1.02 of the project files has been uploaded in first post.

This is so professional made and so much detailed !
Bravo HIspaZargon! You are a big contributor here as always .
Will there be a 2021 version ?

This is great! Thank you!

Thank you so much both, waiting for your gaming reports!!

Just saw the presentation in LA GUARIDA DE MORCAR channel.
I think you should sell this for Classic and 2021 Edition.

It is so much work and an overhaul so you are not selling the same DARK COMPANY .

Lots of sales on ETSY of fan quests but not good at all , rushed and AI art , cashgrabbers and not real HQ fans .

I think this deserves to be on sale HZ

About this, I understand your approach, there is a trend last years of selling everything in the Community, but with some exceptions, I generally don't support that, and less in projects like this one since it really tries to recreate a 90's official product in all terms, so sorry selling it is absolutely forbidden if you don't have the rights to do it. Other situation would be if lauching this project had needed some previous funding to develope something, in that case a kickstarter or similar to get the funding may be acceptable in my opinion in exchange of a fanmade product, otherwise some projects could never be made, but that's not clearly the case with this now since everything is already finished!.

I made this project just for fun and to be enjoyed by everyone interested. All material I provided is prepared to be printed at home or local papershops, obtaining rather similar quality as the official 90's products with most of regular laser printers. I honestly don't see any need of selling it if you don't want to make business, something, as said, I totally oppose with fanmde material of this kind

What about if someone wanted to thank you for your current and future hard work by making a donation? would it be possible?