Zargon Goes Online

[Teldurn]

And this is google+? I didn't know someone knows how to use it Looks good though.

Har har. You apparently don't know that the gamer demographic on G+ is enormous. Try it. You'll be amazed!

This looks incredible!

Is it just an online board? I mean, does this thing have rules? Are the players actually prevented from cheating or do you need a gentlemen agreement?
Is the gameplay[*] chat-based or function based?

As in if a player wants to open a chest, does he say/write "I open the chest" and then you tell him what he gets.
Or does he press the button for open chest and automatically recieve his loot/trap?

Roll20 is just the service platform to run any games you want. It comes with a ton of features that I won't get into here, but I can tell you that it does have chat function, which is the same window as where we roll the dice. Two of my players are complete newbies to HQ but the other two are dyed in the wool veterans of this game and of old school RPGs. There's nothing concrete stopping them from opening up their own quest book and reading ahead but I trust them not to. Yeah I guess it's a gentleman's agreement.

Also we talk to each other by microphone and webcam as you can see by our smiling faces, so the game plays about 95% similar to playing in meatspace.

[Teldurn]

Love the webcam images xD
Nice to see some faces.

I somehow missed this post earlier. But I'm the smiling face on the far right. For the last screenshot, you can tell I was pleased with being able to take down two out of the three heroes. Too bad I couldn't get a TPK, but I'll take what I can get. There's always another quest for that chance.

[chaoticprime]

Kind of neat how many players get smoked when the Evil Wizard can't flub his dice rolls to save their asses. Keep this going, cowboy. Show the nancies around here how to play the game right.

[Teldurn]

Kind of neat how many players get smoked when the Evil Wizard can't flub his dice rolls to save their asses. Keep this going, cowboy. Show the nancies around here how to play the game right.

Definitely. I should start keeping a running body count tab.

Also, interestingly enough, I've discovered that because these guys are old school RPGers they get upset if they feel I'm going easy on them, which is not something I would expect from a typical HeroQuest player. This works to my advantage, since I can bring the pain with no fun loss.

[Teldurn]

Last night's game.

HeroQuest postmortem
Quest 4: Prince Magnus' Gold (Part Deux)

Two months. It took us two flippin' months to get all five of us to play together simultaneously. It's about damn time, if you ask me.

Anyhow, last week saw us with a foppish Elf fleeing for his life flailing his arms wildly trying to get away from a Chaos Warrior and a sluggish Fimir. He barely made it out alive, and then came back this week with new homies to try and take down the leader of this gang of thieves and to try and take back the Prince's gold.

Interesting thing to note here before moving further. Roll20 had just updated the software and we spent half an hour trying to get everyone to successfully load it. There were countless log-offs-and-back-ons. After half an hour a strange thing happened - I'm gonna go ahead and call it a bug, not a feature. Other people could see the board I was running and they could move their own dudes on the screen, and I could see them move their own dudes....but their avatars would not show up on my screen like it should. I could only see one other person besides myself. No one else could see me, either. Anyhoo, the important thing was that people could move their icons on the same board so we could finally start this shindig!

Lucky for this group of Heroes, the Elf was carrying around a couple spare Battle Axes, for which the Barbarian and Dwarf were quite grateful.

At the start of the game, The Elf again cast Light of the Moon. That's okay, as you'll see soon here. After making the secret traps and doors visible -- I expect this will become the Elf's modus operandi from here on out -- after the secrets were revealed, the group cautiously started making their way through the first few rooms, but were having a tough time of it.


The monsters were hitting well and the Heroes were not defending well enough. 3 rooms in and the Barbarian and Dwarf were already starting to feel the pinch of getting pummeled by Zargon's forces of Chaos!

It also didn't help the Heroes any that they were pulling up Wandering Monster cards (Fimir again, woo!). They were really piling on the hurtpain. Dwarf was down to 1 Body Point at one point early on and had to quaff a healing potion. Barbarian wasn't doing so hot, either.


Then something magical happened. Through a turn of events led by some sort of real life disturbance, <Dwarf's player> had to suddenly eject himself from the game. I ruled that the Dwarf was all like, "Screw you guys, I'm going home," and left the dungeon*. He probably said it in Cartman's voice, too.

Now down to just three Heroes effectively, things started to get interesting. Dice rolls were getting ... dicey. The Elf was down to 1 Body Point and got hit with a couple skulls, but made a lucky defense roll and defended them all. But unfortunately for him, it was still my turn and had one Orc left to hit with. What does he get? All skulls. Yep... one dead Elf.


Let's also have a moment of silence for the dead Barbarian, too.


This left just the Wizard alone to try and a couple Orcs. Wizard cast one of his fire spells, but the greenskin was tougher than that (He rolled the necessary dice well enough to avoid the damage). So then the Wizard did the only logical thing to do. FLEE~!

The Orcs were on his tail, though. Unfortunately, they were not quick enough to catch (and kill) the Wizard as well. But fortunately (for Zargon), the Wizard was not able to grab any equipment from his comrades, and he himself only had a single dagger and a staff.

So that means next time they try to find the treasure for Prince Magnus, the whole group will basically come in with base stats and gear.

The kicker is that they didn't even make it to the treasure room this time. And they had ALL FOUR OF THEM present. Heh. Maybe the third time's the charm to find the gold, eh?


*But srsly, he would have been killed, too. Sorry, dude.

[Daedalus]

Kind of neat how many players get smoked when the Evil Wizard can't flub his dice rolls to save their asses. Keep this going, cowboy. Show the nancies around here how to play the game right.

Don't forget these games have been played with three Heroes. That certainly was a factor in the body count.

I'd have to agree Hero Quest shouldn't be played with flubbed dice rolls--there is no rule allowing it. Big boys who want to take the game to a competive level are doing no wrong. With the exception of the starting Quest, the main game system probably plays a bit too easy on the Heroes anyway. Removing equipment through Hero death on an occasional basis can work as a countering balance, providing a more interesting game.

That is not to say that there is only one right way to play Hero Quest. There are reasons for the Morcar/Zargon player going for the experience over the win. A Morcar/Zargon player can easily ramp down the difficulty by playing in a dramatic fashion rather than tactically. Inexperienced (new or young) players or the weakest Hero, the Wizard, are more likely to have their enthusiasm quashed otherwise, never to play again. If you have players who casually shrug off death, more power to ya!

I'm stating opinion, not experience, when I say that regular Hero death can upset a key part of the boardgame, Hero progression. Used judiciously, Hero death can put a keen edge on gameplay. Used indiscriminately, it can lead to growing imbalance in the published Quests or a similar series. The later expansions assume a lot of equipment for the Heroes. I figure if the Heroes are kept too weak, they are more likely to weaken further in the later expansions and subsequently fail. To me, that wouldn't be nearly as fun as playing through all of the expansions in one go.

[Teldurn]

Kind of neat how many players get smoked when the Evil Wizard can't flub his dice rolls to save their asses. Keep this going, cowboy. Show the nancies around here how to play the game right.

Don't forget these games have been played with three Heroes. That certainly was a factor in the body count.

I'd have to agree Hero Quest shouldn't be played with flubbed dice rolls--there is no rule allowing it. Big boys who want to take the game to a competive level are doing no wrong. With the exception of the starting Quest, the main game system probably plays a bit too easy on the Heroes anyway. Removing equipment through Hero death on an occasional basis can work as a countering balance, providing a more interesting game.

That is not to say that there is only one right way to play Hero Quest. There are reasons for the Morcar/Zargon player going for the experience over the win. A Morcar/Zargon player can easily ramp down the difficulty by playing in a dramatic fashion rather than tactically. Inexperienced (new or young) players or the weakest Hero, the Wizard, are more likely to have their enthusiasm quashed otherwise, never to play again. If you have players who casually shrug off death, more power to ya!

Too many Hero deaths can upset a key part of the boardgame, Hero progression. Used judiciously, Hero death can put a keen edge on gameplay. Used indiscriminately, it can lead to growing imbalance in the published Quests or a similar series. The later expansions assume a lot of equipment for the Heroes. I figure if the Heroes are kept too weak, they are more likely to weaken further in the later expansions and subsequently fail. To me, that wouldn't be nearly as fun as playing through all of the expansions in one go.

You are correct, and repeated character deaths have been something I've been concerned about. I occasionally play some of the monsters more dramatically and have them react to their brother-in-arms dying right next to them - they will either flee or attack with less AD or something. However, sometimes even with this tactic, the heroes can make bad rolls and still die. It's going to be a balancing act to make sure they are not underpowered in later quests.

Lately, it seems the Fimir wandering monsters are the cause of doing the most damage. That said, however, it's still early enough in the quest progression for the group to make a solid comeback. Especially if all four of them can do it together.

[knightkrawler]

Lately, it seems the Fimir wandering monsters are the cause of doing the most damage.

I have made this observation, too. So much so that I'm attempting to twitch the wandering monster system.
I am also not a fan ofr the wandering monsters later quest packs use - way too overpowered - so that also plays into my hands for justifying my plan.
I think I'll put a roll a combat die system into each quest that includes the three prevalent monsters of the particular quests for the three dice faces. Also, the roll is gonna be done by the Evil Wizard player behind his screen, so that heroes can only guess how probabilities are split.
Also a possibility: drawing monster cards in some way or another.

[chaoticprime]

Switching to Pass/Fail on damage will make the game much more fun. Basically, Attack and Defense rolls are a contest to determine if the defender takes 1 BP or not.

[Teldurn]

Switching to Pass/Fail on damage will make the game much more fun. Basically, Attack and Defense rolls are a contest to determine if the defender takes 1 BP or not.

Would this then disregard the rules to account for mobs that can do higher damage?