Zargon Goes Online

[Teldurn]

Thanks! I think quest 4 was the last kill I had. There has been two or three times since then where heroes dropped to 0 body points, but they were able to heal in time.

We have a house rule where if a player drops to 0, he is unconscious and has until his next turn to heal. This rule ( plus the healing kit) has saved them many times from death.

[Teldurn]

HeroQuest Postmortem
Q12: Barak Tor — Barrow of the Witch Lord, part 1

So. It's been two weeks since the last time we played some good ol' HQ. But now we're back, and as is becoming the norm, there was a bit of musical chairs as people decided who they wanted to play, accounting for missing people from last time plus new fill-ins.

Because of both time and how cautious the players were, we were not able to complete the whole quest in one session. As a result, no screenshots attached here today.

Wizard was acting bolder than usual this time and found a few extra monsters behind doors that maybe should have remained closed until after someone else with more Body Points could open them.

But even with that foolishness, the Wizard was surprisingly not harmed overmuch, as opposed to the Elf who ended up taking quite a beating. No doubt if not for the phantom healing kit Elf possesses, he would have died this time. Alas.

However, a bit of good news. Mummies in this quest are able to attack Mind Points instead of Body Points. The group managed to avoid getting hit by the first couple of mummies they encountered, and I was starting to worry that they might not get to see that effect in action.

But my worry was for naught. Very quickly, the Dwarf found himself a target of a 3-Skull assault. Dwarf only had 3MP and was not able to deflect any of that damage, effectively dropping him out of fights in short order as he became Stunned.

Dropping to 0 Mind Points makes a Hero become Stunned, which means that until they can raise their MP above 0, they can no longer attack and can only defend with 2 dice no matter their armor.

It took quite a few rounds, but the Dwarf finally remembered to convince the Barbarian to give him the Talisman of Lore, increasing Dwarf's MP up by one. He was then able to properly fight again. Although I think they might have learned their lessons and might invest in a certain potion or two before the next quest to prevent this from happening again.

In this quest, they needed to find an object called the Star of the West, which did not take them overlong to find in the hand of a zombie in the center room.

In the process of their adventure, they also managed to awaken the Witch Lord from his slumber! The Witch Lord is immune to all damage and spells and is only vulnerable to the Spirit Blade. Of course, the group has not yet found this magical sword yet, so they were forced to run away from him.

Luckily for them, the Witch Lord moves very, very slowly.

We stopped the adventure about 3/4 of the way through and will continue next week.

Zargobian out.

[TMU]

I really like reading these gameposts, so keep 'em coming

[Daedalus]

I see you dropped the ability to attack with 1 combat die used in the shock rule from the NA expansion packs. Did you also drop the 1-die movement penalty?

Just thought up a new shock rule:

When a Hero reaches 0 Mind Points, he is not dead but in shock. (A Hero cannot go below zero Mind Points.) He rolls only 1 red die to move, and he must reroll each successfull Attack or Defend die. He only counts the second result from any rerolled success.

The chance to hit is halved, while the chance to defend is cut to a third. Getting hit is more likely than allowing 2 combat dice in defense unless a Hero has 6 or more Defend Dice. However, allowing a reduced attack counters that a bit by killing the monster that is hitting you. The idea is to allow the player to still get to roll dice and participate actively.

Thematically, I never was content with all armor benefit being entirely cut out in the shock rule. The same sorta applies to weapons in my mind. Also, the shock rule unfairly favors the Wizard by penalizing him less than the combat-dependent Heroes.

[Teldurn]

I see you dropped the ability to attack with 1 combat die used in the shock rule from the NA expansion packs. Did you also drop the 1-die movement penalty?

Just thought up a new shock rule:

When a Hero reaches 0 Mind Points, he is not dead but in shock. (A Hero cannot go below zero Mind Points.) He rolls only 1 red die to move, and he must reroll each successfull Attack or Defend die. He only counts the second result from any rerolled success.

The chance to hit is halved, while the chance to defend is cut to a third. Getting hit is more likely than allowing 2 combat dice in defense unless a Hero has 6 or more Defend Dice. However, allowing a reduced attack counters that a bit by killing the monster that is hitting you. The idea is to allow the player to still get to roll dice and participate actively.

Thematically, I never was content with all armor benefit being entirely cut out in the shock rule. The same sorta applies to weapons in my mind. Also, the shock rule unfairly favors the Wizard by penalizing him less than the combat-dependent Heroes.

Yes, I had a nagging feeling I was forgetting something in the rules when I was repeating them to the players on the fly at the spur of the moment. Turns out, it was the 1-die movement thing. However, your proposal is actually very good! I will definitely make that change. Thank you!

[chaoticprime]

This is the most Hero killingest quest of them all (of the original 14). Man, if they go down that hallway to hell with the witch lord behind them, that's all she wrote.

[Teldurn]

Not this time, sadly. The group has been not only advancing very cautiously but also playing smartly as well. Despite the fact that they split the party early on and seemed to seal their own dooms, their bacons have been saved time and again by that healing kit they bought. If only I had been paying a hair more attention, they wouldn't have the kit, and I'd have a few more deaths tallied on my belt.

That said, they still probably have to pass through the Witch Lord's chamber again if they want to find the exit, and he's still got a full contingent of spells to unleash upon them.....unless, of course, the group happens to find the back way to the stairs. :/
(I REALLY want to Command the Elf to Pass Through Rock and end his turn in the wall. )

[Teldurn]

HeroQuest postmortem
Q12: Barak Tor - Barrow of the Witch Lord, part 2

Last night we wrapped up the second half of this quest. But we were almost running up against needing to make it have a part 3 because of the players' indecision (and constantly derailing conversations and lack of paying attention). Thankfully though, we were able to avoid that and actually finish on time. While also starting on time; Amazing!

Continuing from last week, our Heroes had about a quarter of the map left to explore, all while staying the heck away from the Witch Lord, who spent much of his time wandering between a couple rooms slowly.

He started to make way to the center room, however, when it became apparent that Elf was on her way back to the same room coming from the corridor on the far bottom right. Once inside, Elf took many turns not doing a whole heck of a lot, waiting for some good rolls to be able to move into and back out of the room without giving the Witch Lord a chance to strike.

Meanwhile, seeing as how none of the Heroes were brave enough to face him, the Witch Lord went on the offensive instead. I cast Summon Undead and rolled a 6 on 1d6, the best possible roll - 2 Mummies and 2 Zombies, whoop whoop! \o/

One Mummy made quick work of Barbarians lowly 2 Mind Points and then continued to block him in the room with no way to escape. Meanwhile, the Zombies and other Mummy went for the rest of the group.

Elf was still waiting for a good roll when they came up with the tactic that she should move down to the very edge of the southern double corridor and wait to get a great movement roll in order to cast Pass Through Rock Kool Aid Man to move straight up north through all the walls into the trap room, coincidentally where the Barbarian was also trapped. Then on the next turn, Elf would use up the magical artifact Ring of Return and teleport the both of them back to the entrance.

This was, admittedly, quite a clever tactic to try. Before this point, it was looking VERY MUCH like there would be at the very least one dead PC (Barbarian), with the possibility of a TPK increasing with each round.

But then, they went and tried this crazy scheme. And the worst best part is that it worked!

The misadventures of the Wizard and Barbarian has so far cost the Heroes two artifacts: Ring of Return and Elixir of Life, both of which are one-time-use items. I would say it was used to the greatest benefit this time, and I am a little annoyed that no one died. This quest is supposed to be one of the most killingest quests in the whole pack (second only to Q1).

After all four Heroes managed to narrowly escape the dungeon by the skin of their teeth (I'm still amazed they managed it!), they did a little shopping. They needed to buy a potion to restore Mind Points. And in addition to needing to repair Barbarian's damaged weapon (when he rolled very poorly), they depleted much of their funds. Good times.

2 quests left. Next week, friends!

Another ambitious start to the quest.


The falling rock trap springs magically when the last Hero passes through. Also note the checkerboard room of traps!


Dance party on the table, wooo! \o/


Dwarf is about to get Stunned from that Mummy's attack.


Uh oh! They have awakened the Witch Lord! And then split off separately. This looks pretty bad for them.


Elf was taking a beating from that Gargoyle.


Dwarf, with 1MP, was waffling between hanging out by the stairs and coming to the rescue of his mates. Meanwhile, the Barbarian (Stunned at 0MP and unable to attack) is about to be stuck after the Wizard leaves him to his fate.

[Teldurn]

I swear this game is cursed for me.

The Curse of the Last Four Quests, I call it. in my whole lifetime of having owned this game, I have never once been able to get any group to play through to the end. Always, something happens within the last five quests that makes the campaign implode. I was so excited for this campaign, since we actually were about to make it to the last two quests! But well, it's been a month so far, and every week there's been some drama or other that has prevented us from playing.

We're supposed to have another game (or try to, anyway) tonight, but we'll see if people show up. :/

[GimmeYerGold]

I think it's awesome you're coordinating all this, Teldurn. Getting everyone's schedules to align feels like forcing the PLANETS TO ALIGN. But from reading these post-quest write-ups, I know they're totally worth the effort!

If it makes you feel any better, I'm experiencing the curse to in my IRL game Last quest in the campaign, and our wizard is moving to another city. We're shooting for an all-day quest next Saturday, and hopefully, it'll be worth everyone's involvement up to this point: 14 quests in about a 10 month span.