Tuesday Night HeroQuest!

[lucasdp]

@Gold Bearer -- I hear what you're saying and you're right. If this were chess or a tournament or there was money riding on these games, then yeah, different story. I would be a more ruthless Zargon.
Maybe I shouldn't have said "unfair"... The emphasis should have just been on "not very fun."

I'm the one in my group most committed to playing HQ; if I want to keep playing, I have to keep my friends interested. And they've made it clear they don't want die too much.
Case in point, my buddy Doug. He played two Wizards that died, then tried being an Elf after his frustration with the Wizard's low BP. He played really well as the Elf; he's the one that was deadly as hell with the crossbow. Then that Elf was killed in a quest. Now he has "lost interest."

I like getting my heroes down to one BP. It's good suspense. I like killing one, maybe two, heroes per quest. I don't like killing an entire team in one quest. It's not fun for them, or for me.

If I wanted to play a game in which I kill all my friends, we would break out Bang!

[Gold Bearer]

I shouldn't have posted all last night, I was fcuked and it made my posts come across a tad more harsh than they should have. We all agree that having fun is the most important aspect because it's why we play a game in the first place. I think the problem for me is I'm the exact opposite of your players. If I'm one of the hero players I lose all interest the second I don't feel like my character is in genuine peril because for me that's what makes it fun. I also couldn't play the EWP like that, but if you and your players are having fun then good luck, with pussyquest. Sorry, couldn't resist.

[The Admiral]

The EWP walks a fine line in order to make the game fun and challenging, and continued play with the same people is a learning curve as to how to best make that work. I spend a long time examining the quests my brother will be playing. What stuff is there to find how many monsters are there, what are the difficult situations, how powerful are the heroes?etc. I then amend it (as little as possible) to add or subtract stuff to make it hard enough that they could all die, but probable that they will all survive, barely. I then normally playtest it solitaire. If it works how I want it, I run it with him with no further changes. It is then in the hands of the dice gods, which to be honest, normally favour my brother!

[lucasdp]

Word. This is one of those times where different groups play the game differently, and I think we all agree that versatility is one of the things that makes HeroQuest great.

I sure would like to Zargon with a group of heroes that like to be close to death, on the edge of their seats... but that's not how my friends have been playing.

My friends get attached to their characters. Some of them can get a bit upset when their character dies. They bitch and moan about having to save up gold to get decent weapons and rebuild a character again.

So, I threw them a bone this time, because I'd like to keep playing, even if we are playing PussyQuest.

[Anderas]

Didn't you say you played two times? Where's the report?

[lucasdp]

Ah, Anderas, you're right, I missed a couple game reports here. I can't remember if I didn't think the games were interesting enough to warrant a report, or if I just got busy with "real" life.

But anyway, my group is back to playing on Tuesday nights now! So I thought it seemed fitting to finally update the thread.

We did a nice little run of the Witch Lord Trilogy (aka Quests 12-14) over the last few Sundays. My heroes are pretty well-equipped at this point, so Quests 12 and 13 were no trouble at all for them. They just whipped right through all those skellies and zombies; I don't think I got any of them down to less than 3 BP. I finally got to have some fun in Quest 14 with the full-power Witch Lord, but they fought valiantly and sent him on his way, in a puff of smoke, with his tail between his legs, or whatever.

So, we've (more or less) completed the original questbook! For the first time! I never got past Quest 5 or 6 when playing this game as a kid. Hooray!

Moving forward, I've decided to run them through Return of the Witch Lord before Kellar's Keep, after reading through all the comments about how much easier RotWL is, and after seeing how easily my heroes blasted through the undead in the Witch Lord Trilogy.

I also wanted to beef up the undead a bit, so I made some new house rules and last night we ran through the Plague of Zombies to test out the house rules before starting the official expansion.
First of all, Plague of Zombies is a pretty damn good quest in its own right! I think it would have been difficult for my heroes even if I hadn't amped up the danger with house rules. The mechanic in PoZ that lets "living" monsters return as undead monsters was a fun and dangerous twist. I had to constantly assure my group that this was not an ongoing house rule, but part of the quest as written.

Highlight reel:
Schmidt the Dwarf fell in the pit trap surrounded by Orcs and that was the end of him!
When the magical treasure chest transported Miranda the Elf to the room full of undead, she used her Ring of Return to transport herself back to the staring point of the quest. Pretty resourceful, that one...
When they found the hallway containing both the door to the Deathmaster's room and the exit door, they had a choice to make and, disappointingly, they chose the boring option. With one Hero down and no more healing spells or potions, they opened the Deathmaster's door, saw he was in there with like six zombies, said, "Nope!" and headed for the exit...
And this old Zargon almost thought he was set up for a TPK! Oh well... If the Deathmaster is still alive, who's to say he won't join forces with the Witch Lord and pop up in a later quest?

I wanted to keep my undead house rules simple and in the spirit of the game; to make the undead a real threat, but not a guaranteed TPK. So here are the house rules I'm keeping into RotWL.
1) Undead monsters block with White Shields. They're already dead, right? So they should be a little harder to put down.
2) Mummies, as the strongest undead (or the least decomposed, let's say ), have a chance to rise again, but a little weaker. So, when a Mummy is killed, roll a combat die. On a Skull, the Mummy is destroyed. On a White Shield, the Mummy returns as a Skeleton. On a Black Shield, the Mummy returns as a Zombie. And, of course, a Mummy will not return if killed by a Fire Spell, Holy Water, or the Spirit Blade.

There were a couple other house rules I tried that were overpowering or over-complicated; I think just those two are enough. I also finally started using the Evil Wizard Deck for real, so I think I'm going to enjoy that.

[Anderas]

I first had to see where you did find the plague of zombies.

http://heroquestbyphoenix.yeoldeinn.com ... ombies.pdf

That quest is crazy full of Monsters!
Never seen it before.

[slev]

I first had to see where you did find the plague of zombies.

http://heroquestbyphoenix.yeoldeinn.com ... ombies.pdf

That quest is crazy full of Monsters!
Never seen it before.

The original was not finished, Phoenix and I had to flesh it out to make it work.

[The Admiral]

If the Deathmaster is still alive, who's to say he won't join forces with the Witch Lord and pop up in a later quest?

Definitely. The 'Heroes' should have to pay some price for running away and not completing the quest.

[The Admiral]

I first had to see where you did find the plague of zombies.

http://heroquestbyphoenix.yeoldeinn.com ... ombies.pdf

That quest is crazy full of Monsters!
Never seen it before.

The original was not finished, Phoenix and I had to flesh it out to make it work.

Out of interest, which bits were added or amended?