Ye Olde Inn

Here are some ideas on spicing up the dungeon from time to time, on a Saturday Night, or any time you want.
You can insert these new elements in your campaign, and implement them in some quests where it makes sense.

1 - Monster Patrol : In a specific dungeon (let's say a jail, or torture dungeon) you can have 4 monsters of your choice who roam the dungeon in a precise trajectory. These monsters will eventually cross paths with the heroes - - until then, their position on the board remains hidden in Zargon's notepad. You will be *surprised* and lose your turn if you cross paths with these enemies because they are truly alert and ready to attack, unless you peek at the corner of the corridors before stepping forward. When Zargon reads the quest to the players, you can give a hint about the new element by mentioning ''the place seems heavily guarded''. Inform your players that they can now take a glimpse in the corridors before venturing. On a player's turn, the hero can attempt at listening. Roll 2d6. Anything above 7 will force Zargon to inform the player if a guard appears to be nearby (Monster must be 8 squares Minimum distance from the hero to be heard on the 2d6 roll).

2 - Elite Monsters : Every 5 turns, or 7 turns, Zargon can put an Elite Monster on the board (in a room that is yet to be discovered). Give the Elite Monster a bonus Body Point and a Bonus Attack die. Armored enemies can benefit from an additional Defense die as well. Give spell caster an additional Chaos Spell.

3 - Rust Trap : Set some traps in the dungeon that will actually damage the player's armor or weapon. It must be made of metal. You can then inform the player that he will remain with this situation until he/she goes back to town to repair the equipment. The player loses an Attack die, or a Defense die for the rest of the quest.
Cost of repairs is the Weapon's Original cost divided by 5, or a flat 100 Gold.

4A - Skull of Fate (First One) : This is inspired by Dark Quest 2. It is a bonus piece of furniture. It's basically a pedestal holding a human skull and it's effects are random.
1 - The hero gains 100 Gold
2 - One enemy in the room instantly dies
3 - The hero who activates the Skull is injured (loses 2 Body Point)
4 - The hero who activates the Skull is healed (regains 3 Body Points)
5 - You gain an Attack bonus, or a Defense bonus for 5 turns
6 - Zargon takes control of your hero for 1 turn (and most likely will use your hero to attack your allies)

4B - Skull of Fate (Second One)
1 - The hero loses 100 Gold
2 - One enemy in the room is trapped and skips a turn
3 - All heroes are healed of 1 Body Point
4 - One random hero receives a +3 to movement during 3 turns
5 - The hero who activates the Skull gets a +1 to Attack for the remainder of the quest
6 - Zargon chooses a hero spell and removes it for the current quest

5 - Reinforcements : Remember how many black shields were rolled by the heroes. Jot it down on a short piece of paper. Every time 5 black shields are rolled, Zargon gains the ability to send 1 or 2 roaming monsters instantly where the heroes are located.

6 - Anti-Magic Room : This room act as a trap. Anybody who enters the room without verifying for traps will not be able to cast magic until the trap is disarmed. Assuming there are monsters in the room, you will have to defeat them all before disarming the trap. As the Game Master, you can create an item in the item shop that allows you to disable magical traps. Ideas for the name of the item : Fairy's Orb, Arcane Eye, Scroll of Dispel.

I like these ideas a lot!

I like it, you need another one to make six different options, that way it can be randomized with a D6

Thanks guys !!

Rath of Un, I added a second Skull of Fate Shrine, in order to add some kick to the randomness.
I actually think I'm gonna add a 3rd one.

My favourites from your list are Reinforcements and Anti-Magic room:
- Reinforcements is an idea I would like to implement, using black skull rolled by the heroes against themselves in a particular situation.
- Anti-Magic Room remember me a quest I wrote few months ago where the villain (Mekis, a very skilled Chaos Warrior) was protected by a Chaos Sorcerer in the same room. The sorcerer was denying any magic in the room, protecting his chaos lord from hero spells. So untill the heroes kill the Sorcerer they were not able to use any magic inside the room against the villain or to power up themselves.
Obviously the Sorcerer was also behind a line of Skeletons to avoid a hero to kill him easily.

For the others, I'd prefer to manage such kind of events with custom Treasures cards or Evil Wizard cards.
For example I have a Snake! card and a Scorpion! card in the EWP deck.
When Zargon/Morcar plays such cards against a hero, the victim must roll a red die: depending by the result they have different negative effects, similar to your Skull of Fate.
For each of them I added a second card, similar but with alternate effects. The only good effects are: the snake doesn't bite the hero or the scorpion fails to sting the hero.

Nice ! I'm glad you enjoy what I add here !

Check out ERUNE, a new type of HeroQuest game. In this game, the Dungeon Master has to complete objectives, he can gain EXP for himself and unlock new Bad Omens to throw at the heroes. He can also do an Evil Pact with the heroes on various occasions. One example is ; Resurrection, but at the cost of 2 skill cards until the quest is complete. Basically saving a life but putting a pretty bad handicap on the revived player.

Examples of ERUNE's DM Objectives ;
- Deal 1 point of damage to 2 heroes.
- Kill a hero.
- Deal damage with a trap.
- Prevent the heroes from reaching the mini side-quest inside the dungeon.
- Make a hero incapacitated, weakened or unconscious.

Check it out.

1: It's like the wandering monster, but more complicated. In AHQ
there's a chance to get ambushed by wandering monsters, every time when you explore new corridors. So I think it is easier to just roll a dice when a hero enters the first time a new corridor. On a black shield he gets ambushed by a wandering monster.

2: AHQ has therefore special character tokens, but without the need to count the turns. You get a predefined amount of tokens and can place the character monster together with the regular monsters of the room.

4A/B 2: Can you search in a room while there are enemies left?

5: Reminds me on the cheese wheel/clock of Mice and Mystics: every time the monster throw a special symbol on their dice, or the hero's player turn ends without monsters on the board, there is piece of cheese token added to the cheese wheel. If there are six cheese tokens on the wheel, reinforcements arrive and the heros have less time to finish the quest.

6: Is also an special room in AHQ.

Azure wrote:Rath of Un, I added a second Skull of Fate Shrine, in order to add some kick to the randomness.
I actually think I'm gonna add a 3rd one.

Just took a look at it. Cool ideas all around!

Yeah the Skull of Fate is something that you can activate even in the presence of Monsters.
Hence why the bonuses for combat and other bad effects to enemies/and your allies as well.