Saving HeroQuest - RandoQuest?

[Davane]

Nearly there - Missile Weapons next...

Missile Weapons
Some weapons may be thrown, whilst the crossbow may be fired. When firing the crossbow or throwing a weapon the procedure for rolling combat dice in attack and defence remains the same.

Your opponent must be visible, as with casting a spell. There is no maximum range for firing the crossbow or throwing a weapon. However, you may not use the crossbow or throw a weapon if you are adjacent to your opponent.

It's worth noting that the US version of the HQ rules doesn't have any word on missile weapons, as they are covered in the armoury, and basically work exactly like casting a spell. Thus, the section for Missile Weapons (Ranged Combat) is simply:

Missile Weapons
Some weapons may be thrown, whilst the crossbow may be fired. When firing the crossbow or throwing a weapon the procedure for rolling combat dice in attack and defence remains the same.

Your opponent must be visible, as with casting a spell. There is no maximum range for firing the crossbow or throwing a weapon. However, you may not use the crossbow or throw a weapon if you are adjacent to your opponent.

In HQ, Missile Weapons refer to the spellcasting rules, since that's where the line of sight rules are, where as in most games, the spellcasting rules for line of sight instead refer to the ranged combat rules. This is certainly the case with AHQ and WHQ, so we will most likely move the missile file and line of sight rules to combat, and have the spellcasting rules refer to these line of sight rules instead.

[Davane]

Finally, the Home Stretch - sort of... the last section of the UK Rules - becoming a champion.

Becoming a Champion
If you use the same character from Quest to Quest, you may reach the coveted status of Champion. Each time your character completes a Quest, write the name of the Quest in the box marked Tasks Completed on your character sheet. Once you have completed three Quests, the land's grateful Emperor will make you a Champion.

You will receive 500 extra gold coins which you may spend on better equipment.

Basically, becoming a Champion only means something in the first edition of the UK rules, providing a tangible reward for playing with the same Hero. In a game where there are so few rewards for actually playing besides playing, and so little reason to keep the same character, this is a useful bit of extra carrot, although by the time you become a Champion, 500 gold coins is often enough to get you the Plate Mail, the best armour in the game...

For completeness, we will be including it as a rule in the HQ CERB, as follows:

Becoming a Champion
If you use the same character from Quest to Quest, you may reach the coveted status of Champion. Each time your character completes a Quest, write the name of the Quest in the box marked Tasks Completed on your character sheet.

Once you have completed three Quests, the land's grateful Emperor will make you a Champion. You will receive 500 extra gold coins which you may spend on better equipment.

It's worth noting that in my current campaign, I actually placed Becoming a Champion after completing Legacy of the Orc Warlord. This meant completing FIVE Quests from the Game System, not including The Maze or The Trial...

Anyhow, now that I have covered all the text in the various English Editions of HeroQuest, I just need a little while to put all the text pieces together into a readable (and printable) document. With so much of the rules referring to other documents, such as cards or quest books, I MAY need to look at going through them to include them in the rules as well. It's likely that cards will end up being lists and/or tables until "finalised."

I also look forward to seeing how the errata from NuHQ will affect the HQ CERB...

[Kurgan]

Yeah you can't fire a crossbow at an adjacent enemy, but you can cast a spell on an adjacent target (or ranged target).

You can throw a dagger at an adjacent enemy, but there's no reason to since a regular strike does the same amount of damage without losing it. I think Magical Throwing Daggers can be tossed at adjacent enemies though, since it's a guaranteed unblockable hit, that's still useful.

[Davane]

For anyone who is interested, I have uploaded the raw text from the HQ Combined English Edition Rule Book into a Rich Text Document, and added it here:

HQ Combined English Edition Rule Book v0.1.rtf

Please note, this is NOT the finalised version of this document - it's merely a v0.1 compiling of all the rules from the UK and US game systems into a single document. There's hardly any formatting or layout work done here, and each of the raw text files I was collating (by simply copying and pasting the HQ CERB quotes in this thread) has been given it's own page (using page breaks).

I have included this file in case anyone wants to have all the raw text of the HQ CERB in one place, and in case anyone wanted to comment on layout and formatting tips for the end product. It has certainly been interesting taking two 16-page rules books, and a single 24-page rules book, and condensing them down. It may not LOOK like that in this document, however, since by giving each text file it's own page (and using default formatting, from OpenOffice), complete with a placeholder title page (but no other cover details, inside or out, front or back), this has ended up as a 30 page document.

I think, from my experiences with compiling the text of the HQ CERB, I will be required to take a look at the other components in the game system in due course, and see what information, if any, need to be taken from them. I feel that a master list of cards is going to be necessary, and their details, and additional information from various quest packs and such may also be required.

But for now, the backbone of the HQ CERB has been done, and we are still no closer to actually covering RandoQuest yet! Oh well...

[Davane]

I have finished a lot of my processing, to produce this PDF file:

HQ Combined English Edition Rule Book v0.2.1.pdf

It's still got very basic formatting, but it's laid out pretty much as I would see it go as a rule book (for now).

I have done minor rewrites, mostly just capitalization and word replacement for improved consistency of tone. I haven't done any deep level rewriting as of yet, so it still largely reads as you would find in the official rulebooks.

For those interested in the layout, here's how I've decided to structure it:

Code: Select all

TITLE
   
   CHAPTER: Character Boards and Character Sheets
         Sub-Section: Character Type
         Sub-Section: Body Points
         Sub-Section: Mind Points
         Sub-Section: Movement Dice
         Sub-Section: Attack Dice
         Sub-Section: Defend Dice
      SECTION: Other Details

   CHAPTER: Quests
      SECTION: The Quest Book
         Sub-Section: Parchment Text
         Sub-Section: Quest Map
         Sub-Section: Quest Notes
      SECTION: Setting Up A Quest
      SECTION: Order Of Play
      SECTION: Running a Quest
      SECTION: Completing a Quest
         Sub-Section: Ending The Quest
         Sub-Section: Unfinished Quests

   CHAPTER: Movement
      SECTION: Moving Around the Board
      SECTION: Looking and Line of Sight
      SECTION: Blocked Square Tiles
      SECTION: Searching
      SECTION: Opening Doors
         Sub-Section: Secret Doors
      SECTION: What Happens If You Run Out Of Monster Figures?

   CHAPTER: Combat
      SECTION: Equipment Cards
         Sub-Section: Weapons
         Sub-Section: Armour
      SECTION: Attacking
         Sub-Section: Diagonal Attacks
         Sub-Section: Missile Weapons
      SECTION: Defending

   CHAPTER: Spells
      SECTION: Choosing Spells
      SECTION: Casting Spells

   CHAPTER: Dead Heroes
      SECTION: What Happens To A Dead Hero's Possessions?
      SECTION: How a Hero Escapes Death

   CHAPTER: Traps
      SECTION: Disarming Traps
         Sub-Section: Disarming Traps With The Dwarf
      SECTION: Pit Traps
         Sub-Section: Jumping a Pit
      SECTION: Falling Block Traps
      SECTION: Spear Traps
      SECTION: Treasure Chest and Furniture Traps

   CHAPTER: Treasure
      SECTION: Treasure Cards
         Sub-Section: Gold Coins and Jewels
         Sub-Section: Potions
         Sub-Section: Hazards
         Sub-Section: Wandering Monsters
      SECTION: Artefacts and Quest Treasures
         Sub-Section: Lost Artefacts

   CHAPTER: Between Quests
      SECTION: Buying Equipment
      SECTION: Becoming a Champion

Any feedback on this would be appreciated. 17 pages is still too long in my opinion, and there's a LOT of white space in there.

[Kurgan]

Yeah, if you format it with double columns like the original, maybe it will fit on fewer pages.

[Davane]

Yeah, if you format it with double columns like the original, maybe it will fit on fewer pages.

I was thinking that, but I figured whilst I was still planning on adding text, it might be easier to leave it in single columns right now.

Not only do I still have all the rules from the Quest Packs to add, I've also established a list of additional content from the Game System that really needs to be included too.

So far, in no particular order, I have the Character Boards, Equipment Cards/Armoury, Spell Cards (including Chaos Spells), Monster Cards, Treasure Cards, and Artifacts/Quest Treasure Cards to add.

Like I said, this is NOT the final format for the document, just a processed text version people can use for now...

[cornixt]

It's looking good, very thorough. I agree with the double column method, so many short sentences means a lot of dead space is added at the end of a line. Maybe a numbering system for easier reference when you have rewritten it.

[Kurgan]

Ah, like paragraph numbers. Very official-document-like.

I just double checked the original card and Magical Throwing Daggers can be thrown at adjacent enemies. Can't shoot crossbow at adjacent enemies.

And according to Armory board, you can throw a normal dagger at an adjacent enemy (no point) but also a diagonal adjacent enemy (giving it one advantage over a crossbow). NA rules.

[Davane]

Technically, adjacent includes diagonals, so it's any of the 8 squares around the model. If you just want "side-adjacent" and not "diagonal-adjacent" then the term you are wanting is orthogonal. I will have to remember this for a final rewrite, for clarification.

Paragraph numbers are an idea that might be useful, especially with the UK/US house rules.

Interestingly, daggers are both melee and ranged weapons, so they would attack orthogonally, but I wasn't aware that they could be used diagonally in melee (though I included a section of diagonal attacks). Might need to check the specific wordings, but I intend to inlcude both the UK and US rules for cards, doing a side by side comparison like with the rulebook.

Looks like I still have more work to do, but it's my 40th birthday today, so I am being lazy for a few days to celebrate! It means I have officially been gaming for 30 years today!