by Parzival » May 10th, 2026, 9:25 pm
D&D is my favorite game. But it’s a different animal than HeroQuest. HeroQuest is ultimately a straight forward board game; it is not a roleplaying game. That gives it a simplicity of action and a “briefness” in time you can’t really get with an RPG. It’s also tightly focused and cut and dried— the adventure will happen in two hours or less, and the area of exploration will never exceed about 12 rooms, give or take. There’s only an outside world in the fluff, not in the game— it’s all about the quest of the night, nothing else. It’s also inherently competitive between the players and Zargon— both are out to “win,” which isn’t the case in D&D (and shouldn’t be in any rpg). And that’s what I like HeroQuest for being— straight up, simple, fast, and a potential smack down on purpose every time to put it down. Who cares if “your” hero dies? You didn’t roll it up, you didn’t plan anything, you didn’t imagine some absurdly melodramatic backstory for it— you took one of the cards and the matching miniature, and put it on the Entry Stair. He dies? Draw another card next time.
So not better than D&D, just different, for a different feel. You can make it more, if you wish. But there isn’t any need too, either.