News: Gamezone plans a Heroquest reboot

[knightkrawler]

All I'm saying is that none of us is in the payroll of this project and we shouldn't be working FOR it. Or against it for that matter.
If it had been a single official update in this forum by some representative of gamezone, I'd be ok with it. They have made nothing to advertise and present those efforts to us, and we shouldn't do it for them.
They should be spamming this forum day in day out. THEY, not us.

I fully agree (for some time, now). I have made attempts to anti-advertise it, but NO ONE EVER READS THROUGH MY POSTS and then there's 12 one-liners after each of my posts informing us how they look forward to see what's inside making even less people reading what I posted. That might be exaggerated, but I feel this way.
Don't you get it? You'll only see what's inside until well after you pledged money in a Kickstarter if they continue at this rate.

And I concur with tasoe on this point: WHERE'S A freakin' REACTION FROM THE (NOT-SO-MUCH)-CREATORS to all the criticism made here? WHERE?

Also, chaoticprime has it right. We're HQ fans, and those of us that don't like this or that rule, change it. I can take care of this hobby of mine myself, thank you very much.
I don't need badly translated material. I will want to do exactly what I've done over the past two years all over again, with new miniatures. It's still viscosity of whatever in the list, by the way, so where's that information on that blog?
There's concept art that gives me a more than a vague feeling I've seen it somewhere else. Nothing more. It is concept art for characters that have been produced as miniatures by different companies. Look at the barbarian from Avatars of War and tell me where the difference is, exactly. In style, in mood, in concept.

tasoe, where I do have doubts about your statement is GameZone wanting to make money from the get-go.
I think, Spanish fans (and boy, those are active on heroquest.es) pushed the button and found a manufacturer in GameZone. Who now, of course, wants to make a shitload, I agree.
I still agree on that uncertainty with the name.

[Tott]

so far they've only released a few teasers, the thing about teasers is they dont often contain a lot of details. and why should they come here and tell us the limited amount of information theyve released - especially when its already here as a link?
is this website the one and only true home of HQ? you want them to advertise here before the marketing campaign has started?
english is obviously not there first language, everything theyve released so far was probably done via goodle translate. has any fluent spanish speakers commented on the original text? it could be bloody brilliant poetry for all we know.
also: yes the art does look fairly generic: how would you like your dwarf to look? 8 ft tall wielding whips and wings? the barbarian looks too much like a barbarian? chill out guys. ive been reading this forum for years and theres been lots of talk about a rerelease, now theres something on the horizon and immediately its pretty much spat upon! who here knows for 100% that gamezone does not have legal permission to distribute the HQ brand? who here knows for 100% certain what the contents will be?
again: THIS GAME COULD BE ABSOLUTE GARBAGE. but until we see more - chill out.

[Sjeng]

I've read everything, and I am on Tasoe's and KK's side as well. Also saves me a lot of typing

[knightkrawler]

and immediately its pretty much spat upon!

That is wrong. Not immediately. Over time because of the lack of feedback.

Who here knows for 100% that gamezone does not have legal permission to distribute the HQ brand?

Nobody. Because again - no feedback. I posed the question, I think, three times. No answer. Which makes me think they haven't sorted it out.
Which makes me SO not wanting to pledge anything as it stands.
I'm just incredibly peeved at the lack of feedback (or customer service if you will).

[chaoticprime]

THe information they've already given out is damning enough. They've basically been describing how the game isn't like HeroQuest, but is named so anyway. Additionally, as KK pointed out, they're farming out miniatures from their other product ranges to fill slots. I think their heart is in the right place, but Gamezone isn't doing any of us a favor by showing up with these plans for some game that they insist is a new HeroQuest. Plainly put, if everyone here were to make up a list of three things that we most like about HeroQuest, and those three that they least prefer, we'd all find that most of the things we liked about it are being changed and those things we hate or are ambivalent about will likely not change, or they may become even worse.

My Favorite Things About Heroquest (That Gamezone Is Most Likely to Change)
> The brevity of the rulebook--its quick to read, understand, and reference.
> Instance-based mechanics--no universal mechanic or degrees of abstraction. In almost every instance rules pertaining to an object are part of that object's description. Also, while I love icons, you just cannot do better than how HeroQuest works--there are no icons to reference and very few mechanical terms to remember. This lack of quantification makes the game not only strong respectively, but also as entertaining literature. The Spirit Blade card describes everything you need to know--the MO of most similar games is to put something like "HOLY STRIKE" on the card as a reference to separate literature.
> The miniatures. The idle poses convey a great deal of potential energy--ironically, by standing ready (as they all seem to) conveys more action than more dynamic poses. I shouldn't even have to mention the designs are ideal for positioning to a grid. These poses also peak the imagination--they leave it to the players to imagine how the fights look. Lastly, I love their big-headedness. They're deliciously camp. Adding seriousness to them makes them like every other fantasy miniature out there. I am surely not so inundated with the GW style as my peers in the old world, but at least they're uniformly-sized.

Many Things I Dislike About HeroQuest (That Gamezone Won't Likely Consider or Change)
> I detest the scale and proportional disparity between the Elf and Barbarian Quest and the rest of the game.
> I do not much care for the bulk of Quests--creative and fun ones are few and far between. Most of the American Quests were just Dungeon Hacks designed with attrition in mind. Carl Sargent's Eyes of Chaos should be the standard.
> I dislike how vague the rules are on Heroes retrying a Quest. Dragonstrike's rules for variable event locations should have first been in HeroQuest. Also, no equipment as random treasure.
> I hate the character sheets. Its a board game--no writing.
> I hate how vaguely the artifacts are presented. I would like some kind of entitlement issuance of random artifacts relative to the difficulty of the quest.
> No assessments of Quest Difficulty. Two Elves are as strong as the regular party. "Balance" should not trump the purpose and play-style intended for each Hero--playing each Hero the exact right way is how the game is won.
> Mind Points are probably the most half-assed rules nugget ever strapped to a game and stuffed into a box to be sold.

[TMU]

I agree with all of you. I do think that they haven't told us enough information, but from what I've seen on their website, it looks like a game that might be boughtable (It's a word, I promise!) when all is set and done. That's how I feel. Ugh! TMU has spoken.

[knightkrawler]

Like:

1. The Art. It is so important for the nostalgia factor it's not even funny. I'm also talking about B&W card fronts and the Gary Chalk quest book art taken from older Warhammer literature. I want this art to stay. I can add something here and there, but I don't need/want a new style. Look at Descent 2nd ed cards: beautiful. Do I want another game that looks so "modern" in its art? Nosir. I want nostalgia, I want postmodernism, I want 1989. And I want the little but decisive effort the creators put into there (e.g. the brown frames, the rounded edges, the handy size of the cards) to make HQ look so much more beautiful and dareIsay noble in comparison with their successors and predecessors (DragonQuest's chunky cardboard cards; DragonStrike's pastel schoolgirl color frames and photographed actors; D&D board game's early Photoshop art and flashy artefacts).
Mind you, all of these games represent the genre "Fantasy" in a very narrow sense, all with intentions and backdrops very similar to each other. Which game's art fit these premises?
GameZone will put out another game with an art style too flashy to be - and that's the long and short of it - timeless.

2. The Miniatures. While I applaud striving for and having unique miniatures with each a pose and weapon style of its own, this whole concept needs to keep conveying the easy references. If an icon shows the face of an Orc, the faces of all Orcs must be the same and very different from those of all other monster types. That is of course not a problem, but it can become one if the sculptor gets carried away and manages to make one face look the most similar to the icon and others less so.
Simplicity of the game must be represented by the simplicity of the miniatures.
A different, minor, point is the cost factor. More variations = more expensive.

3. The Rules. While this could also fall under Don't Like in my particular case, the shortness of the rules and their occasional contradictions, their ambiguities, and the questions and challenges of players are the foundation of my hobby. And that's that. There's so many projects a manufacturer could/should take on to accomodate to my/our needs/wants in terms of HeroQuest or related games or related and encasing hobbies... Re-doing the rules is not one of those. The resources to do this every one of us has. What we don't have is the time or money or material or right to cast miniatures. There's the real project, goddammit.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Don't Like:

1. The Materials. As cp pointed out, there should be no writing. I want and use heart markers for Body points. GameZone won't probably do this and if they do I'll assume this is the only post they read through.

2. The Terminology. I can do better, which will in the final product of HQbyKK be a matter of personal taste. I don't want references to seperate literature on my cards either, but I'm trying to make a glossary that will be read by every player in such a way that ambiguities and contradicitons will be gone. Same goes for icons if there's a need for them on the cards. Point being: no GameZone input needed; no money paid for that.

[Sinned]

so far they've only released a few teasers, the thing about teasers is they dont often contain a lot of details. and why should they come here and tell us the limited amount of information theyve released - especially when its already here as a link?
is this website the one and only true home of HQ? you want them to advertise here before the marketing campaign has started?
english is obviously not there first language, everything theyve released so far was probably done via goodle translate. has any fluent spanish speakers commented on the original text? it could be bloody brilliant poetry for all we know.
also: yes the art does look fairly generic: how would you like your dwarf to look? 8 ft tall wielding whips and wings? the barbarian looks too much like a barbarian? chill out guys. ive been reading this forum for years and theres been lots of talk about a rerelease, now theres something on the horizon and immediately its pretty much spat upon! who here knows for 100% that gamezone does not have legal permission to distribute the HQ brand? who here knows for 100% certain what the contents will be?
again: THIS GAME [b]COULD BE ABSOLUTE GARBAGE. but until we see more - chill out.[/b]

I agree. Especially with the statements I highlighted.

[chaoticprime]

I agree with all of you. I do think that they haven't told us enough information, but from what I've seen on their website, it looks like a game that might be boughtable (It's a word, I promise!) when all is set and done. That's how I feel. Ugh! TMU has spoken.

Might have been boughtable.

[TMU]

I agree with all of you. I do think that they haven't told us enough information, but from what I've seen on their website, it looks like a game that might be boughtable (It's a word, I promise!) when all is set and done. That's how I feel. Ugh! TMU has spoken.

Might have been boughtable.

No, my are how I wrote In the end of the day, it debends on where the price will end up.