Ye Olde Inn

by **The Admiral** » June 2nd, 2017, 10:40 am

Decipher wrote:The issue with making any type of unofficial quest, even a single one, is it will somehow overpower the Heroes in one way or another, no matter at what time you play the quest(s). So if you play a custom 4 quest pack between the game system and Kellar's Keep for example, the Heroes will be more powerful going into Kellar's Keep. As far as starting new characters, I don't see an issue with playing something like a 4 quest solo pack with a new character. The SOUL purpose of this whole project is to scratch the HQ itch when a group of players can't get together to play a full game. In a sense, this would be one of those things where you would play on a weekend. You will get the feel of a complete HQ experience tailored just for a single player. Yes, I know, a single player could play all four Heroes, but in my opinion, that is not how HQ is supposed to be played. However, playing solo isn't the way HQ is supposed to be played too. Should this Solo Quest Pack tie into the main Milton Bradley HQ product line? I'd say that's personal preference. I don't think myself or anyone for that matter would be able to insert a generic custom quest pack between official quests/quest packs that could keep the game balanced as it was originally designed while having something that's both fun and challenging at the same time. Removing gold, equipment, armor, weapons a Hero has earned while playing the Solo Quest Pack so he can play the official quest's is not a fair or a cool thing to do to a player.

Like I said, in my opinion, the Solo Quest Pack should be treated just as that, a solo game all on its own. Something that can be played as a last resort if only two people are available to play. I think an average game master could easily throw in some monsters and traps on the fly if he wanted to use the Solo Quest Pack to host a full hero group.

It's your questpack, and your effort Decipher. You should make it exactly as you would like it to be

.

Well, I have some crappy news. So, I got up last week to work on some HQ stuff on my laptop, pushed the power button and nothing happened. Changed the battery pack, nothing. Changed the power cord, still nothing. Power cycled the laptop via power button, nope. All my HQ files, pics & books are on that laptop! Took it over to my nerdy computer friends house, he took it apart to work on it all week but couldn't get it to turn on either. He said that he believes it either got hit was a power surge or it got too hot and simply shorted out. We are thinking about trying to remove the hard drive to install on a spare laptop of the same model I have in the closet. I definitely dont feel like downloading all 15 gigs of HQ stuff and starting over, but there is a chance I will have to. Until I can recover the hard drive file, my HQing is limited.

by **torilen** » June 29th, 2017, 9:05 pm

Sorry to hear about the loss of a hard drive. Not to poke in the eye - but that is one reason why I keep all of my gaming
materials on the computer, a flash driver, and a portable hard drive. I learned the lesson the hard way, too.

To go back a few posts...what you were saying about using ANY unofficial quest with the actual published quests. I have
to agree with you. It would be hard for anyone to use any outside quests alongside any of the actual MB published quests.
Perhaps one or two small quests that don't offer much in the way of gold or equipment, but anything more than that
would throw off the balance that game writers planned.

I know I personally have written side quests to be used alongside the published works, but after reading what you wrote
and thinking about things, I will probably go forward writing in two ways:

1 - creating quests and quest packs for start heroes.

2 - creating quests and quest packs for heroes that have gone through ALL of the published quests...or at least all the
way through the main quest pack, Kellar's Keep, and RotWL. Against the Ogre Horde and the Wizards of Morcar could
probably be included if the gaming group chooses...and I just don't know where in the whole timeline the Frozen Horror
and the Mage of the Mirror would fall, so it would be hard to consider those for planning purposes.

by **Decipher** » June 29th, 2017, 9:24 pm

I have almost everything back up on google drive, but sheesh, it really is a lot to redownload. And I agree with you about the side quests not offering a lot for the most part. Now, for me personally, I normally wouldnt play the European quest packs that were not available here in the States, mainly because not many of us have the figures and I sure as heck am not paying $40 for a single Ogre figure. Not happening. So, if I were to make more quests, I too would design them for the Heroes to play who have completed all of the MB official quest packs. One thing though, by the time the Heroes do complete every quest, they are so powerful it kind of makes it difficult to offer the players a challenge without loading the quest map with hoards of monsters and traps. I mean some of the Ogre Hoard maps are ridiculous in my opinion.

by **torilen** » June 29th, 2017, 10:05 pm

Very true about having to load down the maps....but that's where homebrew comes in. I can't remember if you're
one of those who doesn't like to tinker with the game much. I know there are quite a few. But making more powerful
monsters doesn't take away from the game too much.

You can also open the game up to more settings. After a point, the board gets constrictive. Heroic Maps makes some
absolutely wonderful game maps and tiles that can be printed at home or through a local printing office, and they're
not very expensive. Inked Adventures also makes some great tiles that are quite cheap in price. Both can be found
on DriveThruRPG.

by **j_dean80** » June 29th, 2017, 10:39 pm

I've adapted the EU equipment cards into my NA game. Helps keep the Heroes from getting too much equip i.e. too powerful. I kept the NA cost and stats but use the cards to restrict the number of each available.

by **Decipher** » June 30th, 2017, 3:14 am

torilen wrote:Very true about having to load down the maps....but that's where homebrew comes in. I can't remember if you're
one of those who doesn't like to tinker with the game much. I know there are quite a few. But making more powerful
monsters doesn't take away from the game too much.

You can also open the game up to more settings. After a point, the board gets constrictive. Heroic Maps makes some
absolutely wonderful game maps and tiles that can be printed at home or through a local printing office, and they're
not very expensive. Inked Adventures also makes some great tiles that are quite cheap in price. Both can be found
on DriveThruRPG.

Well, I made some super sweet custom monster cards using the Dragon Strike figures, but decided not to post the cards or custom quest book here because I am assuming the casual HQ player probably doesnt have the Dragon Strike figures, but yes, other than that, I do not like messing with the HQ game at all. I did manage to do base mods to 4 Ogres from Dark World to try the Against the Ogre Hoard quest pack, but really havent messed with anything. The Dragon Strike minis are a perfect fit with HQ for sure and I've played with them a few times. Now, I do have a game called Fantasy Warriors ( https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/648 ... y-warriors) from the same time as HQ, which has some pretty cool Orcs & Dwarf minis. They are pretty close to the style of HQ and the bases are the same size. Its a hard game to find apparently, I think I paid $20 for it, unpunched and complete. There are literally a hundred miniatures, maybe more.

j_dean80 wrote:I've adapted the EU equipment cards into my NA game. Helps keep the Heroes from getting too much equip i.e. too powerful. I kept the NA cost and stats but use the cards to restrict the number of each available.

Same here. I remade equipment cards and had them printed up. I like the whole idea of equipment cards.

by **Daedalus** » August 28th, 2017, 5:18 pm

Too bad about the computer crash. I had a similar problem, so it's phone for me. Still, solo Quests are cool and I hope you can get back to this one day. The particular challenges of designing for the Wizard inspires me to post some ideas, use 'em or not.

The Wizard is most vulnerable in the first Quest. The Parchment Text states scouts were sent out by the Emperor. One could have been captured and is now a prisoner in the third or fourth room. A rescue would provide a temporary ally to make spells like Tempest or Veil of Mist more useful. Scouts can disarm traps, so why not add one! The Barbarian figure could proxy this Scout, statted as a mercenary.

An extra spell set for the pack is fun, but losing them afterwards to integrate back to other Quests isn't. Here's an artifact alternative that is restricted in a different way suggested by the Parchment Text:

Spell Book of Blythe

This ancient tome allows the Wizard
to cast Chaos magic which can affect monsters. Randomly select three Chaos Spells to cast before a Quest, ignoring any card that doesn't directly affect a Hero. Casting a Chaos spell reduces your Mind Points by 1, which may not be recovered between Quests while you possess this artifact. If reduced to zero Mind Points, you are permanently lost to Chaos.

A 300 gold coin Potion of Restoration, the only purchasable healing, now can extend the usefulness of the book a bit. However, the high cost of maintaining the book and loss of magical defense all but insure it will soon be discarded, likely after two or three Quests. Meanwhile, Chaos is fun!

More help can be found in the Treasure Cards from WoM. With a Potion of Magical Aptitude, a Wizard can cast an extra spell in a turn. A Potion of Magic Resistance could save the Wizard from the deadly Lightning Bolt of Karug's wand. There's also the Magic Resistance Potion against fire and the Magical Trap cards.

I'd say since the Wizard is just one of four Heroes, as a rough starting point monsters should be reduced to about 25% of other Quests. To keep interest, throw in extra rooms that play to the Wizard's Mind Points: an alter continually emanates a Sleep spell effect, a Cloud of Chaos fills a room to be passed, a ghost rises from a Tomb and must be defended with the Wizard's Mind score, etc. Other rooms that require spells to access or bypass should also be included for the thinking Hero. Finally, a puzzle room or two would fit right in, but not so hard that it stalls the action.