Masses of Quest Ideas

[cornixt]

I said recently that I would prefer 50 different interesting dungeons rather than having a thick rulebook that covers so many minor rules. Here are a few dozen. Some of these might be things I have read in other people's quests, so apologies if I have subconsciously stolen from you. Some don't serve any purpose beyond annoying the heroes or making them second guess themselves, others are just weird jokes.


Monsters
* Ghosts. They reduce mind points when they attack. Defense is very high against mundane attacks, zero against magic.
* Sticky slime creatures. Roll a D6 for each successful wound. If any 6 is rolled, player must spend an action to remove their weapon from the sticky mess before they can use it again.
* Mimic. Treasure chest attacks when it is attempted to open it.
* Elephant in the room. Place an elephant in one of the rooms. Refuse to discuss it. It attacks only if attacked first. 5A 6D 6BP, 2MP.
* Wolfin Sheepsclovin. Apparently harmless sheep follows the party around, turns into boss monster in a particular room.
* Scared. Monsters that run away. Are all goblins foolish enough to take on four heavily armed characters by themselves?

Doors
* Door that only opens from the other side. Someone must have earth spells to move through the wall to open it.
* All doors in the dungeon can only be opened by a magic user.
* Door that only opens when a hero stands on a particular square. Heavy object in another room can be moved to that square to enable all players to continue.
* Tricky doors. Going through a particular door always brings you back into the same room you left.
* Actual logic puzzle needs to be solved by the players to open a door.
* One way out. Once all players have passed through a door, it vanishes.
* Doors only appear in a room once all players are inside it.
* Door that starts open, but closes whenever anyone approaches it from either side. Created by a joking wizard.

Dungeons
* Classic videogame dungeon puzzle. Series of coloured keys that unlock specific coloured doors. Some keys are behind other coloured doors.
* Water course. One corridor is a flowing stream of death that requires a boat to traverse. Only two boats available.
* Friendly annoyance. The heroes get followed around or have to escort by group of unarmed friendly goblins (or similar), who get in the way a lot.
* Time weirdness. Time passes differently in some rooms compared to others. Players within these rooms either skip turns or take extra turns compared to those outside the rooms.
* Not going that way. Long line of mummies block off the heroes returning route to the stairwell, they must find an alternative route back and at a rate faster than the mummies can reach them. Make it enough mummies that the players don't try to attack and will want to run away from the slow monsters. Alternatively, use a gelatinous cube or a scary and unbeatable but slow monster.
* Loose rock above a corridor must be shot down (4 body points, no defense) to stem a constant flow of monsters.
* Caught in a war. The dungeon is full of orcs fighting skeletons. Each side will only attack the heroes if there are no monsters from the other side in line of sight.
* Room of doors. As many doors as you can fit. Only one of the doors continues the quest, all of the others are dead ends - some with treasure and some with monsters.
* Reverse Dungeon. Roll to attack and defend as normal, but the body points are removed from the attacker while the defender is unharmed. Monsters do not know this either, and will keep attacking until they are dead. Also, any treasure found is removed from the finder. (thanks to Red Dwarf)
* Conveyer. A 4-square section of corridor is blocked at both ends and has a lever on the wall marked north and south. When pushed from the centre it will move the models in the 4 squares in the direction marked. Each room in the dungeon can only be accessed from this conveyer, and only one at a time.
* Waters Rising. The water level is rising in the dungeon. Have a water level marker at the side of the board, showing how it becomes more difficult to get around at certain stages (such as -1 to movment, -2 to movement,... D6 movement only). At the end of each monster turn, the level moves up one.

Room (some can be expanded as whole dungeon rules)
* Room of magic. Spells may be used multiple times without being discarded.
* Room of madness. Players lose a mind point for every turn they are in this room.
* Room of sheep. They basically just get in the way. The heroes must push them out of the way each turn. They can be pushed in straight lines, several at a time. If a sheep is killed, each hero in the room loses a body point. The sheep cannot leave the room.
* Very slippery hard floor. Heroes must roll a combat die for each square they move (decide how many squares before rolling any dice). They lose a body point and one square of movement for every three skulls.
* Weird magic portal. Covers one full wall or splits the room in half. Tell the players that they see weird creatures on the other side. Record any attempts to attack, such as spells and ranged shots. The portal is inpenetrable. The quest leads the characters to end in the room behind the portal, where they receive all of the attacks they made earlier.
* Loop. Form a loop of corridors around a room. Each time they exit the room and loop around, the furniture in the room changes. Third time, a new door appears, allowing them to continue.
* Smaller on the outside. Door to one of the smallest rooms transports the players to the largest. The large room is treated in all cases as if it is the smallest, from spells like Pass Through Rock.
* The Walls Are Closing In! Make a room that gets smaller each turn, with a suitable baddie guarding the door out.
* Rooms of hard breathing. Players roll one fewer die for each action they make (movement, attacking, defense, spells)
* Chained up monster. Have to pass it to get to door on the other side of the room. Make it too strong to be defeated.
* Can't take it with you when you go. Room that you can't leave without having to leave behind a valuable artifact, such as a statue or vase, or even a dagger jammed into a handle.

Misc
* Very deep pit trap. Heroes must find and use rope to pull someone out.
* Fountain of health. Refills heroes to full health when they are next to it. Combine this with lots of tough monsters.
* Mystery Handle. There is a large handle in one of the rooms. Keep track of how many times they turn it, making sure they can see you doing so. Don't tell them it just churns butter until after the quest is over.

General Concepts for better quests
* Set the goal to be something that might not be achievable. If the party needs to rescue someone, allow for the chance that the person may be killed by a guard if the party is unable to kill the guards first.
* Series of quests that can be completed in any order the players choose, but some would be better to do before others.
* Have items found in rooms or on monsters, rather than coins. Make up weird and almost useless weapons, mystery potions, the usage and value of which may be unknown until after the quest.
* Series of quests where they pick up a different gem in random spots (finding the gem isn't the aim of the quest). After finding a few (and having sold some on) they discover that they are part of a really powerful magic item. Have to do more quests to get back the ones they sold.

Whew, I'm sure I will come up with a few more as soon as I post this.

[Goblin-King]

Top quality post cornixt!

You inspired me to a boss that regenerates back to full health each round.
The heroes MUST kill it during the course of a single round.

And a variant of your ideas: There are only ever two open doors on the board. Each time a new door is opened the earliest opened door vanishes.

also:

Door that only opens from the other side. Someone must have earth spells to move through the wall to open it.

It says "pull" idiot!
oh...

[cynthialee]

Good job.
Really fond of the doors that only open from one side, thus it will require a pass through rock to get to the door knob. Makes the spell caster have to stand and fight in a room solo if there is a monster in the room.

[Gold Bearer]

I've done some of these in my quests.

* Elephant in the room. Place an elephant in one of the rooms. Refuse to discuss it. It attacks only if attacked first. 5A 6D 6BP, 2MP.

This is very silly. Why would an elephant have the same MP as an orc/barbarian and more than a goblin?

[Goblin-King]

Don't discuss it!!!

[cynthialee]

I need an Elephant mini!!!

Just say there is an elephant in the room, put it on the map and ignore all reference to the beast after it is mentioned the first time.

Edit to add: or an 800 pound gorilla....

[cornixt]

Why would an elephant have the same MP as an orc/barbarian and more than a goblin?

I can't tell if you are complaining that the elephant is too smart or too dumb, based on the HeroQuest "made-up mind quality number" that I assigned to it.

[Gold Bearer]

I can't tell if you are complaining that the elephant is too smart or too dumb, based on the HeroQuest "made-up mind quality number" that I assigned to it.

Too smart. It was a joke anyway.

* Elephant in the room. Place an elephant in one of the rooms. Refuse to discuss it. It attacks only if attacked first. 5A 6D 6BP, 2MP.

This is very silly... Why would an elephant have the same MP as an orc/barbarian and more than a goblin.

[knightkrawler]

* Elephant in the room. Place an elephant in one of the rooms. Refuse to discuss it. It attacks only if attacked first. 5A 6D 6BP, 2MP.

This is very silly... Why would an elephant have the same MP as an orc/barbarian and more than a goblin.

Shhh! It's not to be discussed!

[cynthialee]

There is nothing to talk about. There is no elephant. Go about your quest and don't worry about it.