[Quest Pack][5 Quests] - Quest for the Shattered Amulet -WIP

[The Admiral]

Wow they are fast!

Indeed, but that was the speed officially given them in a White Dwarf article.

[j_dean80]

Thanks Anderas for the calculations.

[Drew]

Its a great job! Must have been quite hard to convert it like this. However for a not so experienced player like me all these new tiles and new fancy traps are kinda confusing. I think it would be useful to add a page explaining those, maybe the monster stats too, etc. like when something new is introduced to a quest pack or expansion.

[j_dean80]

Its a great job! Must have been quite hard to convert it like this. However for a not so experienced player like me all these new tiles and new fancy traps are kinda confusing. I think it would be useful to add a page explaining those, maybe the monster stats too, etc. like when something new is introduced to a quest pack or expansion.

That’s the plan. Just haven’t had the time to finish.

[Drew]

Its a great job! Must have been quite hard to convert it like this. However for a not so experienced player like me all these new tiles and new fancy traps are kinda confusing. I think it would be useful to add a page explaining those, maybe the monster stats too, etc. like when something new is introduced to a quest pack or expansion.

That’s the plan. Just haven’t had the time to finish.

Oh ok perfect then Thanks a lot for doing this. Are you planning on making the solo quest before the Amulet too?

[Davane]

I owned AHQ, and a big part of the game was the random dungeon generation system. The idea was that the average dungeon would have three levels, with the third being the special level drawn out. The Prison of Ice was an exception, as this was a surprise dungeon taking place immediately after the fourth piece of the Shattered Amulet was found.

AHQ included rules for a random playthrough using the HQ board, and to get the full authentic version of the Shattered Amulet, you might want to consider using these to travel through TWO dungeons before doing these quests. It's also advised that you use the rules for mercenaries too.

The included solo quest was never mapped out, instead you had to complete a random three level dungeon without leaving, as you could normally.

AHQ quests were generally given as an objective, and you were expected to explore random dungeons, with the GM deciding if there was to be a mapped area or not. The GM could design the map, or simply pregenerate it, if they wished.

It's worth noting that WHQ uses cards to generate random dungeons, and the majority of those quests are also simply objectives. As such, you can play those quests in HQ using random generation fairly easily, especially if you are willing to abandon using the HeroQuest board. Both AHQ and WHQ are excellent random dungeon generation systems, and a perfect to use with HQ solely for this purpose.

[j_dean80]

I owned AHQ, and a big part of the game was the random dungeon generation system. The idea was that the average dungeon would have three levels, with the third being the special level drawn out. The Prison of Ice was an exception, as this was a surprise dungeon taking place immediately after the fourth piece of the Shattered Amulet was found.

AHQ included rules for a random playthrough using the HQ board, and to get the full authentic version of the Shattered Amulet, you might want to consider using these to travel through TWO dungeons before doing these quests. It's also advised that you use the rules for mercenaries too.

The included solo quest was never mapped out, instead you had to complete a random three level dungeon without leaving, as you could normally.

AHQ quests were generally given as an objective, and you were expected to explore random dungeons, with the GM deciding if there was to be a mapped area or not. The GM could design the map, or simply pregenerate it, if they wished.

It's worth noting that WHQ uses cards to generate random dungeons, and the majority of those quests are also simply objectives. As such, you can play those quests in HQ using random generation fairly easily, especially if you are willing to abandon using the HeroQuest board. Both AHQ and WHQ are excellent random dungeon generation systems, and a perfect to use with HQ solely for this purpose.

I studied AHQ extensively making this. I was converting it to HQ style though, so the random dungeon doesn’t fit. HQ is great because of the simplicity.

[The Admiral]

I studied AHQ extensively making this. I was converting it to HQ style though, so the random dungeon doesn’t fit. HQ is great because of the simplicity.

I played AHQ quite a lot when it first came out and really loved it, but over time I found the random generation system got boring. Apart from those first few months I have never played it again. Whereas HQ has been an almost constant for 30 years! So I totally agree with your approach.

[j_dean80]

I studied AHQ extensively making this. I was converting it to HQ style though, so the random dungeon doesn’t fit. HQ is great because of the simplicity.

I played AHQ quite a lot when it first came out and really loved it, but over time I found the random generation system got boring. Apart from those first few months I have never played it again. Whereas HQ has been an almost constant for 30 years! So I totally agree with your approach.

Have you had a chance to play this one yet?

[Davane]

To be fair, all games get boring when you overplay them without adding things in to keep it fresh. The problem with random systems like AHQ and WHQ is that they all get a bit samey if you aren't adding things in to spice it up. By definition, HQ needs to have GM input to even get off the ground, and the random generation rules from AHQ for HQ would also have this problem, if that's all you ever used.

The random systems of AHQ and WHQ work great as a basis for dungeons, but that is why these levels are a little short. The third level dungeons all focused on a key schtick. It's good to see those converted across exceedingly well. It can be hard to convert them to the HQ board, which is believe is the key purpose of these quests.

As an aside, I once converted the HQ quests to WHQ, and it's always key when converting to take the essence of the game you are converting to into account.

The USP of HQ, to me, is the combat system. That can be taken out and used with pretty much any other game. So, it's perfectly feasible to use the HQ combat system to play AHQ or WHQ, for example, using the relevant random dungeon generation system to create the dungeon.

It's worth noting that AHQ, but WHQ especially, included details on how to get the most out of these games - design your own stuff. You can use the systems within as a basis, and quite often, the best way to start is to have a GM who pregenerates a dungeon using the systems provided. Eventually, you'd get to the point where you are scratch-building dungeons, just as you would with HQ.

That's why it's worth noting that in AHQ, the Quest for the Shattered Amulet included two random dungeon levels with each of the first four scripted levels, essentially making it a thirteen stage quest in total. Players might want to create some random levels to "flesh out" this adventure. The only real key point with these random dungeons was that the GM could include Character monsters in the second, third, and fourth dungeons, and any that survived earlier dungeons could be used as well.

It's a bit like saying converting WHQ to HQ would create a quest book with 36 quests (6 quests for each of 6 objective rooms), on top of the three scripted deeps presented in the RPB. Most of these quests are just adventure circumstances, as well as what happens when you reach the objective room. More would have to be added in most cases to convert these to HQ without being boring or samey.

Kudos on what you have done so far - but without the random dungeons, it doesn't quite get the epic sense of what the quest was supposed to be like, and why the Prison of Ice was such a surprise - especially since the defenders of the Prison of Ice were based on how long it took you to complete the previous four adventures, in terms of expeditions.