Illumination Rule

[The Road Warrior]

Hi, I have recently returned to Heroquest after a 20 year gap and have decided to try my hand at creating my own quest.

The quest will be a search for treasure in the tomb of a long dead king (I know, cliché). The tomb is not illuminated, but the heroes will be accompanied by a priest who carries a lantern. I am developing an 'illumination' rule for this quest and would welcome any opinions and feedback on this. Has any rule like this been including in a quest before?

Here is the text I have written for Morcar in the quest notes.

NOTES
The heroes are accompanied on this quest by Bretwald, a local priest. He is armed only with a staff and carries a lantern. One hero should be chosen to control Bretwald and they will move him as part of their character’s turn.
BRETWALD
MOVEMENT 8
ATTACK 1
DEFEND 2
BODY 3
MIND 4

Illumination Rule (optional)
Unless otherwise stated the tomb is not illuminated. Bretwald carries a lantern to light the way for the heroes. The following rules apply to Bretwalds Lantern.

• His lantern will illuminate any corridor or room that he is standing in as well as any square he can see. The light from his lantern will not be obstructed by heroes or monsters.
• A Hero may search any square on the board as per the usual rules, however if the square they search is not illuminated their search will be unsuccessful, and any hidden traps or treasure should not be revealed to them by Morcar/Zargon.
• A hero may not disarm a trap that is not illuminated, any attempt to do so will set off the trap and the hero will suffer the body damage caused by that particular trap.
• A hero may attempt to jump a trap they have been made aware of, but if it is not illuminated they must role a black shield on 1 combat die to jump the trap. If the hero rolls a skull or a white shield the trap is sprung and the hero suffers the body damage caused by that particular trap.
• When fighting in the dark the number of combat dice thrown by a hero should be halved and rounded up. The number of combat dice thrown by monsters will be unaffected.

Only the 1st part of this rule, in bold, should be revealed to the heroes at the start of the quest. The remaining parts should be revealed to the heroes as and when they attempt each action in the dark.

[Sjeng]

very cool!!! Love this one. I might just make a quest with this rule ^^

[knightkrawler]

I'd only limit the illumination to 8 or 10 squares in every direction from the priest's square in passages.
But maybe you don't even have passages this long in your quest.
Otherwise, perfect rules.

Oh, and welcome...

[Von Necron]

Cool.
We use torches and lanterns.
Torch will last one quest illuminates 4 squares out in each direction 10 gold
Lantern will always work illuminates 4 squares out in each direction 50 gold

Needs one hand to use so no shield, dual weapon, double handed weapon or crossbow.
Fighting in dark means Hero's can only use armor dice an cannot use their two starting defense dice.
Attacking in dark if they know something is there is -1 die
Monsters in dark are used to the dark and are unaffected.

[The Road Warrior]

Thanks for the feedback/suggestions. I like the idea of limiting the illumination to 4 or 8 squares but to keep the rule simple I am going to keep to my original idea of the room or corridor Bretwald is standing in + his line of sight.

I have written this rule into my quest pack 'The king under the forest'. This will be posted soon in the 'quest and quest packs section'

[Patroclus]

I use the “dark rooms” as rooms where you can’t make attacks, only defense. This means that if the heroes can’t find a way to light the place they can’t clean it and search it, but only cross it and suffer the attacks from the enemies.

By using this rule, the cleric should always step in the room first, to illuminate the place for the others to do their attacks normally. If this won’t happened, and a player without this ability opens the door of a “dark” room, because he can’t attack, obviously, he will waste his turn and make some space for the cleric to enter and illuminate it for the others.

I like it…

ps: you can use the “Quest Maker” for your quests, or maybe the “Booklet Creator” too

[Big Bene]

ps: you can use the “Quest Maker” for your quests, or maybe the “Booklet Creator” too

Or QuestBook.doc...

[Sjeng]

cool, new quests! give us a heads up when it's posted

[Redav]

Neat rule. The only thing I'd point out is that;

[*]When fighting in the dark the number of combat dice thrown by a hero should be halved and rounded up. The number of combat dice thrown by monsters will be unaffected.[/list]

Will probably mostly reduce the number of combat dice by one.

Thought I'd do a bit of a search after I'd come up with an idea about torches. I've been thinking about whether I'd bother with a torch and decided I could as it could assist with the searching method in my house rules.
So, here's some context;

Searching
Searching a room is as per original rules

Searching in a corridor;
- player announces they are searching
- they move half the number of squares that they roll (rounded up)
- they reveal both traps and secret passages as they go
- human's see one square away
- Elf and Dwarf see two squares away
- having a torch equipped doubles a hero's searching distance
- you may search if a monster is present in the corridor but you must stop searching if you move within four squares of it

Unless noted otherwise, secret passages are discovered closed and may be discovered from both sides of the wall

I thought I'd stick in a torch to increase vision while searching and then thought I'd include something that would give the touch limited lifespan and a consequence for being caught offguard.

Torch
If a torch is equipped, it is lit. When the holder of the lit torch has their turn, a combat test is taken. A black shield = torch burning down. On the fifth black shield, the torch is extinguished and discarded. If you're attacked with a torch equipped but no weapon equipped, you defend with one less combat dice.

At the moment it only affects searching.

Thoughts?

[Sjeng]

This is the thread and quest that inspired me to make this card. Even added it to my expanded armoury. I have yet to make a quest for it though, but CBA right now

equipment-card-torch-CU-sjeng.jpg