Who goes first?

[lucasdp]

First, this may have been discussed before, but I couldn't find the thread. Feel free to link me to it if it's out there.

So, the question is, which hero goes first? When I played the game as a kid, I somehow got it in my head that we were supposed to play Barbarian > Dwarf > Elf > Wizard > Zargon. When we started playing again as adults, we would usually have the Barbarian go first, then go around the table in clockwise order, regardless of how the heroes were sat, and Zargon would go last, of course. At some point, I actually pulled out the rulebook and here's what it says:
"Play begins with the Hero seated to Zargon's left and continues clockwise. After all Heroes have completed their turns, it is Zargon's turn."
Ok, that's nice and simple and works well for introducing kids who have played "regular" board games to the world of HQ.

So, when I reread the rules, I brought it up with my heroes, and gave them the options that I saw available:
1) Continue with the Barbarian going first, as we had been playing
2) The Hero to my left could start, as the rulebook says
3) A homebrewed option, any hero who is a Champion can be the leader and go first (Champion = completed 10 quests. We have two at my table, Miranda the Elf and Lady Darwin the Dwarf)
After a very brief discussion, they decided to continue starting with the Barbarian.

Many games later, there is one player who seems to end up going last pretty frequently, and I think they feel like they are getting shafted because of this. My new thought is to implement a rotating first player token, a mechanic employed in several other games already. Has anyone tried this?

How do you determine who goes first at your table? And does the order change as the game goes on, or stay the same throughout?

[Gold Bearer]

We always did it so the hero players decided before a quest what order they were going to take their turns in and then stuck with the for the quest.

Dark World had a random play order every turn, you could try that.

I've gotten used to completely free hero turn order from playing pbp and I really like it. It makes it a lot easier for the heroes though so you might have to up the difficulty a bit to compensate i you go for that option.

[StratosVX]

Let the players fight it out. Last one standing gets to go first.

[Goblin-King]

The players decide the turn order among themselves, then place themselves accordingly around the table; first player to my left etc. etc.

[cynthialee]

We go clockwise of the EWP regardless of seating. So it behooves the party to put the wizard at the last seat.

[knightkrawler]

Put in many words, for my written rules:

Play begins with the player to the left of Morcar and continues clockwise. Then each hero takes their turn, after which it is Morcar's turn. A round consists of one turn for each player and ends with Morcar's turn.

Variants: (presented in the Otional Rules Supplement)

1. Rolling Dice for Turn Orders
At the start of a new round, each player rolls 1 ┖. These rolls determine the heroes' turn order from highest to lowest, tied players re-rolling. Morcar's turn remains the last of every round.

2. Tactical Hero Turns
Morcar may allow the heroes to decide on the turn order for any given round between them. They must decide on the complete turn order at the beginning of the round and must not change their minds during. If they draw out their decision, Morcar should introduce a time limit on the decision process. After time is out, Morcar may pick which hero's turn it is, one after another, or draw a fate card. Morcar always has his turn last.

3. Alternating Hero / Morcar Turns
To play the game with a tactical twist, implement individual villain turns in between hero turns. To be precise, after a hero has taken their entire turn (including a passed turn where the hero does neither move nor take an action), Morcar takes one complete turn with one villain. During a round, each villain may of course only take one turn. Thus, the turn order might look like this: Warrior – Ork 1 – Wizard – Guardian 3 – Adept – Guardian 1 – Sojourner – Wight 2 – Orc 5 – Goblin 4 and so on. Use the villains' base inscriptions and the Villain Tracker to keep up. A round and Morcar's turn end with the end of the last of the villains' turn.

[Gold Bearer]

First, this may have been discussed before, but I couldn't find the thread. Feel free to link me to it if it's out there.

You might be thinking of this one: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2787

To play the game with a tactical twist, implement individual villain turns in between hero turns. To be precise, after a hero has taken their entire turn (including a passed turn where the hero does neither move nor take an action), Morcar takes one complete turn with one villain. During a round, each villain may of course only take one turn. Thus, the turn order might look like this: Warrior – Ork 1 – Wizard – Guardian 3 – Adept – Guardian 1 – Sojourner – Wight 2 – Orc 5 – Goblin 4 and so on. Use the villains' base inscriptions and the Villain Tracker to keep up. A round and Morcar's turn end with the end of the last of the villains' turn.

I came up with something like that: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=3256 This gives each monster their own initiative, it's a nice way to give them more character and make the weaker ones stronger in a different way but your way is simpler. I was going to try it in my pbp game but decided against it for the moment because it seems a bit too far removed from standard HQ and hard to balance. I'm thinking of trying it with a written in story to go with it and seeing how it goes.

[knightkrawler]

hard to balance

That is true. That's why I print out and laminate Villain Tracker sheets that will be included in the HQ: Heroes & Villains zip package.
It lists the villains and their stats individually for me to keep track of things with a water-soluble pen and why, to cross-reference, I inscribe the base rims of all my minis. All of the villains are individuals this way. Should have mentioned that in my above post. In case we implement this above rule, I'll make a little dot in the Tracker to show which villain has had their turn. It's only three to keep track of, in any case, before I can complete the round with all other villains uninterrupted(ly). Wiping away the dots while the heroes flip over their turn markers, and on it goes...

[whitebeard]

This.

We always did it so the hero players decided before a quest what order they were going to take their turns in and then stuck with the for the quest.

We go clockwise of the EWP regardless of seating. So it behooves the party to put the wizard at the last seat.

Why would you want the Wizard going last? The group I play with now originally did this, but more recently began alternating between quests with the dwarf and barbarian being first and last. This way the wizard can cast LoS spells then have a hero step in front. Or cast a spell such as courage which takes effect on another hero in the same combat turn. The advantage of the wizard going last would be... To heal that last hero if he were injured... by a trap?

I thought there was a good reason why the wizard went last. Certainly you don't want him going first and tripping traps. I did this also, but I can't think of one now.

Well, in a less cooperative group, the wizard could go last so he can be sure to hide behind everyone. The dwarf rolls a 3 and cannot step in front, bye-bye wizard? Other reasons?

It is already time for a new thread: "Why the wizard goes last"

[mitchiemasha]

or just to be awkward. Initiative via MP. The player with the higher MP can chose to go before another player. Meaning the barbarian goes last unless the other players choose to go after him. Giving the Wizard the choice to go at any point during the Heroes segment.