Ye Olde Inn

So, I don't really like the idea that a hero can die, get looted if someone is in the room, and then a new hero comes back in without repercussion. I also DO like the idea of getting stronger as your hero persists, so I've been considering a system that awards bonuses to some new hero skills that i've been toying with. So, a hero completes say, 3 levels and he moves to level 1 (no bonuses or new skills for the first 3 levels). 3 more and level 2, 3 more for level 3. So even if a hero dies and his equip gets looted, a replacement hero will start at the "novice" level and have to work his way up. Let me know what you think... i haven't tested them yet and I don't want to make heroes overpowered.

Barbarian - Bloodlust (or Frenzy) - If a hit is scored, the Barbarian goes into a frenzy, and can attack again, with the possible number of attacks based on his level. However, when done, he is exhausted and rolls 1 less defend die. The 3 levels would just be 1 extra attack / 2 / 3.

Wizard - Arcane Experience - once per quest, you can roll to retain a spell after casting, with the levels being: black skull to retain / wh shield / wh skull

Dwarf - Taunt - still working on it. Could be that each monster can roll a 4-6 to ignore the taunt, then a 5-6, and finally a 6.

Elf - Elvish Reflexes - Guarantees a roll of the dice (skulls on off, shields on def). lvl1 is 1 def roll. lvl2 is 1 off or def roll. lvl 3 is 1 off and 1 def roll per quest

Necro - one of his spells is "Service to the Master", which is basically an undead summon. lvl 1 is Skel, 2 is Zomb, 3 is Mummy

Thief - has a backstab perk, and i was thinking about a Vanish ability, and once per level, then twice, and finally 3 times (allowing unhindered movement).

So what do you think? i wanted fun, relatable skills to level and add more depth while also adding more "NOOOO..." if you die, but also don't want to make the heroes juggernauts. Again, I have just been putting these together, and haven't run them through a dungeon yet.

At a first glance I really like your skills, particularly the Wizard recast which I am thinking of stealing!
However, I think Upgrading after every 3 quests (that is what you mean by levels, right?) is a bit too fast and will lead to overpowered Heroes.
I tried to time my upgrades so that they kick in just before Kellar’s Keep (which has a lot of rooms with tons of green skins and the players deserve a boost to get through the slog), and other upgrades coming before some of the trickier later quest packs.

I agree completely that a fresh Hero coming in shouldn’t be as strong as one that has just died, there should be a few skills lost even if the new guy is allowed to keep the old guys equipment.

by the way what effect does the Dwarf taunt have on the monsters?

Some nice ideas there. Showdown 35s home brew has a similar recast option:

http://www.showdowndave.ca/heroquest/ho ... ml#casting

He has skill cards on that site too. My skills cards are here:

https://postimg.cc/gallery/4HzdryS

When heroes reach enough XP they roll 1D6 to determine which skill they get, it’s on the back of my hero cards:

https://postimg.cc/gallery/4NMMhsL

Pancho wrote:At a first glance I really like your skills, particularly the Wizard recast which I am thinking of stealing!
However, I think Upgrading after every 3 quests (that is what you mean by levels, right?) is a bit too fast and will lead to overpowered Heroes.
I tried to time my upgrades so that they kick in just before Kellar’s Keep (which has a lot of rooms with tons of green skins and the players deserve a boost to get through the slog), and other upgrades coming before some of the trickier later quest packs.

I agree completely that a fresh Hero coming in shouldn’t be as strong as one that has just died, there should be a few skills lost even if the new guy is allowed to keep the old guys equipment.

by the way what effect does the Dwarf taunt have on the monsters?

'by the way what effect does the Dwarf taunt have on the monsters?" - defensive move, so that monsters have to attack him if they don't resist. so if another hero is in trouble, the dwarf can taunt to try and protect. I thought about adding an extra defend die, but i want the skills to have a downside ( i.e. "everyone is attacking me now") so that you have to think more carefully about when to use them.

I haven't really decided on the number of quests to upgrade the levels. I thought 3 would be a good number because that would keep the excitement for 12 quests (1-3 = nothing, 4-6 = lvl1, 7-9 = lvl2, 10-12 = lvl3), but i gotta test it.

[quote="Stig"]Some nice ideas there. Showdown 35s home brew has a similar recast option:

wow, a lot of interesting stuff in those links. Do the heroes get too powerful?

GoldnboyVA wrote:

Pancho wrote:At a first glance I really like your skills, particularly the Wizard recast which I am thinking of stealing!
However, I think Upgrading after every 3 quests (that is what you mean by levels, right?) is a bit too fast and will lead to overpowered Heroes.
I tried to time my upgrades so that they kick in just before Kellar’s Keep (which has a lot of rooms with tons of green skins and the players deserve a boost to get through the slog), and other upgrades coming before some of the trickier later quest packs.

I agree completely that a fresh Hero coming in shouldn’t be as strong as one that has just died, there should be a few skills lost even if the new guy is allowed to keep the old guys equipment.

by the way what effect does the Dwarf taunt have on the monsters?

'by the way what effect does the Dwarf taunt have on the monsters?" - defensive move, so that monsters have to attack him if they don't resist. so if another hero is in trouble, the dwarf can taunt to try and protect. I thought about adding an extra defend die, but i want the skills to have a downside ( i.e. "everyone is attacking me now") so that you have to think more carefully about when to use them.

I haven't really decided on the number of quests to upgrade the levels. I thought 3 would be a good number because that would keep the excitement for 12 quests (1-3 = nothing, 4-6 = lvl1, 7-9 = lvl2, 10-12 = lvl3), but i gotta test it.

Taunt is great. That’s another one I’m definitely stealing, so thanks .

I don’t really like the every 3 quest idea though. To be honest the excitement for the Hero players in terms of advancement in the original game should come from the equipment deck. I’ve played through the first 14 quests lots of times, with lots of players, and there isn’t an issue with advancement at this stage. The players are desperate for gold to buy equipment, and that usually powers the game forward. The issue usually comes later, around Kellar’s Keep expansion, when the Heroes start to get maxed out on gold and equipment and need something else that keep them salivating.

Unless you have a very advanced gaming group that get bored easily with something like Heroquest, I personally wouldn’t introduce skills quite so early.

GoldnboyVA wrote:

Stig wrote:Some nice ideas there. Showdown 35s home brew has a similar recast option:

wow, a lot of interesting stuff in those links. Do the heroes get too powerful?

In my homebrew the monsters use coloured dice, and Zargon uses evil wizard cards, so it balances out. Also, a lot of the skills are more flavourful than powerful, ie not that good. The random selection at each level prevents killer combos too and increases replayability.

I have a system for XP in Hero Quest that was based loosely on Advanced HeroQuest but converting from Gold to XP per Quest.
The Japanese version of the Original Heroquest had XP, but Ive never found a good translation.

Ive been on this site for over a decade but unfortunately I do not post much, so I am unable to upload anything yet. But if you
go to the "Ye Old Inn" on facebook, I have a PDF uploaded called The Complete reference, and it includes XP for both Heroes
and Elite Mercenaries.

Hopefully, I will be able to get it uploaded here soon.

therealshrek wrote:I have a system for XP in Hero Quest that was based loosely on Advanced HeroQuest but converting from Gold to XP per Quest.
The Japanese version of the Original Heroquest had XP, but Ive never found a good translation.

Hi, the Ye Olde Inn website has available in this post in my opinion its better translation (up to now) of the Japanese Edition rulebook.

I led such translation project but doing it was only posible due to the effort and collaboration through years of several Inn members, so I think you can trust quite well the accuracy of its content.

Since we're all sharing leveling systems, I'll plug my own here. I like the idea of having veteran heroes improve the more quests they complete, but also introduce new challenges along the way.

The simple system of paying gold to get a CHANCE to increase your max BP (Japanese edition) is also a viable option. Allowing more quests complete = get to draw more potion and/or combat cards could also be a nice perk.