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Gauging Interest in a Spiritual Successor to HeroQuest

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Re: Gauging Interest in a Spiritual Successor to HeroQuest

Postby Interjection Games » November 3rd, 2014, 4:58 pm

Here's something I came up with today. Please consider it in a vacuum.

Ranged weaponry - optimal and maximum range

When firing a ranged weapon, the target must be within the listed maximum range (duh). If it is also within optimal range, you roll an additional attack and drop the lowest roll. This is (hopefully) balanced because most ranged weapons will not use a character's strength, those ranged weapons that DO use strength have no dual-wielding analogues, and most ranged weapons have a finite capacity of ammunition, thus making it very hard to rapidfire. Weapons cannot be swapped out mid attack sequence. If you can dump your bonus to get four shots out, but your flintlock holds one shot, guess how many shots you're firing.

The scary part here is that standard bows run the risk of being OP under this system.
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Re: Gauging Interest in a Spiritual Successor to HeroQuest

Postby JasonMCM » November 5th, 2014, 12:25 am

How about the 'optimal' shots are from a different skill than the attack skill?
That way your "Attack" skill allows for multiple attacks by lowering your bonus, while the "Optimal Shot" skill allows for the extra roll while dropping the one you don't want.

Make the players choose which to do: More attacks that have a higher chance of missing or single attack that most likely will hit.
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Re: Gauging Interest in a Spiritual Successor to HeroQuest

Postby Interjection Games » November 5th, 2014, 9:27 am

Because that narrows the design space I have, sir.

Capacity 1 firearms and crossbows can have special variants available that allow for all sorts of wacky special effects on the attack. Using the optimal range rule to help these special shots stick is a good use of the rule.

In contrast, bows and high capacity weapons like repeating crossbows and pepperboxes have that very high capacity as their selling point. If I were to deny these rapid-fire weapons the ability to fire quickly and aim well, it would feel like an awkward exception to the system. I see what you're getting at, though. Would slapping a low optimum range on such weapons be a way to reconcile this?

Now, just to note, every school of weapons requires its own attack skill.

Bows and crossbows - Ranged
Guns - Firearms
Thrown Weapons - Thrown
Melee Piercing - Piercing
Melee Bludgeoning - Bludgeoning

And so on.

Certain specialist classes will have a blanket bonus to "attack rolls with melee weapons", and this bonus can be used to get multiple attacks. The distinction I'm trying to make is a sword virtuoso might not be the best with a morningstar.
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Re: Gauging Interest in a Spiritual Successor to HeroQuest

Postby cornixt » November 5th, 2014, 11:33 am

This is where my mind turns off:
Interjection Games wrote:4: d10 dice system with simple mathematics

Adding up tons of bonuses suck, so only one non-class, non-race bonus matters: the biggest one. Everything else goes into a "soak" pool. What is soak?

Let's say there's a +2, a +1, and a +1 on the field for bonuses to slashing. You get a +2 bonus to your slashing skill and 2 soak. The soak lets you ignore the first 2 in penalties to slashing, meaning debilitation is difficult if you invest in key skills. +1 bonuses are a huge deal in this game (and +2 is the highest item bonus, excepting some non-combat items), meaning you will find it nearly impossible to cover everything if you want the ridiculously awesome and flavorful items that give you expanded character options in the game.

The ability scores:

S - Strength
T - Toughness
R - Reasoning
O - Opportunity
N - Nimbleness
G - Gumption

Where's Charisma? Why, my good sir, being attractive is a skill.

Where's Attacks? You can take a penalty to an attack skill to get another roll, and can continue taking penalties so long as your bonus remains positive.

1 attack at +7
2 attacks at +4
3 attacks at +1


It's too much. It completely ceases to be a spiritual successor when you add another ten layers to it. It might be a good game, but it is no longer a spiritual successor. It needs to be relatively simple, the thing that made HQ great was that I didn't need to do calculations in my head before heading into combat - there were only three stats that I used for 99% of the game. If I wanted a full RPG then I can just add a board and models to one of the hundreds already out there.

If you are going to make a spiritual successor then there is nothing wrong with adding a bit more depth, just don't go overboard.


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Re: Gauging Interest in a Spiritual Successor to HeroQuest

Postby Interjection Games » November 5th, 2014, 12:56 pm

The only reason that point is being hammered home is because this forum didn't give me enough thread space to say Advanced HeroQuest.
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Re: Gauging Interest in a Spiritual Successor to HeroQuest

Postby JasonMCM » November 5th, 2014, 3:22 pm

Interjection Games wrote:The only reason that point is being hammered home is because this forum didn't give me enough thread space to say Advanced HeroQuest.

AHQ? |_P

On a side note, I'm sorry to throw out un-useful ideas. I keep making suggestions that go against what you already have made mostly because I don't know what is already made.

In that note there can be optimal/maximum ranges for all weapon types... [Examples with made up numbers to show my idea]
Axe - Optimal 1 - Maximum 1
Spear - Optimal 1 - Maximum 2
Bow - Optimal 6 - Maximum 9

This would limit the OP of the ranged weapons, but might OP the melee weapons.

Any chance you have an alpha copy of your rules you could share so we can really rip into them look through them for suggestions? I find myself more interested in this project than I though I would be when I found out you were going RPG and not Dungeon Crawl Board Game. (DCBG?)
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Re: Gauging Interest in a Spiritual Successor to HeroQuest

Postby Interjection Games » November 6th, 2014, 12:24 am

The rules presently exist in a very scattered form in notes and in my head. An actual alpha is, ha, months away, I'd say. Haven't done anything useful for four days now - I pumped out 150 pages (about 350 pages equivalent of 12-point Word document) of content last month and, well, I crashed out.

That said, I need to pump out a new medium-sized product this month and put progress in on section 2 of 3 of my first hardcover book to keep paying the bills, and this crash has killed what wiggle room I have for the month.

These alpha rules will likely gel together sometime in January unless I get on another psycho productive streak like I was in the last half of October.
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Re: Gauging Interest in a Spiritual Successor to HeroQuest

Postby Daedalus » November 15th, 2014, 9:32 pm

Interjection Games wrote:If I may, can you direct me to other active bastions of Advanced HeroQuest and Warhammer Quest grognards? I'll need to know where you all are when it's time to start playtesting!

Welcome to the Inn. I don't follow AHQ and Warhammer Quest closely, but a good place to start is BoardGameGeek. I'd suggest starting a thread in the Warhammer Quest and Advanced Heroquest forums. Also, check out the Web Links at the bottom of those pages for more sites.


Interjection Games wrote:Here's something I came up with today. Please consider it in a vacuum.

Ranged weaponry - optimal and maximum range

When firing a ranged weapon, the target must be within the listed maximum range (duh). If it is also within optimal range, you roll an additional attack and drop the lowest roll. This is (hopefully) balanced because most ranged weapons will not use a character's strength, those ranged weapons that DO use strength have no dual-wielding analogues, and most ranged weapons have a finite capacity of ammunition, thus making it very hard to rapidfire. Weapons cannot be swapped out mid attack sequence. If you can dump your bonus to get four shots out, but your flintlock holds one shot, guess how many shots you're firing.

The scary part here is that standard bows run the risk of being OP under this system.

I want to implement a similar range rule for HQ, but it works a bit in reverse. I plan to use a regular roll for short range, and a reroll of skulls at long range. Maybe one roll for optimal range and a negative reroll (use lower result) for long range could be applied as an exception for standard bows in your system.
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Re: Gauging Interest in a Spiritual Successor to HeroQuest

Postby Interjection Games » December 5th, 2014, 1:08 pm

Oh, dear! I totally missed this response and I apologize. I was in the middle of finishing up a little Japanese base class and the e-mail just got lost.

I'm trying to predicate the combat system on the chasing of benefits rather than the avoidance of detriments. To use Warhammer terminology, I'd go base roll at long range and +1 to the roll at short range rather than the other way around. Having played 3.5 and Pathfinder, chasing bonuses just leads to a happier, friendlier table.
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Re: Gauging Interest in a Spiritual Successor to HeroQuest

Postby QorDaq » March 29th, 2015, 9:51 pm

Are you still working on this project?

I have been away from these forums (Busy RL stuff), and am just now catching up.

It's been interesting to read some of the suggestions and responses you have been getting to your idea. I have to say, that everything I love about HQ can be tied to its simplicity. I owned (and still have various components of), both AHQ and WQ. AHQ I never actually played because it was soo different from what I loved about HQ, the simplicity. WQ was better, but in both cases (AHQ and WQ), I felt like I was being spoon-fed a primer for playing the War Hammer Fantasy RPG. Which is not a bad game, though I prefer Pathfinder for full RPG gaming.

Now, with HQ I have always felt that it's value as a board game is that it plays fast and is quick to teach and learn as well. Taken at face value it's a great board game. However, because of it's simplicity it is also VERY easy to RP in because all it takes is some creativity on the part of the GM/Mentor to engage the players, even those who don't normally RP. Taking it out of the dungeon and into town or even cross country traveling between quests is remarkably easy to do without adding much to the rules.

One of the things I immediately disliked about AHQ was that all of the time between quests was handled by random rolls on tables that give the players no control over how they respond to a given situation. It's all great when you roll a result on a table that say's someone in town owes you money or something, but it blows when you have a bounty on your head for something you did not know your character did before the die roll.

There were, however, some useful seeding rolls for events, that I adapted to my HQ games, where I would make a roll on an AHQ table and then use the idea as a springboard for an encounter or even side adventure for the party.

And that's the kind of optional resources that can be fun--if you have the time and creativity to run with it. However, I feel that when the rules get overly complex it stops being a simple board game.

I digress however. Ultimately, for a game like HQ, and as I believe another forum member mentioned previously, having extra rules covered by cards is a great way to go. So I could see a more elaborate skill system like you discuss above, being potentially managed by cards. Especially any sort of advancement, spend points/Gold/ whatever, to buy skill cards that add abilities and it helps keep things simple.

Heck, even your classes can be a skill tree that starts with a card.

Anyway, I'd be interested in hearing more as you make progress. Success to you.

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