Advanced Heroquest, Where is the Love?

[Patroclus]

Don’t be so cruel with AHQ. If there wasn’t HQ it could be the best dungeon crawler ever(if you add the terror in the dark expansion, all the quests from white dwarf, and all the minis you have). If you see the positive side, the GM could use all the tables of monsters and hazards and create a dungeon in seconds. Or if he wants to, he can make new tables and replace some from the original for a new experience. While in HQ the game learns you how to make challenging rooms, the AHQ (with the white dwarf’s quests) learns you how to put interesting triggers and events. That makes it more like a role playing game than HQ, because the GM spends no time to create the rooms, he saves time to design the story, the triggers and the events. After some quests your heroes became invincible with 10+ fate points (fate point is like “insert coin” on coin ops), so it became very brutal. The map generator is awesome and you can played it solo easily (don’t use the solo rules, they are broken because of the wandering monster appearance rate). I remember a quest in white dwarf where you are searching for a sword to return it to the dead hero’s tomb, and when you place it on his coffin, he is raised from the dead to fight you as an undead skeleton with his undead guards. Also the game pushes you to make one boss for each level of your dungeon (it comes out when the GM draws a GM token named character) and this mean that the boss is “walking” in the dungeon and you can face him everywhere, and if you didn’t find him you could find him deeper on the next level of your dungeon. For example, a boss room says “if you haven’t find the boss yet, he is here”. That pushes you to create many bosses, and each boss should have a story, etc etc.

I’ve tried to cannibalize AHQ but I find that the best thing to do is to not change anything. The rules are not as complex as it seems, and the challenge is to play it as it is meant to be played, and it is fun. (Just add 2 fate points to each new hero and you are good)

Also, the tile system with the design of the mini map, needs a very small area which could be your desk and not the dining table, this means you could play everywhere without spending time for setup. And this is good for solo because you can start a game and finish it in a week by just spending a small area on your desk.

In our group we are playing HQ, but for solo it’s always good to have a trip in the old world with AHQ or WHQ, as I am drinking a glass of wine. My champions and their character sheets are still there waiting, and who knows, the next dungeon could be very generous and give us a lot of rare treasures.

[Decipher]

AHQ and HQ are simply two different systems when compared. It's like comparing apples to oranges. Other than having tiles/game board and miniatures, they are different games with the same name.

[slev]

I love AHQ, for very differnt reasons than my love of HQ.

That said, AHQ has more flaws than HQ, but they're more interesting to fix.

For what it's worth, I have spent a few years redeveliping the AHQ rules, you can find a printable set via the link in my sig!

[comets911]

I had assumed that they were very similar, the big difference I saw was that AHQ looked more accessible because all the rooms are a separate entity. I didn't know it had tons of flaws

[Once was Mortimer]

As a kid I was wowed by those opening and closing doors ... finally got a copy this year, those doors did not live up to expectations, all bar one broke its hinges and a couple simply snapped in half.

Other than that there where interesting bits and pieces I stole for HQ, special rule ideas for monsters, some of the traps, hazards and items. I'd say death zones was a clever mechanic that could be pretty easily worked into HQ.

[Gold Bearer]

I'd say death zones was a clever mechanic that could be pretty easily worked into HQ.

I don't remember those. Please clarify.

[Count Mohawk]

I'd say death zones was a clever mechanic that could be pretty easily worked into HQ.

I don't remember those. Please clarify.

A figure's "Death Zone" is the ring of 8 squares surrounding it. Basically, while you're in an opponent's death zone, the only thing you can do is engage that enemy in combat. You can't even move away unless another Hero comes to bail you out.

On a related note, the board game Star Wars Miniatures had a similar mechanic, although rather than prohibit leaving a death zone altogether it merely penalized doing so with an attack of opportunity.

[Gold Bearer]

A figure's "Death Zone" is the ring of 8 squares surrounding it. Basically, while you're in an opponent's death zone, the only thing you can do is engage that enemy in combat. You can't even move away unless another Hero comes to bail you out.

Nope, don't remember that one. Thanks CM.

On a related note, the board game Star Wars Miniatures had a similar mechanic, although rather than prohibit leaving a death zone altogether it merely penalized doing so with an attack of opportunity.

Like D&d, or at least how it used to be in an old D&D computer game. No idea how it works now.

[slev]

Dungeon Saga uses a *similar* mechanic.

Interestingly, we changed the way Death Zones worked when we playtested my rebuild of AHQ, in order to simplfy them and speed-up play.

[Once was Mortimer]

I'd say death zones was a clever mechanic that could be pretty easily worked into HQ.

I don't remember those. Please clarify.

A figure's "Death Zone" is the ring of 8 squares surrounding it. Basically, while you're in an opponent's death zone, the only thing you can do is engage that enemy in combat. You can't even move away unless another Hero comes to bail you out.

On a related note, the board game Star Wars Miniatures had a similar mechanic, although rather than prohibit leaving a death zone altogether it merely penalized doing so with an attack of opportunity.

I might have to reread it, I thought characters could leave a death zone, just at the risk of a free attack.