Ye Olde Inn

Just a random half-baked thought that doesn't seem to fit anywhere else but I need to get out of my head.

The HeroQuest board is laid out rather like an old mansion (or at least one floor of an old mansion), so throw in some new minis, perhaps Victorian Investigators with Bowie knives and shotguns and some horror style monsters, Vampires, Ghouls, Giant Spiders, Zombies, Mummies, Wraiths and so on and you could make an interesting Horror board game (I'm thinking more Arkham Horror than Scooby Doo but I guess it depends on your players!)

I have quite a lot of Victorian-appropriate miniatures. I ran a campaign of Victorian super-heroes for a long time.

You could even use "Clue" murder-weapon tokens as props. Particularly the revolver.

I haven't really thought it through in detail but some ideas;

I imagine the game set around the 1900 mark, perhaps 1890s or 1920s, you play the role of an investigator, travelling around with your party and investigating tales of the weird and disturbing in order to purge the world of the forces of evil (and gain fame and fortune of course). Investigate strange goings on in long deserted ruined mansions, battle Ghouls, Wraiths, Vampires (may be straying into Buffy territory here - perhaps skip the vampires), Possessees, Cultists, Daemonic Forces in order to purge / loot these places, rescue sacrificial victims, recover artifacts and so on. HeroQuest style rules except kit is a little more modern, bowie knife, revolver, shotgun and so on.

I have resources from Call of Cthulhu to cover equipment and similar, just need some adventure plot ideas and a few more opponents

You could even have a mansion that disappears and relocates at dawn in a Black Fortress style as a campaign...

I was thinking of making some kind of Fantasy Pirates themed HQ board. Like the novel On Stranger Tides or the Monkey Island games.

I forgot about the other Gothic Horrors - Werewolves and Banshees - thanks to the HQ25 poll for that reminder.

Also I found a load of minis that would be suitable for the Adventurers, sorry Investigators, like; https://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/C ... test/50204

You can get a lot of inspiration from a few different games and miniature manufacturers.
Malifaux by Wyrd Games springs to mind.

Bareheaded Warrior wrote:Just a random half-baked thought that doesn't seem to fit anywhere else but I need to get out of my head.

The HeroQuest board is laid out rather like an old mansion (or at least one floor of an old mansion), so throw in some new minis, perhaps Victorian Investigators with Bowie knives and shotguns and some horror style monsters, Vampires, Ghouls, Giant Spiders, Zombies, Mummies, Wraiths and so on and you could make an interesting Horror board game (I'm thinking more Arkham Horror than Scooby Doo but I guess it depends on your players!)

If you want an investigation mod for HQ you should use “special items” that the players will find by searching and special rooms that need some of those items to activate things. It’s like the old adventures for the pc games.

For example, a special room could be a library where a book is missing. So if you don’t have the book you should go back and take it and then “use it” in that room. Then a secret door appears. So, a special room is like this:

A. The library has a bookcase and a book is missing. Use the book and put the secret door.

You can also put more items in each room. For example:

A. This is a dark room. Use the lamp and you will see a bookcase with a book that is missing. Use the book and put the secret door.

Because, the players could say “I use all my items until something works”, to avoid this you should put a limited inventory. So each hero could have only one slot for “special items”.

Because, the players could say “ok, I go back, I take the book and I come back to use it”, you should put respawns to every room with special items, so the players should be very careful with their choices.

I think this will give a very good feeling of exploration and investigation. I don’t have check it yet, but I think it could work very well especially if you put a good story.

Have expanded the ideas above a little, got some good Investigator miniatures but lacking decent vamps. Presenting ...

HeroQuest Gothic

Set in the 1890s

Group of 3-5 Investigators that investigate occult and esoteric goings on- vampire hunters - vampires / ghouls / daemons and similar, abandoned mansions and similar.
Have a vision of the HQ board using the central room as a courtyard and the four blocks of rooms as a mansion and outhouses with the outer corridor being an outdoor path that connects them all – start in daytime so no vamps outdoors but if you don’t achieve your objective fast then night falls!

Some rooms have special qualities and are identified by a particular piece of furniture such as;

Gravestones - Grave Yard – Vamps can summon dead here
Altar – Chapel – Undead cannot enter without Desecration card (Evil Deck)
Library – Bookcase – Bonus to research

Ranged Weapons

Firing at a target doesn’t represent a single shot but both barrels of a double barrelled shot gun and all chambers of a five or six shot revolver and therefore an investigator will need to reload following a round of firing. The reload is a free action and is therefore assumed but you cannot reload a weapon whilst adjacent to a hostile creature. When indicated by the dice roll he or she will have run out of ammo and will need to crack open reserve ammunition.

Wielding more than one ranged weapon at once, such as a pair or brace of pistols or even a pistol and a shortened shotgun (v. limited range) enables you to fire twice at independent targets during your turn.

Shotguns
Shotguns are generally single or double barrelled and the investigators prefer the latest pump action or converted military rifles that use a lever-action as the traditional break shotguns are dangerously slow.
Winchester makes a 10-gauge lever-action shotgun which with a custom shortened barrel proves popular with investigators.

“Two in the head, you know he's dead."

Self Loading Pistol ‘Take Down Carbine’
Self loading pistols such as the Borchard, DWM Luger and Mauser C/96 are cutting edge, but equipped with a clip on wooden stock they have a deadly rate of fire but eat through ammunition like you wouldn’t believe.

Revolvers
Revolvers dominate, ragingly wildly in calibre and quality from the best made Webleys, the cheaper Colts (different, not necessarily worse) to the cheap rubbish mass produced in Belgium among other places. Military arms tend to be quite big bore - .455 for the British. A big soft bullet to do a lot of damage and knock somebody down hard.

"Have with you, at all times, iron that cuts, polished silver, a sprig of mistletoe, and a loaded pistol."

Weapon (Ranged Combat Dice / Close Combat Dice, Special Effects) – No Armour

• Knife - 0/1 CD
• Bowie Knife – 0/2 CD – decapitates on double black
• Revolver - 2/2 CD ranged/close - out of ammo on double black
• Shotgun, single barrelled - 2/1 CD - out of ammo on double black
• Shotgun, double barrelled - 3/1 CD - out of ammo on double black
• Sharpened stake (hawthorne or mistletoe tipped with silver) - 0/2 CD - can destroy a vamp on double black
• Crossbow – fires bolts made of hawthorne or mistletoe may be tipped with silver - 3/1 CD - destroys a vamp AND out of ammo on double black
• Pistol Carbine - 4/1 CD - out of ammo on double black
• Holy Water – 4 CD

I like where this is going.
Some very nice and solid ideas there.