Overland/wilderness questing

[QorDaq]

RE: Original Post

Outdoors was always an interesting addition to the game for us "Back in the Day".

I always wanted to do a large "World Map" for general reference but did not get around to it before our gaming group of the time parted ways. I also always meant to develop a set of custom encounter cards to tie the overland game play into the dungeoneering aspect of HQ. But again never quite got there.

What we did do, however, was use the random tables from AHQ in a modified format. Specifically, after completing a quest (or series if we were stringing them together), the party would need to make it back to "Town". I'd roll on the AHQ tables and use the results as "Seeds" for the trip back to town, or possibly to set up some encounters when they got back to town.

We mostly used a battle mat and scatter terrain to handle the wilderness encounters and sometimes used the dungeon board for the town itself. Then we'd do some quick RP in town for buying and selling, picking up rumors for the next quest, and so on. This did drag the games out and made them a bit more RPG than typical board game dungeon crawl of course. But it also made for some cool evolution of the world as we went since I could reuse NPCs once created.

For longer wilderness adventuring, the PCs would encounter caravans, lone merchants, trading outposts, and similar in order to offload treasure and resupply. It was not uncommon for the PCs to come up with their own objectives too, or to go off script and take off into the wilds. I'd adapt and if I really wanted to do a dungeon I'd have them "Find one" by introducing a cave, fortress, ruins, or whatever and dropping one a quest in for a one shot.

Anyway, the point being, I like wilderness/ outdoor interludes to break up the constant dungeon crawl mechanic of HQ. It's also a great way to introduce Role Playing to people who are new to the idea, especially younger players but anyone really. It's one of the things I love about HQ, it's so simple and wide open that it's got flexibility pretty much built in.

But yeah, the world map and encounter cards are something I am sad to say I never got around to creating.

maj!

[Weltenlaeufer]

RE: Original Post

Outdoors was always an interesting addition to the game for us "Back in the Day".

I always wanted to do a large "World Map" for general reference but did not get around to it before our gaming group of the time parted ways. I also always meant to develop a set of custom encounter cards to tie the overland game play into the dungeoneering aspect of HQ. But again never quite got there.

What we did do, however, was use the random tables from AHQ in a modified format. Specifically, after completing a quest (or series if we were stringing them together), the party would need to make it back to "Town". I'd roll on the AHQ tables and use the results as "Seeds" for the trip back to town, or possibly to set up some encounters when they got back to town.

We mostly used a battle mat and scatter terrain to handle the wilderness encounters and sometimes used the dungeon board for the town itself. Then we'd do some quick RP in town for buying and selling, picking up rumors for the next quest, and so on. This did drag the games out and made them a bit more RPG than typical board game dungeon crawl of course. But it also made for some cool evolution of the world as we went since I could reuse NPCs once created.

For longer wilderness adventuring, the PCs would encounter caravans, lone merchants, trading outposts, and similar in order to offload treasure and resupply. It was not uncommon for the PCs to come up with their own objectives too, or to go off script and take off into the wilds. I'd adapt and if I really wanted to do a dungeon I'd have them "Find one" by introducing a cave, fortress, ruins, or whatever and dropping one a quest in for a one shot.

Anyway, the point being, I like wilderness/ outdoor interludes to break up the constant dungeon crawl mechanic of HQ. It's also a great way to introduce Role Playing to people who are new to the idea, especially younger players but anyone really. It's one of the things I love about HQ, it's so simple and wide open that it's got flexibility pretty much built in.

But yeah, the world map and encounter cards are something I am sad to say I never got around to creating.

maj!

Love these ideas!

[Weltenlaeufer]

I have been working on a wilderness setting. I printed my board a while back but it came out too dark, so I have to try again.

I posted a short note here: http://forum.yeoldeinn.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1446&p=47751&hilit=forest+board#p47751

My wilderness objective is to run it as close to a dungeon as possible. So you are limited to a small section of forest. The quests will read like "Prince Magnus has ordered the forest cleared of all Werewolves. You are given two silver short swords and a quiver of silver arrows…", or "While traveling North with a trade caravan you are ambushed on the road by Gnoll brigands (I bought Gnolls but you could use Orcs or Ogres). They have taken… you must track them to their camp and rescue.." or "The forest spirit is sick…" or "The water in the village has fouled…" and so on.

My rooms are mostly "bigger" so we can fit some really big monsters, river trolls (2x2) and dragons (2x3).

For an epic adventure, the wilderness is one setting which involves finding the entrance to the cave, mine, underground fortress, keep ruins, etc. which then continues on the dungeon board. I've also constructed my boards so they fold in half the "wrong way" so you could also do a half and half setup.

I will not worry about the "larger world" in much the same way the original HeroQuest Game System ignores this point. I will simply narrate to the beginning of the adventure. If you do design a larger map, I would recommend that you move the party on the map through a narrative RPG and break out the minis for the encounters, where all the rules are already written for you. The heroes do not know exactly where they are in the world, so why give them a satellite view of it? Perhaps they had planned on going far south of the swamp, but navigation (and their primitive map) was not so perfect. Seeing the map in front of you does not give a real sense of being lost… which is a great place to start an adventure!

I have all new forest furniture which I made out of clay. This includes several fallen logs, stumps (a bunch of 1x1 and one giant 2x2), mushrooms, various rocks, navigating cairns (stacks of rocks), a cut stone marker / obelisk, camp fires, two primitive stone henge arches, a well, and a grave/cairn. I also bought two "tubes" of trees (10 trees each). I will take pictures and post what I have in the coming weeks.

I will change the "door" mechanics, "pass through rock" will need a fix, and travel through "walls" will be possible.

The doors will be dark lit "path" tiles, that flip over to become fully lit (e.g. opening the door and revealing the next room) when a hero steps in front (no opening required). My optimal design for doors would be to actually make special door pieces which are an archway formed by two leafless trees and the ability to slide a black piece of card stock in and out of the center to show open versus closed. I don't have the 3D printer yet… The whole thing would be better served by turning the concept over to Zealot and asking them to run another Kickstarter in a few years.

Traveling through dense wooded areas will be 1 or 2 spaces per turn AND run the risk of a wandering monster attacking. Some monsters (e.g. wolves and spiders) will be able to pass through the trees.

As you can see, I'm having a lot of fun this. I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Thanks whitebeard! I am trying to figure out a good way to do overlandquesting at the moment, this is inspiring!