First and second edition differences in the UK rules

[TheLastChaosWarrior]

In my original version from 1989, where I always played Morcar against my Dad, my Chaos Warriors had 5 body points.
Come to think of it, that may have been my first ever homebrew!!
I won't tell Dad that!!!!

[Bareheaded Warrior]

Is that homebrew or is that just cheating

[TheLastChaosWarrior]

The DM has the final word!
And my final words will always be, Chaos Warriors rule!!!!!!
It isn't cheating, it's just keeping to the flavour of the CW dominance!!!

[lestodante]

Non-diagonal Shortsword

Accepting that there were only two "versions" of the cards, I'm still a little confused around the "non-diagonal" shortsword version, was this an error within some printing of the first edition 4271GB389 that was later corrected in the first edition (but without a version code update), or was this an error within some printing of the second edition 4271GB490 that was later corrected in the second edition (but without a version code update), it seems unlikely but not impossible that it was both. I feel like it was a second edition error that was later corrected but that is a gut feeling rather than evidence based. My guess is that they cut that piece of text by accident when updating from 4271GB389 to 4271GB490.

A similar example of this kind of omission would be that the 4271GB389 "gold" treasure cards state that they get returned to the deck (so you have to make a note of the gold value on the back of your character sheet), whereas 4271GB490 "gold" treasure cards are not returned to the deck but are retained by the player, but they still state that you need to record the gold value on the back of your character sheet, even though you don't as you keep the card, so that piece of text could have been removed but wasn't.

From what I've understand, it was revised with later 1990 version without updating the card code.
I noticed small mistakes were just fixed with no code update in Return of the Witch Lord for example. I have several UK RotWL questbooks and many of them feature mistakes on the maps for "Gate of Dooms" (missing a wall) and "Halls of Visions" (upside down map). Gate of Dooms was fixed earlier, Halls of Vision reversed map was instead still there and later fixed but all the questbooks have the same code.
They changed the code only if the content was different, not when fixed errors.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

From what I've understand, it was revised with later 1990 version without updating the card code.

when the error was corrected was the part I got, it was when was the error made that I didn't get, was it as part of the reworking of the card text for the second edition? So 1E was diagonal SS, 2E had the booboo, and was later corrected to match 1E?

[Zenithfleet]

Box Country Code
Thanks for the update around the 4271 01 part of the code, but it might be good to confirm whether this is truly country of release rather than language of release, perhaps Canadian, Australian, New Zealandian sources can confirm as I believe those would be a different country of release but still the same language?

Replying a couple of years late as is usual on the Inn!

I can't check the box country code right now.

The Australian / New Zealand (2nd ed EU) rulebooks and questbooks I own have the following codes, which are unhelpful:

Rulebook - 4271
Base game questbook - 4271
Kellar's Keep - 4232
Return of the Witch Lord - 4234

I missed these codes at first because they look like postcodes of addresses. They're only four digits long.

It seems the Aussie and NZ books were printed in New Zealand. They each have the following note on the back cover:

(c) 1989 Milton Bradley Ltd.,
Milton Bradley (NZ) Ltd.,
Auckland N.Z.
[four-digit code]

I checked a Goblin Monster card that came in a locally sourced (Aussie) HeroQuest set. It had the code: 4271 GB 490.

My Kellar's Keep questbook just says "Quest Book" on the front cover. My Return of the Witch Lord questbook says "Return of the Witch Lord" and doesn't have the upside-down map error reported in some other versions.

I also understand that the expansion boxes we had Down Under may have differed to the UK. Ours were thicker, sturdier cardboard and had top lids like the HQ base game. By contrast, I have a UK Wizards of Morcar set and the cardboard is flimsier, like a cereal packet, opening from a tuckbox fold at both ends.

I would be curious to know whether Aus / NZ ever got the 1st edition, or if we only had the revised 2nd edition. I've never seen a 1st edition in the wild here in Oz.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

I checked a Goblin Monster card that came in a locally sourced (Aussie) HeroQuest set. It had the code: 4271 GB 490.

Shame about the lack of info on these but this piece alone may help, because in the UK we got the following (at least in terms of the "rules of play"):

4271GB489 = April '89 - 1st edition
4271GB889 = August '89 - also 1st edition as the only differences between this and the previous one appear to around trademark related text only and it appears the changes were as a result of legal shenanigans between MB and GW (shenanigans may not be an official legal term, but it is a term which I officially associate with lawyers!) so whilst this may be an interesting area to explore it doesn't have any impact on the rules of the game.
4271GB790 = July '90 - 2nd edition but the cards within this set are labelled 4271GB490 so that might well suggest that you only got the 2nd edition but please do continue your search for versions in the wild and keep me posted!

Some more differences between 1st and 2nd edition

The 2nd edition introduces a limit to the number of traps that the Dwarf can disarm in a single turn (1) but doesn't without introducing the same limit for the Tool Kit user, seems to be both pointless and inconsistent because all other free actions, opening doors, looking, opening chests, disarming traps - for the tool kit user - or jumping pits can be done any number of times in a single turn - provided they are successful or automatic - so why introduce another inconsistency?

The 2nd edition introduces rules around how the monsters interact with traps, which are not present in the 1st edition, however these don't logically make sense. Why would a monster be able to move through a square containing a trigger for a pit trap or a falling block trap without triggering it, provided that the heroes don't yet know that the trap exists but they cannot do the same once the heroes know that the trap exists, even if it hasn't yet been triggered! Also the range of options available to monsters to handle falling block traps (that haven't yet been triggered) are limited, they are not the Dwarf so cannot disarm them automatically, they cannot use the Tool Kit so cannot disarm them that way, so their only option is to deliberately trigger the trap.

The 1st edition allows searching for treasure in both passages and rooms, the 2nd edition had some of the references to searching for treasure in passages removed (which indicates to me that the designers intention was to remove this option) but some other references weren't removed, so that feels like a half-baked implementation that has resulted in confusion.

[Kurgan]

I hadn't thought about the idea of the monsters deliberating trigger falling block traps. Like dropping a piano on the Dwarf's head! (or cutting the rope that allows the chandelier to fall on Robin hood I should say).