Kurgan wrote:Lots of things COULD be done to simply the game if people were wanting. I personally would find them more boring but here are some off the top of my head:
Don't roll to move. Yeah, lots of people have suggested just used fixed movement, 12 squares for heroes. But why stop there? Why not just allow the Heroes to move as much as they want/need? Perhaps limit squares of movement to instances of actual combat only (no monsters on the board, go where you want to go).
AHQ does not have a roll to move. But also I think movement is different in exploration and combat phases. That kinda makes sense. I don't see two sets of movement rules (one for exploration and one for combat) as a simplification. Quite the opposite. It might keep the part of the game that CAN get a little boring from doing so.
I could be convinced to rethink movement in the game, but I kinda favor the hybrid approach where you roll and add so that the game doesn't drag on low rolls if they keep happening.
Kurgan wrote:Don't search for treasure. Why bother? Don't even use gold. Instead simply upgrade the Heroes' equipment as they progress. Stronger weapons and armor the longer they survive. When you reach the location of the artifact or whatever, you just get it.
No more death. Heroes don't die. If they go to zero body points, they just come right back to full again. This bypasses having to write a new name on a new character sheet. Since death no longer matters, neither do healing potions. Other potions may be fun but they're exploitable so leave them out, and use spells instead.
These things sound like they make the game not a game anymore. And to be fair, my wizard tends to keep his healing spell and/or a potion handy … and that tends to basically bring him back at full health because wizards are wusses.

Kurgan wrote:Why put limits on magic? Just let the Wizard and Elf use as much magic as they want.
I mentioned XDM earlier… it more or less describes a way that, in a D&D game, wizards need not have things like spell slots. Actually, it kinda does away with most abilities people will take in general. You are a thief, fifth level. You don't need a special ability in, say, smuggling. Why would you? You're a
THIEF, and you've managed to survive to fifth level, which is a pretty good amount of experience at thievery. If the fighter wants to get some contraband past the guards, he's going to have a DC 18 roll. Maybe if he's Major Alex Louis Armstrong his
mus-cu-larity will so impress the guards that they won't search him for contraband too carefully, but that's at best going to give him a TINY boost to his roll.
The thief … DC 8. Because he's a thief, of course he knows how to smuggle something past the guards, duh. It's what he does.
Okay, so the wizard … he wants to throw a Ball of Flame at a goblin with a freakin' crossbow. In HeroQuest, it'd use his Ball of Flame card for the quest.
In D&D he'd probably use Magic Missile for the equivalent, a level 1 spell which fires off three magic arrows at a time that each do 1d6 damage and Do Not Miss. He'd burn a spell slot to do it, and that'd be his use of the spell for the day (oldskool) or one fewer level 1 spells he can cast the rest of the day (modern). If he runs out of level 1 slots or needs to cast a stronger Magic Missile spell (I would need to check what it does if cast at a higher level), he might use a level 2 or higher slot to beef up the spell. Whether the spell is beefed up or not, it'll use the level 2 slot in that case.
Playing by XDM, the wizard says he wants to throw a small fireball at the goblin. DM determines he can do this, DC's 14. Wizard rolls 12, but has +3 in bonuses, so it hits. Roll damage, but the goblin's a one-hit sort of monster, so odds are he's toast.
Where it gets fun is what if the wizard rolled an 8? Wellll did the spell go wild? Did it burn the wizard? Did it literally blow up like an M-80 in his hand, causing major damage that could not be healed with a "rest" of any sort and would require either expensive magical healing, a deal with one of the world's gods (or something worse…), or some kind of magical artifact to regain use of the hand? Or did he simply miss? (And if he missed, did he hit someone else by accident?)
Why should spells "just automatically work" and always do what they're intended to in D&D? Nothing else works that way in that game. XDM fixes it. Magic is powerful, maybe more powerful than using a sword. But um, if the wizard says, "I wanna cast chain lightning!" and he's in a small space near a bunch of his fellow party all wearing metal armor, they ought to be screaming at him,
WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?! because the consequence of chain lightning in those conditions is that if you don't roll a success, you just TPK'd your party. Hope you have a fate point or something to change the outcome of a natural 1, because the natural 1 means the worst possible thing that could happen, would. Magic is powerful. And dangerous. Use it carefully!
Does that kind of a magic system work in HQ? HQ proper, no. But a HQ-style game? Maybe. I'll get back to you on that—it's not a very high priority, but if I work it out, I'd love to give it a playtest sometime. But it wouldn't be HQ anymore, and it might require rescaling lots of things.
Kurgan wrote:Searching is just one action... for traps and secret doors at once. Already in the EU edition.
Even combat outcomes could be predetermined based on story considerations rather than chance or strategy.
And so on. I'm not saying I want that stuff, but a person could implement them to nullify parts of the game they don't like. Others have implemented infinite treasure searches, infinite healing and so on.
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Someone made searching for traps, treasures, and doors a single action. I'm kinda like … what's the point of traps then?
That said, I did intend to leave those HQ-specific mechanics unspecified so that you could define them according to EU rules, NA rules, or something else. I remain convinced you can fit HQ's rules on two sheets of standard sized paper using a normal sized font. NA or EU, take your pick, and without changing a single rule for the chosen region. The rules that come with the game are VERY verbose.
<InSpectreRetro> All hail Zargon!!! Morcar only has 1BP.