My "Ultimate Guide to HeroQuest"

[David McMurdo]

Hello Everyone,

I've written a book called "The Ultimate Guide to HeroQuest". It's intended to be a more detailed and mature manual for the game that takes into account the last thirty years of fandom.

I posted it not long ago on Reddit, but this forum is a different kettle of fish, because it there if anyone that can detect anything that I may have overlooked, they will probably reside here. Naturally I made mention of this forum in the book, both on page 10 and 16 (in my book's numbering; not the PDF's numbering).

I intend to create a new edition of the book with every significant new HeroQuest release, and at those times I'll also correct any remaining typographical errors, and anything you guys might pick up on. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy it.

I've put it on my Google Drive, and although you can read it there, I STRONGLY recommend downloading the PDF from there instead, because Google Drive makes it look strange and disables features like my interactive table of contents: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wZlRyO ... pWWBY/view

EDIT: I have corrected the most major errors that were brought to my attention.

[Pancho]

Wow that’s amazing work. I’ve just read a few pages and enjoyed it a lot. Looking forward to reading the rest.

[HispaZargon]

Very good work, David!!

Just one minor comment: maybe you wrote it somewhere but in a first look I cannot find the date you finished the book. If it is not there, I strongly suggest you to write it, for example in the Preface, in order to know what time interval is covering.

[lestodante]

Good job, but....
Since you decided to feature the latest content from Hasbro/Avalon hill, I am sure this is still not the "ultimate" guide and you'll have to add new content very often
I guess (and hope) they will release more stuff like the Commander of the Guardian Knights.

[David McMurdo]

Thank you, all. I added the date to the afterword though in future editions I will have it in the preface and have the current's preface's content be a new chapter. I also corrected a factual error that someone on Reddit alerted me to: it turns out that you can use the alternate sex heroes in the app. I just hadn't noticed on my Android. I don't expect there to be many factual errors like that, but I will correct them straight away for sure.

[Kurgan]

HeroQuest Classic vs. Remake HeroQuest. As a fan I've incorporated both. Welcome to the forums and hopefully you can get some good feedback here on your work!

[Daedalus]

Darn. The file seems to be missing now. It was a good read, but I got cut off at about p. 8.

[David McMurdo]

Darn. The file seems to be missing now. It was a good read, but I got cut off at.about p. 8.

I uploaded a new version with some minor corrections so if you follow the new link it should be fine.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

A great read and a masterly guide. Like you, I am a 30 year veteran of HQ, Xmas 1989 I broke the seal and never looked back, on my third generation of players now.

However, you can't post something with a name like "Ultimate Guide to HeroQuest" on a forum like this without expecting some challenges, so prepare yourself for the onslaught...

p42 - Hero Death

If a hero is reduced to 0 Body Points and they have a healing potion in their possession, they may drink it immediately to avoid death. Likewise, if they can cast spells and have a healing spell, they may cast it upon themselves assuming that they have not already taken a standard action on their turn.

Reading this implies to me that a spell casting Hero with a healing spell can use it to avoid death, only if it is their turn and they haven’t yet used their action. But death caused by what? Any monsters (and indeed other Heroes) cannot attack if it isn’t their turn, wandering monsters only attack the person who conjured them as a result of a search (an action), and the rules on traps state that if a hero suffers an injury from a trap or hazard, then their turn ends. If I'm not alone in struggling to conceive of a situation in which this rule could ever be invoked then perhaps dropping the rule might be simpler.

p49 Diagonal Movement

Note that neither heroes or monsters are obliged to move their full allowance, or at all, and they can never move diagonally.

It may be that a hero desires to jump over a particular square on the game board, almost certainly because there is a trap on that square.

A hero must be adjacent to the square that they wish to jump, but they are not limited to jumping to a safe square two squares ahead of them—they may jump to any other square that is adjacent to the trap, effectively allowing them to jump diagonally from their position.

Your use of the terms "desire", "wish" and "almost certainly" implies to me that Heroes can choose to jump a square whenever they get the urge (and nothing in the rules states that isn't the case), for example choosing to jump a square directly in a doorway into a room to avoid any potential nasty surprise but combining that with the ability to jump diagonally seems to negate the never move diagonally rule.

What would be lost by scrapping the no diagonal movement rule, HQ is all about simplicity and one less rule must be simpler indeed?

p57 Searches

Search for Treasure

As normal, that hero cannot search the room again, though their companions may

Search for Secrets

Each room and corridor in a dungeon can be searched only once in total, for it is assumed that the first hero to search them will have found all that there is to find.

Search for Traps

Each room and corridor in a dungeon can be searched only once in total, for it is assumed that the first hero to search them will have found all that there is to find.

May just be me but that positively oozes contradictions, if you are searching an area for secrets or traps then obviously once it has been searched by a Hero once then all that there is to find will have been found, but search for treasure and a whole different mindset is assumed. bearing in mind that Heroes maxing out on equipment early on is a recognised issue with HQ then extending the one search per room logic to include treasure seems a reasonable improvement.

P59 Furniture Traps

Note that, in the case of furniture that contains traps, it has never been officially stated that a hero must move adjacent to that piece of furniture in order to disarm it, but I would argue that this should indeed be the case.

A Hero can search a room for treasure, finding gold in a chest on the other side of the room and collect that gold without the hero needing to move adjacent to the chest, but if that chest was trapped the model would have to be moved adjacent to disarm the trap?

p62

The heroes are able to sell unwanted equipment between each quest for half of its normal value rounded down.

However on the previous page under the potions section, you mention that whilst many players allow purchasing of potions between quests this is not mentioned in the base rule book but only in some of the expansion packs so you conclude that this rule applies only when you are playing the relevant expansion pack. It is my understand that the rule around selling unwanted equipment also only appears in certain supplements and not in the base rule book (although that might be EU rules rather than NA rules so would the same logic not apply?

And that was just the first read through, I will return my attentions post mince pies and port

[Kurgan]

We always took the "death save spell" as an exception. Normally heroes can only perform actions on their own turn. If you have any healing spell (that includes a healing spell scroll, treated as a spell in this case) the only situations where it wouldn't work would be:

1) You searched for treasure and triggered a wandering monster or hazard that just killed you.

2) You used an action (attacking, searching, spell) then used your movement to walk right into a trap that killed you.

Otherwise you always get the save, period. Anything else, and a surviving hero will need the Elixir of Life to get you back or you're getting a "new" character next quest. A Healing potion can't be passed to you except on another hero's turn, so it's too late if you don't have one in your inventory at the time of death.

Consider if you DON'T interpret it this way. This means if a Hero dies during Zargon's turn (monster attack), he can NEVER save himself with any healing spell. And since he's used an action when getting a fatal Wandering Monster or Hazard, there's no situation in which a healing spell can EVER save him from dying, hence it SHOULD be deleted as completely irrelevant from the rules. This is why I think my interpretation is actually what was intended.

I believe the "Flashback" Elf spell is another exception because you can re-do the dead hero's turn so he gets a different result that didn't end in death.

None of this comes up in the EU edition because it doesn't exist. The Japanese version handles dead/revived heroes in a very different way.

So I say in the spirit of Christmas, give the good guys a break and let them revive in this interpretation of the rules.