wallydubbs wrote:Just wondering, in this new edition of Hero Quest where North America now has equipment cards, there are multiple cards now for various items, there's only 1 set of Bracers, though, are those just a 1 time buy? Or could more then one hero have the Bracers too?
Otherwise why would there be multiple helmet and Longsword cards, etc?
They have explained this in the remake Rulebook and elsewhere many times because like you, many people are confused by this, thinking that limited cards means limited stock/supply, but it's not true. They have said nothing has changed... you "buy" or find the item, you look at the card, write it down and then return the card to the deck/pile/etc. It is still available to other characters, but they used this presumably to save cost on making a nice "armory board" menu (which I think is easier for shopping but that's me) that they can then more easily expand it later and they know SOME players (maybe EU players?) like to have the cards at their spot to refer to.
But if you're wielding a broadsword, do you really need to "refer" to the card every time you attack? It rolls 3 combat dice. That's all it is! You can buy all the broadswords you can afford even if you are not holding the card and it's fine.
But yes, they gave multiples of certain things so you could have them as a luxury item. Why would they want to limit the dagger to one purchase, but let you buy three longswords, battle axes and crossbows? That would make no sense. But never fear, that's not the rule!
In fact, in the 1st Edition of HeroQuest (1989) there was no rule that cards limited supply either. But more than a few players "remember" (or thought they remembered) there being a rule just because there were two copies of the helmet and two of the shield. But the 2nd edition (1990) removed these dupes and added the bracers and cloak (having more to do with space on the printer sheet than any thought of game mechanics). The Adventure Design kit gave you a new character sheet and reminded/clarified that you write it down, meaning you don't have to hang onto cards to have those abilities. That was the intention anyway.
Now there is ONE official edition that explicitly DOES limit Equipment/Armory supply by cards, and that's the Japanese game system (1991). But that edition has other changes like that each Hero has equipment limitations not just the Wizard (Elf can't wear body armor and is the only one who can use the crossbow; Warrior aka Barbarian is the only one who can use the strongest sword/armor.... every hero has one legendary weapon that only they can use, etc).
So the only truly "limited stock" items are the Treasure cards, but even those go back into the deck and you can "stockpile" the same potion quest after quest if you want to, according to the NA/Remake rules. If you're the sort who demands a copy of a card for each instance of an item, okay, but that's not how the game was designed (and I hope you have a very large printing budget! those quest books are filled with items that have no card or don't care about the stock!). Heroes don't have to fight over the "last" of any of the bits of equipment. Some might find it "more realistic" somehow, but like some other proposed house rules I don't use, what kind of realism is it that there's only one boardsword in the entire Kingdom/Realm/Empire for sale???
So don't worry about buying multiple copies of the new game system so you can have "enough" cards to equip all your heroes. Just use a pencil.
