Heroquest remake by Hasbro - The BIG discussion thread

[Shadzar]

But I'd much rather talk about something fun and uplifting than something that makes us all depressed and/or annoyed...

The problem is they re giving nobody anything TO talk about other than these "designers" coming out in various places in D&D videos as part of the design team for HQ. The only thing in 7 months since the Pulse campaign ended, is 3 Tweets and one half-arsed Q&A video that seemed like canned responses. No update to the page from the original announcement that says "Stay tuned for more" and the last was Rogar Hall on 10/22/2020.

71 minis in the base game, they have shown 5, and one of them a piece of furniture in the Twitters. no rules pages, and we saw other "sample" minis in the back of Tweets that they haven't shown yet, and they keep pushing Avalon Hill around inside the company so nobody even knows who will be releasing the game, and HASBRO has made a PR statement about everything having shipping delays from MtG to D&D... does this include they have moved the shipping for HQ from Fall 2021 to Spring 2022?

If they would get off their laurels and provide information... thy have had 8 months to make some touch-ups to a 30 year old games rules. Like the unboxing, they could have posted a list f included cards for equipment/gear even without any new art, some text of the rules since HASBRO makes all its game rules free. But they have done nothing except show dice that many people hated the white pips on the red dice, and the square corners on the special dice, and the 5/71 minis.

How about art of the punchouts? will the trap markers be included? will they have to be cut out of the book like RotWL treasure cards? Will the treasure cards again have to be cut out of the RotWL book?

7 months since Nov 6th when the campaign ended, and only 3 Tweets showing: 1 spell card art, the prototype dice, and 5 painted minis; and one Q&A video that didn't A any real Q's. I think the first Tweet was correct, the designers have been aSLEEP this whole time, and then will whine and cry about "MUH CRUNCH!" when fall gets here.

HASBRO has had $4 million to gain interest on in the bank for 7 months to profit off the interest alone and offered little in return so far for it. Zoe Quinn gave better updates for her failed kickstarter and she only took $75k from people from it.

So if HASBRO got off its tookus and started having PR do its job and release bits and pieces, then people WOULD have something to talk about rather than having to find tidbits form the "designers" hiding in unrelated videos just to grandstand on the products name while saying things that go contrary to the product they are talking about, as well as to HQ itself.

But at least HASBRO has been sending everyone 6 email ads a day for GIJoe and Transformers crap on Pulse while they hope for a single email about the actual thing they already spent money on already.

Lots of fanfare everywhere including nobody Youtubers getting "promo" kits with a painted male dwarf mini, some dice, and a "Tomb" dice box to get people to pledge to the campaign to buy it, then silence after they have our money.

[Kurgan]

Yes, the "negative" speculation is being fueled by the dearth of information released since the fundraiser ended. I agree with you there.

In my mind this is how I pictured it... the project was already done, everything was finished and finalized and everybody had moved on to other things, and they were just going to release a stream of info piecemeal as the fundraiser wound down to keep us entertained, maybe implying new things would be created if we kept pledging. That was what I was thinking more or less at the time. Even though they claimed "production" would begin last November when the thing ended. But "production" to me meant they are running the assembly lines... the liquid plastic is being poured into the molds... the cards are popping out of the printer and being cut, shrink wrapped and shoved into boxes... the tile sheets are being shoved in there... the boards are being printed and glued together... they're stapling and folding the instruction booklets... they're checking the dice to make sure all the faces are printed properly and tossing them into baggies... the assembled boxes are being shrink wrapped... they're slapping the shipping labels on there... the forklifts are stacking up the crates of boxes into the trucks...

As opposed to "let's finally start figuring out how to put this 100% digital stuff into the material world..." Are they in the prototyping stage or what?

We bought the car. Is the car ready to test drive or are they still figuring out how to build it?

First they were going to raise a million dollars to see if it was a viable project... then they were going to see if they could get another 2-3 million for a few bonuses to see if we were really crazy about it. They got their money (over 3 and a half mill) and closed the fundraiser and turned the pledges into orders. They sent us email saying once the box reaches us (Fall 2021), we have 90 days to return it unopened for a full refund.

Then they were going to start "production" whatever that means. So 6 months later what stage are they at? They're still fiddling around with the miniatures in the wrong colors, and dice images on the wrong cubes, and slowly showing us artwork as if they don't have more to show (despite essentially "leaking" a bunch of it with the obscure "card game")? Maybe they'll be sending us beta shots of artwork up until the minute the boxes hit our front steps??

And I don't think this will happen, but imagine a scenario where we get shipped a "beta" and the "real game" isn't even finished yet this fall. And they'll judge the reactions of us "super fans" in order to decide if they want to mass produce it in retail. The most dire predictions of some here is that they won't do that, that the pledging campaign is all there is. But I doubt that. It's going to be some kind of print to order game at the very least through the site. The question is will they sell it in regular stores after all the pledge orders are fulfilled.

You may read this and ask "why are you trying to start negative rumors"? I'm not, but this is the kind of speculation that gets fueled when as a company you're not more straightforward and open with your customers. The stuff we're hearing is more like the "when it's done" that game developers with long delayed products are notorious for giving out... not very convincing. So I'm on the positive side, but I see the other side of it too here.

The way they reacted to comments about the Druid and quickly put up a modified model and card implies things were still fluid, liquid, changeable during the fundraiser. The "play test" for each of the new heroes... were they serious? Or were they saying "here, this should keep you busy for awhile?" Are they going to change the gameplay mechanics of these characters based on what people said online about it after the fact? In other words, was this a public beta test, with stuff like Rogar's Hall, or was it just a PR stunt?

So maybe I was totally wrong, maybe what they implied is actually correct and the thing is being created as we speak. That sort of implies things are up in the air. Maybe Teos and Baker are still editing their quests? The fact is that most of us could whip up a "new" quest in Heroscribe in an hour easily enough, and the story can be whipped up as well, as Teos proved, in a 40 minute interview. The quests themselves could be the last thing to be completed and rushed off to the printers at a moments notice.

But I really have no idea. A third party company like BoardGamesMaker can create (and ship) a whole board game in under a month. Granted, they are 3d printing miniatures and painting them as opposed to using injection molding or whatever and they're creating small batches (or individual sets). Avalon Hill is shipping to multiple continents, but still, you wonder what's going on, and yes, their lack of transparency does create questions and engender fears in fans who think maybe it is going to be a disaster.

Why are their photos of "prototype" dice on the wrong shaped cubes in their twitter feed? If it was already done, why bother doing something like that? Is that a really old photo, or was it taken the date it was posted? Instead of Jonesing for this thing I'm Alex Jonesin'... (X-Files music plays)

I agree, I'm not really interested in their other stuff. If they told us everything and we could just forget about it for another 4 months I guess would be fine. They waited until the last minute to tell us this project existed and they're going to wait until the last minute to tell us what is actually there.

But I've never worked for a games company. I have no idea how they really make board games at these big outfits. I have no idea how their PR campaigns work. I don't know if they are lying or just withholding information or that they really have nothing to talk about. I agree, that part is frustrating and weird.

My suspicion now is that the game is not finished yet, that it's being worked on as we speak, and they'll be lucky to get it finished in time to ship this fall (October-November) as promised. If there are problems, maybe they'll get a lot of negative press and returns, and it won't go to stores after all. Or maybe it will be moderately successful, we'll see. But where the flow of info is concerned... and they've had conventions since then which were further opportunities to clarify (and get people to tune in with the lure of more information).

Either they trust us a lot... or not at all.

[cynthialee]

So I can understand the upset over lack of details from the creators a little. But honestly we have a general idea of the new look and feel. And I don't need constant reminders I will wait until Fall 2021 showing me things I can't have for a long time.

But the upset over dice choices and cries of 'that dude did woke stuff on another project'....?

I will be pissed if I receive what looks like clones of the old dice. I was rather let down the day I opened my first HeroQuest box back in the ancient days.
And I expect to get stuff that is more in line with contemporary aesthetics. If I was to receive a near clone of what I already have....that would be a serious piss me off.

And oh, my Goddess>>>! Someone out there has opinions and politics that others disagree with. We got 2 sides in this country and both thinks the other side sucks beans. Learn to live with it. I certainly get to eat crap on all sides with my blend of conservative, dystopian and socially conscious politics....

[Kurgan]

I expect the dice to look exactly like the dice they showed in the trailer and the digital mockup on the page. This isn't 1989, I expect the commercial to show the final product, since that's what I pledged for. It's not too much to ask!

The whole point is that it's a near clone, changing it up now to make it more different would be, to my mind, false advertising. Maybe that's why they're not telling us about so much of it, to give them the option to change it last minute? Who knows. Hopefully they change as little mechanics as possible. I want surprises in the new quest books, but no need to fix what isn't broken. The move to change from gray to colored minis was announced during the fundraiser, so was the change in the miniature/card aesthetic of the Druid.

Yeah the politics would get silly. It's like you know what this game needs, more discussion of hot topics ripped from the headlines... I'm sure that won't happen, unless they are complete and utter morons. When companies and celebs make it sound like you need to agree with their beliefs to buy their product, all they're doing is alienating potential customers for no good reason.

I don't care about the personal politics, religious beliefs, or personality of the developers. If they give me a good product worthy of the game's legacy, that's all I need. I don't want to know the rest, unless they're running for public office/pastor of my church/proposing marriage to me.

[Shadzar]

I'm Alex Jonesin'...

They're turning the freaking Aboleths gay!?

[Kurgan]

That makes me think he'd make a great Zargon in a parody commercial. Okay, no more temptations to political jokes...

[iKarith]

For what it's worth, manufacturing this thing is a six month process if it's a day. You've gotta design the molds, get them built and samples made, send the samples back for review and evaluation, and this process can happen two or three times before it's ready to go. Then production starts, which takes about four months really for the kind of quantity they're likely making.

[Shadzar]

HeroQuest Twitter hacked?

https://twitter.com/heroquest/status/1401901808436617216

[Kurgan]

Zargon, open the door!


Perhaps now with a strong ruler, we'll start getting results. *







* and it's just a PR stunt rather than an actual hacking.

[iKarith]

HeroQuest Twitter hacked?

https://twitter.com/heroquest/status/1401901808436617216

Now we shall see if he knows how to use it.