HEROQUEST - COMPANION APP discussion

[Kurgan]

Strictly talking about the Remake (which is based upon the NA edition), and not to derail the conversation about THE APP further (Bareheaded Warrior, you seem to want to argue with me a lot of points lately, good for you, but at a certain point I think you're just trolling me), I'm going to just say this...

"Good" cards that are drawn get taken out of the Treasure deck and discarded after you record it on your character sheet (follow instructions on the card). That's the point. You don't get another chance to enjoy these until the next quest. Only bad cards get put back in, and they go to the bottom like it says. They are put at the bottom, but the shuffling again takes place before the next Treasure draw. Those of us (including myself) who choose to only shuffle ONCE before each adventure are homebrewing it. Yes, the rules could have been written a little clearer, but the reason we got it wrong back in the day is because we were skipping around the instructions, trying to get into the game as quickly as possible. Reading it end to end shows the intention much more clearly... you are intended to shuffle as many times as there are treasure searches that don't turn up a quest note.

But like everything else, if you don't like it, you can change it. So all the people who hate rolling to move, or want to get rid of death saves, think the Crossbow is OP and needs nerfing, want to buff the Wizard, prefer to walk up to Treasure chests to mime opening them, bring back cards limiting equipment stock, or revamp the prices for anything and everything, were and always will be free to do so, no matter what the rules actually state, and no matter what Avalon Hill says about it on social media and no matter what Kurgan says on YeOldeInn (the only rule in that game spirit is that you respect what Zargon/Morcar/Grimdead says at your table until it's your turn to GM). And remember, this is coming from someone who uses a LOT of homebrew, house rules, and does NOT follow the intended rules strictly. I am not knocking anyone else's ability to do that, but I do try to understand what the intentions of the designers were/are in these fun little discussions that may inform our own table decisions. Your mileage with other games besides HeroQuest may vary...

That kind of sandbox freedom is part of the rules and spirit of HeroQuest. So if you don't want to shuffle, don't shuffle. If you want to keep the cards in there, do that. If you want to combine decks, and print more of them, or get rid of the deck altogether and implement tables or roll a die or something instead, have at it.

So I'm very grateful that the Companion App does not ENFORCE how you handle the Treasure deck. It's just one more area where you can freely ignore it and substitute your own if you wish and it still works. It's the kind of thing they probably did on purpose not just to save memory, but to give room for the various favorite interpretations throughout the community.

[TheLastChaosWarrior]

I love the App. It's the only way I get to play as the Hero's!! Hard to find people to play in Norfolk UK!!

[Kurgan]

You could join us on twitch if the time is right. We've played with UK fans before on Friday afternoons. Again, sorry to get off topic.

[SirRick]

So after using the app a bit, some things I would change for ease of use purposes:

One is I wish we could change the party order after the party has been created. Such as on the quest select screen, we could change the order around like we could when creating the party.

The second thing I would change is the psuedo-character sheets. They allow you to change the character’s name, but that is the only thing that is saved. You can adjust their stats to match their current equipment for example, but these adjustments get reset when you start a new quest. If you could change the starting weapon listed, the app wouldn’t have to ask you repeatedly what weapon you are using when attacking the Witch Lord. If you fought the Witch Lord using the app, you will know what I am talking about. I know the ability to adjust the stats is to account for spell effects and such, but its of little use if you can’t change what their main stats are most of the time. If you use your trusty Battle Axe 90% of the time, you should be able to change your starting weapon on the app. Same with armor. If most of the time your hero is using Borin’s Armor, a Shield, and a Helmet, you should be able to add that to Starting Armor on that screen.

We have our paper character sheets to keep track of this stuff, but for temporary adjustments, using the app is nice. Its just that starting stats of a new hero are of little relevance after the first quest or two.

Edit: I just finished Quest 4: The Dwarven Forge. I had the Wizard cast Pass Through Rock on the Barbarian so he could pass through a wall and attack an enemy from behind on his next turn. The spell is broken immediately when the Wizard ends his turn, and not after the Barbarian’s next move. Its not a big deal because the app will allow you to cast the spell again out of order to achieve the result you want. I noticed this before in earlier quests but forgot to mention it.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

Isn't this what I was doing?
Only shuffle when a bad card is drawn and returned to the deck?

Don't worry, you are doing it correctly.

When drawing the good cards, the randomness of the remaining deck hasn't changed, so shuffling it before the next draw makes no difference and therefore it's not worth doing.

Yes TheLastChaosWarrior you are correct that is exactly as per the rules, and cornixt your logic is spot on (and much shorter than my explanation!) you shuffle at the beginning and when you return a "bad" card to the deck so that the condition in the rulebook "The Treasure Cards must be shuffled before a Hero draws one from the deck" remains true, the cards are always in a shuffled state before a Hero draws one from the deck.

[TheLastChaosWarrior]

You could join us on twitch if the time is right. We've played with UK fans before on Friday afternoons. Again, sorry to get off topic.

What is twitch?

[SirRick]

Today I finished Quest 9: The East Gate from KK. When I encountered the Shapechanger monster, the app doesn’t do anything. It just stands there and does not move or attack. I had to defeat close to ten monsters before it finally died, but the whole time it just stood there doing nothing. Whenever you activated Zargon’s turn, Zargon would say something stupid and then say its the heroes turn. I don’t know if this happened with anyone else, or not.

Another issue, is later when trying to escape the exit door, the Dwarf does not get the advantage of rolling only 1 red die when opening the door. Its not mentioned anywhere. The mechanic in general is very poor since the Barbarian or the Knight need snake eyes to get through the door. After rolling the dice 50+ times I just said the Knight made the roll to get through. Also as discussed in other threads, an unfortunate encounter with Borokk could make finishing the quest impossible. The app does not allow you to voluntarily leave a quest through the entrance door so you could technically be trapped in the East Gate forever it you don’t cheat and say you made the roll.

[TheLastChaosWarrior]

Yes I had that problem with the shapeshifting monster. Just sat there.
Then I just realised later in the game it had disappeared.
I was glad! That monster can be a right swine to deal with!!!!

[Kurgan]

You could join us on twitch if the time is right. We've played with UK fans before on Friday afternoons. Again, sorry to get off topic.

What is twitch?

http://www.twitch.tv/heroquestfans

It's a streaming platform focused (in theory) on games. Owned by Amazon, a lot of people are critical of the platform and how they do things, etc. similar to other big platforms like youtube for content creation.

Every week we record a live game of HeroQuest with cameras pointed at the board, and a chat running in the background where people can talk over voice and roll virtual dice (and I move the pieces onscreen to correspond to what is done). We've done it for years and it's quite a bit of fun! A few people control heroes, the rest can influence the game in the chat.

The service is free, but supported by advertising. People CAN contribute money if they want to, to creators but it isn't required to enjoy the interaction.

[SirRick]

Yesterday I finished Quest 10: Grin’s Crag. The quest was fairly uneventful. In the room with the swirling darkness tile, if a character rolls a 6, everyone in the room gets damaged if you roll a skull on one combat die. The problem is the app and the quest book give no instructions on what to do after you resolve what happens. The character just stays in the room. The book says you can’t see any of the doors while in the room. In the app you have no choice but to just move your character to whatever door you want, and the room does not count any of your steps while moving around. So from reading the book, and from what the app does or doesn’t do, there is no real way to determine what exactly you are supposed to do.