HeroQuest 25th anniversary crowdfunding!

[Goblin-King]

Welcome to DIE!

[ScooterinAB]

I know that there has been a little bit of talk about the Kickstarter campaign that's running right now. I wanted to hear what the community thinks about this (more the ramifications of the release rather than personal feelings) and get a better idea as to it's support. Obviously, the campaign has grossly exceeded it's goal, so something is going to happen.

What I know legally regarding HQ:
-The game was set against GW's IP. Certain monsters, the background, and possibly art all come from GW.
-Hasbro, the rights holder for the game itself, seems to not give to hairs of a rat's behind about the game, but also seems completely uninterested in letting anyone touch the property.
-The North American (and possibly UK?) rights to the name were lost decades ago. Edit: I should clarify by adding "by Hasbro." I know that they trademark is currently owned by the creator of RuneQuest. My apologies.
-Gamezone claims to have secured the Spanish rights to the game, but it is unclear exactly what those rights entail.
-It's already been stated that certain elements are being reworks due to a lack of GW IP rights, which calls into question exactly what Gamezone has.
-GW is known to be absolutely nuts about IP protection. Even without using protected properties, this company is a loose cannon and could try to shut this down at some point and claim ownership of all of the property rights, even though they really don't.
-Hasbro could take a similar, yet less ridiculous approach if Gamezone/anyone else try and market this outside of KS, since they only have the Spanish rights.
-The project is based out of Canada (woot) to some degree or another. That drags up some more legal questions.
-The entire legality behind this project is questionable at best, as is its future following the KS campaign.

With that being said, it begs the question about how much of this project is actually HeroQuest. The models look great and the Gamezone seems to really like the property. But without GW's IP and with a questionable legal situation, is this going to be a new version HeroQuest or just an unauthorized fan remake? I really don't know what to make of this. If I back this, is it just going to be a cool coffee table piece when I continue playing "Classic" HQ? Are the rules just going to be one of dozens of fan rewrites that stray from the game we love? Are the quests just going to be some made up or edgy remake? Aside from the cool looking models (which obviously don;t match the GW style that we are used to), is this going to feel like I downloaded this material from someone's website?

Cost is something that concerns me. The base game is $100 with no quote on shipping. I could literally be paying $200 for this. The cost quickly jumps to over $150 in order to take advantage of the additional material they are making. Given the rough legal future this game will likely face, one would kind of want to get everything now or risk never seeing it again. Again, the long distance shipping and increased weight of all the extra components could make this $300 or more. There is an obligation to pay whatever they want to collect for shipping (even if they aren't profiting) that makes me want to tread carefully.

This just seems like a lovely mess. So much can go wrong before the project ships, be it legally, financially, or spiritually. Yet this seems like a fantastic project to dive into.

What do you guys think? Have I missed anything about the state o the game or the KS project? Will you be backing it? Are some (or all) of the things I mentioned holding you back?

I'd love to hear what you think.

[TMU]

Everything we think can be found in that thread.

[Schmidt]

About shipping: I just tried to put ten games in my basket and the shipping went from 1 game=~10€ to 10 games=~35€
This is from Spain to Denmark ~2500 km

[Jackyboy]

I'm really seriouslly considering buying the new HeroQuest!

Having looked through the offical website and seeing the extras on offer and the fact that they will print your name on the box (nice touch!) I'm thinking I want to get this for my young boy (he's only 2) and keep it for him until he is old enough to play it. I know the artwork is different and not liked by many (myself included), but I'm thinking that the main reason is probably because we all fell in love with the original. Younger generations may feel the same about this 25th anniversary set.

So now the question for me arises.... If I purchase one now with the kickstater am I definitely going to see either the product or a full refund????

[Sjeng]

Well, technically, KS is a gamble. Most companies have nearly zero risks involved, but with these Spanish people I'm not convinced yet. GameZone is an older company, they make minis, but last year I ordered a few GZ minis through another miniature webstore in the NL, and it took a few weeks, because they were out of stock and GZ was slow in supplying minis. So in my humble opinion, if a few minis takes them weeks, then how will thousands of full gamesets fare with them?
And once your money is taken, it's theirs. KS will have it's percentage, so will Amazon, so that part is gone. The rest is GZ's, so even IF they refund everyone after a failure, you'll have lost a percentage.

I only back projects I'm at least 99% sure of, like Reaper (Bones), MERCS (Myth), CMoN (Zombicide) and such. Mantic is also a good company. GZ is just not on my safe list.

[chaoticprime]

Yeah, what Sjeng just said applies to me (largely) also.

[Patroclus]

if there is something that you hate so profoundly, so passionately, something that's very existence causes you excruciating agony. you have no choice: hunt down these people, capture them. torture them. kill their friends and family in front of them, make their children beg for mercy before your slowly and savagely snuff out their short, pointless lives in front of their now gibbering sires. hell even kill their dogs and flush their goldfish down the toilet. then and only then will these scumbags know: there is only one HeroQuest. and it is yours.
OR
just stop reading this thread and looking at the KS. just a suggestion.
there's a whole ton of crap in this world that i think lessens the species and make me feel ashamed to be human. war, poverty, religious intolerance, hitler, justin beiber, the list goes on. i dont have anything to do with any of them.
except justin beiber. im hunting him down.
anyone know if he has a goldfish?

This is absolutely wrong. Sjeng (and everyone else) can say his opinion even if we agree with him or not. He is playing the game for so many years and as the most of people here is expecting something better than a cartoon game with nice minis and lots of promises. I am not sure if I don’t buy it, but don’t forget that we are people who have buy lots of GW minis, have make many custom adventures, create numerous new spell cards and so many other stuff, it’s very hard for a game to convinced us that it’s a “must”. In fact we don’t “need it”.

In the other hand there are lots of minis in this box, and the furniture looks great. 50 quests, and the spell cards could have many good ideas. But I understand that if someone don’t need more orcs or chaos warriors because, for example, he has the battalion of chaos warriors from GW, and he don’t want the plastic furniture, with 100€ he can buy so many things from ebay. Ask yourself, do you want to buy the new HQ or with the same money to buy the dark elf battalion and to make a campaign settings for dark elves?… it’s a good question and I can’t personally answer that.

Of course, I’ve read in the comments of KS that they are planning to make expansions too, and that’s good news. But I am not sure if I should buy it now or wait until I learn more details about the mechanics of the game. I can’t forget the video of KS which said that they will “debug” the rules… I want to see those changes.

And about the rewards of KS?...... No comments…

[Sjeng]

I just don't like the fact that "some company" in Spain who happens to have had the rights to sell HQ in 1989 now claims to release an OFFICIAL remake of HQ, 25th anniversary, and do so by changing basic elements of the game such as the cards, spells, RULES, the damn BOARD, and even the fimir, because, guess what, they DON'T have the rights for THAT. How "Official" does that sound to you?

As said before, this is a bootleg, plain and simple, and GZ wants to make some easy money off of the name that a different company has made with its game. Not that I like GW that much, but HQ is a game by GW and MB, and has only been released ONCE (well, twice if you count the immediate revised edition 1 year later plus the US version of the game).

It's nice to make a 25th anniversary HQ, but as a FAN project, not as a so-called official release by what I still think is a shady company. This stinks all over. I'm a man orc of principles, and this is crossing the line.

[knightkrawler]

-Hasbro, the rights holder for the game itself, seems to not give to hairs of a rat's behind about the game, but also seems completely uninterested in letting anyone touch the property.
-The North American (and possibly UK?) rights to the name were lost decades ago.

I don't think so. The name is in use, even without the space in between Hero and Quest.
I've mentioned it before and as long as this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeroQuest_%28role-playing_game%29 isn't directly addressed I'll keep my hands so off of this project...

And I'm still completely with Sjeng on this. Just won't comment it anymore as my posts seem to be ignored profoundly and with a vengeance.