5. HQ25 - Spells, tiles, mechanics and misc

[Gold Bearer]

Don't know. Sjeng mentioned the tile but I don't know where it's from. 2x2, 2x3 or 3x3 would all be okay.

Pestilence
Can be cast on any target (friend or foe) in sight surrounding them with foul pestilent fumes and causing any non undead/Nurgle/swamp based characters adjacent (including diagonally adjacent) to them to attack and defend with one less combat dice than normal. The target rolls a standard dice at the start of each of their turns and if they roll under their current mind points the spell wears off. The effects of pestilence, cloud of flies and Nurgles rot are not cumulative.

Nurgle Chaos Warrior
Movement: 4. Attack: 3. Defend: 4. Body Points: 4. Mind Points: 3.
Chaos warriors who worship Nurgle, the god of disease and pestilence, are permanently surrounded by a cloud of noxious fumes commonly referred to as Nurgles rot. Any non undead/Nurgle/swamp based characters adjacent (including diagonally adjacent) to them attack and defend with one less combat dice than normal. The effects of pestilence, cloud of flies and Nurgles rot are not cumulative.

And nurgle chaos sorcerers with the same special rule who use swamp magic instead of/as well as chaos spells.

Swamp Goblin
Movement: 8. Attack: 2. Defend: 2. Body Points: 1. Mind Points: 1.
Swamp goblins can attack diagonally.

No swamp orcs. They don't sound as good and orcs are commonly used as it is.

Orc Boss
Orc bosses tend to be better equipped than most other orcs. They defend with three combat dice and can attack diagonally. Use the models with the ball and chains for orc bosses.

[MrBigB]

I blink and 2 new threads pop up lol.

Some outstanding stuff is being posted here! Swamp Zombies?? LOVE IT! As for a name, "fog" doesn't quite sound swampy enough Marsh or Muck Walker sounded cool, but frankly good old Swamp Zombie had a particular campy appeal to it Ultimately I'm good with whatever.

Thought of this for a spell, but can't word it to save my life. Help?

Creeping Snare:
Can be cast on any square in caster's line if sight. Causes deadly vines to ensnare any character on that square. Ensnared cannot move, and are limited to 1A & 1D until freed. Vines have 4 HP, and must be defeated as a combat action. Allies may assist in freeing the ensnared. Once cast, vines will ensnare any creature who stops on that square. Undead and Famir are immune.

P.S. Swamp Goblins and Orc Bosses seem a little unnecessary Goblins seem like a great fit for a swamp theme, but don't we already have a goblin variant that attacks diagonally? And an Orc Boss could be defined in the quest notes like in the original HQ with Ulag in Q3.

[knightkrawler]

Don't know. Sjeng mentioned the tile but I don't know where it's from. 2x2, 2x3 or 3x3 would all be okay.

Pestilence
Can be cast on any target (friend or foe) in sight surrounding them with foul pestilent fumes and causing any non undead/Nurgle/swamp based characters adjacent (including diagonally adjacent) to them to attack and defend with one less combat dice than normal. The target rolls a standard dice at the start of each of their turns and if they roll under their current mind points the spell wears off. The effects of pestilence, cloud of flies and Nurgles rot are not cumulative.

Nurgle Chaos Warrior
Movement: 4. Attack: 3. Defend: 4. Body Points: 4. Mind Points: 3.
Chaos warriors who worship Nurgle, the god of disease and pestilence, are permanently surrounded by a cloud of noxious fumes commonly referred to as Nurgles rot. Any non undead/Nurgle/swamp based characters adjacent (including diagonally adjacent) to them attack and defend with one less combat dice than normal. The effects of pestilence, cloud of flies and Nurgles rot are not cumulative.

And nurgle chaos sorcerers with the same special rule who use swamp magic instead of/as well as chaos spells.

Swamp Goblin
Movement: 8. Attack: 2. Defend: 2. Body Points: 1. Mind Points: 1.
Swamp goblins can attack diagonally.

No swamp orcs. They don't sound as good and orcs are commonly used as it is.

Orc Boss
Orc bosses tend to be better equipped than most other orcs. They defend with three combat dice and can attack diagonally. Use the models with the ball and chains for orc bosses.

Nurgle Chaos Warriors would be the personal special rule stuff a quest writer comes up with. No need to pry regular monsters with special rules.
Also, Swamp Goblin? No. The kobolds are in that arc with very similar stats.

[Gold Bearer]

As for a name, "fog" doesn't quite sound swampy enough Marsh or Muck Walker sounded cool, but frankly good old Swamp Zombie had a particular campy appeal to it Ultimately I'm good with whatever.

I prefer the sound of marshwalkers but I really like the image that fogwalkers conjures up. Mistwalkers?

Thought of this for a spell, but can't word it to save my life. Help?

Creeping Snare:
Can be cast on any square in caster's line if sight. Causes deadly vines to ensnare any character on that square. Ensnared cannot move, and are limited to 1A & 1D until freed. Vines have 4 HP, and must be defeated as a combat action. Allies may assist in freeing the ensnared. Once cast, vines will ensnare any creature who stops on that square. Undead and Famir are immune.

Creeping Snare
Can be cast on any square in casters line of sight causing deadly vines to ensnare any character to occupy that square. An ensnared target cannot move and attacks and defends with one combat dice until freed. The vines have 4 body points but don't defend. An ensnared target or any directly adjacent allies can attack the vines. Once cast, the spell remains in play until the vines are destroyed and will ensnare any creature other than undead or fimir who end their turn on that square.

Acid Spray
Acidic vapours fly from the casters finger tips to envelope a target in sight with a corrosive slush. The target rolls a combat dice, on a skull they take one body point of damage and on a black shield they take one body point of damage and any non magical armour they may be wearing (not a shield or helmet) is discarded.

I think fifteen swamp spells. Although I still prefer marsh spells.

P.S. Swamp Goblins and Orc Bosses seem a little unnecessary Goblins seem like a great fit for a swamp theme, but don't we already have a goblin variant that attacks diagonally? And an Orc Boss could be defined in the quest notes like in the original HQ with Ulag in Q3.

Nurgle Chaos Warriors would be the personal special rule stuff a quest writer comes up with. No need to pry regular monsters with special rules.

I know. I knew somebody would say that. 'The zombies/goblins/chaos warriors/chaos sorcerer in this quest are fogwalkers/swamp goblins/Nurgle worshippers and have the following stats and special rules...' The nurgle chaos warrior is the Euro chaos warrior+, and I like the idea of a swamp spell casting chaos sorcerer.

Also, Swamp Goblin? No. The kobolds are in that arc with very similar stats.

Just an idea. Fimirs lead goblins. It says so in the quest book.

Marsh Skeletons
Movement: 4. Attack: 2. Defend: 2. Body Points: 2. Mind Points: 0.
Marsh skeletons are the long dead remains of fogwalkers whose soggy puss filled infections have finally striped their bodies of any remaining flesh. Their bones drip with weed and slime but they are no longer carriers of the foul and hideous swamp diseases that plague their more recently deceased undead brethren, but they can still be dangerous in large numbers. Marsh skeletons can attack diagonally.

[gootchute]

Swamp Goblins would be Boglars, as described in the Ogre Kingdoms army book. But since we have Kobolds (mountain dwellers in old world fluff) they would be redundant as noted.

[Daedalus]

Keeping up on vacation is hard, but time to throw out my opinions. As a global comment, I'd say it is important that our primary purpose is to create a playable expansion for others to enjoy, rather than to showcase a plethora of individual ideas. We need to find a balance of new material gleaned from our experienced, creative consensus while conforming to published standards most any interested Hero Quest player will expect. Otherwise, this won't see much play.

Chapter 2
Q4-Q8: path 1: follow the dragonkin lead: (Knightkrawler, gootchute and sajungzak: My ideas revolve around Kobold Dragonpriests and Dragonshields flooding the swamps and convincing the Fimir that the Great Wyrm is supposed to be awakened somewhere deeper in the bog where even the Fimir who worship dragons in general and the Great Wyrm in particular didn't think it is.
Of course, the two factions work together grudgingly to find the resting place, all under the eye of Morcar who wants the body of the Great Wyrm as a vassal all for himself (his essence), sending his chaos henchmen to steal the surprisingly young and little dragon thingie.
Morcar finds out it fell mystically asleep as a mere hatchling (or was "convinced" to do so) and abducts it into the chaos wastes for the beastmen and chaos dwarfs who have been called from their own industrious purposes in their own bloody brass city to watch over it and for their practitioners of magic and science to find ways to accomplish Morcar's plan.)

Five Quests of the planned 25 Quests is allotted to spells featuring Swamp Spells. It would be unprecedented and in my opinion crowded for all of these Quests to contain a spellcaster, so I'd say we only need a manageable number spells for the 3 or so spellcasters of this chapter. I'm in favor of following published precedents as a sensible guide, so that things are kept on track with Hero Quest simplicity and economy. WoM, the EQP, and the BQP are all limited to a total of six spells in a single set. To best match, I'd say limit ourselves to the most useful six Swamp Spells. Not only should they be enough to satisfy story thematic play, but less printing and effort is required to produce them--a bonus to any DIY project. If we also limit ourselves to six new Chaos spells, combined with the NA Chaos spells there should be enough to carry the story. That leaves more ink and creation time that can be devoted to other materials, such as tiles and play aids.

I'm in favor of less spells for another reason. The time commitments required to produce a quality, cohesive art-style shouldn't be underestimated. Each spell card will require its own drawing unless a suitable proxy can be found in the HQ-published pool. So far, only Goblin-King has been presented as a suitable victim candidate for making the needed pictures. We should be careful not to overreach our production capabilities.

For the same reason, I would also suggest abandoning the Swamp Spell card back in favor of simply using the Chaos Spell card back. The time needed to produce quality color art is great. The NA expansions already dropped individual spell group backs for monster spells. It would be great if we could have individual Swamp Spell Card art for the back, but this would only work if Goblin-King or another competent artist was willing to undertake the project and could execute it on a timely basis. The cost to this simplified design solution is less organization as the various Chaos Spells grow into a single, large pool of cards. I'd suggest a possible compromise: simply add the Swamp Spell banner to the Chaos Spell Card back.

Finally (for now), while I think less spell cards is a good idea, I don't mean to imply good ideas need to be dropped altogether. Some of the spell suggestions to date might find better implementation in Quest Notes as special effects or monsters of an area. After a vote is made for Swamp Spells, I hope to see some of the other great ideas included in this way.

[Teldurn]

What Daedalus said convinces me to stick with 6 cards to the set.

However, I'm not yet entirely convinced of merging it into the Chaos deck, however, but I do appreciate the place that sentiment is coming from.

[Schmidt]

[Reveal] Spoiler: swamp spell image

image.jpg

Crop it, filter it to make it look a little more like a drawing and perhaps a little darker/spookier.

From here:
http://src.sfasu.edu/~jvk/PineywoodsEco ... wamps.html

I googled "swamp drawing" and a lot of nice artwork showed up, but that would be stealing, right

[knightkrawler]

I also strongly suggest 6 Swamp spells and 6 new Chaos spells.
As for a Swamp spell card back: if we find an artist, he'll whip one up.

[Gold Bearer]

There were six spells in wom for EACH magician, one character! We're them as a generic spell set for multiple characters. They could also be used outside of that section. A nurgle sorcerer could appear anywhere. If we start needlessly cutting spells just for the sake of it KK's trap spell, disease and summon fogwalkers will all have to go because their effects can be included without the spells. That would be such a shame because they're some of the best spells. I really can't understand the mentality of wanting to limit the spells, because? I can't even think why. Not everything has to be original artwork, as long as we've got permission to use it.

[Reveal] Spoiler: swamp spell image

image.jpg

That's perfect!

Swamp Goblins would be Boglars, as described in the Ogre Kingdoms army book. But since we have Kobolds (mountain dwellers in old world fluff) they would be redundant as noted.

Okay, how about this?

Swampling
Movement: 8. Attack: 1. Defend: 1. Body points: 1. Mind points: 1.
Swamplings are small goblinoids that frequent the marshes and bogs where they don't get kicked out by bigger creatures. They tend to be found in groups for their own safety and prefer to attack from a distance. They are armed with slings can attack any target in sight and can also attack diagonally.

I made that marsh skeleton completely tongue in cheek, as kind of a self- parody, but I'm really starting to like them now.

Acid spray would make a good trap as well.