Ye Olde Inn

by **Teldurn** » August 25th, 2014, 4:51 pm

Can I request to have this thread also moved to the HeroQuest Prime forum please? Who do I need to blow ask to get that done?

Quest 2: The First of Five
The heirloom you recovered for Lady Argand is actually the legendary artifact known as the Everlasting Circlet. However, the Circlet is missing its five Gems of Power. Each of these jewels is a powerful artifact in its own right, and each will grant unique powers to whoever possesses them. One of these gems are said to be contained in these ruins.

this quest has two exits, along right side, all the way up and all the way down, one way leads into the sewers (Q3), the other to the foothills (Q4).
give them the circlet artifact card at beginning of the quest
Goblin, Kobold, Orc, Fimir, Chaos Warrior, Gargoyle (stronger ones of each/casters)
one gem artifact (ruby)
Edgemoor Manor ruined and something else.
spear and pit traps
Wandering Monster: Orc

Quest 3: Chasing Kazgotul
The Dwarven sorcerer Kazgotul has found one of the gems in the foothills near the city of Southport, perhaps trying to assemble the pieces of the Everlasting Circlet for himself! Loretome warns of a most terrible evil that will be unleashed upon the world should the Circlet fall into the hands of any with a tainted soul. You must stop Kazgotul from succeeding! The Emperor will reward each Hero with 250 gold coins if they recover the gem.

Kazgotul leaves through a portal after casting one spell (he says “No, ye fools! Ye don’ know wha’ ye’re doin’!”), he is immune to damage (to Q5), another door elsewhere leads outside to the Lostwere forest (Q6)
Sapphire
orcs+shaman, fimir, chaos warrior
a note about the tower of despair from the Keeper of the Grove (lead to Q6)
Wandering monster: Fimir

Quest 4: It’s A Dirty Job...
A hooded figure has been spotted heading into the sewers beneath the city of Nirn, no doubt seeking the Gems of Power. Stop him if you can! But he is sure to be cunning and leave traps for any who try to follow him. You will each be rewarded 250 gold coins for your effort upon your return.

switch/lever/door button with statue
Sapphire
hooded figure is Kazgotul the sorcerer
use sewer geomorph map or the HQ map with wide corridors
gelatinous cubes in corridors, orc, fimir, chaos warrior, scorpion, vermin
Wandering Monster: 2 Goblin Grunts

Quest 5: Stoneforge Keep
The portal delivered you to the entrance of an abandoned keep built into the side of a mountain, once belonging to the Stoneforge clan of Dwarves. Rumors speak of Trolls that have since taken up residence. Rumors also claim Trolls hate fire, but none who go to the Keep ever return to verify the claim.

use dragon strike castle? board or underground geomorphs, with troll lair tile
One room with wizard furniture has Kazgotul’s name on it.
2 Trolls or more
scorpions
Pearl on one troll
Wandering monster: Skeleton

Quest 6: The Keeper of the Grove
The forces of Chaos have activated a portal in the Elven forest of Lostwere, admitting Zargon’s corrupted minions! Old Aithlin, the Keeper of the Grove, knows the ritual to disable the portal, but because of the invasion, he cannot reach the sacred Druidic altar by himself. Help him reach the altar and cleanse the forest before continuing on your journey.

use Lostwere forest + other forest tiles with druid’s altar tile. Start with fading-end-of-path forest tile
use dungeon entrance for exit to Q8, empty plains for graveyard exit Q9, both on opposite corners of map
Aithlin knows all 3 Plant spells, AD 1, DD 2, BP 3, MP 7, Move 4 (very old, walks with a staff)
Aithlin needs 3 uninterrupted rounds to complete the cleansing ritual at the altar with a scroll he’s holding
If he is killed, one player needs to use the scroll at the altar for 3 uninterrupted rounds without taking ANY actions. Druid characters need only 2 rounds.
If the ritual is successful, all monsters on the board die instantly.
If Aithlin survives, he gives each remaining Hero 200 gold. If he is killed, he will show up in Q9 as a ghost.
Pearl
Portal: Every round, roll 1 Combat Die:
- Skull: 2 Goblin Captains
- White Shield: 1 Chaos Warrior, 1 Orc Archer
- Black Shield: 1 Gargoyle
Wandering Monster: none

Quest 7: Daena the Daft
Somewhere in the marshy fens lives a mad alchemist with an unpredictable temperament. Her shelves are bare and she needs more ingredients for her craft. Help her fetch 3 bundles of reagents and then return to her hut. But beware! She is just as likely to sell you potions and spell scrolls as she is to feed you to her pets or decide to use you as an ingredient.

Start in hut
Daena: AD 3 (Halberd), DD 3, BP 4, MP 6, Move 8
Every round, roll one Combat Die.
- Skull: she and all nearby vermin become hostile and attack.
- Anything else: she and all nearby vermin become friendly. Daena does not engage in combat with monsters.
As a reward for being returned to her hut with the 3 bundles, she will sell Potions and Spell Scrolls at half price.
Pearl
lots of Vermin scattered throughout
Fimir, kobolds w shaman, OGRES, maybe gargoyle
Leads to graveyard Q9
Wandering monster: Kobold Demolitionist

Quest 8: Fort Wyvernskill
That wily Dwarf sorcerer Kazgotul has once again been spotted, this time heading toward the mountain pass at Fort Wyvernskill. He has found the Emerald Gem of Power. Stop him and retrieve that Gem!

leads to cavern Q10 or catacombs Q11
Kazgotul explains he is a demon hunter, and how the tomb of Lich Outh’velok was opened when this Circlet was taken. He is trying to get the Everlasting Circlet reassembled to stop the lich. The circlet is the key to locking the tomb so the lich never comes back.
Emerald
use fort wyvernskill map + rivers/bridge
Wandering monster: __________

Quest 9: A Pile of Bones
Loretome has revealed to me that one of Outh’velok’s chief necromancers has discovered how to conjure undead endlessly. The Emperor has decreed a bounty of 1000 gold coins for the successful dispatching of this evil menace.

If Aithlin was killed in Q6, he shows up here as a ghost <at letter>. Gives Heroes 3 free spell scrolls (Infernal Itching, Courage, Chill)
Use night-cemetery and something else to make it two levels deep. use 2x3 skull tile for respawning skeletons every round.
Emerald
skeletons, zombies, mummies, wights
Leads to catacombs Q11 or village Q12
Wandering monster: 1 Zombie, 1 Mummy

Quest 10: Corrupted Elements
The lich Outh’velok has been increasing his power and expanding into the Slickrock Mountains. Loretome warns that the lich is attempting to corrupt the natural elements and harness their awesome power for his evil plans. Find and defeat the four tainted elementals to release them from the lich’s control. For this you will be rewarded with 250 gold coins each.

Diamond
Elemental shrines, maybe a couple lair tiles, and other cavern tiles
Leads to Tower Basement Q13

Quest 11: A Puzzling Dilemma
Outh’velok has been alerted to your constant meddling with his plans! You have been able to track him to this underground complex. But tread carefully, the evil lich is certain to make any further progress very difficult. Teamwork will surely win the day, Heroes!

Diamond
Lots of traps and undead (Skeleton Archers especially) too
use cavern staircase transition tile for exit to Q13
Torchlit dungeon tiles
Several locked doors, need colored keys to proceed.
floating platform over spiked trap floor, moves x spaces back and forth per turn, need to hit 2 switches on the opposite wall at the same time to proceed,
- meanwhile, getting peppered with archer fire ??
- both switches have landings that need to be jumped to reach, need to wait for the platform to stop at the right place to make the jump
- can’t hit archers except with ranged or spells
- anyone that falls down lands on spike traps, but there’s another room below with a path back up to same room.
room with a boulder that rolls around and around a long room with hollow center (maybe move 7-8) that does damage when it rolls over someone.
- boulder knocks people into the hollow center
- like this:
Other puzzle room ideas:
- maybe a block-moving puzzle, with the door behind a block too
- a pool that either heals BP, MP, or does damage
- pool is surrounded by fire-breathing statues aimed at where the player needs to stand to be by the pool. On Black shield, the statues do 3 damage, no defense
- A bomb in one room that must get carried to a different room in one round or it goes off. Need to blow up a section of wall to proceed
- or access secret room with treasure
  - This blowing-up-wall can be in the boulder room, with the bomb in the room behind the locked door
- A room that needs all torches lit at once and in the right order before proceeding.

Quest 12: Return to Westpine Village

start in tavern
Diamond

Quest 13: <tower basement>

Quest 14: The Tower of Despair

THE EVERLASTING CIRCLET:
Circlet - does nothing, has 5 empty gem slots.
Relentless Ruby: Increase maximum BP by 2.
Ceaseless Sapphire: Double the result of all movement dice.
Endless Emerald: MP regeneration increases to 1 every 2 rounds.
Undying Diamond: Disregard all 1-point damage rolls during combat.
Persistent Pearl: Attack twice or cast the same spell twice if you do not move.

THE TWIST:
Lich Outh’velok is the real big bad. Kazgotul is a good guy and is trying to get the circlet to stop the lich once and for all. lich returns to tomb to regenerate then come back.

[*]A statue of a king on a throne. Missing its crown. Must be replaced to seal the tomb.

One hero has to split from the group to get to the lich’s tomb which has a seal with a circlet-shaped key, the circlet is the lock to seal the tomb once and for all.

Lich’s stats: it starts with 5bp. If killed, comes back with 4, and so on. It should come in from another room through an illusory wall that players think is real.
Knows 6 spells. Command, Fear, Lightning,

by **Teldurn** » March 3rd, 2015, 5:42 pm

Hey gang, sorry I've been missing for such a long time. Life, y'know?

Anyway, I wanted to share with you a bit of what I've been able to work on during the past couple months in my spare time. It's the first quest for the quest book.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rgO ... sp=sharing

The other quests will follow in a similar format. Thoughts?

by **mitchiemasha** » March 4th, 2015, 10:48 pm

I need to have a good read of this when I get chance. Very interested in the finished Quest book.

by **Daedalus** » March 31st, 2015, 2:52 pm

It's cool that you are getting good use out of the Heroic Maps--this must make the creators proud. I wish there was a way to solve the figure icon problem, but until someone does the work to make icons for Google, there you go.

Just my :2cents:

, how about a lettered abbreviation code for monsters? Example: GoGr for Goblin Grunt or OrWa for Orc Warrior. A line or two with the full monster names would still probably be needed for each map. I'm not sure if the lettering would be legible, it's just a brainstorm to add user conveinience.

Quest 1
Is the Potion of Battle Expertise a new potion for your Alchemist's Shop? Found it in HQP rules! Maybe you could include an Alchemist's Shop printed at the top of page 1, with all new HQP potions found within this Quest Book.

When Yafgash drops the circlet, it isn't clear who gets to take possession of it. Quests from the Main Game System generally award an artifact to the first Hero who searches for treasure. However, some Quests assign an artifact to a Hero that can exclusively use it or else give it to the the Hero who killed the monster who possessed it.

Quest 2
in my opinion it would be nice if there was some mention of where the exits lead, which would add meaning to the choice. Also, the road that leads out of the upper-right corner appears to be another exit, but it is left unexplained. Finally, consider moving the START and E exit onto road edge spaces.

It might be a good idea to include a note about greenery and los, like in Quest 3. This could govern how many outdoor monsters are visible and can move to attack. Are all of the monsters placed from the beginning, or only those that are visible. What are the rules of engagement outdoors? May all of a monster group move to attack if only some can see the Heroes?

I'd add another note regarding who gets the Relentless Ruby.

I really like the exploding chest that conditionally awards treasure only if the trap is disarmed. Maybe add a note explaining about the magical trap and what would have happened if the Hero hadn't disarmed it. That should make the Hero feel satisfied, which is another kind of reward.

Quest 3
Some of the greenery squares are only partially filled. I'd say a greenery square blocks los and movement if it is at least half filled.

What are the rules concerning placement of figures on this map? Are all of the monsters placed from the beginning? As with Quest 2, what are the rules of engagement? I'm guessing you intend monsters to be placed only if they are visible to a Hero, and only those visible monsters may move to attack. Some clarification would help out.

I couldn't find any rules in HQP concerning searching outdoors. The Quest mentions finding a chest if the Heroes search the vicinity. I'd define this further, such as "Treasure chests in this Quest are buried and should not be placed on the board until a Hero searches in the vicinity of 2 square spaces from the chest."

Quest 4
Can a Hero move and fight normally from squares that are apparently a few steps down?

Perhaps a search for secret doors can locate the button and allow a Hero to move the Chaos Warrior statue in one go.

"These doors are opened elsewhere" > "These portcullises are opened from C."

I'd say the exit at E could use a door or something.

Consider adding a note such as "The first Hero who searches for treasure finds a pouch dropped in haste." Also, what if the Heroes exit by E instead? I haven't read forward yet, but isn't a contingency needed in case the Ceaseless Sapphire isn't discovered in this room? I assume it is needed for later. Seems a shame it can be missed if the Heroes misjudge the Parchment Text and exit by another path.

by **Teldurn** » March 31st, 2015, 5:02 pm

Daedalus - Aha, so you have been the one lurking on the quest pack document the last several days! I noticed there was a viewer there but couldn't figure out who it was. Google doesn't give us any tools to identify who is looking at a document.

I figured if I waited long enough I'd likely either get a note here on these forums about it or a comment in the doc itself. And voila! There we go.

I will address your points individually. My responses in red.

Daedalus wrote:It's cool that you are getting good use out of the Heroic Maps--this must make the creators proud. Yes, I've been in contact with them constantly through this process. They are very excited and can't wait to play through the quests once it's done. They even were gracious enough to custom create one of the tileset releases specifically for me to use in the quest book, and gifted me another one as a birthday present. I wish there was a way to solve the figure icon problem, but until someone does the work to make icons for Google, there you go. I had tried a couple different methods to achieve this but in the end, because of various factors colliding together, doing it the way I did with the numbers/letters + a legend seems to be the best way to go in regards to ease of use, legibility, and ease of manufacture.

Just my , how about a lettered abbreviation code for monsters? Example: GoGr for Goblin Grunt or OrWa for Orc Warrior. A line or two with the full monster names would still probably be needed for each map. I'm not sure if the lettering would be legible, it's just a brainstorm to add user convenience. I thought of this, but the squares simply aren't large enough to accommodate this approach, especially due to the appreciable amount of shrinking needed to fit the map on the page. My other option would be to have the artist who did all the tokens and sketches in the rulebook come up with more icons for map usage, but he was doing the work for free and I didn't feel right to push him for more. In addition, see previous comment about ease of use, etc.

Quest 1
Is the Potion of Battle Expertise a new potion for your Alchemist's Shop? Found it in HQP rules! Maybe you could include an Alchemist's Shop printed at the top of page 1, with all new HQP potions found within this Quest Book. I don't know if that would be especially helpful. My thinking is: 1. players would and should already have access to the rulebook but not the quest book during play, so they should be able to look it up themselves (particularly since they would NEED to see it between quests when shopping is done), and 2. I've either tweaked or standardized some of the existing potions, i.e., Potion of Healing no longer has several varieties, so because of that change I'd need to include basically the entire list of potions in the beginning of the quest book? Don't think so, not necessary I believe.

When Yafgash drops the circlet, it isn't clear who gets to take possession of it. Quests from the Main Game System generally award an artifact to the first Hero who searches for treasure. However, some Quests assign an artifact to a Hero that can exclusively use it or else give it to the the Hero who killed the monster who possessed it. I seem to recall in the Game System certain items were given immediately to the Hero who made the killing blow without a search for treasure required. That is the basis I was operating with. I didn't want to leave it open for someone to search for treasure, because that leaves the chance that no one will search for treasure (for fear of getting a bad card or some other reason). This way the Heroes are guaranteed to receive the item they're looking for. However, it's probably still a good idea to mention that directly. I'll do that, thanks.
*pause*
After a few minutes of putting some thought to it, I think it stands to reason that almost all groups of players will know that the "boss monster" will most likely be carrying some loot to be had and will search for treasure. Okay. So. I'm now convinced I don't need to make it an automatic drop. This is reinforced because of the fact that finding the circlet is the goal of the quest; if they don't find it, they fail the quest and have to redo it. I think it would be fair to have it be found upon treasure search.

Quest 2
in my opinion it would be nice if there was some mention of where the exits lead, which would add meaning to the choice. Later on in further quest notes I begin making descriptions of the type of exit it is in relation to the theme of the quest it leads to. I intend to make another complete pass from top to bottom to make this type of description consistent for earlier quest notes. For the players' benefit, it won't say explicitly which quest number the exit leads to (that's only for the GM to know), but it will give the players an idea based on the description. This should be enough information for the players to make their exiting decision. Also, the road that leads out of the upper-right corner appears to be another exit, but it is left unexplained. This is a side effect of the tile used. If you look carefully the map is divided into a grid of 9 tiles, 10x10 squares each (hard to spot in quest 1, this is much more apparent in quests 3 and 7). I didn't want to use duplicate tiles so I did the best I could with what I had. Since the VTT game board will only be as large as the map boundary, I felt I could just get by with a verbal mention that the road leads nowhere. Finally, consider moving the START and E exit onto road edge spaces. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by 'road edge spaces,' but for the START I intentionally placed that where I did so that it takes up 6 squares. Since the game is meant for 4-6 Heroes, those would be the squares they would start in. Same applies to all quests.

It might be a good idea to include a note about greenery and los, like in Quest 3. Good idea! This could govern how many outdoor monsters are visible and can move to attack. Are all of the monsters placed from the beginning, or only those that are visible. What are the rules of engagement outdoors? May all of a monster group move to attack if only some can see the Heroes? Remember that I'm operating under the pretense that this will be run on the computer. Rules of engagement will obviously need to be altered for tabletop (but I've not made a note about this nor how to achieve it, figuring I'd leave it to whoever runs it for their group to decide). Since I'll be using Roll20, I was going to use Dynamic Lighting to give each Hero a circular field of vision radius beyond which they would not see anything, but would see the other Heroes' LoS to simulate the group communicating to each other or acting as a "spotter" for one another (this would be useful for ranged characters who have an effective range well beyond 5 squares out).

For now I'm going with an arbitrary limit of 5 squares out for everyone, but I have thought about customizing it depending on maybe the maximum Mind or Body points of each class. I don't know yet.

I'd add another note regarding who gets the Relentless Ruby. Yep.

I really like the exploding chest that conditionally awards treasure only if the trap is disarmed. I got this idea from someone here on the forum, though I sadly forget who. Maybe add a note explaining about the magical trap and what would have happened if the Hero hadn't disarmed it. That should make the Hero feel satisfied, which is another kind of reward. That's a fantastic idea!

Quest 3
Some of the greenery squares are only partially filled. I'd say a greenery square blocks los and movement if it is at least half filled. That would likely work as well. The only reason I didn't do partial squares is because I figured I could just pass it off as them being low bushes and whatnot which would not impact LoS.

What are the rules concerning placement of figures on this map? Are all of the monsters placed from the beginning? Depends on the quest. For Quest 3, all monsters are placed at the beginning. As with Quest 2, what are the rules of engagement? I'm guessing you intend monsters to be placed only if they are visible to a Hero, and only those visible monsters may move to attack. Some clarification would help out. This is completely mitigated by using Dynamic Lighting and wall- and tree-based Line of Sight as shown in the image above. All monsters can be placed on the board from the beginning, but don't act on GM's turn until they are "discovered." With exceptions, of course, like Quest 6.

I couldn't find any rules in HQP concerning searching outdoors. The Quest mentions finding a chest if the Heroes search the vicinity. I'd define this further, such as "Treasure chests in this Quest are buried and should not be placed on the board until a Hero searches in the vicinity of 2 square spaces from the chest." Searches would be done in the Hero's "vicinity," which would mean visible radius as demonstrated above. I don't know how to translate that to the tabletop version yet.

Quest 4
Can a Hero move and fight normally from squares that are apparently a few steps down? For operating along the top, ostensibly they could stand at the edge square of the drop and easily engage in one-sided ranged attacks, with the monsters unable to retaliate. Melee characters would have to drop down to engage. For operating down in the pool, yes. The only impediment is half speed movement. They can still attack and move on the same round. Point F was trying to convey this. Do you think it needs rewriting for clarification?

Perhaps a search for secret doors can locate the button and allow a Hero to move the Chaos Warrior statue in one go. I see where you're going with the idea, but in my experience, players rarely search for secret doors so that's why I didn't make it that way. However! I think because the map here is so small, making this change would make the map feel just a slight bit larger so yeah. Good call!

"These doors are opened elsewhere" > "These portcullises are opened from C." No note of this, but the intention was the GM would be reading this note aloud to the players. But I suppose I can make an extra note and have one be the "read-aloud" and the other "GM only."

I'd say the exit at E could use a door or something. Yeah, probably. I'd likely put a stairs tile and description that it's covered in vines and smells like pine.

Consider adding a note such as "The first Hero who searches for treasure finds a pouch dropped in haste." Also, what if the Heroes exit by E instead? I haven't read forward yet, but isn't a contingency needed in case the Ceaseless Sapphire isn't discovered in this room? I assume it is needed for later. Seems a shame it can be missed if the Heroes misjudge the Parchment Text and exit by another path. Excellent points, sir. I was running on the assumption that by this point, the players know that they can find the gems to potentially put in the circlet and would want to be thorough in their search before deciding to exit. However, I should have accounted for the possibility of a group needing to make an expeditious retreat, saying "F THIS" and just bailing out the first exit they find (E). Thankfully, I have written the ending in such a way that all 5 gems aren't explicitly required to be recovered, but it is in the party's best interest if they are.

Once again, Daedalus, your input and feedback are top-notch and on-point and perhaps a couple other hyphenated adjectives. I am grateful beyond words that you have taken the time to go through the document so thoroughly. I'd also like to point out that I've enabled commenting on the Google Doc itself, so if you were so inclined, you can just as easily comment there (But I completely see the appeal of much more detailed commenting here on the forum instead!). I eagerly look forward to what you have to say moving forward.

by **Daedalus** » April 2nd, 2015, 5:13 pm

Teldurn wrote:...My other option would be to have the artist who did all the tokens and sketches in the rulebook come up with more icons for map usage, but he was doing the work for free and I didn't feel right to push him for more. In addition, see previous comment about ease of use, etc.

I wonder if the Heroic Maps creators would find it worth their while to include an icon pack for HQ and various other monsters? I'm not sure if any tools are available to them for creation, however. Just throwin' it out there.

Teldurn wrote:
Daedalus wrote:Quest 2
Also, the road that leads out of the upper-right corner appears to be another exit, but it is left unexplained.

...Since the VTT game board will only be as large as the map boundary, I felt I could just get by with a verbal mention that the road leads nowhere.

From the perspective of another player, I'd want the verbal mention in the Quest Notes. Others are likely to use this Quest Book (the map guys, at least.)

Teldurn wrote:
Daedalus wrote:Finally, consider moving the START and E exit onto road edge spaces.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by 'road edge spaces,' but for the START I intentionally placed that where I did so that it takes up 6 squares. Since the game is meant for 4-6 Heroes, those would be the squares they would start in. Same applies to all quests.

Awkward wording on my part. What I meant was bump START and E onto the road. It's not necessary, just an aesthetic thing to reinforce that the Heroes are traveling by road between locations.

Teldurn wrote:
Daedalus wrote:It might be a good idea to include a note about greenery and los, like in Quest 3. This could govern how many outdoor monsters are visible and can move to attack. Are all of the monsters placed from the beginning, or only those that are visible. What are the rules of engagement outdoors? May all of a monster group move to attack if only some can see the Heroes?

Remember that I'm operating under the pretense that this will be run on the computer. Rules of engagement will obviously need to be altered for tabletop (but I've not made a note about this nor how to achieve it, figuring I'd leave it to whoever runs it for their group to decide). Since I'll be using Roll20, I was going to use Dynamic Lighting to give each Hero a circular field of vision radius beyond which they would not see anything, but would see the other Heroes' LoS to simulate the group communicating to each other or acting as a "spotter" for one another (this would be useful for ranged characters who have an effective range well beyond 5 squares out).

Ah, I had forgotten this was meant to work on Roll20. Dynamic Lighting combined with Zargon using the full map to determine what a monster can "see" should solve most issues. I'd say if a monster outside of the lighting that was part of an already-revealed group could reach the lighting in one turn, it would move to do so. Otherwise, a monster outside of the lighting stays put.

Teldurn wrote:
Daedalus wrote:Quest 3
Some of the greenery squares are only partially filled. I'd say a greenery square blocks los and movement if it is at least half filled.

That would likely work as well. The only reason I didn't do partial squares is because I figured I could just pass it off as them being low bushes and whatnot which would not impact LoS.

From the Google document:

"Any greenery on this map that takes up a square or more also blocks line of sight and movement."By "greenery", do you mean the whole clump of a bush that takes up multiple squares? "...A square or more" sounds like this is the intent. While I get the organic feel of your reasoning, I feel this strains a bit regarding LOS and movement restriction when a square contains only a bit of greenery. In Quest 3 for example, the top left bush on the rock prevents a Hero from moving through or shooting along the 2 squares of the southern edge, even though each square contains less than 25% greenery. This contradicts the LOS rules of the Main Game System, where center to center determines if a target is visible. How about this:

"Any square that is entirely filled with greenery blocks both line of sight and movement while partially filled squares do not."

Teldurn wrote:
Daedalus wrote:What are the rules concerning placement of figures on this map? Are all of the monsters placed from the beginning?
Depends on the quest. For Quest 3, all monsters are placed at the beginning.... All monsters can be placed on the board from the beginning, but don't act on GM's turn until they are "discovered." With exceptions, of course, like Quest 6.

Maybe this is unnecessary, but to make this more player-friendly for Zargon you might want to include a note at the beginning of the Quest Book about outdoor monster position and movement, and how Dynamic Lighting triggers monster placement.

Teldurn wrote:
Daedalus wrote:Quest 4
Can a Hero move and fight normally from squares that are apparently a few steps down?
For operating along the top, ostensibly they could stand at the edge square of the drop and easily engage in one-sided ranged attacks, with the monsters unable to retaliate. Melee characters would have to drop down to engage. For operating down in the pool, yes. The only impediment is half speed movement. They can still attack and move on the same round. Point F was trying to convey this. Do you think it needs rewriting for clarification?

If you don't want the monsters in F to be able to leave the room, I'd add that in the note for the room. However, I was actually thinking about room B with the Chaos Warrior statue. The 2 Scorpions appear to be fighting from a ledge. For clarification, why not treat the lower parts of either room like a pit:

(This applies to monsters as well.)

I wouldn't even require a point of movement to climb to the ledge to keep it simple, but you could require this if it fits HQP.

Teldurn wrote:
Daedalus wrote:"These doors are opened elsewhere" > "These portcullises are opened from C."
No note of this, but the intention was the GM would be reading this note aloud to the players. But I suppose I can make an extra note and have one be the "read-aloud" and the other "GM only."

If you're going to read it to the players, I'd say you could just leave it as is as well. Your call.

I'll try to get back to the other Quests soon.

by **Teldurn** » April 3rd, 2015, 11:30 am

Daedalus wrote:I wonder if the Heroic Maps creators would find it worth their while to include an icon pack for HQ and various other monsters? I'm not sure if any tools are available to them for creation, however. Just throwin' it out there.

The guy that did the VTT tokens and character sketches for the rulebook is Devin Night, who is a very active content creator on the Roll20 marketplace. He's almost like a minor celebrity. I don't think Joe & Sarah (Heroic Maps artist and writer) have tools to do character art, just maps. And that's okay.

Daedalus wrote:Quest 2
From the perspective of another player, I'd want the verbal mention in the Quest Notes. Others are likely to use this Quest Book (the map guys, at least.)

That's a great point. I'll add a note.

Daedalus wrote:Awkward wording on my part. What I meant was bump START and E onto the road. It's not necessary, just an aesthetic thing to reinforce that the Heroes are traveling by road between locations.

I think you're a bit confused here. For Quest 2, that's not a road; that's a stream running through the map!

Daedalus wrote:Ah, I had forgotten this was meant to work on Roll20. Dynamic Lighting combined with Zargon using the full map to determine what a monster can "see" should solve most issues. I'd say if a monster outside of the lighting that was part of an already-revealed group could reach the lighting in one turn, it would move to do so. Otherwise, a monster outside of the lighting stays put.

That seems fair.

Daedalus wrote:Quest 3
"Any square that is entirely filled with greenery blocks both line of sight and movement while partially filled squares do not."

This works very well.

Daedalus wrote:Maybe this is unnecessary, but to make this more player-friendly for Zargon you might want to include a note at the beginning of the Quest Book about outdoor monster position and movement, and how Dynamic Lighting triggers monster placement.

Good idea. I'll add that too.

Daedalus wrote:Quest 4
If you don't want the monsters in F to be able to leave the room, I'd add that in the note for the room. However, I was actually thinking about room B with the Chaos Warrior statue. The 2 Scorpions appear to be fighting from a ledge. For clarification, why not treat the lower parts of either room like a pit:

"A Hero on a lower level rolls one less combat die when attacking and defending against an adjacent monster on a ledge. (This applies to monsters as well.)"
I wouldn't even require a point of movement to climb to the ledge to keep it simple, but you could require this if it fits HQP.

Yeah, I had intended that the scorpions would have to walk around the ledge and down the stairs before engaging in combat. And your suggestion I think can be added as well.

Daedalus wrote:"These doors are opened elsewhere" > "These portcullises are opened from C."
If you're going to read it to the players, I'd say you could just leave it as is as well. Your call.

I'll see how I feel about how this reads when I make an editing pass soon. Thanks!

by **Daedalus** » April 7th, 2015, 5:09 pm

More comments:

Quest 5
B. Failure means they fall down, take 2 Body Points of damage, and end their turn. > Failure means a Hero falls down, take 2 Body Points of damage, and ends his turn. I can't remember if you use they/their to remain gender neutral. If so, keep it as it is. I'd then change the earlier sentence to keep Hero references parallel: A Hero may attempt to jump down using the rules for jumping Pit Traps. > Heroes may attempt to jump down using the rules for jumping Pit Traps.

C. This Troll drops the Persistent Pearl when it is killed. > "The first Hero that searches for treasure in this room finds the Persistent Pearl," or "Whoever kills this Troll may take the Persistent Pearl as his prize," or something like that.

D. Digging through the remains, you find the Lucky Dagger. > While digging through the remains, the first Hero that searches for treasure finds the Lucky Dagger.

Quest 6
Wow, that map is HUGE! I'm not sure when Heroes should know when to search for treasure so that they may find the buried chests. Maybe some kind of hints would help to shorten the process of usefully searching the map. Perhaps a map or letter in Quests 3 and/or 4 could reveal/suggest one or more locations. Area A with the Spirit Blade is a prime candidate for mention, unless it's not really needed for later.

Same rules for greenery? I'd add a note, perhaps defining darker, heavily textured greenery as LOS and movement blocking.

B. I'd set the monsters off on a random path out of the Chaos Portals, though to be honest I'm not sure how well it would work if new branches called for new directions. Can monsters exit the map?

X. From the Parchment text it appears Aithlin knows the location of the alter, since he is the Keeper of the Grove. Does that mean he leads the Heroes, or does he just tag along? The former seems better option for a quicker game. I'd note how to handle him. Maybe just general directions are necessary, such as "The alter lies to the south-east of the forest."

Ye Olde Inn

[Quest Pack][WIP] Conquering Despair

Re: [Quest Pack][WIP] Conquering Despair

Advertisement

Re: [Quest Pack][WIP] Conquering Despair

Re: [Quest Pack][WIP] Conquering Despair

Re: [Quest Pack][WIP] Conquering Despair

Re: [Quest Pack][WIP] Conquering Despair

Re: [Quest Pack][WIP] Conquering Despair

Re: [Quest Pack][WIP] Conquering Despair

Re: [Quest Pack][WIP] Conquering Despair

Re: [Quest Pack][WIP] Conquering Despair

Re: [Quest Pack][WIP] Conquering Despair

Who is online