Anderas' HQ: living rule book

[slev]

Honestly, I vanish due ti illness for a month, and when I get back, you have no progress....

[Anderas]

It's called christmas break
Plus, my daughter has stopped to wake me up in the middle of the night. Between 4 and 6 was my time to be creative before.

No really, i intend to update the spells, but i am currently using them in a Play by Post game, so the updates are delayed until the game is over.

* Fire of Wrath, discard function: Range will change to "anywhere"
* I think the target of Clairvoyance should be allowed to move if it is accidentally used on solid rock, until the player finally hits a room... but i don't know how to formulate and avoid the overloading of the card with text.
* And there is still Chains of Darkness: To have a Master option
* Arrows of the night, i add a mind point as cost
* The Goblin's Move Action Move Ability is now available only if you discard a EWP Card for it. It was too strong before.


___

I also prepared some Monster Groups. Monster Groups contain one special rule for the entire group, plus some symbols in green, yellow, red and purple, plus a strength, plus a bit of fluff text and a picture. An Orc Hunter Group of Strength 4 will likely remove 4 Body Points from the Heroes, if you put the group in the right level (green group, yellow, red or purple group). Plus the special rule applies to this group, for example the Orc Hunter Boss can call a Waagh one time during the game... shall not be too strong but add some flavor.

But I don't know where to include them. One use will definitely be "Summon Orcs" and "Summon Undead"; so there will be a group of Monsters worth 4 BP appearing, matching the Hero group's strength. Otherwise these spells are just unbalanced.

I tested a game with an EWP Card "Monster Group":
"Add 4 to the Quest difficulty. If the total is above 21, treat this card as "nothing". Else, place a Orc hunter group with a strength of 4 (Skeleton... Goblin.. whatever) on the quest entry. Note the new difficulty, if you placed the monsters or not."

I tested it. It plays awful. It doesn't work. It's too much bureaucracy noting the difficulty, too much text on the card, and the mechanic is not good...

So now i have no use for monster groups except for the two mentioned spells. Maybe i reuse them in certain quests... Quests with empty rooms, where the heroes enter the dungeon before the monsters enter the dungeon... But then the groups a case for the Quest Notes. So... maybe no Monster Group Cards.

[Gold Bearer]

I've only just seen this. I'll have a proper read tomorrow.

I love the goblin whistle blower idea, but shouldn't he activate the monsters in adjacent rooms if he's in a room and adjoining corridors if he's in a corridor? It's a bit more complicated but it works better with the horn, you don't need a horn to open a door.

[slev]

Just in-case peole are following this thread and not the other, updated the "wizard Equipment thread to use your spell system: viewtopic.php?p=65917#p65917

Also, updated cost ideas for my mastery group:

Control Fiend
Cast & Discard OR Cast, 1MP, Mastery 4: One target figure in your Line of Sight becomes your Man-at-Arms. At the start of the owner’s turn, they may roll a number of Combat Dice equal to their MP. On the roll of any friendly shields, this effect ends. If you re-cast this spell, the original effects end.

Drain Mind
Cast & Discard or Cast, 1MP, Mastery 1: Both you and a target enemy in Line of Sight roll white equal to current MP and count the number of skulls rolled. The highest roller causes MP damageto the enemy equal to the difference in rolls.
Cast, 2 MP, Mastery 3: As above, but your roll Purple dice.

Mental Fortitude
Cast & Discard: One figure in Line of Sight recovers up to four lost MP
Discard: Caster recovers up to four lost MP, may be cast out-of-turn.

[Anderas]

Update on the first page, EWP Deck section.

[Daedalus]

I also prepared some Monster Groups. Monster Groups contain one special rule for the entire group, plus some symbols in green, yellow, red and purple, plus a strength, plus a bit of fluff text and a picture. An Orc Hunter Group of Strength 4 will likely remove 4 Body Points from the Heroes, if you put the group in the right level (green group, yellow, red or purple group). Plus the special rule applies to this group, for example the Orc Hunter Boss can call a Waagh one time during the game... shall not be too strong but add some flavor.

But I don't know where to include them. One use will definitely be "Summon Orcs" and "Summon Undead"; so there will be a group of Monsters worth 4 BP appearing, matching the Hero group's strength. Otherwise these spells are just unbalanced.

I tested a game with an EWP Card "Monster Group":
"Add 4 to the Quest difficulty. If the total is above 21, treat this card as "nothing". Else, place a Orc hunter group with a strength of 4 (Skeleton... Goblin.. whatever) on the quest entry. Note the new difficulty, if you placed the monsters or not."

I tested it. It plays awful. It doesn't work. It's too much bureaucracy noting the difficulty, too much text on the card, and the mechanic is not good...

So now i have no use for monster groups except for the two mentioned spells. Maybe i reuse them in certain quests... Quests with empty rooms, where the heroes enter the dungeon before the monsters enter the dungeon... But then the groups a case for the Quest Notes. So... maybe no Monster Group Cards.

How about linking monster groups to the Map card of your EWP deck? It would require reworking the Map card text. A special, hidden secret door would be placed by Morcar leading to a new room added to the map for the drawn Monster Group Card. This side quest could be ignored by the players, but then they'd lose out on a tempting reward listed on the Map card (or Monster Group card.) An example reward could be each Hero draws two Treasure Cards and keeps one.

This would not only cut out the cumbersome calculations, but it would also provide a default use for the Map card. As that card stands, it requires additional work from Morcar. I'd suggest a few Map cards in the EWP deck for a variety of rewards.

[Anderas]

That's true, the Map is usable only in my game. Maybe also in Sotiris' interactive Heroquest.

I don't want to sacrifice it, though: but I think your Idea is great. There will be a new card "secret passage". There is a lot of content to place on the card, so it may take some time until I found a way to fit all in.

[Anderas]

I cleaned the Monster Cards. They are now in a professionally printable card format, plus some of them have a lot better graphic now. A weekend of scanning and photoshopping.

[Anderas]

Updated all my spell groups now. You find them in the first posting or in the corresponding flickr folder.

There are now four spells per group.
Also, i changed the Mind and Body Symbols to better fit with Slev's system - it might always be a good idea to have compatibility with at least one other custom system, so that extensions made there can be reused by copy paste.

The more often i redo those cards, the faster i get. sigh.


I also have my custom Heroquest Board printed now. It's quite big, 0,000 000 000 186 8 times the size of the Saarland.
(That's an important unit we often use in germany, despite the metric system)

[Daedalus]

The buckler, with artwork from Talhoffer's Fechtbuch which originates somewhere in the renaissance or even later. The normal Shield, with the same function as the original. And the big shield (how is that thing called?) that allows one walrus reroll and an additional white die. With artwork from Gary Chalk.

I believe you are thinking of a "tower shield."

The answer to "why buy the toolkit"

Glad this one is included.

I like you're boardgame Evil Wizard Deck draw ratio and triggering use for monster abilities, as I've developed something similar (but different) in my corner of the sandbox. Beyond that, you have an amazing array of options going on. It must be fun and satisfying for a mature crowd, a significant step up in depth from vanilla HQ. Well done!

Missed a spot.

"Available actions
and changes th their rules"

Change to

Available actions
and changes to their rules