Weather-Man - Suggestions for the Story?

[SirDionysDobermann]

[My very first posting here]
I am living in Austria and have been playing HeroQuest using the German language edition for almost twenty years now.
So I just recently discovered "Revenge of the Weather-Man" (including the Hazards Pack and the comic that comes along with it in Marvel Winter Special). Well, almost twenty years after its first release.
The quest seems to be a good one for beginners and I especially appreciate the new traps, hazards and overlays - five of them even turn up in that scenario (Blizzard Room [well, not that superb], Door of Flame, Tomb of Gwynt, Fiery Chasm and Circle of Power).
I am working on a slightly altered German version of that quest, shortening the way through the dungeon and trying to find a better solution for the ghost's appearance. It seemed a bit weird to me that Gwynt had been murdered by a chaos warlock but nonetheless buried in his own tomb.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Oh, and by the way, does anyone know who the author of "Revenge of the Weather-Man" was?
Thank you!

[drathe]

Welcome to the community!

Revenge of the Weatherman was written by Ken and Jo Walton.

As for Gwynt being buried in his own tomb, I would say that his followers buried him there before Erongil finally took over the keep. Perhaps it was a a two-step process, or the battle between Gwynt and Erongil took place elsewhere, or outside the keep.

Feel free to show us your work when you've finished, or even as you go. We'd all like to see it.

[SirDionysDobermann]

Thank you for the information!

As for Gwynt, I am still not really convinced. Although the battle taking place somewhere else is a good idea!

As for showing my work: I gladly shall, if I ever get to an end.

Great page, by the way, thank you for launching it ! I am already feeling welcome !

[Ancalagon]

how many body points have the reapers? in my copie of the winterspecial there are no body and no mindpoints

[drathe]

Since the book states that a Skeleton (or the special tile) should be used. I've always assumed they were advanced Skeletons with different movement, attack and defend. Same Body and Mind as regular Skeletons. Making them 1 Body and 0 Mind.

[Hek1986]

Hey im from germany and right now im working on exactly this! i work around a story and more quest. I also made skelettons and a gargoyle in ICE COLOR:)
I have 5 more quests where im usuing the other tiles /Traps from the Marvel Magazine maybe we can work together? contact me if u want

[Bareheaded Warrior]

Some musings on the Revenge of the Weatherman Quest.

Blizzard Room
This room contains an enchanted blizzard. At the beginning of their turn any Hero in this room will take 1 Body Point from frostbite. The snow is blowing so thickly for anyone to search for anything.

This is obviously very similar to the Ice Vault room in Frozen Horror – see below

Ice Vault
This frigid room drains heat from the Heroes. For each turn in which a Hero enters or remains in this room, the Hero roll 1 combat die. He loses 1 Body Point if he rolls a skull. Monsters are not affected by the heat-draining property of this room

But there are a few differences

The Blizzard Room has any Hero losing a BP at the start of their turn as opposed to Ice Vault they roll a combat die and lose a BP on a skull (no defend) on the turn that they enter the room, and (presumably at the start) of any subsequent turns that they remain in the room.

I prefer to always precede potential BP loss with a roll, so I like that aspect from the Ice Vault, but prefer the ‘beginning of their turn’ aspect from the Blizzard Room, it makes sense logically that a Hero has to be in the room for a turn or part of a turn before the effects kick in, and the terminology is clearer in the Blizzard Room than the Ice Vault’s which doesn’t specify at which point during their turn they need to roll the dice, I assume the start.

Also, the combat / attack die approach ties in well with my concept of a ‘chill attack / damage’ type that can only be defended against by certain artefacts, potion of warmth, armband of ice and similar ‘chill defend’ items.

Whether (or should I say weather) to allow a search is a tougher choice, my own HeroQuest Gold search option is a full turn search (i.e., it includes both your movement – assumed – and your action – your whole turn) so that would contain an in-built penalty because you would have to remain in the room for an extra turn to search and therefore take another roll, unfortunately the official rules do have this. On balance I would probably allow searching in the Ice Vault, after all some Heroes may have methods of protecting themselves or might just be greedy enough to take any risk, but not in the Blizzard Room as, whether you have anything to defend against the chill damage, you still can’t see to search due to the Blizzard itself.

Blizzard Room
This room contains an enchanted blizzard. At the beginning of their turn any Hero in this room must roll a combat die and will lose 1 Body Point from frostbite on a roll of a skull. No defend roll is allowed. The snow is blowing so thickly for anyone to search for anything. Monsters are not affected by the properties of this room.
Chill Attack

Fire Door
Anyone passing through it loses 1 Body Point

Is this like a ‘burning ring of fire’ that you have to dive through – cool (or not cool) but still a roll CD for me
- Anyone or any Hero specifically, are monsters affected?
- Would count this as a ‘fire attack’ and roll a combat die, lose BP on a roll of a skull, no defend dice unless you have something with ‘fire defend’ properties

Fiery Chasm

Anyone attempting to cross must roll one Combat Die. If he gets a skull, the player falls into the Chasm, but manages to hang on by his fingertips. The player loses one Body point. It is impossible to climb out unaided. For each round the player remains in the Chasm, he loses one body point. The player must be rescued by another player standing in the square next to the chasm. If he states that he is rescuing the one in the Chasm, he must move back one square to allow room for the rescued players figure

I already have rules around jumping single-square chasms, standard jump test as pit (but 3+ on a D6), pass then all is well, fail and you are left hanging, take damage 1BP fire attack, and must immediately take a ‘cliff-hanger’ test (2+ on a D6), if successful then pull yourself out on the far side ending your turn, otherwise plunge to your death. (The two rolls could be combined but I think the double roll builds tension)

• Odds – (single square width) pass first test 3+ = 67%, fail first, pass second 27%, fail both = 6%

Don’t like the ‘need another Hero to rescue you’, promotes teamwork which is good but what about solo quests, or quests where only a single hero is left?
How does pushback rule work with chasms, if you get the opportunity to push back an opponent who is adjacent to a pit or chasm then they fall into the pit (Heroes & Monsters), or are left hanging onto the edge of the chasm (Heroes & Bosses) needing an immediate ‘Cliff-Hanger test roll’

Circle of Power

If a player attempts to cast a spell on him (or anyone else in the circle) the Spell Card will be lost, and nothing will happen. Also, no magic weapons or items can enter the circle (e.g., the spirit blade). Any player attempting to enter the circle with a magic item will find it falls to the floor behind him

I would consider these as two examples of a number of properties that a magic circle can have, but can you cast a spell from in there onto others?

• Nullify Spell - If a player attempts to cast a spell on him (or anyone else in the circle) the Spell Card will be lost, and nothing will happen.
• Magic item warding - No magic weapons or items can enter the circle (e.g., the spirit blade). Any player attempting to enter the circle with a magic item will find it falls to the floor behind him

Erongil the Sorcerer
He has the ability to summon 1 undead creature per round. Roll 1 die 1-2 Zombie, 3-4 Skeleton, 5-6 Mummy. The Undead creature can be placed on any empty square in the room that the caster is in.

These rules predate the US version, I think, and therefore Chaos Spells, perhaps this could be replaced with it having a Summon Undead Chaos / Dread Spell and a couple of others, potentially his Summon Spell could summon Death Reapers…

New Monsters - Death Reaper

• MV:8
• AD:3
• DD:3
• MD:0
• BP:1

When a Death Reaper appears the air around it goes cold. Any character hit by the Death Reaper risks being frozen. Roll 1 Combat Die. If you roll a Black Shield, you are frozen. At the start of your round, roll a combat die again. If you roll a white shield, you have thawed out and are free to move once more.

I like the added drama at their appearance, drop in temperature but the attack seems awkward, you make an attack roll and depending on the outcome of the attack roll you roll another die to determine the ‘freeze’ effect. Perhaps that would be better handled by a roll 2 skulls on the attack roll, damage as usual AND freeze effect (instead of push back if you are using that).

Not clear what the effects of being frozen are, presumably you can’t move whilst under the effects, can you attack, take other actions, defend, defend but with less dice etc?

I would be tempted to state that they are armed with weapons, scythes would seem the best option, with a blade that appears insubstantial, as though composed of mist, that passes through your armour as though it wasn’t there. Their attack is a ‘chill attack’ so no defend is possible.

New Monsters - Ice Gargoyle

• MV:6
• AD:6
• DD:5
• MD:4
• BP:6
Fire spells do double damage to this creature

This gave me the idea of creating three types of Gargoyle, the standard Stone Gargoyle (Earth Element), Lava Gargoyle (Fire Element) & Ice Gargoyle (Water Element) covered under the ‘Beefing Up the Gargoyle’ topic but essentially each one is resistant to the effects of its own element and vulnerable to the effects of the opposite element, but I feel double damage is too strong, perhaps fire spells just roll an extra AD?

Plot

In terms of the plot of the Weatherman itself, I think there is a discrepancy around the killing of Gwynt and his being placed in his tomb. I think an improvement would be to have a search of the main room ‘H’ would reveal instead of treasure a sack containing Gwynt’s bones. A tweak to the parchment text ‘You must free the keep from Erongil and his creations, and lay Gwynt’s remains in his tomb, so that’, this way the Heroes can return to the tomb room ‘F’ on the way back out, and them carrying his bones, would break the seal on the Tomb and trigger the ghost’s reward and possibly an alternative exit through the tomb itself to avoid an unnecessary long slog to the exit.

A final tweak that I would add would be to (re)move Quest note E i.e. and retain the Death Reapers as Wandering Monsters AND have the Skeletons in Room H and those summoned by Erongil only as Death Reapers to beef up the final battle.

[Kurgan]

Though this is meant for classic HeroQuest (EU editions to be precise) the art style of the hazards and other cut out components reminds me a lot of what I've seen of Advanced HeroQuest (though one of the tombs looks exactly like one from ROTWL just in a different color).

[lestodante]

Yes, I also guess the artwork were made by GW artists. The pits and teh interior of the tomb really recall me the AHQ tiles.
And this was intended to be played with the European version of the game.

[Jabie]

One suggestion for the story is to play this just before Wizards of Morcar and have the players find a letter from Erongil to one of the Wizards begging to join their cadre. This can lead into Wizards of Morcar, a little more naturally, as the players have stumbled across one of Morcar's plots, rather than wizards of Morcar starting with "go kill this guy"