The principlesWhen putting together a game, it is best practice to document both the contents of the game itself i.e. what is in the box, components, rulebook, cards and so on, but for continuity to also produce (but not necessarily publish) and maintain a "design guide" containing the principles that you have used, the spirit of the game and so on, for us for those who are creating future expansions, rule clarifications and similar material, so that they can use this as a framework to keep true to the original spirit and principles of the game. This is my attempt at reverse engineering such as Design Guide from the published material.
“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”.For each proposed modification, post the perceived problem, along with any related material and we can review and decide whether the stated problem is actually a problem or actually THE problem, before considering solutions. If we don’t agree that there is a problem, then we don’t modify the material. I’ll include a few perceived problem below, to give examples of a suggested format.
“Less is more”.Only change what needs to be changed, if something can be fixed with one rule change then don’t make more. In the same vein, if a rule is superfluous to requirements, then remove it. The only exception to this is situations like the “search rules” where there are so many issues that patching each one is a greater cumulative change that a rewrite of the whole section
“Stick to the subject”Keep this project thread for materials and discussion about the project itself but keep discussion around the rules themselves to the appropriate area of the forum
Official Rules and discussions around Quest pack contents to the relevant channels like
Kellar’s Keep “Rules are rules”Rules cover how something is handled and must be in the Rules of Play, other material describing what happens and narrative text are not rules and should not be in the Rules of Play it should be on the cards or in the Quest Books.
“KISS – Keep It Simple, Stupid”One of the appeals of HeroQuest is its simplicity so keep it simple. Consistency and clarity go hand in hand with simplicity, so if a word or phrase is used to refer to something specific then use the same word or phrase each time you refer to that same thing.
“Little and often” A step in the right direction is sufficient to include, we don’t need to entire resolve a problem in a single step.
Share material every time modifications are made, however small, to allow others to review and provide feedback that we can incorporate and share again.
“Increase modularity, reduce duplication”Arrange the rules in a modular way to improve the usability, to allow others to use the structure to plug their own house rules into and to reduce duplication, the same rule appear in multiple places, which causes issues around ensuring that modifications that are made are applied to every appearance of the same rules otherwise you get problems around inconsistency.
“A Murder of Morcars”Whilst accepting the principle that every Morcar (and Zargon) is the ultimate authority at their own table, this forum and the internet in general, gives us the ability to come together as a collective and discuss issues discovered in play and the modifications that we apply at our own tables and discuss the better options from the bunch and perhaps even document the best ones.
“Consistency is Simplicity”Inconsistently referring to the same thing by different names causes confusion and equally if you have a particular mechanism for handling a situation then don't introduce a different mechanism for handling essentially the same situation as that again causes confusion and requires more mental effort to remember which mechanism is used in which scenario.
"Minimise Book-Keeping"Some book-keeping, jotting down of notes on character sheet and similar is inevitable but as a general principle HQ and SE in particular discourages excessive book-keeping.
"Increase Utilisation of Mind Points"The infamous line in the rulebook "Mind points are not used in the initial Quests. They will become more important in future expansions to Hero Quest." feels like a cop-out, so making more use and better use of Mind Points from the beginning so that line can be removed would definitely be an improvement.
"HeroQuest uses the Vancian system for spells"The magic system used by HeroQuest drew inspiration from the Dying Earth novels by Jack Vance, for whom the Vancian magic system is named.
Magical effects are packaged into distinct spells; each spell has one fixed purpose. A spell that throws a ball of fire at an enemy just throws balls of fire, and generally cannot be "turned down" to light a cigarette, for instance.
Spells represent a kind of magic bomb which must be prepared in advance of actual use, and each prepared spell can be used a limited number of times, generally only once, before needing to be prepared again. That's why it is also known as "Fire & Forget magic."
Magicians have a finite capacity of prepared spells which is the de facto measure of their skill and/or power as magicians. A wizard using magic for combat is thus something like a living gun: he must be "loaded" with spells beforehand and can run out of magical "ammunition".
In HeroQuest this translates into the following principles
A spellcaster can only prepare and store into his mind a number of spell sets, each consisting of three individual spells, equal to each point of his mind value over 3. So a spellcaster with a Mind value of 5, can only prepare 2 sets of 3 spells.
Selection and preparation of spells from those known to him, generally kept in the form of a spell book, is time consuming, complex, elaborate and intensive, so can only take place between quests, and results in the spellcaster having a number of spells "prepared" or pre-loaded in his mind ready to be "cast", activated or released, in the quest as required.
"Advancement mechanism"HeroQuest has an in-built advancement mechanism that works as follows:
1. Killing monsters is rewarded in the form of gold and items with a gold value.
2. Gold is used to purchase Equipment between quests.
3. This equipment boosts the stats of the Heroes, advancing them
Rather than killing a monster giving you 6 gold coins for example, to minimise book-keeping, in HeroQuest this translates into killing all monsters in a room allows you to search for treasure resulting in a treasure card being drawn. The "value" of monsters in a typical room matches the average "yield" from a treasure deck draw. When a particular room or quest has above average monsters this excess is rewarded through chests containing gold and other treasure and/or a quest reward, particularly when killing a monster is the quest objective.
Initiative mechanismHeroQuest has an in-built advancement mechanism that works as follows:
One side, the Heroes, have variable movement 2D6, the other side have fixed movement, the variable roll acts as an initiative roll which combined with the distance between the figures and the monster fixed value movement determines who gets the initiative, the first strike.
Other principles to follow, no doubt, as we work through…
= white skull, one "hit"
= black skull, one "hit"
= shield, cancels out one "hit"
