I thought I’d take a minute to say just why I enjoyed the game of Heroquest we described in episode 4. I realised that our games really scratched a couple of itches I’ve had for a while; for miniatures game at skirmish scale and a dungeon crawl game.
As Joe put so well on the podcast, Heroquest really was the red box D&D for our generation in the UK. Alongside Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, this was what got me into the fantasy genre I still love. It was so immersive to have characters who increased their abilities over time, feeling like they were alternately sneaking and then battling (see the awesome box art) through dark dungeons. Our own Advanced Heroquest rules made the character advancement more interesting, with special skills to allow greater manipulation of the core rules.
The tension of the AHQ exploration system (rolling 1 or a 12 in an exploration turn giving the monsters bonuses) is expanded as we travel through the countryside between encounters. The longer we spent preparing and travelling to our destination, the better prepared the bad guys would be when we get there, leading to some tough choices of how we’ll spend our time.
The zombie horde attack Ravenholme – can the heroes survive the night?
The dungeon sections had the old mix of pre-designed and random dungeons, where we didn’t know what creatures lay around the next corner or what trap might be laid on the next door. This aspect of creeping through the dark was carried onto the stealth-based scenario where the terrain was all revealed to the players, but the half a dozen face-down counters to represent noises in the forest which could be monsters remained unknown – until they were upon us!
I’ve been playing Warhammer Fantasy battle for the last few years and I’ve increasingly found myself enjoying smaller games, where you can play a game in the space of a couple of hours. I’d often wondered in my teens whether AHQ could be taken out of the dungeon and out into the open. As it turns out, turning ranges in squares into inches on a tape measure was pretty effortless and we had a ready-made skirmish game!
I don’t know how these rules stand up to specially-designed skirmish games, such as Mordheim, Malifaux, Cutlass, Wolsung, Carnevale and Infinity. I’m really curious to try these miniature strategy games. Of course there is always the problem of getting your friends to join in at the same time. And if your group decides the game isn’t for them, how much money have you wasted on minis and books? Maybe our take on the game is the perfect answer for someone who has lots of Warhammer models as we do and want to play a game on this scale.
Has anyone played the above (or other) skirmish games? Which is your favourite and why? Would anyone be interested in trying out Advanced Heroquest in the way we’ve played it? Or should we not be meddling with a classic? Click “Leave a comment” above, or get me @grantsensei on twitter.
The post What was so good about our Heroquest game then? appeared first on Dicing With Design: Role Playing, Wargaming, Card games & Board Game Design Podcast.