Does HeroQuest Need House Rules? | Discussing Roll and Move Plus Other Game Mechanisms 

One of my favorite rule modification gives furniture a purpose: players can only search for treasure based on the number of furniture pieces in the room (# +1). So and empty room can be searched once, but a room with a weapons rack, table, and chest can be searched up to 4 times. This keeps the game moving but also makes the uniqueness of each room mean something.

Whenever I play with the kids I tend to make up rules as I go along, chuck new monsters in if they are getting bored, extra traps etc. In the last session, the heroes failed to kill "Grak" the Orc Shaman. So I had him return as the wandering monster in the following quest. much to their suprise! Whatever keeps things fresh and fun.

Concerning potions I do this: You can't take any actions at 0 BP. Instead you are dying and your turn immediately ends. Another party member has to use up their action to feed you a potion before your next turn comes around in order to save you from death. When used in this way, a potion restores the dying character to 1 BP instead of rolling to heal.

With movement we give free movement if there are no enemies present but I do like it being limited to 8, may just have to use that. For the health potion item, my friend and I did a house rule that if you are brought to 0 body points and are carrying a potion, you only receive one point to keep you alive which we felt helps balance it out well. You get to stay alive by holding onto it but the value of gaining more back when drinking it makes it more appealing. We also search the "room" as opposed to traps/doors to prevent redundancy.

I always liked the Warhammer quest way of picking turn orders Random but who ever is the party leader with the lamp gets to go first Each game you can change who has the lamp

The wording of your thumbnail is very smart, since it doesn't necessarily imply the game system wouldn't be better without house rules. I like that. Reading all the comments here, on reddit, bgg etc. there seems to be a consensus that furniture w/out any game mechanics as mere terrain filler is a missed opportunity. I like the 1+(furniture) search house rule a lot, with inspecting the room itself not requiring any movement, whereas inspecting furniture requiring adjacency (so that trap positioning becomes more meaningful again.) Is it a functional, fun and fast paced game by the book? Yes. Is there room for improving the experience? Yes.

The healing potion US rules is fixed by if you go to 0 and drink a potion, it only brings you to 1 Body point. If you want to roll your D6 then you either drink before being Injured, or drink another one!

A homebrew rule i took from a video i seen was to not show the monster cards for thw current quest until they have defeated them once. That way they learn the stat blocks of the monster through combat.

We use a lot of house rules spanning from the OG version and some new rules we made recently. -No fixed turn order. We basically roll for initiative during battle. -Unrestricted movement when no monsters are on the board, but I do like the fixed movement better. -We utilized the furniture during combat. For ex, If a player wants to jump on a table or chair I have them roll d20. Success gets them on the table and they can atk/def with a extra die. If they fail they are prone and defend with one less die and also lose their atk that turn. Zargon can do the same with monsters. This also helps with some rooms where the furniture causes bottlenecks. -Players can toss a potion to another player during combat in their line of sight, if not adjacent, with the roll of a d20. This is an action though. Basically D&D lite I suppose. We have some more written down but that's what I recall off the top of my head. Oh, we did have a character that hated goblins and every time he killed one he would roll a d20 to see if he cut off their ears to save as trinkets or get enough to sell afterwards as sort of a side quest.

nearly everyone agrees that HeroQuest needs something but nearly all disagree on precisely what that is. some prefer the game be simplified, while others prefer to add complexity. I tend to keep the game pretty much as is (from the version I grew up playing in the US) but I do sprinkle other stuff on top, taken from the other local editions (similar to how the remake added some of the EU particulars that were missing from the US edition back in). some house rules I've added are specific to streaming it over twitch (people in chat can use their channel points aka gold coins, to "buy" potions for heroes or monsters for zargon for example). I add "uncommon feats" for heroes to indicate plausible actions that aren't normally part of the game with a 50% chance of success (like leaping up on a table to gain an advantage, firing the crossbow over the head of their teammate, etc). when trying to "solve" a difficulty or add my own house rule I tend to look in the other "canonical" editions of HeroQuest (or the draft notes from the designers) to try to see if they've figured out a solution already.

Some house rules I used back in the day based on EURO version to make the game a little harder. Search treasure per furniture piece (eg: 2 x furniture = 2 x treasure cards plus quest treasure, search separately), can't search treasure in empty room. A sub rule I had was they could roll 2D6 and if they could roll equal or less than their mind points then they could take an extra treasure card. I will be doing this for HQ 2021 but I have 2 packs of treasure cards but remove trap cards, keep wandering monsters. Wandering monster chance every round: DM roll 2D6 and must score under the quests wandering monster movement and could place anywhere on explored map. Monsters auto picked up dead heroes gold, armour and weapons if no other heroes in same room or corridor, Heroes had to announce picking up. Also between quests I would roll I think 4D6 and this was the available equipment cards from the shop (probably do 6D6 for HQ2021), shuffle equipment and take X amount from the top and the equipment was 1 piece per card. eg : 1 shield card = 1 shield available to buy. There are other rules but can't remember them properly at the moment. With HQ2021 I will be using partial Euro rules for potions, still roll D6 but can't drink potion if 0 body points (you are dead) The fixed turn: I'm going to give the D&D Fantasy Adventure initiative system a try for HQ2021 as I'm waiting on my copy of D&D The Fantasy Adventure game, thanks to you after watching a video of yours I decided to buy that game, that's twice now your videos have helped :) hopefully be here within a week. BTW do you know what sleeve you're using for your old school HQ cards, brand and type?

One house rule I used back in the day (mainly to help the heroes in the Witch Lord Throne Room where they have 2 guys with no equipment because its all in the chest in the room full of monsters, but also helps when traps are printed next to furniture) is that players can move next to a piece of furniture and search it for treasure even if there are monsters nearby - if there is no special entry in the questbook for that piece of furniture you do not get a Treasure Card from taking this action although it still counts as that heroes treasure search for that room. When no monsters are nearby you search the room for treasure as normal and this searches the whole room including all furniture at once (and because you take more time you can do things like open chests from funny angles to avoid some of the printed traps). I feel like there does need to be something to better incorporate furniture into searching for treasure in a way that doesn't slow the game down but have never seen a system I'm 100% happy with. I do like the idea of limiting treasure searches to the number of furniture items in the room - maybe there's a way of combining these idea's that could work for me. We also always played that you can auto drink a health potion as a response to falling to zero BP - potions didn't take an action to use and so could be used at any time, even when it was not your turn - mainly it was a way of making the Wizard less squishy as 4 BP potions didn't feel so wasted (as they'd be no need to drink them while on 1 or 2 BP anymore, just wait until you're on 0 and get all 4 back).

In order to avoid the dawdling issue, I just say that if Zargon's turn comes up and there are no monsters on the board, Zargon may add one wandering monster to the board at a closed door, or at a corridor corner within line of sight of any hero.

One of my favourite games of all time! My custom rules keep with the basic simple gameplay that I feel help improve it even better are- 1. Enhancing the Wizard using a custom Magic (better attack magic - for only 4BP Wiz has to be able to deal more damage) and Equipment deck using the cards from Wizards of Morcar. 2. Using the Tokens from Advanced Hero Quest as "Chaos Tokens" to give Morcar something to do. 3. Utlilising the Mind Points (I use the Star dice from D&D FABG for casting spells- if a star isnt rolled then Hero loses 1 Mind Point. I created a Potion of Wisdom to heal MP's. 4. Initiatve - exactly the same as yours (how wierd!) but for different reasons - Barbarian kept blocking the door. 5. Between quests - I have a Tavern deck and an Inn to restore BP/MP and both costs Gold. 6. The boards from D&D FABG for more variety, bigger rooms and open spaces. Many custom rules I read I find are far too complicated and break away from the pick up and play style gameplay.

As always Great Commentary, pointers and last but never the least. Love the paint work on the minis. Your 100% right on Zargon. When you have a person that can play Zargon the game can be very challenging. 👍👍👍👍

Great video as always. The thing that upsets me more than randomised movement is the "no moving diagonally" thing. It's not that it's a broken rule or anything, it just doesn't feel "realistic" enough and spoils the immersion a bit.

Agree with all this! Actually one of the marvelous things about Heroquest is how easy it is to expand and home-rule. I think a general time limit to reach an objective / complete the dungeon actually solves almost all the game's issues with one fell swoop.

:) Since Christmas of 1990, I love HeroQuest, and have introduced it to my nephews and to my gf's kids. The only thing id add to HeroQuest is more Quests:)

For your Points (We had played pure european, but used some house rules borrowing from the american version, Europe is ridiculous easy): Roll and Movement: My brothers and the friend are playing cooperatively. So they have their Move order and when nothing is on the board and there are no traps I let them walk to the next room and position like they want. We have limited game time and like you said it is not fun seeing people roll dices to accomplish the same as just moving. Healing potions: I am against resurrecting heroes. The random roll for healing potions is nice, because sometimes you did not find the excellent brew, but rather some novice attempt. Searching: We play by Traps and hidden doors. Treasure is only once there. Time to explore: I can not recall that this was a "problem". It feels better, when the guys walk around. Memorizing adventures is bad, because some items etc. are given out in certain rooms and are very powerful. Turn Order: Like I mentioned above we have a solid turn order and that is for the rest of the game. Zargon: I have two limits I try to avoid. First is the limit that the game gets to easy. In the european version this is unavoidable after several missions. Every Monster is most likely getting killed without doing anything. I borrowed from the american version and introduced the "better" stats. The other limit is when the game gets to hard and I can not make it easy, because I need quite some time to rethink it. How do you think of the Master Quest challenge? My group started without equip from former missions and after meeting the black guards they lost hope to ever face the boss. Statistically speaking a Swordsman has such a high chance to just block incoming damage that Zargon would always choose those. They even have good attack values. Now I have invented to make those guys more interesting, but I wanna see how someone beats the Master Quest challenge with a "tough" Zargon.

Great video. Coming from a D&D background I'll always add RP to the missions. Sometimes a lonely monster may help the hero's but then betray them right at end etc. I always have 2 house rules, the movement is fixed if no monsters and only one character can search. I also allow (so this a 3rd lol) if an ally has a Healing Potion on them and they are within 1 square of a fallen hero they can throw Thier healing potion at them to keep them standing.

I've not seen that slightly expanded version of the HQ cover art before, slightly different colouring as well. Pretty cool!

I have the original UK version of the game, I haven’t started playing it yet (waiting for my daughters to get older) but I already have a compiled list of house rules! I have the ones you mentioned (thank you!) but I also want to incorporate the body points for monsters from the US version. It just makes no sense all monsters having 1 BP to me, especially the bosses. Great video as always, thank you.

I love pretty much all your suggestions plus that one someone said about the furniture and extra chances of treasure, but heroquests main downfall is not enough furniture and minis

Simple but GREAT content in your video, as always. I fully agree in most of your words. Thanks for sharing!!

There are also rules for fate cards, which can lead to either a positive or negative event. Everytime there is no monster on the board Zargon may roll a D10 and on 1 or 2 a fate card is drawn. This adds some sort of clock (like your 5 skull tokens) since eventually a really bad fate card will be drawn! And i always remove the come back to live with a potion rule. I find the strategic using of potions vital for a rather easy game like HQ. I like the rule for "unrestricted" movement with no enemies . Might use that for my next game.

Nice video, well presented and great comments.

Totally agree with you on movement. That's one of the things I heard alot of negatives about before I had tried the game but for the most part, I think it adds to the tension.

I made house rules based upon realism and speed of game play. I will explain the two changes I made and why I made them and my family and friend enjoys these changes. Movement I had to change because of the randomness a player couldn't build a strategy for their hero and it also taken away realism from the game. I done away with rolling the 2 red dice and replaced it with a maximum fixed movement spaces which is 6 spaces. I based this upon the mercenaries from The Frozen Horror. Of course other factors in the game also had to be changed like the plate mail armor because of heaviness reduces movement by 1 space making the total movement 5 spaces equivalent to the swordsman mercenarie. And spells were also changed like Swift Wind which instead rolling 2 extra red dice simply now doubles the maximum movement spaces and Disappear the player now rolls the 2 red dice at the beginning of their hero's turn to determine if the spell is still in effect but still move a maximum of 6 spaces. The reason for this change because it makes no sense for a nimble Elf to move slower than a Zombie or a stocky Dwarf to move faster than a Goblin. And sense the majority of monsters move 6 spaces it places pressure upon the players to determine if their heroes will engage in melee combat which would limit their option to flee. And some monsters like Goblins, Orcs, and in the U.S. Dread Warriors are quicker than the heroes who will likely be overtaken. And some monsters that are undead and decaying move slower than the heroes like the Zombies and Mummies which makes them easier to flee from. Also another change I made was combining the two actions Search for Traps with Search for Secret Doors. This greatly speeds up game play and adds realism to the game. With any search a hero would be glancing around the room looking at the floor, ceiling, walls, and furniture in a corridor or room for anything unusual so naturally that would apply to both traps and secret doors. This is different than Searching for Treasure in which the hero would actually check inside crevices in the floors and walls and open table drawers, books on bookshelves, and chests within a room possibly triggering traps. My Heroquest only has five actions: Fight a Monster, Cast a Spell, Search for Treasure, Search for Traps and Secret Doors, and Disarm a Trap.

Everything Heroquest sounds more epic when spoken with your accent! Don't stop with the great HQ content

THANK YOU for your insightful videos on Heroquest!!! You really do a great job showcasing this game!

There's all sorts of house rules you can include to make a classic even better: 1. Fighter type characters (Barbarian, Knight) have "monster sense", so you know when the dungeon is clear (useful for some scenarios). 2. Wizard type characters (Wizard, Sorcerer) have "magic sense", so you know if you've found all the magic treasure. 3. "Dungeoneer Exploration Association Department" (DEAD), 100 gold reward for exploring then entire dungeon. 4. No fixed turn order. 5. Finite monsters/traps; put a dice near the treasure deck, every third or fourth monster card draw and put back in the deck removes a card from the deck.

I want to say the last game I ran our movement was defaulted to six or eight...I can't recall. They still rolled dice though and if they rolled above that set number, they would take the higher. I do like the movement options discussed here too so may have to weigh that with the players. I also like the one treasure search per room. Though I'm guilty of doing the on search per piece of furniture. That skull tokens being pulled for each round without a monster though...I definitely will put that into play.

I've added my own Evil Wizard deck using the ideas posted on Ye Olde inn for when no monsters are active. Essentially on the Zargon turn you draw one card from a deck of 40 cards these can be dungeon effects like moving doors, flooding the dungeon basically elements that make the game a bit more random. Flooded dungeon slows movement speed, roll less movement dice etc or for example I have a smoke filled room card that means ranged weapons cannot be used. Theres buff cards Zargon can hold and then play in combat to aid monsters and I've got 10 nothing happens cards so it doesn't become too tough. My favourite card is the intelligent monsters one it means wandering monsters are now able to move away from heroes and alert other monsters rather than just attacking. Making the players chase monsters adds a unique element or risk to the game. Does a single hero run off to try and stop hordes of monsters being activate an risk engaging a group alone or do the heroes stick together and risk multiple rooms being opened.

Aw seeing your old Hero quest painted, man I should do the same. I never got the new one, felt like I was betraying my old one😂. If the players are younger and depending how the game is going I’ll reduce rooms, add or take away monsters depending on time..I did use a rule in my friend once when he died far too quick, if he can eat a doughnut without using his hands he can come back to life🤣.. aw good times.

One of the rules that we added to our game was since there are elf spells now in the game set up we The wizard has all four elemental spells and the elf uses the elf spells. Since we added that rule my friends enjoy being the wizard a little bit more since they're not so squishy

I think you have very good point. The only house rules that I like very much (I'm sure I already write it there) is to use body point + 1d6 to move and if don't attack (or something else) move again. Still some random, and the feel of your wound. But still I like your point of view about the move rules and the new rules Healing potion 100% agreed

I agree about the healing potions. Watch your play through if felt weird taking the healing at 0 Don’t know the solution but that took me just a little bit out of my suspension of disbelief

Good video. Great suggestions!

I like using unthreatened movement. If you think of the roll to move as a sort of initiative roll it makes more sense. Could it be used to determine turn order as well? Each player rolls and that is the order the move in as well (how to break ties?). Monster move on the card is their initiative as well. In any case roll and move makes sense from the perspective of people in a strange, dark, dangerous, slippery place inhabited by things that want you dead. Without realizing it you just might not always move to your full potential.

I’d like something to prevent the barbarian from being a meat shield. I thought of adding some type of a roll to go around heroes or monsters in hallways that are blocked. Like roll a combat die anything but a skull gets you around. If you fail take a hit point.

The way we deal with healing potions is just what is written on the card - 'you may drink it at any time' so the player can drink one right before they roll defence, but after the dice are rolled, if hero is dead - dead people can't drink. We deal with turn order by allowing heroes a 'delay' action, holding their turn until after other players act, then reinserting into the order when they wish, the order resetting to normal after Morcar has their turn. After your Frozen Horror playthrough we have tried the unthreatened movement rule, and it seems to work OK.

I added a more realistic quality to Heroquest without changing much to the actual game. For example I decided to use movement spaces instead of movement rolls in which the heroes move like the monsters. So in general 6 movement spaces is what every hero can move with the exception of the Rogue which can move 9 spaces. I based these movements upon the mercenaries from The Frozen Horror. If a hero is wearing the plate mail armor the penalty for the heavy armor is 1 space less so normally this would be 5 movement spaces equivalent to the Swordsman. As for the Rogue I based their movement upon the Scout being fast and nimble. Pit traps I added and taken away some rules. Like for example searching for treasure and secret doors is removed but yet the hero is considered being in a separate room. So heroes in pits can't be targeted by projectile attacks or spells which requires a line of sight. If they want to attack or cast a spell upon a hero within a pit they have to be adjacent to the hero. Also moving out of a pit the hero can only move 1 space. Realistically it would take time to climb out of a pit. A for monsters most can move 6 spaces so heroes would have to be cautious engaging monsters in melee combat otherwise escape wouldn't be an option. This also puts the Swift Wind spell more in demand in order to double movement so that a hero could escape. Also Goblins 10, Orcs 8, and Dread Warriors 7 move faster than most of the heroes which presents a challenge of being overtaken by these foes. But Zombies 5, and Mummies 4 are slow because of being undead rotting corpses which makes them easy to outrun for the heroes. The Rogue however, can move quicker than Orcs and Dread Warriors. As for turn order I let the players decide what order their heroes will take a turn. The current order which seems to be working well is Barbarian first so he can scout out areas and search for traps if no monsters are present. Wizard second to get into those areas and cast spells having an easy line of sight going into rooms. Elf third to cover the Wizard and cast spells if nessisary or attack. And clean up is the Dwarf to attack sleeping monsters or pass through walls to get into rooms which might be crowded. As for hired mercenaries during the hero that hired them turn the hero and mercenaries move and preform actions under the control of the player in any order they want like how Zargon controlling monsters. As for the Rogue they could be a good replacement character for the Dwarf. But I tweaked the rule with the Rogue's disarm traps with the same skill as the Dwarf or Scout.

Our house rule for heroes moving when there are no monsters on the board is all players roll 2 dice for their movement, but only the highest roll is used, and it is used for all heroes. Speeds things up, keeps the players rolling dice which they generally like, and allows the heroes to more or less stick together. I hate the American healing potion rule. We allow a hero to drink it any time during the turn, but not if they are at 0, because at 0 they are dead. I am totally stealing the timekeeping with skulls rule you propose. I might tweak it for when a treasure comes up. Not only does it get discarded and the heroes cannot get that treasure later, but they each have to pay 1 red die of gold (each player rolls for their hero) for food and water consumed. If they can’t or won’t pay they lose a health point. I wanted to work in a provisions rule but I didn’t want them to buy them, this would be simpler.

One issue I forgot about that came up recently is dealing with equipment. We have always played that the cards are fixed, to give an element of competition over the limited gear (as opposed to everyone being able to arm up in chainmail, helmet, shield, etc). What should we do when quests (particularly US quests being adapted where there appears to be no limitation on equipment at all) hand out gear in quests and the card is already in play? I have been substituting in gold and potions of equal value, but am interested in how others handle it.

One thing about the movement I like, and this may be fairly standard in most games, is being able to attack and then move or vice versa. I know there are some free movement of unlimited squares as long as no monsters or traps. I think the American version of healing potions is there because there are only two healing spells in the base set spells. You do have more options if you use mythic tier characters because of the bard and druid having their own healing spells. The other thing you have to consider is finding a healing potion is pure random in the treasure deck. I want to say there is maybe two quests in the base set 14 which gives you a healing potion or two. At the same time, I think for the American set, close to half of the cards in the treasure deck is wandering monsters and if you add in the hazards\traps, it pushes the damaging cards closer to 60% of the deck. I would argue the American rules set for searching to be better logically. Ideally, one would search for traps first to disarm any of them, then search for treasure and secret doors next. There are a few trapped treasure chests in the base set let alone Keller's Keep which are sprung first if you search for treasure prior to traps. At least you aren't required to designate exactly where you are searching in the room or corridor (traps and secret doors). I've got no problem of letting the heroes hold initiative especially if I'm teaching new players and suggesting certain strategies. Now, if I have all experienced players, the gloves comes off.

I sometimes use the evil wizard cards. And otherwise just my imagination 🙂 had a dart board in use last time we played where the heroes had to find a note with a code to enter the last room and alternately hit the numbers with arrows in the right combination. Two shots for each per Round and by passing with both arrows, a goblin spawned on the board🙂 Will there be more advanced hero quest videos? I hope so 👍😃

One of my house rules: monsters can open doors and wander when heroes have moved past doors to rooms they're in.

One addition, not really a fix, is to have a bit more open field for HeroQuest in one of the quests. I know there are a few quests with slightly extra large rooms which are usually boss rooms. I've yet to play any of the mythic tier books so it is possible they have the open spaces but cramped quarters makes it a bit challenging for characters to feel useful.

Hi. I am new to HQ. Is this video referring to the original or new version? When referring to difference between US and EU, does that apply to the new version?

It is usually not so much the rules, but when several things happen at once how do you sort them out? Having access to 2 different rule sets is rather nice in examples like this. One set of the rules can give you an idea on how to handle the situation. I'm very surprised the non combat movement was only in the US version as in is simple and makes sense. Maybe a future FAQ will make it an option.

Dark World has a shaker with little coloured balls inside for Hero turn order. This is a great idea to use for unique quest designs, randomising Hero turn order. I prefer to use the 1 from Village of Fear expansion because it's free standing, doesn't require the castle.

You make an interesting argument for keeping role to move. I don't care for it for the fact that monsters have fixed movement, it just 'feels' odd to me. Thanks for pointing out the fact that it is actually one of the mechanics that makes the game more challenging for the heroes. In my experience, it's almost always easier for the hero's then it is for Zargon. Similarly, I didn't like how enemy movement worked in Dark Souls at first. The fact that you are encouraged to move the enemies to your benefit while still technically making them move closer to your heroes. I always lean toward trying to simulate a GM and so I would make them move straight for me until I realized just how difficult the game was. But an interesting thing happened when I started to move the enemies as strategically as possible and, in my favor. I discovered that each enemy movement phase is a wonderful and thought-provoking puzzle that is constantly moving. It was really FUN to try and figure out how to follow the rules but also manipulate the board in a way that my heroes could work with. Perhaps I will revisit my home rules for movement for HQ. I think a hybrid of mechanics would be great. I ended up house ruling that heroes can only carry one of each type of potion at a time, one healing potion of any value, one stamina, etc. I only allow one treasure to be discovered per room. Every Zargon activation without monsters on the table I roll a combat die, on a black shield a wandering monster surprise attacks the hero of my choice.

I made the black shields to become monster abilities to trigger and the white shield to defend the ability or not, same for monsters the white shield is for both. 😊

I stumbled upon your video and I saw Hero Quest.... good enough for me to earn a new Subscriber

YeOldeInn has a threat deck used similarly to your skull tokens … If there are no monsters in play, Zargon draws a card from the evil wizard deck. the Evil Wizard can only have a few of these in their hand and must discard down to that number. These are things that Zargon can play at any time, either placing a monster onto the board, opening a door of their choosing, resurrecting a slain monster, blocking an attack, or increasing a monster's abilities in some ways. Even with this mechanic, roll and move *can* be broken under US/2021 rules pretty early on in the game: Prince Magnus's Gold. Every room searched and looted, every monster slain, no chance for anything but cooperation, and these chests have to be dragged out on a single movement die. I was playing all four characters and I was rolling 1 and 2 mostly, for the three, and we didn't just call it because Zargon could draw a threat card every turn. He wasn't getting anything he could use to make the game in any way fun. My suggestion for such a 2021-based game with added threat cards: Unthreatened movement, yes, do that. And the chests don't slow you down since you can't bicker and fight over them nor decide to keep them. And only then if you're using a threat mechanic. If you're not, if everything's long dead, players standing before the chests is quest over. The rules are fine as written. Some of the quests are a little wonky. Zargon fan fix them if that's the case.

As a European Morcar/Hero player, I agree with some of the issues here. - The issue of the dice roll, I think, is better resolved in the additional rule provided in Frozen Horror. And yes, nobody uses the plate armour (except the knight), it is very unbalanced that the plate armour halves the movement. It would be much better if it's simply subtracted 2 or 3 movement from the 2 Dice roll. - The topic of potions is complicated. For most characters, the free potion drinking rule seems OP, but for the mage who only has 4 Body Points, it's often a lifesaver. Yes, I agree that it would be more balanced that if a hero drinks a potion to avoid death, this should only recover 1 Body Point, because if not, it is always more advantageous to let yourself be killed, since you mostly will recover more Body Points that way than drinking it before you die. -About the turn order, I would prefer that each hero had an initiative stat that is added to a roll of 1D6 each turn to see the order in which the heroes act. It would be a mixed way to avoid the forced turns in clockwise order, or the perhaps excessive advantage of the heroes to be able to freely choose the turn order. And also, it could be an interesting stat for less tanky characters, like the mage and elf, who could maybe have more initiative and be able to choose to act earlier in the turn.

It's easy to solve healing potion issue: - 0 is unconscious but -1 is dead. You can drink potion just before unconsciousness but not if you get in negative numbers. It adds a risk but a lesser one.

How do you handle heroes with multiple weapons, like a crossbow, shield, and battle-axe? Do you restrict the number of weapons they can carry to 1? Do you homebrew rules for switching gear on a players turn, like making it take an action, or make their defense based on whether they used the battle-axe or not on their turn? Or do you just let them attack with the battle-axe and then switch to the crossbow and shield at the end of the turn, letting them have the best of both? There's a lot of room for debate over rules as written vs rules as intended here and I'd like to know how you address this.

First off, I ordered Heroquest from Hasbro Pulse a few weeks ago, hoping I would like it, and if this is any indication, I ordered all available expansions right after playing the first quest, haha. I am in love with this game, man, and I'm glad I got the chance to see you play it and speak so highly of it. That was definitely instrumental in me buying it. Playing solo, and using the companion app I did contemplate giving the heroes a fixed movement like the monsters, because sometimes especially when time is a factor, it gets to feel a bit much when you're rolling both movement AND attack dice for 4 heroes, but decided against it because I don't primarily roll low for movement, and didn't want to say, set the dwarf for a fixed movement of 6 while I could be rolling 10s and 11s. Aside from that I absolutely can not wait for the Mage of the Mirror, and the Rogue Heir of Elethorn. Now that I'm into it, they can honestly just keep making expansions and new heroes for all I care. Haha. Would love to see you go through a couple missions from Mage of the Mirror when it comes out!

I think the simplicity of HQ means that it is a blank canvas for adding house rules and RP elements. I am all for it as long as everyone agrees. Season for taste. Many gamers (including myself) fall into the trap of "the game has to be played by the current rules", because most tabletop wargames release new versions that must be used, or you will be a meta pariah. Thing is, outside of a tournament setting the gamers really have all the power to choose which version of a game they use and if any house rules are to be added. All you need is to find other gamers who have figured this out and are willing to give it a try.

Heroquest is full of areas that demand homebrewing, and I think therein lies the beauty of the game. Many of the rules you mentioned I agree on. Good discussion! Missed your touch on Heroquest, can never have too much!

One important european rule is, that you can get each weaponcard only once in game. We played it different as kids in the 80s, but I feel the limit adds something to the game. Less is often more as we say in germany

I like the 'Unthreatened movement' rule. Albeit we've always home-ruled that heroes have unlimited movement as long as: 1. There's no monsters 2. They don't see anything new as they travel 3. They specify which path they're taking with their miniature, incase they trigger a trap. Indeed, rolling for movement when there's no monsters does feel like a waste of time.

Can somebody give me the link to where the avalon hill FAQ is? I can't find it

thank you for those useful clarifications

When I was doing it (search) meant everything, guess to not drag the game. you had to near the treasure chest etc.

Hero quest is amazing its very open and house rules are there if you want or not you said it perfectly

I love that card idea for combat. The door problem has always been something that slogs the game alot. I have tried using double movement to get through Monsters 1 time per turn , double the door opening.. a few other things.

For turn order, if you guys don't have a fix order I strongly suggest having the players roll a d6 for turn activations during combat

Answer: No. But the Game can improve markedly with them. The initiative function sounds useful, as does ad hoc player order. And I like the default movement allowance when no denizens are around. Even before I was exposed to the US rules, I had often played "boss" denizens as being endowed with more than 1 body point, better defence, etc.

I would use the turn order cards but deal them out again when all players and Morcar have had their go rather than when a new door is opened.

0 body Points = Unconsciousness - unavailable, for the remainder of this quest. -2 = Dead. One treasure search per room, plus one treasure search for each piece of furniture.

Does the new version also have two different rule sets?

I think a good compromise with the American rules potion would be that a downed player would have to be given the potion from another player within a turn or two.

Fixing Hero Quest? How dare you, fool?! The Bard has already stated it was the best board game ever. Period. 😁

BTW if anyone is curious can roll and move be an interesting mechanism play Nautilion and be surprised.

No house ruling of the plate armour so it doesn’t punish your movement quite as much - sir, you disappoint me…. 😀

Health potions were just glorified bottled fairies from The Legend of Zelda. I think it would make for an interesting dynamic if drinking potions counted as an action. Example: Heroic Brew could be taken if you expect combat in the next room, or if you don't have enough movement to attack this turn. Being able to use potions at will should be prohibited, or at least restricted to requiring an unused action.

I would love to see a complex rule conversion kit, this could include character versions of the classes with unique traits, perhaps critical miss and hit dice? More environmental engagement? Perhaps we could go modular for a little bit? Perhaps Hasbro could release Hero and Monster Collections similar to Descent 2nd Ed! You aren't getting much in those current hero collection!

Currently playing through the base game...I find it extremely easy for the players. We are on the 3rd quest and it seems almost every monster is 1 shotted except the fake chaos warriors. I've been playing zargon and I think I'll just upscale the monsters, but the quests are defintely written on what my group would consider an easy mode. I own all the expansions currently, but trying to run the game pure seems way to easy to experienced wargamers without home brewing right away.

I play with the rule that if you hit 0 BP, you are dropped, but another player can give you a potion to revive you. If they do, then you only return with one body point.

The only house rule I really use is to handwave the requirement to walk back to the stairs after a quest is complete. Other than that, I pretty much play RAW.

My family and I have home brewed it to the point where it's unrecognizable as hero quest. But my God its fun

I need to call my knight No One now. Not everyone could get the knight packs so you may not of known this but the knights movement is unrestricted by armor as stated on the back of the character card.

A balancing rule for life saving potions is to simply rule that potions drank while dying always put you at 1 body point.

If you’re dead, you can’t drink a potion. Now, if a fellow warrior is next to you, they can pour it down your throat. Otherwise you are dead.

Only thing that realy slow down the game are traps, there are some unclear rules , like falling rocks blocking doors, speartraps right behind the door that cant be searched and so on. I thought about changing pit traps against attacking monsters whenever a trapdoor is activated. Hate the jumping and climbing out of these holes, slow down the whole game in my point of view. I will for sure adapt the moving rules in future games, even im not keen of houserules at all

the monsters need double hp imo. Mostly glass cannons. I immediately let monsters open doors and flee to other rooms if needed. Goblins are perfect for that. They alert their friends who lay traps and call the commander (Ulag or Gargoyle stats) who then starts to hunt the party down actively. This game makes implementing roleplay and little things like alerting rooms so easy and uncomplicated it is just a delight. Btw the remake is NOT competitive. I have the German edition and there is no pvp. The original EU version got that maybe. The remake uses the US rules (potion use when dropping to 0 hp).

"i don't think heroquest needs fixing"....yes, it does, for adults. As a child, you may forget from time to time to do certain action (traps/doors searching) that can end in peril for you, but as an adult, you pretty much guarantee that every single turn is all characters searching every single square inch on every single one of their turns when not in combat....and when they are in combat, they funnel back and tactically kill everything before proceeding. This "challenge" is only for children, it is a nuisance for adults. There are other gripes about it as an adult that I won't get into, but the basic point is, it DOES need fixing. I have been working on a new version that adds spice and takes away boredom but maintains the nostalgia of the childlike adventure/risk. For one, I've updated the monsters to have different types of attacks in order to give more combat control so players trying to funnel can be easily thwarted (like goblin double attack while moving through players, orcs able to push/smash players, abominations have long reach spear-like weapons that can hit multiple players, etc.). The second thing I changed is traps...players will no longer search for traps or secret doors, it just takes too long. Instead, traps have a set of numbers noting different behaviors and players roll an extra die (of a different color) when they move and if they move over a trap and matches a number in the list, it does the note. Players with trap knowledge roll 2 instead of 1 and gain the favorable note action. Players who search for treasure cannot move but still roll the extra die/dice, and if the trap is in that room, same thing. The behaviors are one of: found a trap (zargon stops the player in front of it during their movement), avoided the trap (zargon remains silent as if nothing is there), sprung the trap (stop the player on the trap and perform the trap action). This way the players don't even look at the extra die, since the numbers are completely random anyway before the quest begins, so they just move as if nothing is wrong. It makes it fun because it isn't always the first player that gets hurt, could be any of them or none of them. Because of the way some quests put secret doors to the main objectives and searching is done randomly, I have also changed those quests as well. Instead, only normal or locked doors can be between the start and end of any quest. Secret doors are instead used for "side quests" or extra/treasure areas, so if they get missed, it doesn't become a problem. Traps are per-tile and secret doors are per-turn while in LOS. And as always, the extra die doesn't get rolled while in combat....so traps will be triggered always. I also changed how treasure works, but this post is already pretty long.

I agree.. I love the American rules but I'd prefer to alture it if a problem arises.

Hmm... I've gone extreme rules, I grabbed a copy of Savage Worlds, and played HeroQuest, Torment of the Spirit Queen. It's proven interesting...

The best part of HeroQuest............. ( Had to do it)

I’m finding the turn order change very compelling.

No it's fine as it is 😁

My favorite house rule is to play Warhammer Quest or Claustrophobia.

as far as im concerned its a board game in board games u roll dice to move

Furniture - this needs fixing. It seems pointless to have it on the board.. what would be better is if you can interact with it, as in searching for treasure etc.

HeroQuest is a very rudimentary rpg rather than a complete game. Just houserule, it allows more roleplaying and more fun

I found it to easy the monsters died quick and the treasure search could be spammed and abused

I just heard a Brit admit a preference for something American. Pardon me while I relish this moment in full 1776 mode. I'll be the guy over there during twin M-16's in the air while an eagle perches on my bicep and a blonde in a star spangled bikini plays a heavy metal riff on a guitar.