Well, it's been a while since I did one of these articles, but today was one of those drudgingly boring sorts of days,ripe for blogging. So out of that dreadful, painfully awkward boredom, I present to you a game I was rather fond of all those years ago; I give you HeroQuest!
I used to love this game! What am I saying,I still love this game. It's easy, it's challenging and most of all, it's still a lot of fun to play. In fact,it's one of the simplest board games of this type I've ever played. Though I do believe it to be more of a hybrid of both fantasy and sword and sorcery,the distinction isn't clear,nor is it all that important in this game. On one hand you have orcs and elves,and on the other you have a barbarian and an evil sorcerer, who to me appears very similar to Skeletor from Masters of the Universe.
I was lucky to find myself a copy of this game at an outlet store back in the early 90's, still brand new in the shrink-wrap. I'm glad I did,as this board game isn't as cheap anymore and is slowly becoming a rare find on Ebay. More so with the expansions which can sometimes command a very hefty price tag. I looked around online to get a general consensus of the going rate for Heroquest, the ones I found we're anywhere from $70 to $450!
Note to self:Diet Crush and cheez-its are not the breakfast of champions.
How it's played
The game itself is quite simple. The players choose from one of four different characters (best played with five people). Each player gives their character a name and fills in the stats on a blank character sheet. The two magic using characters are the elf and the wizard,who choose a set of spells from varying elements. The elf receives 3 cards of any one element of his choosing, while the wizard receives the remaining nine spell cards.
The four characters the players can choose from are: The Barbarian,the Dwarf,the Elf and the Wizard. Each character has his own strengths and weaknesses both in and outside of combat.
The Barbarian: Has one extra attack die when in combat and has the most hit points out of the four.
The Dwarf: The dwarf is a well balanced fighter who in addition,can disarm traps without the use of tools.
The Elf: The elf is equally as balanced as the dwarf in combat,with the addition of being able to cast three spells from any one element.
The Wizard: Perhaps the weakest of the four, the wizard makes up for this by casting a variety of spells,but has fewer hit points and 1 attack die, but has the highest amount of mind points.
After the characters are initially created, they are placed on the board,usually,but not always on a tile representing stairs. This stairway represents both the entrance and exit to the dungeon. In order to move around the dungeon board, player's must roll two red six-sided dice, moving in accordance to whatever random number is rolled. At any time,players can search for treasure, look for traps,cast spells, open visible doors( within touching distance)and drink potions,etc,etc...
As the players progress beyond certain rooms, they are confronted by various monsters that sometimes guard random treasure...or traps, depending on the card selected.
Monsters in this game are fairly standard,including Orcs, Goblins, Fimirs, Chaos Warriors, a Gargoyle, Skeletons, Zombies,Mummies and a Chaos Warlock who is also the main antagonist of the game. By defeating these monsters in combat, players can gain treasure and artifacts that will help them throughout the game but also increases the chance of encountering traps or wandering monsters if the wrong card is selected from the treasure deck.
The combat system itself,is very simple. First,you must be standing next to the enemy you intend to attack,ranged weapons are optional(If I remember correctly, the enemy always receives a turn after all of the players have spent their turns.) Then a number of white dies are cast, dependable on the character or purchased equipment. Black shields represent an enemy's defenses,while white shields are used for the player's defense. Skulls on the other hand are used by both sides to represent damage, but only when attacking,never on defense rolls.
Let's say for example,the barbarian attacks an orc. He rolls three white dice for his attack,the result being two skulls and the other a black shield. At this point,the orc rolls two white dies for his defense. He rolls a skull and a black shield,taking only one point of damage saving himself further damage by rolling the single black shield. Had he rolled two black shields,he would have been unharmed,anything else rolled would've meant taking two points of damage,killing it instantly. (It's important to note that all monster actions and attack/defense rolls are done by the games master alone.)
The game's spells are used a little differently from normal basic attacks. Instead of rolling dice, a card is chosen from the player's deck of magic spells and used accordingly to the effect he wishes to add to the game,be it a healing,buffering or damage-type spell. As I mentioned earlier,the wizard and the elf are the only two spell casters usable by the players,however the Chaos Warlock(controlled only by the GM.)receives his own set of chaos spells, which are more powerful than that of the players.
In between dungeons,the characters may purchase new equipment from a shop,using the gold and gems gathered from previous adventures,giving them better armor and weaponry. In addition, all spells cast from the last adventure are fully restored as well as any lost hit points and mind damage.
And that's roughly about it, simple,right? Now with all that out of the way,the only problem I see with heroquest is the blatant difficulty. Though one player can just as easily play all four characters at once with a friend running the monsters and trap/treasure cards, a lot of teamwork is still needed for all characters to survive in each dungeon. Once a character dies,they are removed from the game, there is no possibility for resurrection unless the GM allowed for special rules in between dungeon adventures,making it a near necessity to use this as a house-ruling.
Several expansion packs for Heroquest we're produced,which included new dungeon tiles, monsters, spells and quests. These expansions are rare, even more so than the original game itself; usually commanding a very steep price on sites like Ebay and Amazon. These expansions opened new areas with levels based around the plot that took place after the main heroquest story-line,all the while, using the same materials from the original game.
Shortly after Heroquest,two sequels we're made in the form of Advanced Heroquest and Warhammer quest, each with their own sets of expansion packs. Neither of which I played,so I can't give you a fair or accurate description of either in their entirety,but from what I can gather, the same formula still applies to each.
Honestly, I'd had never known that Heroquest was part of the Warhammer universe until about several years ago. For those of you not familiar with Warhammer, it's essentially a massive war game,involving hundreds of miniatures on a huge grid,which is a very popular game by today's table-top gaming standards.
Heroquest had also made it's way onto the PC back in the early 90's. I gotta say,it does come very close to the actual board game. There we're several versions of the Heroquest video games,but for the most part, they we're all basically the same game. Some had better color and graphics,while some versions of the game had no color at all,being entirely in black and white. The game was even licensed by Nintendo at one point and appeared on it's 8-bit console system.
Now all you have to do is blow into the bottom of it until you bust a blood vessel.
This software is generally free to download on nearly every ROM site available,provided the user has an emulator or DOS-BOX installed. I personally prefer the DOS-BOX version to others,due to it's easy to use format. The PC version,also had a sequel called Legacy of Sorasil, which is considered abandoned-ware and thus,free to download as well if you can find it on-line.
PC
Amiga
Since Heroquest was first introduced,it had spawned books, tee shirts, puzzles, sticker-books and of course,Herocults...Wait, what?...Herocults???
It's sorta like heroquest,only mentally retarded.
This was an actual knock-off version of heroquest, that I can only assume was produced in Mexico. Even knock-offs of this type are highly sought after by collectors,and make them just as rare and probably a lot harder to find than the actual product itself.
In truth, I could go on for days about heroquest and it's many tie-ins and just barely scratch the surface. There are some aspects of this game that I can't go into too heavily, Space Crusade(HQ in spaaaaacccee!) and Warhammer/Warhammer 40K for example. My reasoning is that these games,while still made by Games Workshop, deviate away from the original purpose of this blog. While I'm certain they're all
fine products, I can only fit so much material into a single blog anyway without losing the readers interest. But there's still one last thing I haven't covered...
I'll use ma browdsowd!
This old commercial, which is still funny to watch after all these years,given the term "Fire of wroth!" has become a parodied catchphrase in recent times. I'd never heard of Heroquest until I saw this commercial back in 1990,but boy, am I ever so glad I did.
Next time I'll be covering the Marvel version of Conan the barbarian, try not miss out. Well,until next blog dear readers,I'm off to make myself a quick sammitch and take a well deserved nap!
I used to love this game! What am I saying,I still love this game. It's easy, it's challenging and most of all, it's still a lot of fun to play. In fact,it's one of the simplest board games of this type I've ever played. Though I do believe it to be more of a hybrid of both fantasy and sword and sorcery,the distinction isn't clear,nor is it all that important in this game. On one hand you have orcs and elves,and on the other you have a barbarian and an evil sorcerer, who to me appears very similar to Skeletor from Masters of the Universe.
I was lucky to find myself a copy of this game at an outlet store back in the early 90's, still brand new in the shrink-wrap. I'm glad I did,as this board game isn't as cheap anymore and is slowly becoming a rare find on Ebay. More so with the expansions which can sometimes command a very hefty price tag. I looked around online to get a general consensus of the going rate for Heroquest, the ones I found we're anywhere from $70 to $450!
Note to self:Diet Crush and cheez-its are not the breakfast of champions.
How it's played
The game itself is quite simple. The players choose from one of four different characters (best played with five people). Each player gives their character a name and fills in the stats on a blank character sheet. The two magic using characters are the elf and the wizard,who choose a set of spells from varying elements. The elf receives 3 cards of any one element of his choosing, while the wizard receives the remaining nine spell cards.
The four characters the players can choose from are: The Barbarian,the Dwarf,the Elf and the Wizard. Each character has his own strengths and weaknesses both in and outside of combat.
The Barbarian: Has one extra attack die when in combat and has the most hit points out of the four.
The Dwarf: The dwarf is a well balanced fighter who in addition,can disarm traps without the use of tools.
The Elf: The elf is equally as balanced as the dwarf in combat,with the addition of being able to cast three spells from any one element.
The Wizard: Perhaps the weakest of the four, the wizard makes up for this by casting a variety of spells,but has fewer hit points and 1 attack die, but has the highest amount of mind points.
After the characters are initially created, they are placed on the board,usually,but not always on a tile representing stairs. This stairway represents both the entrance and exit to the dungeon. In order to move around the dungeon board, player's must roll two red six-sided dice, moving in accordance to whatever random number is rolled. At any time,players can search for treasure, look for traps,cast spells, open visible doors( within touching distance)and drink potions,etc,etc...
As the players progress beyond certain rooms, they are confronted by various monsters that sometimes guard random treasure...or traps, depending on the card selected.
Monsters in this game are fairly standard,including Orcs, Goblins, Fimirs, Chaos Warriors, a Gargoyle, Skeletons, Zombies,Mummies and a Chaos Warlock who is also the main antagonist of the game. By defeating these monsters in combat, players can gain treasure and artifacts that will help them throughout the game but also increases the chance of encountering traps or wandering monsters if the wrong card is selected from the treasure deck.
The combat system itself,is very simple. First,you must be standing next to the enemy you intend to attack,ranged weapons are optional(If I remember correctly, the enemy always receives a turn after all of the players have spent their turns.) Then a number of white dies are cast, dependable on the character or purchased equipment. Black shields represent an enemy's defenses,while white shields are used for the player's defense. Skulls on the other hand are used by both sides to represent damage, but only when attacking,never on defense rolls.
Let's say for example,the barbarian attacks an orc. He rolls three white dice for his attack,the result being two skulls and the other a black shield. At this point,the orc rolls two white dies for his defense. He rolls a skull and a black shield,taking only one point of damage saving himself further damage by rolling the single black shield. Had he rolled two black shields,he would have been unharmed,anything else rolled would've meant taking two points of damage,killing it instantly. (It's important to note that all monster actions and attack/defense rolls are done by the games master alone.)
The game's spells are used a little differently from normal basic attacks. Instead of rolling dice, a card is chosen from the player's deck of magic spells and used accordingly to the effect he wishes to add to the game,be it a healing,buffering or damage-type spell. As I mentioned earlier,the wizard and the elf are the only two spell casters usable by the players,however the Chaos Warlock(controlled only by the GM.)receives his own set of chaos spells, which are more powerful than that of the players.
In between dungeons,the characters may purchase new equipment from a shop,using the gold and gems gathered from previous adventures,giving them better armor and weaponry. In addition, all spells cast from the last adventure are fully restored as well as any lost hit points and mind damage.
And that's roughly about it, simple,right? Now with all that out of the way,the only problem I see with heroquest is the blatant difficulty. Though one player can just as easily play all four characters at once with a friend running the monsters and trap/treasure cards, a lot of teamwork is still needed for all characters to survive in each dungeon. Once a character dies,they are removed from the game, there is no possibility for resurrection unless the GM allowed for special rules in between dungeon adventures,making it a near necessity to use this as a house-ruling.
Several expansion packs for Heroquest we're produced,which included new dungeon tiles, monsters, spells and quests. These expansions are rare, even more so than the original game itself; usually commanding a very steep price on sites like Ebay and Amazon. These expansions opened new areas with levels based around the plot that took place after the main heroquest story-line,all the while, using the same materials from the original game.
Shortly after Heroquest,two sequels we're made in the form of Advanced Heroquest and Warhammer quest, each with their own sets of expansion packs. Neither of which I played,so I can't give you a fair or accurate description of either in their entirety,but from what I can gather, the same formula still applies to each.
Honestly, I'd had never known that Heroquest was part of the Warhammer universe until about several years ago. For those of you not familiar with Warhammer, it's essentially a massive war game,involving hundreds of miniatures on a huge grid,which is a very popular game by today's table-top gaming standards.
Heroquest had also made it's way onto the PC back in the early 90's. I gotta say,it does come very close to the actual board game. There we're several versions of the Heroquest video games,but for the most part, they we're all basically the same game. Some had better color and graphics,while some versions of the game had no color at all,being entirely in black and white. The game was even licensed by Nintendo at one point and appeared on it's 8-bit console system.
Now all you have to do is blow into the bottom of it until you bust a blood vessel.
This software is generally free to download on nearly every ROM site available,provided the user has an emulator or DOS-BOX installed. I personally prefer the DOS-BOX version to others,due to it's easy to use format. The PC version,also had a sequel called Legacy of Sorasil, which is considered abandoned-ware and thus,free to download as well if you can find it on-line.
PC
Amiga
Since Heroquest was first introduced,it had spawned books, tee shirts, puzzles, sticker-books and of course,Herocults...Wait, what?...Herocults???
It's sorta like heroquest,only mentally retarded.
This was an actual knock-off version of heroquest, that I can only assume was produced in Mexico. Even knock-offs of this type are highly sought after by collectors,and make them just as rare and probably a lot harder to find than the actual product itself.
In truth, I could go on for days about heroquest and it's many tie-ins and just barely scratch the surface. There are some aspects of this game that I can't go into too heavily, Space Crusade(HQ in spaaaaacccee!) and Warhammer/Warhammer 40K for example. My reasoning is that these games,while still made by Games Workshop, deviate away from the original purpose of this blog. While I'm certain they're all
fine products, I can only fit so much material into a single blog anyway without losing the readers interest. But there's still one last thing I haven't covered...
I'll use ma browdsowd!
This old commercial, which is still funny to watch after all these years,given the term "Fire of wroth!" has become a parodied catchphrase in recent times. I'd never heard of Heroquest until I saw this commercial back in 1990,but boy, am I ever so glad I did.
Next time I'll be covering the Marvel version of Conan the barbarian, try not miss out. Well,until next blog dear readers,I'm off to make myself a quick sammitch and take a well deserved nap!
Yeah, HeroQuest is one of My Things. I have a lot of my life dedicated to the game.
ReplyDeleteHi...just FYI...Herocults it´s (was) an Spaniard knock-off of HQ made by a second line [ at that time ] board game maker, Falomir Juegos, based in Valencia. Falomir Juegos has some legal issues on the Courts in early 90´s due to their love to produce games "based/inspired/copied" from well know franchises. Strangely, Herocults wasn´t part of the demands that Hasbro,MB and others companies presented to the spanish courts. As you can guess Falomir losed all the legal actions, and Herocults and a few other titles were retired from market, and literally, send to fire. So, you are the owner of a very rare game. Actually the only way to get one is the second hand market, and maybe in one dark, small and forgotten warehouse of a forgotten too toy store in a small and forgotten town. Herocults was published in Spain and Italy, From time to time it´s possible to see some Italian edition on Ebay at ridiculous prices [100 euros]...
ReplyDeleteAt present day, Falamir Juegos is a well know and well positionated company with their own games, desings and products, and nothing to do with the old company´s sins.
Just a question...do you think it´s posible to play Herocults like the original Heroquest?. I mean, with the rules of Heroquest, but in the board of Herocults...or said in other way...are Heroquest/Herocults elements compatibles. Thanks !