Game: Advanced Heroquest

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Grimwold — 2008-09-14T00:24:31+00:00

Game in progress... using some furniture and figures from ordinary Heroquest.

Thread: Re: Rulebook - help!

timobee — 2008-08-03T10:11:04+00:00

This link might help you:

http://www.heroquestgame.com/HQWorld/09AdvancedHeroquest/dl/...

Thread: Re: Rulebook - help!

ninjadorg — 2008-08-01T20:39:28+00:00

First person to gets all my geek gold . . .

Thread: Re: Rulebook - help!

ninjadorg — 2008-08-01T20:38:55+00:00

That's very generous of you!

No one else has come forward yet . . .

Thread: Re: Rulebook - help!

col_w — 2008-07-31T21:52:32+00:00

If you haven't got an answer by the weekend I can scan my copy.

Thread: Rulebook - help!

ninjadorg — 2008-07-30T19:18:30+00:00

Anyone have a pdf or know where I can get a copy of the rules? I think I have all the parts except for the major ingredient now . . .

Cheers in advance!

Thread: Re: Parts Wanted

Scrat — 2008-01-23T15:41:58+00:00

Have you had any luck Mark? I think I may have what you are looking for, but I'll need to dig a little.

How do you feel about postage costs from Australia?

Thread: Parts Wanted

mczolton — 2008-01-22T18:50:00+00:00

I am looking for a complete set of rooms (small, large, and round), corridor, and junction tiles to expand my dungeon. Please contact me if you have these items.

Thanks,
Mark

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Yugblad — 2008-01-04T18:53:50+00:00

Thread: Re: Using regular Heroquest components

MrSkeletor — 2007-12-23T22:26:20+00:00

Ahh, gotcha!

Thread: Re: Advanced Heroquest Solo

mczolton — 2007-12-23T17:05:33+00:00

I have the opportunity to play through a random dungeon using the solo rules. According to our discussion here, I rolled a D12 during the GM Phase of an Exploration turn. On a 1, I played a trap on a random hero or henchman, on a 12 I played wandering monsters on the party. This seems to work quite well in lieu of the dungeon counters.

I do have a follow up question about traps though. At one point it was determined that my hero encountered a pit trap. He was able to spot the trap, but the rules state that although a pit trap can be spotted, it can not be avoided, so where do I put the pit trap tile? Would it be placed in front of the hero (as if he spotted it before moving onto it) or under him (thus moving the hero backwards by one)?

Other than that, I had no real problems with the solo rules. Maybe I didn't run into more complicated situations. In any event, I'll attempt another game once I get some minis painted up.

Mark

Thread: Re: Using regular Heroquest components

mczolton — 2007-12-23T16:55:19+00:00

MrSkeletor wrote:
I thought those rules were in the AHQ rule booklet.

That's true, they are. But I don't think they discuss the use of the Heroquest Quest Book.

Mark

Thread: Re: Using regular Heroquest components

MrSkeletor — 2007-12-23T09:57:50+00:00

I thought those rules were in the AHQ rule booklet.

Thread: Re: Using regular Heroquest components

Xlyce — 2007-12-23T08:02:48+00:00

IIRC there is an article in a White Dwarf that discusses adding HeroQuest to AHQ

Thread: Re: Advanced Heroquest Solo

poor_dice_throws — 2007-12-20T15:34:53+00:00

If you roll 1 or 12 on a D12 you get to take a dungeon counter.

Thread: Re: Advanced Heroquest Solo

mczolton — 2007-12-18T14:25:31+00:00

Dangervacuum wrote:
No the dungeon counters are only used if 2 players or more are playing. the counters are simulated through a dice roll in solo play.

Thank you for the response.

Mark

Thread: Re: Advanced Heroquest Solo

Dangervacuum — 2007-12-18T13:22:42+00:00

No the dungeon counters are only used if 2 players or more are playing. the counters are simulated through a dice roll in solo play.

Thread: Re: Advanced Heroquest Solo

hallsofhorror — 2007-12-18T13:04:05+00:00

Good question, I don't have it in front of me at the moment but off the top of my head I think when I used to play solo I used everything, and just tried to objectively think of what I'd do while gamesmaster without making it too impossible for myself!

Thread: Advanced Heroquest Solo

mczolton — 2007-12-16T19:20:24+00:00

I am preparing to play the solo variant included in the Advanced Heroquest rule book and I have a question about the dungeon counters. Are the dungeon counters utilized at all?

I can't see that they are because they are typically used at strategic moments by the GM, and since one is playing the GM and Heroes in a solo game, this wouldn't make much sense.

Thanks,
Mark

Thread: Re: Using regular Heroquest components

azereal — 2007-11-28T14:05:28+00:00

I would love to hear how that goes.

I got a rulebook plus some of the counters/rooms/corridors from eBay some time ago but up until today didn't have a full set. But now that I have everything I am going to run the Quest for the Shattered Amulet and will hopefully have some more stuff to post.

Thread: Re: Using regular Heroquest components

poor_dice_throws — 2007-11-21T13:43:57+00:00

I've found that the AHQ rules are particularly tough and a poor roll means certain death for some of your characters.

I was in the process of creating my own quest using undead creatures recently and had forgotten how difficult it could be. I playtested the first level and died in the second room when I ran into 5 skeletons.

I've never actually used the HQ quests though.

You've inspired me to dig out AHQ and have a look at the quest I was creating.

Thread: Re: Using regular Heroquest components

azereal — 2007-11-07T13:32:38+00:00

Since last posting I have had another session where we played through the first 2 quests from "The Magic of the Mirror" which are solo quests for the elf.

Some problems/issues I am having:
Awarding fate points - The rule book says 2 if you complete the dungeon in one attempt. This seems excessive since Heroquest dungeons are much smaller than AHQ ones.

Henchmen - The henchmen are much easier to kill than the elf which makes them an attractive target for the GM. The Elf hired two and both of them died in their first quest. This doesn't seem sensible or appropriate. Maybe this would be better in a quest for all 4 heroes.

Thread: Re: Using regular Heroquest components

azereal — 2007-11-02T11:50:05+00:00

After the session I thought to myself that one of the difficulties of the AHQ system is the need to keep looking up stuff. I am planning to upload some quick reference sheets.

Thread: Re: Help, I have no Elf!

azereal — 2007-10-29T12:59:00+00:00

== Heroquest Dwarf ==
Name: Durgin
Race: Dwarf
Weapon Skill: 9
Bow Skill: 4(5)*
Strength: 6
Toughness: 9(7)*
Speed: 4(6)*
Bravery: 9
Intelligence: 7
Fate: 2
Wounds: 4

Weapons:
Double Handed Axe

Armour:
Chain

Equipment:
None

NOTE: Adds +2 to Spot and Disarm Trap Rolls

* The number in brackets indicates the unmodified score.

Thread: Re: Help, I have no Elf!

azereal — 2007-10-29T12:55:22+00:00

Just in case anyone else needs this info:

== Advanced Heroquest Elf ==
Name: Torallion Leafstar
Race: Elf
Weapon Skill: 9
Bow Skill: 9
Strength: 5
Toughness: 5
Speed: 9
Bravery: 9
Intelligence: 9
Fate: 2
Wounds: 4

Weapons:
Sword
Long Bow

Armour:
None

Equipment:
6 Arrows
NOTE: Adds +1 to Surprise Rolls

Thread: Using regular Heroquest components

azereal — 2007-10-29T12:41:54+00:00

Just in case anyone is interested...

I had a game game of Advanced Heroquest the other night using the Heroquest components. We played Quest 2 form the Heroquest Quest Book "The Rescue of Sir Ragnar". We used the pre-built characters for the Heroquest heroes and most of the rules from the back of the Advanced Heroquest rule book. I was concerned that the Heroes don't have many wounds and would die easily but the difference in weapon skill and damage dice seems to favour the heroes with fate points giving you some protection against bad rolls.

A few notes:
* I didn't end up using the dungeon counters because I hadn't quite figured them out (I only would have drawn one in any case).

* Secret doors are set by the quest but I was also rolling on the secret doors table to see if I got a dungeon counter.

* The wizard is really week. He had to spend a fate point to stop a goblin killing him.

* The wizard's fireball spell seems quite powerful and cool.

* Since the corridors are 1 square wide we made a house rule that the heroes could move through each other (Advanced Heroquest doesn't allow this).

If you have a Heroquest set I recommend giving this a go. It has a bit more depth to it than the regular Heroquest rules and works well as a plug in replacement.

Thread: White Dwarf Articles

azereal — 2007-10-23T15:38:40+00:00

Here is a list of White Dwarf issues containing Advanced Heroquest material.

121 - Quest for Sonneklinge
122 - Priests for Pleasure
125 - Amethyst Wizard's Spell Book
134 - The Trollsayers Oath
138 - Henchmen
139 - Treasure
145 - The Eyes of Chaos
150 - The Changing Faces of Tzeentch
159 - Rivers of Blood

-- White Dwarf 121 --
== Quest for Sonneklinge ==
Two new dungeons
New Monsters:
* Orc Sentry
* Wight
* Sorcerer of Nurgle
* Prince Karad
New Traps and Hazards
Jade Wizard Spellbook

-- White Dwarf 122 --
== Priests for Pleasure ==
One new dungeon
New Monsters:
* Beastman
* Chaos Sentry
* Beastman Sentry

-- White Dwarf 125 --
== Amethyst Wizard's Spell Book ==
One new dungeon "The Dark Beneath the World"
Stats for new characters:
* Gotrek Gurnisson (Dward Trollslayer)
* Felix Jaegar (Human Warrior)
* Johan Zauberlich (Human Amethyst Wizard)
* Aldred Fellblade (Human Warrior)
* Jules Gasgoigne (Human Archer)
New Monster
* Thulgul (Chaos Troll)
And of course the Amethyst Wizard's Spell Book

-- White Dwarf 134 --
== The Trollsayers Oath ==
Very long article - check back later when I have time to post details...

Thread: Re: Help, I have no Elf!

SteveGibson — 2007-09-25T15:35:39+00:00

Got them. Many thanks to all who answered my cry for help!.

Cheers

Steve

Thread: Re: Help, I have no Elf!

Great Dane — 2007-09-24T18:43:04+00:00

Comming up.

Thread: Help, I have no Elf!

SteveGibson — 2007-09-24T16:55:42+00:00

Hi

I just picked up a copy of this and it only has 3 of the four character sheets in it. They were cut out and one has run away!

The one I am missing has the Advanced Heroquest Elf on one side and the Heroquest Dwarf on the other.

Can someone pease scan these in and send them to me.

Thanks in advance

Steve
steve@aliaslrp.fsnet.co.uk

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Yugblad — 2007-09-16T20:01:30+00:00

Thread: Re: It Could Have Been A Contender

jbuergel — 2007-06-18T19:04:41+00:00

Rottenshot Rick wrote:
Anyway I, for one, would be very interested in what you've come up with to fix the problems with the game and enhancements you've created to make it more fun! That goes for the Warhammer Quest game too.

My WHQ notes are extensive and extremely poorly organized. I had a core group of friends that I played that game with obsessively, and we all churned out a vast number of variants, modifications and additional material. Some of it was great, some of it so-so and some of it was poor, but it was all fun. Unfortunately, some of it was never written down in any coherent form, so it'll be tough to reproduce some of the better bits. Others don't really deserve to live on, like our encumbrance rules that were dodgy at best. It is a project of mine to try and write up the best parts though, and as soon as I can.

I love these kinds of games. My friends and I still play the old original HeroQuest game and I'm been working on ways to add more to it to give it more varity without breaking the game itself. D&D is great, but so complicated that it's hard for my friends to get into it and really learn it. An easy to play game with lots of things to buy and do is much more to our tastes. That's what I'm wanting to do with the old HeroQuest.

I hope you've taken a look at the stuff available on the web for HeroQuest, there is a wealth of additional material available out there. Not all of it is great, but it's free and you can really pick through and find stuff to your taste. Obviously, my opinion of dungeon crawlers is that WHQ is the king of the bunch, and it's probably my second-most played game behind Magic: the Gathering. The basic rules aren't that much of a step up from HeroQuest, and once your group has mastered those, you have all of those fantastic advanced rules waiting for you.

Also I'm curious if you've tried Fantasy Flight's dungeon crawl, Descent: Journeys into the Dark, and what you think of it.

I've written up a full review of it here:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/1548214#1548214

I've actually been going through and doing reviews of all of my dungeon crawlers. They're games that I've always loved, and I've played a bunch to exhaustion, so I feel well-qualified to comment. Thus far, I've done Warhammer Quest, Descent, HeroQuest, Dungeonquest, the most recent D&D board game and Advanced Heroquest. They're all here:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/browser.php?itemtype=thread&art...

I plan on keeping going while I still have games to write about. I'm in the middle of writing up Dark World right now, and Dungeoneer is on the list after that. I'm not sure where I'll go after those two, I haven't yet decided if I'll branch into the other pseudo-RPGs like Talisman and Runebound yet or if I'll stick to the dungeon crawlers. I love the entire category of games and have played a lot of them to death, so it's fun to go back and remember what they're all like.

That's a great story about the old game shop, by the way. You should really give WHQ a try, it'll be a heck of a legacy for that shop to have passed on.

Thread: Re: It Could Have Been A Contender

Rottenshot Rick — 2007-06-18T17:27:13+00:00

An interesting review indeed, Joshua! Thanks for taking the time to write it. I'm interested in both games as I actually have them. Sometime back I wrote the piece about the game shop here in town that never opened after moving to it's new location. I mentioned that coming across my copy of Advanced HeroQuest reminded me that I also had Warhammer Quest and that, in turn, reminded me of the game shop itself. It was a sad feeling to make a final purchase from a little shop that never reopened. Anyway you can see what I'm talking about, if you're interested, at:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/1108562#1108562

My copy of Advanced HeroQuest is opened but unpunched and my Warhammer Quest game is still in the shrinkwrap so as you can see I've not gotten around to playing them yet. I was very interested in what you had to say about the games as it's nice to know what to expect when heading into them. (I don't know when that will be. At the current rate I'm going it may be well after I retire!) Anyway I, for one, would be very interested in what you've come up with to fix the problems with the game and enhancements you've created to make it more fun! That goes for the Warhammer Quest game too.

I love these kinds of games. My friends and I still play the old original HeroQuest game and I'm been working on ways to add more to it to give it more varity without breaking the game itself. D&D is great, but so complicated that it's hard for my friends to get into it and really learn it. An easy to play game with lots of things to buy and do is much more to our tastes. That's what I'm wanting to do with the old HeroQuest.

Anyway consider this one vote for posting your mods for those games. I'd love to see them! Also I'm curious if you've tried Fantasy Flight's dungeon crawl, Descent: Journeys into the Dark, and what you think of it.

Thread: Re: It Could Have Been A Contender

jbuergel — 2007-06-17T20:10:00+00:00

I'm not aware of anywhere you can download the rules, it hasn't gotten the Blood Bowl living rules treatment. There was a random adventure generator that was published in the expansion, but it was pretty basic. In order to get a great experience out of the game, you had to really put some work into encounter tables and lay out some interesting adventures for the players. Without that work, you ended up really seeing the same things over and over again.

Thanks for the kind words, I'm having fun going back over these games and putting up my thoughts. I've spent a lot of time playing and thinking about dungeon crawling games, it's nice to share them with folks.

Thread: Re: It Could Have Been A Contender

ninjadorg — 2007-06-17T19:56:10+00:00

Another great review.
This game came to us too soon I think, we were all quite young and HeroQuest was the main game at the time. A few frightening games of this with the poor heroes getting repeatedly slaughtered put us off and sent us running back to the more basic version.
It had some really interesting ideas though, do you know where I can download a copy of the rules? Wasn't there a random adventure generator or something? Thought it would be cool to combine with WHQ.
Sorry to ramble off topic but there's little I'd add to your review. Except: having only Skaven (with different bases for different ranks wasn't it?) for bad guys was a bit rubbish . . .
Keep it up, looking forward to your next review!

Thread: Re: It Could Have Been A Contender

jbuergel — 2007-06-17T19:28:44+00:00

I agree with you that the perfect dungeon crawler is still waiting out there, somewhere. I'll some day finish up all of my notes and tie together all the loose ends on my own system. It certainly won't be the perfect game for everybody, but it'll be to my tastes.

Thread: Re: It Could Have Been A Contender

Luke the Flaming — 2007-06-17T17:47:47+00:00

Well, just as AHQ has a "core flaw" in the "block-the-door" tactic (I remember it well! ), WQ has a core flaw in the "how to die" rule (going to zero wounds being irrelevant as soon as someone heals you before the end of the turn... and thus the "protect the Wizard, who cares if all except him die, cast Healing Hands; if unfortunately him dies use a healing potion on him" cliche that quickly become as boring - and feels as wrong - as the "through the door" combat in AHQ).
Besides, WQ scales (from low levels to high levels) VERY poorly.

Of course we've heavily customized it as well (with house rules, new items, etc.) and we wouldn't have played it as much as we did if it wasn't an enjoyable experience to do so. But I still think that the "perfect dungeon crawler" has yet to come (just a personal opinion).

Have fun!

Thread: Re: It Could Have Been A Contender

jbuergel — 2007-06-17T16:39:48+00:00

I agree, Warhammer Quest has flaws as well. The flaws it has are easier to fix, though, and the biggest one (that of high level parties being relatively immune from harm) is one that doesn't really cause problems until later on in the game. Warhammer Quest isn't perfect, but it's the dungeon crawler I keep over all the others. I really need to clean up our assortment of house rules and post them here.

Thread: Re: It Could Have Been A Contender

Luke the Flaming — 2007-06-17T10:46:17+00:00

While I agree with most of your review, I think that Warhammer Quest (one of three most-played-games of my life) has its fair share of flaws marring the good ideas as well (that is what I consider the typical GW style ).

Thread: It Could Have Been A Contender

jbuergel — 2007-06-17T06:51:50+00:00

Advanced Heroquest, to me, is one of the great near-misses of the hobby. When we first gave it a spin, I was absolutely riveted. It was only as we played it more (a LOT more) that the flaws became apparent. Games Workshop had come the closest I had seen yet to the ultimate dungeon crawler, but they hadn't carried the ball all the way. Before I got around to trying to fix it myself, Warhammer Quest arrived, which took many of the better ideas from Advanced Heroquest and fixed most of the problems. But in another world, maybe college and Magic: the Gathering don't intervene for me and I wind up fixing Advanced Heroquest and it turned into the game it could be. As it is, it's a deeply flawed masterpiece.

The Presentation

Advanced Heroquest (AHq, for the rest of this review) comes in the usual Games Workshop big box, and it's yet another nice production from GW. Say what you want about GW, they usually blow it out for their board games. Space Hulk, for instance, is one of the nicest and most effective presentations ever. But I digress. AHq comes with 36 models (4 heroes, 12 henchmen, 20 skaven), a bunch of corridors (all two squares wide) and rooms, an assortment of flat card stock terrain, some plastic doors, monster and dungeon counters, some card stock pieces associated with the included campaign (treasure maps and pieces of a shattered amulet, which is really spiffy), some D12s and a rule book. It's pretty much a top flight production all around - the dungeon sections fit together nicely, the miniatures are nice, the rooms have different floor patterns which is a nice touch, and the treasure maps and pieces of the amulet are an extremely nice touch. The plastic doors are kind of stupid, but the doors swing open, which I suppose is nice. I've yet to find doors in any dungeon crawler that I'm happy with, though, they always get in the way pretty much every time. Overall, high marks though.

The Basics

As mentioned above, Advanced Heroquest uses D12s, not D6s. Personally, I love that decision, for a variety of reasons. First, I like D12s. They're nifty. I know that's shallow, but there we are. Secondly, D12s make creating linear tables with more space on them easier. Sure, you could do D66 for a 36 entry table, but that's a hassle. D12s just are a little more effortless for certain distributions. Plus, it allows for finergradations in things like combat rolls, where gaining a modifier of +1 is only half a step. More games should use D12s, is what I'm saying, and it was a nice show by GW to go for it here. Sure, it's a little bit of a hassle rounding up extra dice, but that's a small price to pay. And if you're an RPGer or a dice nut, you probably have a bunch of un-loved D12s hanging around the joint just waiting to find a home. After all, you can't use a great-axe with every character, can you?

Anyway, characters are described by some of the usual Games Workshop skills, and some unusual ones: weapon skill, ballistic skill, strength, toughness, speed, bravery, intelligence, wounds and fate points. Melee combat involves a comparison of weapon skills: equal weapon skills require a 7 or more to hit, and each point of difference adjusts your target number up or down by a point, to a minimum of a 2 or max of 10. On a hit, you roll dice equal to your strength, and each die needs to equal your target's toughness to cause a wound. A 1 on an attack roll is a fumble, granting an immediate attack to your opponent, while a 12 is a critical hit that allows you to take an extra swing. Certain weapons (two-handers, mostly) can give you fumbles and criticals on 2s and 11s. This can lead to the amusing situation of rolling a hit on a 2, but your opponent gets a free swing first. It can also lead to a series of fumbles, criticals, counter-fumbles and some very silly combat sequences. Similarly, on damage rolls, a 12 on a damage roll allows you to take another damage roll. It all works together well, with a wide variety of results and plenty of space for some really heroic sequences (and some really pathetic runs, too).

There are actually two turn sequences in the game. During exploration, the players can move their heroes 12 spaces each. If they move to where they can see unexplored dungeon, the GM immediately rolls on a series of tables to generate the length of the hallway, the number of doors, the ending and the contents of the hallway. Players can also open a door they end their turn next to in order to generate the room, which again requires a series of rolls for what kind of room, what the contents are and the number of exits. After each player takes their turn, the GM rolls a single die and gets a dungeon counter on a 1 or 12. Players keep taking exploration turns until a monster is reveals, at which point exploration immediately ends and you switch over to combat turns.

During combat turns, players again take their turns first, with the heroes moving in any order. Each hero may move up to their speed and attack during their turn in either order but may not attack in the middle of their move. A wizard may cast a spell instead of making an attack. Following the hero turns, the GM has to decide if the monsters will move first or attack first, and he must stick to that sequence for all the monsters. Combat turns continue until all the monsters are gone, and then you switch back into exploration. Note that the GM doesn't get rolls for dungeon counters during combat.

A Collection of Nice Touches

There are some things that AHq does that you just don't find in other dungeon crawlers. A great example is sentries. Sentries can explore the dungeon. If one makes a break for it, the GM can have the sentry run around, opening doors and trying to scare up more monsters. This can actually get out of hand at times, and is something that just doesn't happen in most other games, where monsters are confined to already explored areas. Another good mechanic is fate points, which can be spent to prevent death but are very precious, so the players have difficult decisions to make.

Unique mechanics continue through the game. The exploration tables that generate the dungeon, featuring an escalating chance of finding an interesting room (a "quest room"), the missile system that treats critical hits differently from melee hits (by halving toughness instead of a free attack), the way death zones can stop movement but can be focused for more interesting tactical movement, how monsters show up in logical places in the dungeon instead of just popping up at random, the way that dungeon counters give the GM interesting (and unknown) options to be sprung at random times, there are a lot of really clever bits to the game. There are even rules for henchmen, a true rarity in dungeon crawlers. They're even useful, vital even. If you use some of the variant rules published in White Dwarf, there are even different kinds of henchmen available. There's scaling of how much reward you get for a quest based on how many tries it takes you to get through it, encouraging you to be extra heroic (in a mercenary kind of way). The bottom line is that there are really inventive mechanics all through the game, some of which haven't ever shown up in another game.

Microeconomics. Really micro.

The economy of the game is another area that is quite unique to AHq. Your character can only carry 250 gold pieces. This may not sound like a lot of money. That would be largely because it is not a lot of money. Not only can you only carry 250 gp out of the dungeon, but you have to pay cost of living when you get done with each trip into the dungeon. Not only that, but your cost of living even goes up as you gain fate points, but your carrying capacity does not. Remember the henchmen I mentioned? Well, this is why they're vital: they can help you carry more loot. Without them, you're going to fill up your cash carrying capacity, and you'll be forced to choose between leaving the dungeon (taking more trips, and therefore reducing your reward) or forging on and possibly leaving gold behind. That's right: you may actually leave gold behind as an adventurer, and it may even be the right move. This is unheard of in a dungeon crawling board game, and is rare enough even in a true RPG. Anyway, those henchmen of course have to be hired. Want to make a will? You probably do, because if you don't, your characters cash won't gettransferred on. But it'll cost you. It'll even cost you to execute a will, so they get you coming and going. Want to save up towards some big character improvement? You can leave your money with the moneylender - for a fee, of course.

So what can you buy? You can increase your characteristics, one point at a time, for 200 gp. You can buy a fate point for 1000 gp, which is pretty funny, actually. You'll have to buy ammunition. If you're a wizard, you have to buy spell components, for 25 gp a pop. Each time you cast a spell, it costs you at least 25 gp, sometimes more. The party will have to help wizards out with that, if they want them to be effective. Not only that, but learning new spells costs cash as well. Overall, the economy in this game is so tight that it actuallysqueaks . You'll cherish every character improvement you make, because you really have to work for it. Not only that, but the game is really stingy with magic items as well. You'll find some crummy amulet that has some minor power, and you'll think it's the bee's knees. Magic weapons? Good luck with that idea, they're truly rare. The way the economy operates is completely unlike any other dungeon crawler I've ever played, and I love the atmosphere. You're truly struggling with advancing, and you feel like you've earned everything you've gained.

Furniture!

Another really nifty aspect of AHq is that they threw in rules to integrate with regular HeroQuest. That means you get to re-use the furniture from it! It also means that a special HeroQuest level can occasionally show up, which is a real blast of nostalgia, and I love that level of integration with the earlier game. Yet another well done area.

That All Sounds Great!

Thus far, all I've written about are the things that AHq does well. You've got a number of thoughtful, well-implemented, unique rules; combat mechanics that not only work well but also give you some great far end of the bell curve results; you've got D12s and HeroQuest furniture; you've got a tight economy that forces you to earn everything you get and you've got a nice production. So, what's the problem? There has to be some reason I refer to the game as deeply flawed. The first big problem, and it's a huge one, is the lack of variety of characters. You have two types, warriors and wizards. And wizards are so limited (but necessary) that you'll almost always have three warriors and a wizard. But due to the way characters are generated, some of the warriors will just be better than the others. And there are no skills to differentiate them. You have three characters with the same capabilities, but they'll be of varying quality. This is a crippling problem, as if you're stuck with one of the losers, you'll have a terrible time because you'll do so little. This problem is relieved somewhat if you play with fewer players, say with two people with two heroes each. But having heroes who are nothing more than ballast in a party is really rough. It's also exacerbated by the second huge glaring problem.

"The Meat Grinder"

Because monsters are placed inside of rooms (with the exception of wandering monsters and ambushes, but those are smaller encounters), the characters and monsters will be separated by a door. The heroes could run in, but this will get them killed. Combat is sufficiently deadly that that's just really a non-option. The only rational thing to do is form a formation we called "the meat grinder". You have your best hero standing directly in front of the door. He swings, moves one step to the side. The character directly in front of the door (but one step away) now fires an arrow into the room. And then the second best hero completes things by moving to block the door and taking a swing. Lather, rinse, repeat. If you do not do this, you will probably get killed. The GM doesn't have to play along, of course. He can hide alongside the walls. But then the characters will just leave, and if there are no monsters in line-of-sight at the end of the turn (or two turns if it involved closing a door) the heroes have "escaped". As a result the GM has to pursue into the two spaces wide hallway, where the heroes still have narrow frontage. Not only that, but the heroes can always wander into another part of the dungeon if they don't like the looks of an encounter, and it's almost always the right direction due to the way dungeon generation happens. It really wears you out after a while, and there isn't any other rational way to play it.

A Maze of Twisty Passages, All Alike

The third problem is that there isn't enough variation in the dungeons, and they're usually not small. You wander through corridor after corridor, looking to scare up some action, and sometimes it can take a while. You feel like you're trapped in a huge maze, and sometimes there isn't even any cheese anywhere to be found. The sameness of the dungeon can alse wear you out.

The Good

An extremely well done set of core rules that are interesting, playable and fun. The most interesting economy of any dungeon crawler I've seen. A wealth of atmospheric rules and touches. A spiffy production. A very well done four-part campaign. Henchmen and furniture.

The Bad

A combat system that breaks down into the same static formations. A dungeon generation system that can result in some dull dungeons. Insufficient variety in the characters. The bestiary is somewhat limited, although it's not too hard to convert your favorite Warhammer or Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay creatures over. The scaling as characters gain in experience is very demanding of the GM, as you have to carefully construct new encounter tables. The encounter tables that come with the basic game are limited.

The Expansion

If you like AHq, the expansion that was printed, Terror in the Dark, is essential. It includes a bunch of new encounter tables, an OK random adventure generator, a new five-part campaign, a new type of wizard and new types of henchmen, and some assorted components to support all this. The campaign in the expansion isn't as well done as the one with the main set, but it's really worth having, and the extra rules are nice. There were also a number of articles in White Dwarf over the years with new adventures and the like, and they're quite nice to have as well.

Conclusion

So close, and yet so far. Some of the deficiencies of AHq are fixable by a dedicated GM. The so-so random adventure system can be replaced by programmed campaigns like the one included in the box. The encounter tables that are somewhat boring after a while can be easily spiced up, by creating some new monsters. The scaling is fixable by tweaking those same encounter tables. But the two big problems that are left are tough ones. The character differentiation needs to be fixed, and it's not an easy one. The characters need to have different core capabilities, so you don't have one character who is just like another, just worse. That will require some creativity and some balancing. The other problem, of the static tactical situation, is much harder to fix, without breaking the way things work. You can have monsters come at them from all sides, but then combat is probably too deadly for that. It's a difficult problem to solve, and we never really got a chance to sort it out.

But Games Workshop did. They took many of the ideas of AHq, and re-implemented them in Warhammer Quest. The exploration system is similar, but you don't have the long boring stretches. The bestiary was expanded and you have good encounter tables for a long time that will keep the variety going. The characters are now different, and wizards are not nearly as limited. And on and on. AHq still has many, many things going for it, and there are things that still haven't shown up elsewhere. I actually really enjoy playing a few adventures of AHq every now and again, because there are a lot of clever things going for it. But I can't play it for too long at a stretch, because of the things that will eventually grate on me. If you have a dedicated GM who is willing to grapple with some of the difficult problems of the game, or if you don't mind that you only play it for a handful of adventures at a time, AHq has some really brilliant stuff going on in it. But as your go-to dungeon crawler, it has issues. As I say, it's one of the true near-misses of the hobby. Just a little further, and this would have been the king, and not Warhammer Quest.

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Nicodemus_ — 2006-12-23T12:25:30+00:00

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Yugblad — 2006-12-06T22:51:44+00:00

All my HeroQuest figures sorted by race and attack characteristics. Not!

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Pyrogal — 2006-11-26T07:24:34+00:00

Advanced Heroquest Paint Set - Front

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Pyrogal — 2006-11-26T07:14:01+00:00

Advanced Heroquest Paint Set - Back

Thread: Map generator

fraludico — 2006-10-22T11:31:52+00:00

What means "first you have to load a quest-table in the german GUI"?
Thank for help

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Nazhuret — 2006-10-19T05:20:06+00:00

Greater Demon of Tzeentch

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Nazhuret — 2006-10-19T05:19:58+00:00

Undead Ninja - Like a living ninja wasn't bad enough....

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Nazhuret — 2006-10-19T05:16:37+00:00

Zombies!!!

Thread: Session Report

littlemute — 2004-11-29T16:41:59+00:00

Still on a Shadowfist hiatus, and I found this in a closet and pulled it out. Had to run to kinko's to run off some character sheets. There aren't any included the box. Someone chose the warrior, wizard and the dwarf. I explained that the Warrior and Dwarf tank for the wizard (as the wizards fireball spell is very powerful) and that the best way to clear a room is to have one of your tanks sit in the doorway and hack while the wizard heals them from behind and the second tank holds off the inevitable ambushes. After filling out the sheets, we were off.

The game started off very slowly as I hadn't played for probably 10 years. I forgot to tell the players that they could search for secret doors in any section so they ran down quite a few hallways to finally find the Quest room for the level. It was a good fight and I almost managed to kill the wizard with an ambush counter during the fight in the quest room, but the fate points saved him and the dwarf. You move, you search, you find monsters, you fight them, rinse, repeat. What isn't so good about the skaven is they have NO long range attacks, so as noted above the heroes have no reason to actually enter a room until the skaven are all dead.

That said, I think people were fairly bored. I was constantly busy with the rulebook so the time went very fast for me however. Back in 1991, this might have been pretty good, but now we have Diablo and if you want to dungeon crawl in the warhammer universe w/paper and pencil, Warhammer fantasy Roleplay will certainly do the trick better than this.

Thread: User Review

Dangervacuum — 2004-04-09T22:39:33+00:00

ADVANCED HEROQUEST
Players: 1-5
Complexity: 12+
Game Time: 1-2 Hours
Designer: Jervis Johnson
Publisher: Games Workshop
Background
Deep underground in the Warhammer world, the armies of evil are massing to plot the downfall of civilisation. As either Wizard, warrior, Elf or Dwarf, you’ll brave the perils of subterranean tunnels and darkened dungeons, in your quest for Gold, glory and adventure.
Gameplay
Each player takes the role of and Adventurer and, unless the solo play rules are used, one gets to be the dungeon keeper. As they enter the underworld, the Dungeon Keeper rolls to randomly generate the level, adding an air of unpredictability, to the game. The players then move to explore the rooms and passages, sometimes finding traps and treasure, other times finding lairs of monsters. Each turn the Keeper rolls to get a token, which could be anything from a trap, to a group of wandering monsters. These are played at his discretion. Exploration continues, until players find the quest room. They them complete their mission and return to the surface.
Combat is the usual roll to hit, roll to wound Games Workshop fare, with missile weapon and Magic rules adding few complexities. During the downtime between missions characters can purchase equipment and retainers as well as upgrading their skills. There is only a limited amount of Items to choose from, so cash is better spent on retainers to protect the heroes during a quest.
The random tables for map generation make for a quick start to any campaign, though these can become repetitive after a while. Customisation and pre-designed campaigns work much better and don’t get bogged down as much. If you have a large miniature collection, so much the better, as rules are provided for all the major Warhammer races. The models are good looking, but a few different Skaven models wouldn’t have gone amiss, rather than marking the different types with coloured bases.
Playability:***
Simple to learn and easy to get into.
Appearance:**
Good standard of plastic models, floor plans are a bit lacking.
Value:**
No character sheets provided, poor variety of miniatures.
Overall:***
Average entry level, dungeon crawl game.