HeroQuest Miniatures Painted. Level 2

WHAT IS HEROQUEST?

HeroQuest is a board game marketed by MB from 1989, and that stopped being distributed a few years later. Fortunately I still have my original game, in pretty good condition (for all the battles it went through).

It is a game for 2-5 players, from 9 years old. I’ll have to wait a bit to play with my Padawans. One of the players will be the Witch Lord, who will act as “Dungeon Master” or narrator of the game (and will control the enemies); the rest will be the characters who must overcome their challenges. There is a Book of Challenges with several adventures to play, and you can also create your own challenges.

Some expansions were also published with more challenges, and a challenge creator.

AMBIENTATION

HeroQuest Characters
The heroes (with war wounds)
HeroQuest is an adventure game set in a land ravaged by the Forces of Chaos. The main enemy is Morcar, the Witch Lord. But there are four heroes ready to defeat him: the Dwarf, the Barbarian, the Wizard and the Elf.

It is a “dungeon crawler” type game, that is to say: the characters have to explore a dungeon, full of corridors and rooms, with its monsters, traps, treasures… to achieve an objective. There are different challenges with different objectives: kill a specific monster, get a treasure, rescue an NPC, etc.

An important part of the setting is the furniture. A 3D scenography that is a delight, and being in rooms with their bookshelves, tombs, chairs and old tables… it really gets you into the game.

HOW TO PLAY?

Without explaining the rules in detail, the game works in a simple way. First, the Master of the game, who takes the role of the “villain” and will manage the monsters, chooses a challenge with its corresponding map. Only this player will be able to see the complete map of the dungeon, and what monsters, treasures, traps, furniture… has each room and corridor of the board.

Before starting, the Witch Lord will narrate the story of the challenge, what has happened and the goal the heroes must achieve.

The adventure begins, and the heroes will start at a certain point in the dungeon (each challenge has its starting place). The board is initially empty, so the heroes do not know what is in each room or corridor. Only as they progress through the corridors, and enter doors, will they discover what is inside.

Once they turn down a corridor, or enter a room, the Master will reveal what the heroes see, placing the monsters, furniture, treasures… that, according to the Book of Challenges, are in that room.

And so, the heroes have to advance through the dungeon, killing the monsters that get in their way, exploring in search of passages, traps, treasures… until they reach the objective of that challenge.

Each hero has his Body and Mind points that will decrease as they fight with enemies, their treasures and equipment, etc. The combats are by means of unique dice with symbols that represent Character Attack, Character Defense, Enemy Attack.

HEROQUEST TODAY

Although it is a game that ceased to be marketed many years ago, it is far from dead. There is a forum in Spanish with more than 9,000 registered users (at the time of writing). The web is: heroquest.es, and although HeroQuest is the cornerstone of the existence of this web, many more board games, role playing games and similar hobbies are discussed.

HEROQUEST 25

And the “HeroQuest 25” project deserves a special mention. In 2013, the company Gamezone Miniatures got the rights acquired the brand “HeroQuest” in Spain to make a reprint, scheduled for 2014. The name is a tribute to the 25th anniversary of the game.

The system used was crowdfunding, you know: first raise the necessary money from the backers, who would receive the game as soon as it began to be distributed. But, months and years go by, and this new game is still unfinished.

The worst thing is not the delay itself. It is that there is a total opacity and lack of transparency on the part of Gamezone Miniatures. Without having looked too much into the subject (since having the original, I won’t buy this edition), it seems that they hardly give any explanation of the delay. The backers are very angry (logical), some are processing the refunds of their payment, and others are simply disenchanted, or assuming that they will never see the game, nor the money recovered.

Update 2019: the scam with Heroquest 25 is confirmed, which will never see the light of day, and the backers consider that the money invested is totally lost.