HeroQuest: Should you back it?

 In today's video I look at the Hasbro reprint of the HeroQuest board game.

For those who are not certain about backing the new crowd-funded reprint, I do a broad comparison between the HeroQuest mechanics (as we know them from the Milton Bradley version) and other popular dungeon crawlers such as the D&D board games (Ashardalon, Drizz't, Ravenloft, etc), Dungeon!, Talisman, Descent, and Gloomhaven. This is not a deep discussion of gameplay, but I do talk about the broad differences between the various offerings. 

I also discuss the variety of miniatures and quest options that will be offered in the difference pledge tiers. Hopefully, I will present you with enough of a picture that you are better able to decide if it worth your money. Reference time stamps follow below the video.

00:00  Introduction
01:00  Why crowd funding?
01:50  Mass market vs. niche market
05:13  What kind of consumer are you?
06:52  HeroQuest mechanics summary
08:00  HeroQuest is almost a roleplaying game.
13:08  Mechanical complexity versus other dungeon crawl board games.
13:35  Dungeon!
14:20  D&D board games - Wrath of Ashardalon, Legend of Drizz't, Castle Ravenloft, Temple of Elemental Evil, etc.
15:18  Descent: Journeys in the Dark
15:55  Gloomhaven
16:55  Where does HeroQuest sit in the dungeon crawl game hierarchy?
19:35  Who is the best audience for HeroQuest?
22:35  HeroQuest is probably a better dungeon crawler for the younger gamer.
23:12  HeroQuest is less strategically deep and more random.
25:18  Modern dungeon crawlers might be better for a more strategic group of players.

25:58  But... what about the value of the box contents?
26: 20  Base game: 9 Hero minis, 31 Monsters, 30 bits of dungeon dressing.
28:33  Game mechanics aside, the miniatures are a good deal.
29:30  The selection of miniatures is good for any fantasy TTRPG.
32:15  The $150 level is harder to justify, but it comes with a lot of play content.
33:30  Do you back it?
35:55  Wrapping up

Gloomhaven - https://amzn.to/3ipWr28 Descent - https://amzn.to/2EZtUDe D&D board games - https://amzn.to/33lUpfq Talisman - https://amzn.to/2SmJOus Dungeon! - https://amzn.to/3jsFBBo

D&D 5e: Hex Crawling through Storm King’s Thunder

In a Twitter conversation, +Mike Shea (slyflourish.com - who you should definitely be following, btw), noted that he thought Chapter 3 in Storm King’s Thunder has an excess of information about the Sword Coast and the North. From the conversation, it can be inferred that the page count could have been better spent on detailing 10 to 20 specific locations with maps, encounter locations, deeper hooks, etc. rather than spend 60 pages on 164 distinct locations, many of which only get a very small paragraph or two. He further states that the kind of information in Chapter 3 is better in a book like Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide rather than an adventure like Storm King’s Thunder.

He is not entirely wrong… but he’s not quite right either.

It’s true, that with 60 or so pages, one could detail 10 or 15 really kick ass locations. If you are given 3 to 6 pages for each location, rather than just a few paragraphs, you can really do a lot with that page count -- several side quests, maps, hooks, etc.  However, I disagree with his with the premise that Chapter 3 is less useful than 10 or so more detailed encounter locations. It's more a matter of preference.

A few very mild spoilers ahead, so be warned.

D&D: If I were President...

So there was an entertaining thread on Facebook asking "If you were appointed CEO [sic] of Wizards of the Coast, what are some of the things you'd do?"

* Wizards of the Coast actually has a President, not a CEO, as it is a subsidiary of Hasbro.

Of course, among the responses were scads of terrible ideas, many jokesters, some edition sniping, and a small number of ideas that could be up for debate... So I thought I'd chime in just to stir the pot of nerd ragey know-it-alls.

Inexpensive Cardboard Miniatures

Paizo offers about 300 miniatures for about $40...
This is a great deal for new Dungon Masters.

So, this is no-brainer. Paizo’s Pathfinder Pawns are immensely popular because 1) They are cardboard (much cheaper than plastic), but even more importantly, 2) They are non-random!

There is nothing more irritating than having to hunt on Ebay because you need a pack of orcs, goblins, or undead and you have to pay something like $3 to $5 per mini because they are uncommon or out of print. Random miniatures suck. Cardboard stand ups would be so simple for Wizards to produce and the value they give are such that any set WotC might create would almost certainly be profitable out of the gate. They could also create smaller sets for each new adventure, like Paizo has been doing for their adventure paths. They also look much better on the table than flat-lying tokens produced during the 4e era. I wrote an article about procuring cheap miniatures just the other month, and it rapidly became the most popular article on the site. The demand is out there, and accessories could be sold to any consumer playing D&D, Pathfinder, OSR games, or others in the fantasy genre. They could eat Paizo’s lunch on this one. Chris Cocks - are you listening?