Re: Event deck for HeroQuest

Posted by MortiS-the-Lost on Apr 02, 2010; 8:36pm
URL: http://the-lost-and-the-damned.71.s1.nabble.com/Event-deck-for-HeroQuest-tp4840265p4844393.html

Excellent stuff!

Adding a event deck to HeroQuest is something I've been considering for a while and I will no doubt be using some of your ideas in my own Event Deck when I get round to making one.

Just to clear something up quickly before I go any further: my custom deck(s) that Rob mentions is a series of linked Treasure Decks (like the cards in DungeonQuest) which I'll talk about in detail another time.

Anyway a Space Crusade style event deck is a great idea for HQ!
The first thing I'll recommend you add is something that I felt the Space Crusade's 'Alien Event' deck lacked; a few 'Nothing Happens' cards. Having a different special event happen each turn will certainly make for an interesting game but can lead to too much going on at once.

Another way to tackle this problem is to (instead of drawing a card each turn) only draw a card when a certain situation comes up, for instance if a double is rolled for movement or if there are no monsters in play at the beginning of the GM's turn. Warhammer Quest's 'Event Deck' is drawn from if a 1 is rolled in the Power Phase (a part of the turn that determines how much magic is flowing through the dungeon) and the rules for some rooms will also instruct you to draw an Event Card upon entering (in WHQ this is called 'triggering an event'). The latter might work quite well for HeroQuest, draw an Event Card whenever the Heroes enter a new room. Another suggestion for determining when to draw an Event Card (which I've used in Space Crusade before) is rolling a dice at the begging of each players turn and having them draw an event card if they roll a 1 or 2.

Also having 'triggered events' as opposed to drawing a card each turn means the GM could prepare an adventure by picking a small deck of Event Cards along a similar theme from a vast collection to create a series of 'planned' events that would happen through out the adventure.

Yea! The 'Ending Card' placed at the bottom of the Event Deck is an excellent idea and would certainly add some tension to the game as the players watch the dwindling stack of cards disappear, knowing something big is coming. This reminds me of how the Objective Room cards work in WHQ and is a very nice mechanic, allowing a GM to prepare a deck certain number of cards to be drawn before all hell breaks loose!

Here's a quick list of ideas for alternative Ending Cards

+ DragonStrike! - in TSR's DragonStrike a Dragon appears on the board after set number of turns and normally leads to the heroes making a mad dash for the dungeon exit. This would be very easy to adapt to your Ending Card mechanic

+Night Fall – Dungeon Quest (also known as Drakborgen to Swedish among us) used a similar mechanic to Dragon Strike to track the time before dusk when the really bad monsters came out of hiding. Essentially in DQ it was a 'game over' situation like Space Crusade when it reached dusk, but for your End Card dusk could indicate that a hoard of ghosts has awaken (the Heroes better have magical weapons!)

+ The Ritual – the Ending Card would represent the unholy hour of midnight when a maiden is to be sacrificed to the Chaos Gods somewhere in the dungeon. Can the Heroes find her and rescue her in time?

+ Sealed In! - the dungeon's exit door is on a timer and will be sealed shut when the Ending Card is drawn. The Heroes will have to get in and out before the door closes or maybe find another way out

+ Quake! – the earth shakes and passage ways start to collapse! The GM may place 1 rubble marker each turn after this Ending Card is drawn

+ Full Moon – an NPC accompanying the Heroes (or maybe even one of the Heroes) is in fact a Werewolf and will turn to wolf form and start attacking the Heroes when the End Card is drawn

+ The Gates Open – the opposite of Sealed In, the Heroes cannot leave the dungeon until the Ending Card is drawn. Combine this End Card with events that spawn Zombies or the like and you've got yourself a horror survival game.

+ Flood! - starting with a room with an appropriate feature (like a drainage grill or fountain) the dungeon begins to fill with water section by section once the Ending Card is drawn. Like Quake idea above this suggestion is based on an adventure idea from the AHQ rulebook

As you can see, you can write whole adventures based around an Ending Card.

A few notes on your existing cards now:

Dustly Tome, Drugged Darts and Safe Spot would make better additions to the Treasure Deck than part of an Event Deck. Safe Spot especially as it wouldn't make sense that it could be drawn in combat, being part of the Treasure Deck would mean it could only be drawn in a room free of monsters. Also 'Poisoned Darts' or 'Poisonous Gas' might work better as a title, 'Drugged Darts' sounds like an event in the Stoner Olympics.  

Alarm is great idea for an event, but I wouldn't have it unveil the unexplored rooms (this could ruin the exploration aspect of an adventure if drawn early on) instead have extra monsters appear at the nearest unopened door as if they'd just come through it (closing it behind them of course) somewhat like the Re-enforcements in Space Crusade.

Barred Door, in our games we too have rules for Locked Doors that can be broken down. Wooden Doors have the equivalent of 3 Body Points, Braced Doors have 4 and Metal Doors 6.

Door Ajar is a nice little twist on the door rules too, better wording might be “The next closed door the heroes encounter” and take out “this turn” so that the event is not 'wasted' if there are no closed doors the heroes can reach in 1 turn.

Dark Archer I feel needs to be a little more specific as I can't see all the monster in HQ being able to use a bow. Something like “Replace 1 Orc, Goblin or Skeleton Warrior with it's bow armed equivalent”

Depending on the main enemy type in a dungeon (eg some dungeons will be inhabited only by undead or Skaven creatures) goblins won't always be present (besides those are Orcs in the picture). To this end I suggest changing 'Goblin Ambush' to 'Monster Ambush' and have it say “Place 2 of the current Wandering Monster in any previously explored squares not in line of sight”. On the same note Orc Frenzy would work better as Monster Frenzy (although some rules restricting this card from being used on undead might be appropriate too)

A friendly NPC like Mighty Eric Shinn is a great idea for an encounter, the Witch, Maiden and Rogue NPC encounters from AHQ would also make for good event cards. Also check out AHQ's Hazards Table for more ideas.

Berserk Monster I think might work better worded “It may Attack Twice this turn” again you might  want to restrict this card from being used on undead

Dark Resurrection and Old Bones are very specific to Undead inhabited dungeons, you might want to make them optional cards to only be included when the Ending Card is Undead themed  

Because you've chosen to only use HQ artwork, you're some what limited to what you can have on the cards, I suggest you (like I have for my custom treasure decks) seek out similar artwork from other games and books (The Fighting Fantasy series has lots of great black and white artwork). New artwork may also help inspire some new event cards.

Later in the week I shall try to post some examples of the cards from my custom treasure deck that you might want to convert to Event Cards

Let me know how the play testing goes!