The Best Thing About HeroQuest is….

The new best thing about HeroQuest is the new budget friendly starter set First Light!

Actually not so much. So First Light only comes with 4 Miniatures of the basic heroes (Barbarian, Dwarf, Wizard, and Elf) and a new Dragon that honestly looks so much better than the HasLab Dragon. That said every other monster is a cardboard standee, and the furniture is all tile based. Which honestly is a good way to knock the set down to 50 bucks.

But there are a few upsides. The new double sided game board for one. One side is the old layout and the other side is a new less centralized layout. Which also means a brand new starting quest book. It’s supposedly set at the same time as the original so if you already have a group well into a campaign it may not be for them. Plus I believe the Dwarf has a starting weapon change.

As a budget version I feel it works well enough. Everything is still here from the base set so if you had the chance to get the quests from someone or use the App you still can run them. And speaking of if you don’t want to buy a brand new starter kit like me you can still run most of this off the app. The only thing holding you back from the full campaign is having the new board.

I picked up the First Light starter, just because I want everything Hero Quest I can get. I like the new sculpts for the four heroes, and the dragon is neat looking, but certainly feels 'cheap' So be careful with it.

I'm also hearing of people opening the new board and it tearing at the folds quickly.

I do like the new DM screen though. I think it looks better than the older one.

I'm debating if I want to add the treasure cards to the treasure card deck we are already using.

In other news my group beat 'Return of the Witch Lord' and ran into a major problem.

Quest 9 and Quest 10 are both missing a door that was present in the original release. This means that in Quest 9 the section of rooms that includes the 'boss' figure can not be encountered unless you search a random hallway for the 'secret door' behind the boss. (Which it's supposed to use to escape) I didn't notice this, so my group pretty much speed ran the quest.

Then Quest 10 has these statues that you aren't supposed to get past blocking the hallway, and one door leading into this hallway and nowhere else to go. I fixed this by including a secret door, where the original normal door was supposed to be.

It's really discouraging to find this out. I really hope other quest packs don't have this issue.

Got an email revealing this quest pack. It's basically the last backer exclusive one you got for Pre-Ordering the Mystic Tier. (which I did)

Still going to pick this up. I love the look of the dice, and the character sheets are neat.

Also if I'm reading this right. The dragon is metallic, and the cards are holographic. Kinda neat.

Yeah I saw that too. Not sure I'll pick it up for fancy cards and dice, but honestly I don't mind the Quest pack being released to the rest of the player base that may have discovered the game later or wasn't able to back it back then.

I'm just hoping this isn't a last hurrah for the game. We've gone through most of the classic content to my knowledge by this point and it'd be cool if we continue adding new things to the game still.

I at least want Wizard of Morcar, the only other UK exclusive quest pack.

Besides Wizards, I'd still really like to see solo quest packs for the dwarf and the wizard. I've been wanting those for more than 30 years! More new content would be great too.

Videomaster21XX said:

I at least want Wizard of Morcar, the only other UK exclusive quest pack.

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Wizards of Morcar is coming in March. And oddly enough, it's still named as such, even while referring to Zargon on the box. Besides the stuff from the original WoM, it appears to come with an additional five quests, a fifth evil wizard, a new female wizard hero mini, a minotaur, a couple giant soldiers (living statues? golems?), a couple mimics (chest and door versions), a few elemental walls (with monstrous faces, so enemies?), and an additional mini that I've seen speculated to be Sir Ragnar.

Purely speculation, but I wonder if they might be planning to incorporate some of what would have been the Wizard Quest Pack that never got released. I understand it had been intended to include the WoM wizards, minotaurs, and of course a female wizard. Maybe they mined the unfinished WQP to help develop the additional quests? Could be pretty cool if they add in some form of wizard rivalry going on, and maybe a few of the new quests could be solo wizard quests?

I'm really curious what the deal is with Morcar. Will Morcar still just be an alternate name for Zargon? The fifth evil wizard? A place? A plot point? Something else entirely?

BBTS pre-orders are sold out, but it can still be pre-ordered on Amazon and Entertainment Earth.

Pre-ordered it on Amazon. Thanks for the heads up!

Also I thought the wizard quest pack was the Return of the Witch Lord. There was another in production at some point?

Videomaster21XX said:

Pre-ordered it on Amazon. Thanks for the heads up!

Also I thought the wizard quest pack was the Return of the Witch Lord. There was another in production at some point?

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Kellar's Keep and Return of the Witch Lord were the common quest packs that were released in both the UK and the US during the original HQ run. In the UK, they then released Against the Ogre Horde and Wizards of Morcar. In the US, they didn't release either of those, but planned to make four hero-specific quest packs using the minis from AtOH and WoM, along with new minis.

As such, the Barbarian Quest Pack used the mercenaries from WoM, along with new minis for the yeti, the frozen horror, etc. The Elf Quest Pack used the four ogre warriors from AtOH, along with new wolves, elven warriors, etc.

Apparently, there were also plans for a Wizard Quest Pack and a Dwarf Quest Pack. The Wizard Quest Pack was virtually done, aside from additional play testing and final polish. It would have used the four evil wizard minis from WoM, along with new minis for minotaurs, a saber-tooth tiger, giant spiders, etc. The Dwarf Quest Pack wasn't as far along, but had at least the initial draft for all the quests completed. It was going to use the three unique ogres from AtOH, along with new minis for a caveworm, a stone golem, and rockmoles. The design documents were eventually sold off to some fans once the NDAs expired. More info is available here:


Apparently, Avalon Hill has said they don't plan to complete the unreleased WQP and DQP, but could mine them for ideas. Given that the WQP was tied to the four WoM sorcerors, and that WoM only had five quests, seems like it could be a good fit to use some of the WQP ideas to expand WoM.

Huh, yeah it was wildly believed by any of us who I knew that played the game back in the 90s that the two quest packs we got were the Drawf and Wizard quest packs.

The misconception came from the fact Keller's Keep is through a Drawven stronghold, so it was the Drawf quest pack. Not really sure why people said the Witch Lord was the wizard one. Maybe because the Witch Lord is a magic user.

It's interesting to learn this!