Heroquest

Bane

Bane

Member
At last I've got my hands on a copy of Heroquest, I've been wanting to get a replacement for the one I had as a kid for ages, primarily so that I can start some gaming at home with my kids (and maybe wife..), but also because I've got a dream of making a scratchbuilt dungeon and scenery to play on with some really well painted miniatures. I'm resolute in making it happen at some point in the nearish future.

So I've now got the game (I was so excited upon opening, exactly the same as when I opened my original some 25 years ago - ripping open the packing paper, carefully removing the lid and then picking up the miniatures and pieces to study closely with a revered awe and imagination running away with me with all the possibilities..:







In anticipation of this new dawn in my hobby life, I also ordered some excellent miniatures from Hasslefree to represent my family as dungeon explorers:



From left to right; obviously myself on steriods (I am bald and will even paint my tattoo on), my wife giving an icy stare as she calculates her next move, my two daughters (one in full on strop mode and one who always has a book in her hand) and my son dressed up in oversized armour with a flail ready to join in the action. He's 2 and a half and quite likely to hit one of his sisters (I'll write this into his character description). Both my daughters wanted to design their colour scheme for their model representation (I helped them a bit with the outline) and this is what they've chosen for me to recreate when I begin painting:



I quite like the idea of yellow and white striped tights! My eldest even wrote out the levitation spell she would like to cast on the floorboards to lift her up - there's definitely potential in her rpg skills....:



When these are all painted I will photograph them and make their own character cards with traits and stats etc to help them immerse themselves into their character. I'm convincing the wife that by playing this as a family it will help the kid's imagination, problem solving, literacy and numeracy skills and that I might need to "invest" further in this as a project for "them" to get the most out of it!

Obviously I'll keep you posted here, especially after we take our first adventure into the game itself, perhaps next weekend.
 
Scalene

Scalene

Member
I love the way you've got each of your family members represented by an appropriate model. I take it that they aren't going to each paint their own.
 
Bane

Bane

Member
Scalene":1u67cq4r said:
I love the way you've got each of your family members represented by an appropriate model. I take it that they aren't going to each paint their own.
Click to expand...

I thought about it briefly, but I'm a bit too much of a quality control freak to allow them to paint their own!
 
Suber

Suber

Member
What you are doing here with your family is pure magic. Bravo! (Ain't here a clapping emoticon?)
 
Bane

Bane

Member
I've played my first couple of adventures with my 6 and 8 year old daughters and they've thoroughly enjoyed it. Keeping them interested has challenged my GMimg skills for sure, but I've discovered they like the uncertainty of exploring and searching (especially if there's a narrative about a haunted house - but not too haunted to give nightmares!) and they like to squish those silly goblins.

I've removed random movement, spellcasting and any severe damage to their characters at this stage, more along the lines of scraped knees and sore fingers! The youngest is adamant that she won't help out her older sister unless she gets something in return (magic potion or chocolate gold coins), so I'm starting to see a slightly different (and a bit unsettling) side to my offspring. Good rpg skills though...

I'll take some photos from the next adventure and share them here.
 
Bane

Bane

Member
Here's the backstory I used to engage my daughters into their first game of Heroquest, where they are the heroes using models of themselves!:

The girls were asked by their teacher, Mrs Woods, to stay behind after school to help tidy up the classroom. It was a mess. They started on the bookcase, where eldest daughter began arranging the books in alphabetical order. As she was dusting some of them off, she uncovered a red, leather bound tome that seemed somewhat older than the rest. It also seemed warmer to the touch. As she started leafing through a small wand dropped out of the pages, it was then that she realised that it must be a spell book! She shouted out to her sister who was pretending to tidy up, and straight away she wanted the spell book which led to much bickering.

[You can tell that this is based a lot on reality!]


The youngest girl went into a strop in the corner and leant against the classroom wall and as she did so the floor started moving and a hidden trapdoor opened, she must have touched a hidden, secret switch! The girls did not hesitate in exploring the new staircase down, there was some light down there so it wasn't too scary. As they descended the stairs the trapdoor slammed shut above them, they were trapped and had to find their way out. Yikes!


Here are a few house rules that I put in place:


•Each character could walk 6 spaces or run 10. If running then no searching of rooms could happen.
•The spellcaster could cast any spell she wanted, one per turn, on an even roll of a dice. She had to use her imagination in saying the spell and she could not repeat the same spell twice. [for example one goblin was squished, whilst a zombie was magically hung up by it's ankles from the ceiling]
•The girls could suffer no more than scrapes and scratches (a tally was kept).
•The stroppy girl could pull a strop once per turn, on an odd roll of the dice, which meant all monsters moved back two spaces.


And here are some pictures of the game as it played out:


After some exploring youngest daughter decides to leave her older sister to fend for herself against a goblin and two wandering monsters!


With spellcaster in a spot of bother, youngest daughter changes her mind with a huff "If I must, but you have to cast a nice spell on me!" Thumbs up to that!


Teamwork! The two of them soon dispatch the zombies and goblins who leave behind a jewel in the shape of jelly bean. Spellcaster casts a spell so that there are two, one for her sister too. Nice.


At this point they had a small bicker about who would have which jelly bean, they both wanted the red one. As GM I stepped in and held them behind my back for them to choose blindly. Oldest daughter chose the red one and was quite smug towards her sister about it, but she was a lot less smug when she ate it and discovered it was cinnamon flavour. Ha!


At last some equipment! Ah but there is a spaghetti monster and some dead guys to deal with. Quick have a strop and wander off...!


The final room and the way out is visible. In a great bit of rpging, the spellcasting daughter turns her sister into a giant who stomps on the orcs and the hound. The giant daughter then talks to the minotaur and tells him that the troll is much tastier than them! With the minotaur and troll busy the girls escape up the stairs into the arms of Mrs Woods.


Who doesn't believe a word they say about their adventures!


My two little heroines. showing some attitude after their adventures. Phew, it must be bedtime now, but it was a lot of fun! Next time I'm going to try and get the wife to join in.........


Ps. My youngest daughter really isn't that stroppy, just stubborn and somewhat independent!
 
symphonicpoet

symphonicpoet

Moderator
Oh, nicely done. Very well done. I am in the midst of attempting to indoctrinate some friends into role-playing. I'm setting it in my oldhammer world in the hopes that miniatures might help. Wish me as much luck as you have had. Very well done indeed. And again, lovely lovely paint jobs. Looking forward to seeing the rest of your family. (Incidentally, if gorgons turn you into stone, alchemists turn lead into gold, and gamers trade in gold for lead, what turns us into little lead people? A gamerist? A playgon? Maybe a game master. Yes, that's it.)
 

Shep

Member
Thanks for posting this. I'll be gaming with my two eldest, of about the same ages, later this week, and I was in need of inspiration. What you've done seems perfect. My two will have to make do without miniature versions of themselves this time round, but perhaps I'll manage something for the next one..
 
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