Heroquest Action!

What’s the saying about the best laid plans? Heya folks. It’s been a while. I was all ready to write a lot over the summer then life became even more complicated. People I know became sick, including family. I lost several friends, some to natural causes like cancer and few to untimely endings. This happens as you get older. Friends become fewer due to attrition and there’s no saving throw. In any case, today I’m setting the Delorean back to the early 1990s. Back then Milton Bradley decided to work with a small game company in the UK called Games Workshop on a series of games based upon their intellectual property. One, Space Crusade, was based on Warhammer 40,000 and released only in Europe. The other was sword and sorcery and released here as well — Heroquest. Eventually they also released Battle Masters in the US as well.

Heroquest is a great gateway game

Space Crusade and Heroquest both featured a large game board with multiple rooms and hallways and each scenario would use some or most of them as shown by doors. They also had similar mechanics, requiring a Game Master of sorts. The major difference was Space Crusade was shooty (with guns) and Heroquest was hand to hand (words and such). I’ll focus on Heroquest since it was released here in the US even though I own both games.

In August 1991 I started work with Chessex Game Distributors, which was housed at the time in an old 19th century warehouse in southeast Pennsylvania. The floors were wood and creaked and the walls were uninsulated. I’ll get back to this. The Head Salesman at the time was a guy I’ll call Bob, who knew an incredible amount about games. He lived in upstate New York where his wife was in graduate school. As a result he drove down Sunday night and left Thursday afternoon and lived in the break room area. At night he spent his time painting miniatures (Golden Daemon winner) or whatever.

Not long after I started I was able to convince a former co-worker to leave the restaurant business and work at Chessex. Call him Abe. His game knowledge was not too strong as he only knew D&D and Battletech so Bob suggested we do Wednesday night gaming nights. Abe and I agreed. During this time I learned many games, usually GW games like Fury of Dracula, Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb, Talisman, Space Crusade and of course, Heroquest.

Heroquest is as much a roleplaying game as it is a board game. There are four characters based upon the usual archetypes — Barbarian, Wizard, Elf (essentially a fighter/magic-user) and Dwarf who could find traps. Each one would have their own sheet. You named the character and they increased in skill as they completed quests. Of course the quests became more difficult as you advanced through them. Abe and I split the four characters between us and became addicted to the game.

We weren’t the only ones addicted. Chessex had to order the game from Milton Bradley so the minimum orders were large. I forget how many exactly but I think around 400. In any case these were not small games so we had pallets stacked high with Heroquest. Not to worry — retailers ordered them in threes and fours or more. It must’ve flown off their shelves! In fact,we had a hard time keeping the game in stock.

One of the things I remember about playing Heroquest was how cold we were. We played during the winter and the warehouse was freezing! We’d sit next to the packing table in our jackets and with blankets playing Heroquest while drinking Zima (don’t judge.)

All good things come to an end and when Chessex moved to new warehouse in 1993 if I recall correctly there was no longer a break room space. Bob had his own office in the new place but was usually busy doing whatever. Game nights ended  In 1994 I left Chessex for Games Workshop. By that point Heroquest was all but out of print.

I didn’t own a copy of Heroquest until a few years ago. I bought a copy from eBay, which I still haven’t played. I’ve been painting the set on and off between homework and everything else.

I was surprised to see a crowdfunding campaign for Heroquest a year or so ago. It was the same game but as they didn’t have GW’s intellectual property some of the monsters had to change. Of course there were also new miniatures as well. I saved my pennies and ordered a copy at the Mythic Tier, which arrived a month or so ago. It looks great! However, I’ll finish painting my original set before starting this one. Oh, and I still have to paint the pieces for Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps. And Memoir 44. And that huge Batman game. Should I bother painting Castle Ravenloft? I’m sure I’ll get to the new Heroquest eventually. I’m almost finished the original set. I’ve made a concerted effort over the winter break from school. Then I’ll turn back the clock 30 years to a simpler time and play a game I adored.

Is Heroquest worth your gaming buck? That’s up to you. It’s a simple beer and pretzels dungeon crawl that’s a great gateway game and a lot of fun. If that’s your cup of mead by all means find a copy  If you prefer more complex games then don’t bother.

Have a peaceful new year and may your dice never fumble — unless you’re playing against me. Be well!

*Featured image — Deep inside another dimension, face battling barbarians and evil magic on a quest for adventure in a maze of monsters. This is HeroQuest, the fantasy adventure game, where winning means mastering the art of combat and magic. Once you get into it, you’ll never be the same.

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