Good questions!
1) I think many of the inspirations kind of suffer from being too tied to chance elements, elimination and a straight up dungeon crawl (there should be a dungeon crawl, but it needs new elements). The game needs to be one where everyone has fun all the time, and they create interesting things by interacting. (There are too many games where much of the play is basically solo play or positioning.)
Waaay back in the day when my friends and I played heroquest, the problem was 'same board, same monsters, same play', so yeah, a 4E board game would need more than 'just the dungeon'. I think skill challenges and themed expansion packs, as well as some very diverse 'quests' could accomplish this to a point; after that point, I would think the board game rules should just come out and say "buy the core books and make up your own adventure! And use all this as set pieces while you do it". I do think that 4E's rules have gone very far out of their way in order to attain 'everyone having fun all the time'. How about you?
2) I think Settlers of Catan and Magic have some intriguing things to offer. The important thing is, I think the ability to heavily moderate chance with strategy and the ability to manipulate resources and the board. A good D&D board game might feature each player laying traps and challenges and even moving walls around. Dramatic events as resources/items would be good, too.
So, if the board game had rules for player vs player, and some type of rules/mechanics that allowed you to modify the game board/play area without the other players knowing exactly what [like laying a trap with a black tile face down or something], that would be good? Like 'gladiator style'? four PC's enter, only one leaves? What if the core game didn't offer that, but a 'medieval deathmatch' expansion did?
3) I would use the map, trap cards and other resource cards if they could be ported into the rules. Plus miniatures, of course.
4) Honestly, if it just sits around unless I'm playing 4e, I'm less likely to buy it.
5) I would buy a boardgame that doubled as a huge "battle box" for the RPG.
So it would have to be a board game, not JUST a bunch of accessories for you to 'fully' use it, right?
The rules were completely different from D&D, it was custom dice based rather than using a D20, and had only the barest of tactics and class abilities. Spells and items were customized and not based on the D&D classics for the most part. Still, we enjoyed it because it was a quick and light game.
How much 'heavier' are the 4E quick start rules compared to this D&D adventure game you played?
As far as Warhammer Quest: I still play this game because of how you set up the game. It has a fixed number of quests, but you construct the dungeon out of board pieces that are randomized, and the encounters are similarly randomized. You get near limitless replayability as a result.
Okay; so, selling point number one on warhammer quest was random dungeon generation. What if the hypothetical D&D boardgame i'm talking about included something like this
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Archive: Cardmaster Adventure Design Deck but with more cards and options?
What about this
RPGNow.com - The Other Game Company - Dungeon Bash v1.1
The other great thing, and the thing that ultimately keeps me coming back, is that the game is GMless and so everyone is cooperating against the dungeon. There's no need for one person to "play" the dungeon, so everyone is on equal footing. If WotC did something like this I'd be in 7th heaven. It's not D&D or even a real RPG, but it does entertain like nobody's business.
--Steve
I think with something similar to the two links above, this could be accomplished. I also think that this could be a selling point; DM or not, the 4E board game could be played.
As for 'it's not D&D or even a real rpg'....well, D&D is different things to different people, BUT in the beginning, it was all about 'kill them and take their stuff', wasn't it?
