The Milton Bradley board game HeroQuest was my introduction to TTRPGs. For me it was equivalent of the Red Box for Basic or the "Lost Mines of Phandelver" for 5e, as there was no good entry to AD&D when I joined the hobby in 1989. I had many memories of playing with other kids in my neighborhood who wouldn't touch AD&D, but loved HeroQuest, even to the point that we talked about it 30 years later at a recent class reunion. I learned to DM on that board game, made custom classes/monsters/spells/magic items, expanded the quests, etc.
Sadly, I lost my original copy after letting a friend borrow it, when he unexpectedly (to me) moved to Hawaii. For the past 30 years I have attempted to find the replacement board game dungeon crawling experience, but bounced off Descent, Gloomhaven, Warhammer Quest, Shadows of Brimstone, Massive Darkness, and others. Last year I decided to cobble together HeroQuest using proxy miniatures, hand drawn board, self-made cards, etc. Again, the magic was there as I introduced it to friends and family as a casual, fast-paced adventure game.
Now a reboot has been released by Hasbro Pulse, and I went all-in. After getting my shipment and playing several quests over the weekend, I'm legitimately wondering why would I want to play certain types of D&D games anymore: dungeon crawls, one-shots, one-page dungeons, introductory quests.
Sadly, I lost my original copy after letting a friend borrow it, when he unexpectedly (to me) moved to Hawaii. For the past 30 years I have attempted to find the replacement board game dungeon crawling experience, but bounced off Descent, Gloomhaven, Warhammer Quest, Shadows of Brimstone, Massive Darkness, and others. Last year I decided to cobble together HeroQuest using proxy miniatures, hand drawn board, self-made cards, etc. Again, the magic was there as I introduced it to friends and family as a casual, fast-paced adventure game.
Now a reboot has been released by Hasbro Pulse, and I went all-in. After getting my shipment and playing several quests over the weekend, I'm legitimately wondering why would I want to play certain types of D&D games anymore: dungeon crawls, one-shots, one-page dungeons, introductory quests.