D&D General Now That We Have HeroQuest, Do We Need D&D?

[Umbran]

If you're looking for a light version of a Dungeon Delving game, there are a lot of options out there. I prefer Gloomhaven ...

I question an assessment of Gloomhaven as "light".

 

[cbwjm]

More than ever!

I am glad it’s back. I hope HQ brings in more people and also spawns an industry of making “adventures” for it.

Here's hoping! Here's also hoping it makes its way to NZ. I have great memories of this game and now that I know it's back I really want it.

 

[jgsugden]

For my tastes, I'd put HQ above the ones I've tried (Gloomhaven, Descent, and Zombicide). I also put HQ above "hack and slash" sessions of D&D.

Your tastes are unusual. You don't want to treat D&D like an rpg, but instead like a board game - and I think that every single game I listed was ranked higher than HeroQuest on Board Game Geek. many of them much higher.

And few of those games are appreciably heavier that HeroQuest - they're pretty much all in the 2 to 3 range in weight on BGG.

There is nothing wrong with favoring lightness over depth - but it is an unusual opinion.

 

[jgsugden]

I question an assessment of Gloomhaven as "light".

Lighter than D&D? Certainly.

However, how it stacks up to other games is dependent upon your view of what makes a game light. The rulebook is 52 pages, but a lot of it is reference material. The rules are not as deep as a lot of other board games.

If you're factoring in setup time as some people do, it is a beast.

When you really think about it, there are relatively few options each turn for reasonable plays. So, in terms of decision making during the game, it is not as deep as other 'more open' games. There is strategy involved, especially if you play on higher difficulty setting or run the 'wrong' character for a stiuation. However, once you figure out that it is not a 'charge in and take your licks' game, the path ahead gets clearer and clearer (until you retire a character and start all over - which usually comes at a pretty decent pace).

 

[Mercurius]

A little anecdote. About six or seven years ago, my father found a "D&D board game" at the dump, and brought it back for me. When I was able to drive over to his house, it turned out to be Hero Quest, and in good condition with no missing pieces. I sold it on Ebay for like 150 or 200 bucks.

 

[Richards]

I used HeroQuest as a "gateway" to D&D when my sons - now 37 and 35 - were 8 and 10 years old. It taught them some of the D&D basics: different types of characters have different things they're good at and it's best to work together as a team, don't forget to check for traps, sometimes the dice work against you, and so on. Once we had gone through all of the included scenarios (including the ones in the two adventure packs we picked up as well), I started making up new scenarios of my own, not only with the monsters that came with the game but also incorporating a bunch of "Monsters in my Pocket" minis the boys had, allowing us to add in werewolves, flesh golems, winged panthers, vampires, and the like.

And then we started them on an AD&D 2E campaign (the current edition at the time), where they took all that basic knowledge and put it to good use. And all these years later, they're both still gaming.

Johnathan

 

[teitan]

two different concepts with similar aesthetics. Yes, we need D&D. We've had Descent for almost 20 years, and the D&D board games from WOTC and Wizkids. Why is this even a question?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

If you only play Delves (one shot dungeon dips), you may very well be able to replace D&D with Heroquest, Gloomhaven or another dungeon delve strategic game of your choice.

However, if you play adventures or campaigns with story, character growth and investment by the players - then you'd never have asked this question.

I think when 6E eventually comes, they need to release a rule set for "Delving" (playing D&D just as a strategy game without role playing a character) and then have a discrete rule and guidance set to explain how you add role playing to the strategy game. AD&D was the only edition that discussed the role playing side of the game as well as they discussed the strategic side of the game... but that was mostly because the strategic game discussion was pretty flawed.

Your tastes are unusual. You don't want to treat D&D like an rpg, but instead like a board game - and I think that every single game I listed was ranked higher than HeroQuest on Board Game Geek. many of them much higher.

And few of those games are appreciably heavier that HeroQuest - they're pretty much all in the 2 to 3 range in weight on BGG.

There is nothing wrong with favoring lightness over depth - but it is an unusual opinion.

Pretty gatekeeper-y take.

Also, who cares if their opinion is unusual? What a strange thing to worry about.

 

[teitan]

Now that I have been bad, I will say I do like a good dungeon crawler. I was going to back this and we missed the date on accident so I look forward to the general release. My favorite is Cult of Barnacle Bay and, from the same company, Shovel Knight! Ex-CMON employees made them and they are just fantastic games with excellent production and miniatures.

 

[Zardnaar]

HQ was part of my peito D&D journey.