Retro Recall: HeroQuest
May 7, 2019 by brennon
So we're going for a classic this week on Retro Recall. I played this game way back in the day...once. I had the chance to play it and almost immediately forgot about the game simply because no-one knew the rules but thought it looked great. Then, I found it in a charity shop for £2.50. Let's look at HeroQuest.
HeroQuest is one of those classic dungeon crawlers from Milton Bradley and Games Workshop which takes the classic tropes of dungeon crawling and applies it to a very quick and easy game. You take on the role of classic heroes, the Barbarian, Elf, Dwarf and Wizard all of whom are styled to match the kind of D&D heroes that you'd see making the rounds during the 1980s.
Adventure Awaits
Arrayed against you was a mass of different awesome creatures like Skeletons, Orcs, Chaos Warriors and more exotic foes like Fimir, the dreaded Gargoyle and the nefarious Witch Lord. All of this was then set up on a very colourful board with lots of tokens, 3D doors and even some amazing terrain which combined both paper and plastic elements.
This was the thing that immediately drew my eye to the game back in the day. It looked like all those awesome cartoons I was watching on TV like Conan The Adventurer (best kids cartoon next to X-Men: The Animated Series) and the like and allowed me to get stuck in without having to read through reams and reams of rules.
I was really lucky to be able to get my hands on my own copy of this game from a charity shop a few years ago for the low, low price of £2.50. It was a real gem of a find because it was all just haphazardly dropped into the game box and I didn't know until I got home that I'd got every single component included within the set. I was very happy.
I then tried to relive my childhood moment with the game with a bunch of my friends at a board gaming meet-up and whilst it was a lot of fun to delve back down into it, I don't think that this retro classic holds up as well as I'd hoped.
Rolling For Movement!?
I like retro games and their weird mechanics but I cannot stand having to roll for movement. Rolling for movement was a great mechanic back in the day for extending the time spent playing the game but nowadays it just grinds my gears. We sat down, worked out different movement values for all the characters and suddenly...things got a lot better.
It was fun playing it back in the day as intended but with so many other good games out there right now, it's a little archaic. Don't get me wrong, I can see this being awesome for younger gamers, for whom the game was intended!
Fantastical Heroes & Nefarious Game Masters
Beyond that, though I think the game still stands up as being a nice puzzle to solve on the tabletop. The Barbarian is a nice point and click hero, the Wizard and Elf have an array of cool spells that can be really inventively employed during gameplay, and the Dwarf is...the Dwarf. So, he's epic.
All of the dungeon delving adventures included in the box are also really fun. I've only played through maybe the first three dungeons with my friends but the number of different options they included in the box is pretty special for something that came out in the 80s. There's also a lot of replay value mixed in there too since you can rearrange things to create endless dungeon layouts for your friends to try and beat.
As someone who wished they owned this when I was younger, I can see why it is such a gem in peoples collections. It was the start for a lot of role-playing adventures and more and...well, I think that this video more or less sums up the game.
HeroQuest is a classic. Classics are most often viewed through rose-tinted glasses and that can be the case mechanically for HeroQuest but otherwise, it's still an amazing reminder of just how awesome fantasy adventures can be.
I only ever played through the core game but it would have been amazing to get stuck further into this world with all of its various expansions!
Painted miniatures by brushstroke
When did you first try HeroQuest?
"I was really lucky to be able to get my hands on my own copy of this game from a charity shop a few years ago for the low, low price of £2.50..."
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"HeroQuest is a classic..."
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Never played it. It came out when we were old enough to not consider it a game worth playing and we were moving on to other board and miniature game as well as role playing games
Played it, loved it, need to rebuy it so my kids can play it when they are older.
Also, there was a Conan cartoon?
Yep search Conan The Adventurer on YouTube. It has an amazing intro song
+1. Iirc it’s a bit cheesy, but in a way that makes it an amazing intro song rather than in a bad way.
Two actually; there was one where Conan had a Phoenix sidekick that lived in his shield and was on a quest to save his family who had been turned to stone, and there was a sequel where he had some kids for sidekicks.
I only remember the first one! Didn’t realise there was another. I was really disappointed when as an adult i youtube searched the finale of the conan cartoon (with phoenix shield)
Always looked at it as a kid but sadly never played it… still on my “must have” list
The best thing about Heroquest is posting up the best thing about Heroquest video…
And having a painted Heroquest set…
…and the Bwooordsoord ..
Obviously
I got to play Heroquest thanks to one of my friends having it and it was fun. I still remember how in first quest my elf used spell that allowed him to move through walls straight to objective room. I was so lucky that time.
I believe the maker of that video may have a little eccentric.
And while I’m discussing beards… is there anyone at Beasts without a beard? (Sam has foot beards… he’s a hobbit).
I played it but don’t think I ever played it right. The models are brilliant, though. I don’t think there has been a better mummy sculpted and despite scythes never having been used in combat, I love the skeleton as well. Perhaps the orcs and goblins aren’t that great, but the rest are fantastic. Paint job in the photos is spot on!
Thank you
It was my gateway drug! Played it into my late 20s then modded the hell out of it and turned it into Beer’o’quest in my early 30s.
From the back of the quest book I sent off for a painting guide, and then a copy of white dwarf… and here I am with a cuboard full of games and unpainted plastic.
I think Dungeon Saga is it’s spiritual successor, dirt simple, fun and with the movement and model placement tactics that Heroquest never did have… Beer’o’quest did though 😉
But nothing beasts Heroquest for the lore
Clicks into OTT to see what’s new and of course HeroQuest box catches my eye. Gotta get me some of that HeroQuest action, I think, and I was right! For what do I see when I follow the link, but my own HeroQuest set there on the page 😀 Nice surprise and still my all time fave game. I agree with you regarding the roll to move Ben. My daughter and I have updated the rules too, as she has grown up and been able to accept more complex concepts. We now have all manner of rules for ranged weapons… Read more »
The game that started it all for me!
Found my old copy recently in my parent’s attic. I’d obviously lost some of the items and spell cards and had made up my own and printed them out on card. Guess I started “gaming in the gaps” early!!
This game came along at the perfect time for me. I was around 12 and although I was already into miniature painting I don’t think I’d played any games at that point. Needless to say I played this to death. Regrettably I think I broke the set up for parts and eventually binned them! Most of the time I had to be the dungeon but when I did get to be a hero I was all about the Elf. He struck the perfect balance between magic and combat as I recall.
Thanks for the article!
Ye Olde Inn is a HQ fan site, with a forum and plenty of fanmade HQ content.
Stopped playing the game when the players armed themselves with spears (diagonal attacks) and the Ogre expansion (ogres had ridiculous amounts of hit points), but the miniatures were great for the time, and you can still pick up a battered set. The rulebook and quest book are online, I think.
I think this is the time I confess … one of the great joys of my childhood was that my mum’s aunt & uncle owned a toy shop through the late 1980s-mid-1990s. We lived in the next town, (8 miles away) but my dad used to teach at the primary school that was literally across the road, so Saturday afternoons usually involved hare-ing around the empty playgrounds in the morning and MAYBE a trip to see Uncle Bill & Aunty Betty for afternoon tea. Being 5-9 at the time, Lego was positively magnetic. Until I saw HQ. I was BESOTTED… Read more »
I have to admit to being one of those gamers who has never owned or played a copy…
.
I loved this game as a kid. I loved Space Crusade too, but that was always a larger commitment to play as it was a longer game. I hope that’s up next. I’ve been wondering how that holds up these days.
I got this game for Christmas one year when I was in Junior School. Loved it! Way better than Ghost Castle, Game of Life and Screwball Scramble lol. I have been into the hobby ever since. If there was a “Family Tree” of Dungeon Crawlers would this be the seed?
Loved it,sold it ( after discovering beer and rugby,i really regret not keeping any of the ” old school ” stuff from when i was a kid ),need it back in my life.
Oddly enough, I JUST created an online, collaborative, sheet that you can use to manage your Heroes, enemies, and even build your own rules to enhance Heroquest. The automation I made in the sheet should make player management easy, shareable with your players (no more learning over to see your buddy’s Hero sheet), and is view able by Zargon/Mocar. All I ask is that you save your own copy to your own google sheets/drive so that when you make changes, it doesn’t mess with the main published sheet. Your fellow players will be able to access your version directly from… Read more »
This was my journey into wargames. I went from this to Warhammer models, then to 40K itself as second edition launched.
It is still a magical game. if they released a new version tomorrow I’d buy it by the car load.
I used to check charity shops for this all the time.
I never found it, but I did find a copy of Fantasy Forest- a very old board game by TSR that is kind of like Candy Land but with orcs and dragons ambushing you along the way.
I got into gaming through Space Crusade.
Bot this and Space Crusade are kind of funny. Our group can’t really handle the balance issues both games face (if the players really know what they’re doing).
HeroQuest and Space Crusade were my gateway games into the hobby. In fact, other than Blood Bowl, I don’t think I’ve really moved on. I tried large tabletop mass battle games (ok, one game of 40k) and didn’t get on with it. I tried skirmish games and although a few zombie-themed tabletop boxed sets were fun, a lot of games now are just “I nominate this guy to shoot at this guy.”
If I still it, I’d probably still play HeroQuest.
Still do have my copy, with everything still there. I have a second copy minus the mini
s, but double the of everything else. As some of my grand children are now old enough maybe its time to get them in to adventuring, with summer holidays just round the corner theyll need something to do other than sit glued to the I-pods etc.Heroquest was my to game to my game plastic addiction.
“I was really lucky to be able to get my hands on my own copy of this game from a charity shop a few years ago for the low, low price of £2.50.” Lucky isn’t the word mate. Jammy so-and-so more like. £2.50 is an absolute steal for a full Heroquest game even after the nostalgia wears off. Nice one! It’s been on my list for a while but I don’t have the money to buy it. Not to mention the added shipping on top of that.