Deck Box Dungeons -> Advanced Heroquest

Advanced Heroquest houserules for Deck Box Dungeon:

AHQ is long out of print, and not a simple game, as the name would suggest. Deck Box Dungeon fits in a large pocket with a tiny rulebook, but it has a modular, randomly generated dungeon, kinda like AHQ. So, to modify Deck Box Dungeon for an AHQ Quest with some small rule changes and a few homemade cards!

Add the AHQ Expedition system where you can retire to the village between Dungeon Levels. Each player gets a Henchman if < 3 players. 3 or 4 players no Henchman. You can buy Power Up cards and replacement Henchmen in the village, as well as healing. Loot is doubled to finance this, but resources will be hard won. Your characters persist between Expeditions, with permadeath. In between rooms the is a random chance of  Wandering Monsters in corridor, or a room with a door to doorway exploit.


In the DBD Quest file, you have 3 random text possibilities for each room, with an AHQ flavour. There will be a armour bonus item and weapon bonus item to find.

There is a special DBD Quest file for the last Dungeon level, with an earlier choice affecting the outcome.

The enemy are Skaven,  including a Warpfire Thrower area effect weapon. Also a Plague Monk who takes 2 turns to cast a terrible spell.

There is a chance of new corridor card between each Quest room, with a random spawn of wandering enemies. The corridor may feature a room with a door.

New cards: Standard DBD Enemies with Skaven graphics. Warpfire Thrower, Plague Monk, rules on the card.Level up cards, 2 per player. Enchanted weapon bonus card (1). Enchanted Defense bonus card(1). Corridor with door card. Dwarf Ability card.


Simple:

  1. In the DBD Quest file, you have 3 random text possibilities for each room, with an AHQ flavour. There will be one armour bonus item and weapon bonus item to find, make written notes. A choice made early on may affect final Dungeon level. Complete the DBD Quest file 3 times to get 1/4 of the Shattered Amulet, so 12 plays. (Or 1/3 Amulet, 9 plays).
  2. Pretend the enemy are Skaven. If a +3 Skaven gets a hit, he gets a free attack (Plague) on any Hero adjacent to the previously wounded Hero , even if not in LOS.
  3. Optionally, visit village between Dungeon levels. You can replace a Henchman for 10 loot in the village. Heal 2 point for one loot. Weapon +1 bonus 10 loot, Defense +1 bonus 10 loot.  
  4. Fate point for not visiting village in between Dungeon levels, for non-Henchmen. Fate point converts 1 dice roll into a favourable one. 

Fancy:

  1. New cards: Standard DBD Enemies with Skaven graphics. Warpfire Thrower, Plague Monk, rules on the card. Level up cards, 2 per player. Enchanted weapon bonus card (1). Enchanted Defense bonus card(1). Corridor with door card. Dwarf Ability card. Generic Henchman Ability card (2). 
  2. Random chance of a room/corridor card, 1 spawn point in corridor, 1 behind room door.

https://www.thingiverse.com/tnt_dev/collections/advanced-heroquest

AHQ features:

  • 3-level Dungeon, 4-Dungeon Quest. An AHQ level is a DBD Game. So, a meta-game Quest of 12 linked DBD Games.
  • Level up: Buy primary stat increases with gold. Easy to implement with a bonus card.
  • Henchmen: Hire a fighter before you go in with gold. Easy to implement.
  • Gold: We increase the amount of gold to allow for leveling up and Henchmen.
  • Institutionalized races: humans, dwarves and elves. Dwarves are tough stupid and slow good weapon skill, elves are archers less tough, fast. You could have a Race Card to create a dwarf or elf which modifies the Ability card base stats. Or Legolas and Gimli Ability Character cards.
  • 4 classes: AHQ barbarian, warrior, clerics and wizard, any AHQ hero can be a wizard with no armour, weak weapons. There are no AHQ rules for clerics, so we can ignore them, presumably they would be DBD Oathsworn. So no rule changes needed (wizards are simply magic weapon/magic equipment users).
  • Enemies: Skaven. With rules for  Orcs, Chaos Warriors, Fimirs, Goblins, Skeletons, Zombies and Gargoyles. New enemy cards required, possibly new coloured dice.
  • Dungeon: modular tiles, corridors and Special  things: Quest Rooms, pools, mosaics, statues, traps, chasms and tombs. A special Quest with each room being a random choice of 3 room texts.
  • Doors: DBD has no doors, revealing the next room is the nearest thing. 
  • Energy: AHQ doesn't have that.
  • Exit dungeon and come back in AHQ: You implement a more dangerous dungeon, with the ability to run away, heal, and retry.
  • Fate point: Can undo all damage done in a turn, or convert a failed dice roll into a success.
  • Fumble: A natural 1 gives the enemy an extra attack. 
  • Corridors with Wandering monsters: ?Random encounter between screens


The general idea is that the AHQ party goes through a Dungeon with 3 levels. An AHQ level is a single DBS Game, so 3 DBS Games = 1 AHQ Dungeon. 4 AHQ Dungeons =  1 AHQ epic Quest. You can flee the dungeon after the first or second levels to visit the village. You then come back to the next unvisited level. You get a fate point if you continue to the next level with no rest at the village. But a lot of the time you party will die trying to survive 3 levels without rest. Persistent characters between Dungeons, so permadeath with a fresh replacement character.

The party can buy persistent level ups and Henchmen in between Dungeon levels. Loot is doubled to support this. The first levels will be hard for starting characters. The Final Level

The enemy are have Skaven Enemy cards, the level 3 guys a little more dangerous than DBD as the Quest continues (game 3-9, +1 on all level 3 enemy dice rolls game 9 +2 on enemy dice rolls) . There is a lot more treasure, so you can heal as you go, but surviving 3 levels without a rest in the village is difficult. Resting between each level is a lot easier, but you don't get Fate points for doing that.

There should be 3 custom levels to represent a 3-level AHQ dungeon, 4 identical dungeons (12 DBD games) if you want a Quest. The levels are 1-12. 

+3 monsters get level bonuses:

Level 4-8 +1 to all die rolls.

Level 9-12 +2 to all die rolls.

 Double all loot.

  1. Henchmen can be bought for 15 loot and created from unused cards. They don't get fate points, but otherwise act as extra players.
  2. 20 loot gives one player a +1 to attack and defend dice rolls.
  3. 1 Fate Point awarded to each player for going from one level to another without visiting the town.
  4. ? After completing a DBD "game" either play another game with the character's existing stats plus a fate point each, or play another game with health restored and gold spent on Henchmen and/or Level Ups. A DBD game is half an AHQ dungeon. Completing the second DBD game gives you a Quest Location. 4 Quest locations (8 DBD games) gives you the Shattered Amulet. Optionally, an AHQ dungeon can be 3 DBD games, 3 AHQ "levels".
  5. Skaven Enemy cards. A level 3 Skaven is a Warpfire Thrower (can shoot 2 diagonally or orthogonally adjacent players) or a Warlord.


 

 


No comments: