Heroquest Continues To Be Pretty Great

I am pleased to report that I finished the core game of Heroquest! The attached screenshot shows my barbarian, dwarf, elf, and wizard fighting the Witch-Lord and his minions at the end of the game. (Some minor Photoshop touches were applied.)

I talked about Heroquest back when I first played it, and six months later I finished the final quest in the core game. I quite enjoyed the experience. Video games can do everything a board game can, but there’s still something enjoyable about moving well-crafted game pieces on a board. For that matter, when I play chess, I prefer to use the fancy wooden set I got fifteen years ago and have been ferrying around as I move to different places. Computer chess just isn’t the same. No doubt this explains the success of WARHAMMER 40K and other miniature wargames.

Why did I like Heroquest so much?

My favorite genre of fantasy, deep down, is what’s sometimes called basic fantasy, or the Standard Fantasy Setting. My favorite kind of fantasy is basically a barbarian, a dwarf, an elf, and a wizard showing up and killing some orcs and goblins, preferably orcs and goblins led by an evil wizard. Heroquest lands right in that sweet spot.

It also helps that Heroquest boils down, say, D&D to its bare dungeon-crawling essentials. The game simply doesn’t have a lot of fat. No 15,000 word tragic backstory for your tiefling bard, just a dungeon with some traps and monsters to fight.

I am looking forward to starting Kellar’s Keep, the first expansion pack!

-JM