Old Stuff day: HeroQuest

HeroQuest Box

Today is old stuff day and ofcourse I'd like to contribute some of my content but the oldest content on this blog is only 3 months old so I had to think hard and deep to come up with something good. I went back in my memory to what was my first encounter with miniature gaming and games workshop. So let me take you back to the year 1989 when I was a young snotling only 13 years of age. Back then me and some guys in my neighbourhood spent a whole winter indoors playing HERO QUEST!

For many of the somewhat older gamers this was the first introduction of miniature gaming of a whole new level. The game was exciting, crampacked with miniatures and cool scenarios to play out. We didn't paint the minaitures but came up with some whacky scenarios of our own when we finished all the scenarios from the rulebook.
Somehow those days of HeroQuest feded in my memory untill about 3 years ago when I stumbled upon a box at a second hand store and I picked it up for only €10,-. It was all complete and hardly played with so I had some fun playing and painting it but it didn't feel the same as when I was only 13. Isn't growing up a bitch!

HeroQuest Boardgame

Hero Quest is a fantasy board game created by Stephen Baker in 1989, produced by Games Workshop and distributed by MB, Hasbro Int. Today the English division of Hasbro is the only proprietor of HeroQuest trademark because Games Workshop has sold all material of HeroQuest (figures, images, etc...) to Hasbro on 30 April 1993. The game is outside production since 1993, but it still counts a lot of fans all over the world.

Gameplay:
The game consisted of a board and a number of individual miniatures and items. The protagonists were 4 heroes ("Barbarian", "Dwarf", "Elf" and "Wizard") who faced a selection of monsters:Orcs, Goblins, Fimir, Chaos Warriors, a Chaos Warlock (which represented many of the named characters for the various quests), a Gargoyle and a number skeletons, zombies and mummies.The game is played on a grid representing the interior of a  of Undead—dungeon or castle, with walls segmenting the grid into rooms and corridors. One player assumes the role of the evil wizard character (Zargon/Morcar), and uses a map taken from the game's quest book to determine how the quest is to be played. The map details the placement of monsters, artifacts, and doors, as well as the overall quest the other players are embarking upon. Quests vary and include scenarios such as escaping a dungeon, killing a particular character, or obtaining an artifact.

The cover of the magazine White Dwarf number 90 of june 1987, shows the design of the dwarf (John Sibbick's work), used for the character in the base set of Hero Quest, in 1989.

I have painted up my dwarf from the game about three years ago. I wasn't a real star in painting eyes then but I'm showing you this so you can compare the model to the White dwarf(90) cover art.








Now for some real sentimental value here's the original tv commercial.

iframe>

 

now I couldn't have written this article without the help of the unofficial heroquest site, you can find a link to the site on the left side of my blog and Wikipedia.

Seb