I’ll admit – it probably wouldn’t take more than a poke to push me over the line and get to me sit down at a table to join a campaign of Dungeons & Dragons. That is, if I could find some (normal) dudes who already had a pretty grasp of the game to play it with. It’s the ultimate in geekdom, and if nothing else, I’m curious. But for a lot of geeks, nerds, and gamers, D&D is crossing the line. It raises a lot of red flags, and makes a lot of people cross their arms and shake their heads. It’s a board game, without a board? Isn’t the manual like 90 pages long? My kid brother plays that; he’s never had a girlfriend. Didn’t some inmate in the 70s use D&D to plot his escape from jail?

Well if you’re that guy with those concerns, or you’re the guy (or girl, I suppose) who would love to do some fantasy board gaming without the 90 page manual, have I got a board game for you. Journey back with me to 1989, when Milton Bradley released a fantasy board game called Hero Quest.

In Hero Quest, everything is laid out for you. There’s a physical board, physical characters, and while it IS dice-based, you don’t have to buy a set of d4s to d20s to play. The dice included with the game are simple – skulls indicate successful hits, and shields indicate successful defenses.  Ideally, you’ll want 5 players. One dude who serves as Zargon, the evil wizard, (that’s the persona of the game master) and four brave heroes to assume the roles of the Elf, Barbarian, Dwarf, and Wizard. (Your wizard should be especially brave – he’s a push over.)

Above: The Barbarian and the Wizard take on the toughest SOB in the game, a gargoyle, and his orc buddies. Three skulls indicate 3 damage that someone’s gonna have to defend.

I think one of the major hurdles people have to endure with the notion of playing D&D is that the game is produced more or less from the game master’s imagination. In that case, you have to have a well-prepared, well-versed and creative dungeon master, (which is apparently hard to find, if you’ve ever listened to the horror stories) or the whole game goes up in flames. Not so in Hero Quest. The player playing Zargon should have the best working knowledge of the rules, obviously. But as far as what needs to be done, the whole thing is laid out in the quest book, and is revealed to the players as they move through the dungeons.  The game comes with 14 quests to start with, and there are numerous expansions that were added later, adding more spells, artifacts, monsters, and assorted perils.

Therein, lies the problem. Like I said, the game was released in 1989, and those bitches at Milton Bradley have discontinued it. You won’t find it new anymore, but a keen eye can pick up a game system on Ebay for $30 – $50, depending on condition. Expansion packs are a bit more of a problem – the later expansions were printed in such limited runs that they can actually be found selling for upward of $300! I am always floored when I search for the long lost Elf pack I never obtained as a child.

But never to fear – the internet has come to the rescue. So dedicated are Hero Quest fans, that scans of every tile, card, rule book, and quest can be found on the internet and printed out by you to recreate the game in full. They’ve even expanded on the game with generally agreed upon rule sets, incorporated European-only rules, and created entirely new armories for the sole purpose of keeping the game alive for newcomers and veterans alike. For as scary as the internet can be, it is truly awesome when net dwellers go to work as a collective.

A given quest, assuming the heroes are working together instead of against each other, takes around 2 hours. I started up a game with my fiancé, her sister, and her boyfriend, and we’re just about through with the first expansion, Kellar’s Keep. Most of the time, we have a blast when we pull it out, and I recommend the game to anyone who’s ever wanted to enjoy some good fantasy role-playing without having to break out the dice set, the manual tome, or the long-haired cousin with the acne problem.

Stumble it!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 2:37 am and is filed under Scott Strichart, games, toys. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.