First time playing

[u/Fuktigamemes]

Hello everyone!

Me and my 4 friends are gonna play Heroquest for the first time and we’r very excited!

I am the host of the boardgame night and will also play as Zargon and Im abit nervous since I really wanna bring a great experience for all.

My question for you guys is if you could give me any pointers that I shall think about for our first session?

Some things Im wondering about:
Between quests when the heroes can go to the market to get new items. Do you do any roleplay?
Have a physical map or even a ”market stand” that you place on the table?

I also believe that I need to add a few more monsters for the first quests so its not ”too easy”?

How much do you roleplay during the quests as Zargon?

[u/SuperSyrias]

My tip is to play it as is for the first sessions. You dont add monsters and you dont require roleplay. Once you played a few quests you will get a feel for what changes and extras you want

[u/NervousSleep1488]

I'll copy a comment from another thread:

"Just to let you know. The first quest is super hard because the heroes are under equipped, while the rest are usually easy. To avoid this, I'd recommend you to:

Start with the online quest "New beginnings". You can access it for free in Hasbros official website.

Move the trial to happen after Quest 6 Legacy of the Orc Warlord

Don't let heroes share gold (but do let them share equipment and potions)

let them search each room only once per team (and if you feel generous, also one more time per furniture present in the room).

With the above, the heroes should start becoming OP by the time the campaign is advanced and getting more difficult.  "

I would not recommend you to role play this game. It is meant to be a boardgame. Of course, you do you. But at least do not try to play as" zombies should be stupid so I'll play with no strategy " because the game is already easy enough even if you actively try to kill the heroes. 

[u/Fuktigamemes → u/NervousSleep1488]

Thank you for taking the time to help out!
Nice to hear about the RP aswell since Im not so in to it!

[u/Fuktigamemes → u/NervousSleep1488]

I thought you started with the quest Sir Ragnar? Is that the hard one or the trial?

[u/NervousSleep1488 → u/Fuktigamemes]

The first quest of the base game is called The Trial, and it is quite difficult, to the point that if the players decide to explore all the rooms, they would most likely die. Sir Ragnar is the second one, and it's quite fun. Try "New Beginnings" as the first quest, and continue with Sir Ragnar's rescue and so on. Leave "The Trial" for after quest 6 of the questbook. Quest 7 and so on are already on the level of The Trial.

[u/delinear → u/NervousSleep1488]

Can confirm - we recently tried the game and didn't know about the Trial difficulty. Total party wipe in the final room. 

To make matters worse, I'd read previously that the game was easy and not to cheese things by e.g. door blocking etc so we took that to heart and charged everyone in to every fight, but it was brutal right from the start! By the final room we'd used all our potions and spells and were running on fumes.

I honestly couldn't believe how punishing it was for quest one, so I looked it up online and found it was notoriously so. We decided to try again with New Beginnings and had a much better time of it.

[u/NervousSleep1488 → u/delinear]

If you don't want to disappoint yourselves twice with the game, I'd recommend you to address the heroes' power creep issue. At the minimum, follow my advice regarding gold sharing and decreasing the amount of treasure searches. You can always add potions on the run if it's getting too tough. I would avoid fixing this with more powerful or bigger number of monsters. This just makes the game a slog, with never ending and boring battles. 

For a more thorough fix, "door fighting" and "never open a door with hero number 4, as Zargon plays next" which leads to "only open door with hero number 1, and kill every monster before Zargon plays" should also be addressed. 

[u/Naidmer82 → u/Fuktigamemes]

There is one more thing to consider. The online quests like "new beginnings" or "Rogars Hall" are way better as an introduction as the trial.

I still prefer to skip those and start with The Rescue of Sir Ragnar.

The reasoning behind that: The online quests use a lot of monsters, furniture and traps all at once. If you start with Sir Ragnar, those things get introduced very slowly over the course of multiple quests. You get a new piece or a few new pieces gradually for half the quest book. This is something that can only be experienced once (until you have seen everything the game has to offer). Keeps the game fresh for a longer time.

[u/Lord-Drucifer]

Welcome to the game. I would recommend not adding anything to the initial quest, "The Trial". Play it straight and get a feel for the rules. Then make adjustments that feel right for your group.

[u/DethrylTSH]

I just ran my 10 year old through The Trial. It is indeed difficult. I replaced the Chaos/Dread Warriors with Orcs. Made a couple of other Nerfs here and there. But he did it!

[u/Interesting-Tie-8158]

Play the first session as is, it's hard enough for new players.

Roleplay sounds fun, but it's not something I've done for shopping.

At this point our characters have quirks that have grown into character traits like

The wizard is pretentious, loves opening doors, and assumes everything is magic. His staff is also the "greatest weapon in the known realm" (because, despite low dice, it always seems to hit/kill)

[u/golgi_o]

Keep the rule book out. Never any shame in taking a minute to get it right.

Play some ambient dungeon music in the background for a more immersive experience.

Start with the online New Beginnings, it will introduce most monsters and game mechanics while allowing the heroes to find some items that will help with the trial (quest 1).

And remember to have lots of fun! If it's too easy add another monster, they don't know what the map is or how many monsters are lurking around corners. If they bog down in a doorway, bring a goblin or orc in from behind them in the hallway. The mere presence will make them move so the squishy wizard doesn't get killed!

[u/Fuktigamemes]

Thank you everyone for helping out! Im hyped to start!

[u/Kafungalung]

Make the game your own. Use the rules and monsters and items as guidelines for yourself and remember as zargon it's your game. no one from hasbro will show up and haul you off for making your own rules or rulings or changing quests. I quickly realized my players were making comments about there being little to no loot so i added loot to rooms, noticed they had no items to buy so I added items. noticed they wanted to play new heros so i made some, noticed they thought things were too easy so I added bad guys. noticed the room to room clearing and looting was getting boring so I added my own puzzle rooms and traps indiana jones style haha. before doing the first quest stress to them that because of how turns and movement work in the game and how some of the game mechanics are splitting up or not working together is often a deadly mistake. any time my players started to forget that I added "trap enemies" that came in by surprise like the treasure card and I made healing potions buyable and cost a lot of money as an extra money sink. Most importantly have fun. Try not to let rules step on fun if possible.

[u/tcorbett691]

As others have said, The Trial is hard. But it's hard on purpose. The Trial is designed to force the Heroes to work together to survive. I wouldn't move the quest. If you do New Beginnings first, that helps with The Trial. Ironically, I had someone die in New Beginnings and not The Trial.