#hero quest

Player agency is paramount in good game design. And there’s no simpler way to take away all player agency than “Lose a turn” mechanics. A lot of Age of Exploration was inspired by Hero Quest, and it’s interesting that this simple ‘lose a turn’ spell appeared for both a player and for Zargon (The game master)

It’s an interesting piece of symmetry, considering HQ doesn’t have a lot…(D&D of course is entirely symmetrical) I decided right away that I didn’t want monsters to have any effects that “stunned” the players, because there’s few things less fun that doing nothing on your turn. (On the other side of the spectrum- I don’t create any spells for players that slow monsters or create zones of control, because it feels really weak when you slow a monster and it gets to you anyway)

IDID make 1 player spell that stuns enemies, and it turned out so powerful that we had to give it one of the lowest ranges, and the least damage of any spell. 

But then I wanted to design Basalisks, and we decided right away that they’d be ambush predators who use chameleon-like illusionary camoflogue to blend into their surroundings, and we wanted to keep the ‘turns targets to stone’ theme intact, but we already knew we didn’t want it to be ‘lose a turn’

So my fix was to make the petrification effect creep up from a player’s feet, instead of instantaneous. 

Here’s a breakdown
Turn 1- Feet stiffen: half speed, disadvantage to balance
Turn 2- Legs locked: Can’t move
Turn 3- Arms frozen/petrified: Can’t make weapon attacks but can still cast a cantrip
Turn 4- Fully petrified
Turn 5- Effect wears off in reverse (same as turn 3, etc.)

This gave players a very long lead up offered them a chance to react, reposition, and provides them 2 turns to drink a potion or cast purify, and 3 turns to cast dispel. (The light element cantrip, which I haven’t made a card for yet)
It also gives Basalisks a chance to escape a dangerous party of humans/humanoids

Someone who had downloaded the Print and Play asked me today how AoE is inspired by Hero Quest, when the core combat is more reminiscent of D&D.
There’s a number of ways that Age of Exploration, which I made as a gateway game for my nephews, was inspired by Hero Quest, which I first played in 1992 when I was 11.
First of all- It’s card-based. All of the weapons, armors, treasure items and spells are all represented on cards. It makes it very easy to build characters because you can just pick cards instead of copying down all your abilities.

The elf was always my favorite character. I liked to imagine I was role playing the Red Mage from Final Fantasy, cuz both of them had long white hair and could do it all. 
Just like the Elf, each character in Age of Exploration selects one element and draws a set of spells for it. 2 that deal damage or heal, and 2 that have more of a utility effect (It was just 1 per element in HQ)

To learn more and get a the Free Print&Play visit ExploreAlterra.com

Characters in AoE increase in power through items, just like in HQ. As they earn Gold, they can buy better armor and equipment at the armory-

A character with 1000gold of equipment and a magic weapon is roughly twice as powerful as a starting character. Coming up with the name “Dead Man’s Vest” is the proudest I’ve ever been of a pun.
Curently, the rule is that you can sell items back to the armory for their full value, and I’ve adjusted prices accordingly. 

One evening, when I was playing AoE with @flavoracle​ and his partner, she said, “How come I don’t get to roll to dodge enemy attacks? In Hero Quest there’s a defense roll” and at first I responded, “Well, in most RPGs the dodge is built into the attack roll that the GM makes.” 
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized she was right (She usually is) and the next time we playtested I had players make a dodge roll instead of Storyteller making the enemy attack rolls.
Mathematically, it’s a difference between 55% and 45%, but this gives players a slight advantage that’s actually great. It also engages players when it’s not their turn, and takes burden of rolling off the Storyteller, freeing up time. 
And while it doesn’t actually add player agency, because there’s no choice, it makes the damage feel more earned, which feels more fair, and less un-fun.

So then we realized it was possible to roll a natural 20 and critically dodge! If you’re dodging a melee attack, you get to riposte: roll a basic weapon attack against the attacker. If you critically dodge a ranged attack, you get to sidestep: move 1 space. 

Oh and One more thing: Matt Holmberg @orwin-dm​ made these incredible standees that I want to turn into a new Print & Play adventure sometime soon. 
You can get the current print and Play free from the website or DrivethruRPG