I hadn't even gotten to quest 6 yet when I commented this, but what a fantastic opening. A clash between the bad guy factions before you even make the scene.
I think that (if you have all the expansions) a good idea is to start with “heroquest” (original campaign) and “first light” at the same time with the same group of players and eight characters to choose from, creating an A team and a B team. The player who plays Zargon, Morcar... “Zarcar” has to study the order in which to intersperse the different missions so that they have a narrative coherence. Once “Heroquest” and “First Light” have been finished the rest of the expansions can continue to be played with the two teams fulfilling quests separately (with a certain level of cooperation between teams at the discretion of “Zarcar”).
I mentioned elsewhere in the comments that I think I would probably handle it by starting with the original core campaign, dropping the entire First Light campaign in just before the heroes wake the Witch Lord, and then going back to the original campaign to fight the Witch Lord and set up Kellar's Keep and Return of the Witch Lord. I would do it all with the same team, adjusting treasure and difficulty as necessary.
This past summer I brought over the core set to play with my brother and his family. We played through the first two missions up to the rescue of Sir Ragnar. My brother didn't like that there were so many pieces to manage (probably because of his kids). However, this might be the solution I have been searching for in my ever continuing scheme to get his family hooked on HeroQuest!
Perhaps, but bear in mind, the number of pieces hasn't been reduced in First Light - they have just replaced all the plastic miniatures with standees and furniture tokens. Fingers crossed for you though!
We may yet see a proper story with Sir Ragnar, but the next expansions are supposed to be Crypt of Perpetual Darkness and Wizards of Morcar so I don't see this plot being revisited for a while.
I could see at least an expansion without clashing materials. An expansion could include a couple of newer roles, two (or even three) boss minis (perhaps one of them is sir Ragnard ?), a few modular tiles. Treasure cards, relics, tokens, monster cards, and such, the new quests. The usual set of dice. Since it's somewhat lacking on minis it could be sold for cheaper.
Hmmm.... interesting! I like the idea of two groups of heroes (if they were a bit more distinct). The greatest advantage being one group can handle the Witch Lord, while the other goes to Kellars' Keep. If the OG group takes the Witchlord (which makes sense, as they would be [SPOILER BLOCK]. But this quest pack needed to have more to do with the army if that's the case, so group B feel like they have to be the ones to rescue the king! Still, a good go at it. I would have liked to see more unique Artifacts rather than just repeats of the originals. I find it hilarious to think of two nearly identical groups of heroes meeting up both wearing nearly identical equipment. 😅
Have you ever seen the film Sean of the Dead? There is a moment in that film where the protagonists bump into an identical group of survivors. I imagine it would be very much like that!
Wow, I was not expecting the Ragnar character to be built up like this. The placement of these quests is sort of weird but since our family was going to do MotM next, followed by RotDM, we might slip this before MotM, just so we can see a more natural progression of his downfall.
I have pre-ordered this despite initial misgivings, but as my group is very well-established at this point, I am going to have to improvise a lot of the story. Since there are several quests in Jungles of Delthrak that you don't normally play, and my group wants to play those once they conclude their main chosen story, I was probably going to invent some time travel magic shenanigans to handwave it. Might have to do the same for this and throw in more monsters to make it a challenge for them. Will very likely make Ragnar feature more, since my party would be aware of his betrayal already, but won't be able to intervene until he shows his true colours in order to preserve the timeline. I might theme it as a Quantum Leap style story, where present Mentor tells of Quindrak's rise to power because another party never returned, so he shunts my current party into the new party to change the outcome or something. That or just ignore all of the stuff about it being concurrent and replace Ragnar's stuff so it doesn't conflict.
Regarding the “looseness” of the story, in Discord former Avalon hill staff Chris Nadeau (Encarmine) explained that loose threads were intentional. He wrote: “Heroquest is a "sandbox", intentionally so. To fill every narrative gap is to stifle the creativity of players, and thus destroy the very essence of the brand. It is a vanilla story merely intended to provide the base platform for players to express themselves and customize their experience to the desired tone they seek in their game play.”
There's been a lot of water under the bridge since that comment. We are in a world where Jungles of Delthrak, Prophecy of Telor, and Rise of the Dread Moon exist, so I think a drive for satisfying narrative is more the intent these days. However, First Light has almost all of the quest introductions setting up a conflict between two major characters that doesn't go anywhere. Which just feels unsatisfying. For new players it doesn't really mean anything; for existing players it feel like we still didn't get the promised Ragnar story we thought we were getting with Dread Moon.
Mentor running a new team of heroes? I love that idea! I had been running thru the expansions with different groups of heroes mixed with 1 or 2 “veteran” heroes. It was already part of my head cannon. It made sense to me. Zargon’s forces are everywhere. Mentor should run multiple teams to counter their presence. Makes the “far-voice” trait of Mentor, make more sense too. Great video! Thank you!🙏
Running multiple groups of heroes makes sense, but this does feel weird to me as it's the same composition of heroes (and they even look the same as the original heroes). A different party of heroes, that don't look like clones would have seemed less weird (although admittedly, it's only going to seem weird for existing players, and not new players).
Well, it does seem interesting but it also seems like it needed a few more design passes. Symbols on the maps with no explanation in the quest book, artifacts that don't have corresponding cards, and some obvious questions with no answers. I am looking forward to third parties making a neoprene variant of the new map though.
It has a few gappy spots, and some issues with some of the map icons, which is a bit of a shame, but I still think it's a solid quest with some really fun ideas.
I am looking forward to running this with a different group of players since I have been running the core game with my family. At some point in time I may try and mix people from the two groups.
Seems that, with some rewrites, this would work well as a sequel to the original. A chance to grab any artefacts you missed the first time around, while experiencing something new. Either that or, you could run the Mythic Quests after this... so Prophecy of Telor, Spirit Queen's Torment etc.
My possible suggestion is elsewhere in the comments, but I feel it sort of slots into the middle of the original campaign, so you would complete this campaign just before going to wake up the Witch Lord.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Huh, yeah that would work. Hmm when I pick this up I might do a fan rewrite of the Quests, put together a "Zargon Guide" that jiggles everything into a cohesive story.
I love HeroQuest so much I keep buying stuff for it even though I rarely get to play, the most difficult quest is finding people to play it with!😅 Maybe the smaller box will look less intimidating to newbies. I might even lie and tell people it's a 'simplified edition'. 😈
At 55 years young have played core and started 2nd expansion. All UK/ European 2021+. Light version to arrive soon Barbarian completed his quests, wolf died. Elf yet to do his for spells. Have all released sets (general public, not mythical). Have all heros (monks arrived last week). Already painted, not quested yet! Desperate to get players all the way through to jungle, but after a few expansion orks we have moved to axian bundle as app slowed down game and "fun" factor for my lady. Axian seems to make it more fun for players. Would love to show you my poor painting skills of heros, furniture and monsters so far. Still much to do. Estimate quest competition and "speed"painting by 2027. We play most fridays😂
I really would have loved to see Ragnar being more of a villain for the heroes to fight with. I like the idea of the heroes facing off with a rival group of enemy "heroes" with Ragnar at the helm.
Ball feels like it's been dropped twice at this point. If he ties it all together, that would be nice, but I won't hold my breath about a truly satisfying Ragnar storyline until I see it happen. (Which is not to say I don't think he can do it, just that twice now I have been fooled into thinking Ragnar was going to get a rewarding storyline, and twice it hasn't worked out, so now I will just wait and see.)
So if I buy first light can I run the core games quest line through the app just using first light components/heroes? Essentially making the quest content doubled with first light.
Yes. With the First Light core set you can run the original core campaign. The only reason to invest in the other core set would be to upgrade the cardboard standees and tokens with miniatures.
Is it just me or does Avalon hill not know how to properly set the Staircase in Quests? They are positioned so the top step runs into a wall. Every one of them (nearly) I see in the questbook needs to be flipped to the top step leads into the room.
The top of the step is the same floor they’re on. It does lead down but the placement again makes no sense going into the wall. Quest 8 has it right and so does the exit of Quest 1 but that’s it.
@nexusfxcc The top stair being the floor they are on rarely makes sense, as the stair tile usually marks the entry point, so the heroes would normally be coming down from the floor above. Due to the shadowing on the tile art, the "full" step would be the top and would therefore not be on the level the heroes are on unless it was a stairway going further down. If anything, quest 8 has it wrong as it suggests the dread warriors are coming from underneath rather than from above. I think it's more a problem with the art than the placement. In original quests, the stairs were often positioned so that both "step" sides of the tile were touching spaces rather than walls. There is a "straight" stair on the reverse of the tile that they should probably use when the stair is in a narrow space like a corridor.
From your review, how hard do you think it would be to rework this quest book and the core quest book to essentially combine them so it's the same group of heroes?
Fairly easy, I would say. Spoilers... Start with the original core campaign. Rescue Ragnar, kill Ulag, and probably play up to where the "plot" starts to seriously kick in. Make sure you switch to First Light. Play that to completion, then spin it that Kessandria retreated in order to find a way to raise the Witch Lord. Switch back to the core campaign to play through the awakening and first defeat of the Witch Lord. You will most likely have to adjust difficulty, tweak a few plot points here and there, but that would be the general approach to it.
I believe there are Ragnar fan quests, but they are from a long time ago before Avalon Hill relaunched the game, so they aren't going to quite fit with what we have now.
The card game, Yu-gi-oh, has a mechanic called Synchro Summon, and also distinctive "Trap cards" as well as many known dragon-type monsters. Anyway, the word "synchro" doesn't quite sound like high fantasy lingo and sticks out compared to the generally more classical Heroquest vocabulary. Some of the newer expansions have also begun to introduce more modern ("millennial") touches - such as expressions "You know you can do this" or "That crunching noise did *not* sound good".
Just a comment to say First Light is primarily marketed at new players who want a cheaper entry point into HQ, so your remarks on the heroes having duplicate artifacts are kind of strange. If you want to run one group through FL and the Core set, alternating back and forth between quests, that to me, seems like a homebrew usage and so of course you'd need to manage dupes. I could opt to run my group through New Beginnings 4 times so everyone gets free bracers but it'd be weird to complain about there being dupes of the Ring of Fortitude :) Seriously though, I think other commentors are right, there should be a team A and B, going through their respective starting point, and some enterprising fans will likely devise a "recommended" path through select expansions (with A taking on some and B taking on others). I know Hasbro specifically said they don't plan to release any expansions that require First Light's alternate board, but I hope they DO make an expansion at some point that uses it. It's a great board! They could even sell the board separately if someone doesn't want to buy FL for some reason.
There is specifically a bit in the rules book for returning players who already have the core set to talk about what is different. It would have been a good place to clarify a few things like duplicate items, as it is specifically addressing existing players. Also, the quest is available in the app for anyone to play. So, I don't see anything strange in my comments. Do bear in mind, this video is my deep dive, aimed more at existing players, which is a different thing to the review I have already published.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Ok, so there are existing/returning PLAYERS (owners of the core set, etc) and then there are existing/returning HEROES (in-game characters that have survived the core game). I personally think the distinction is obvious, that First Light is NOT intended for returning HEROES, but definitely allows for returning PLAYERS. I guess the storyline kind of makes sense for returning heroes as the quests mention events in the core game (Ragnar's rescue, the Witch King's return) but not when. However that falls apart at the end of both FL and Core because both specifically layout the same details (King needs help, Witch King is still an issue). It wouldn't really make any sense for a group to beat Core and then FL and be told the same thing. Even less sense if the heroes have already played through KK and RotWL prior to FL. Anyway, just saying, play with new heroes and everything will work out perfectly! :)
I really need some kind of "in-universe" explanation within the narrative for how these four heroes look identical to the main game's four heroes and yet aren't. Such a weird choice. Granted, I'm down for as many variant sculpts of existing character types as possible, but it does seem... illogical. Even the barbarian has the same scars.
The miniatures are definitely representing the same characters. As you noted the barbarian has the same scars, and the dwarf has the same hair and clothes. The elf has the same cloak and sword. Really only the wizard looks different, but I think he just grew his beard out. My thinking is they wanted a new quest with new heroes, but wanted to honour the original lineup, so they decided to make sculpts that could be used as alternative poses for existing heroes for long-standing players. I would have preferred brand new designs, though.
Same. It feels like a missed opportunity to diversify and expand on the miniatures. I had hoped when this was first announced that we might see the gender variant sculpts from the HasLab campaign, or at least four totally new sculpts and cards of the same character types. I keep my fingers crossed that eventually Avalon Hill will do a box of just alternate hero and monster sculpts for home brewers who want to create their own characters.
My guess is that really leaves "Advanced Quest" or a re-boxing of the base game with HasLab exclusives as the only real opportunities for those to be included in retail.
Wizards of Morcar is coming this year, and that would be a chance to get an alt-gender wizard (I think we will never get the Mythic sculpts, but new versions). Crypt of Perpetual Darkness is also coming this year, and that seems like a contender for the alt sculpts, as otherwise it will only contain a dragon.
Im loving the non-standard quest setups. The stairs in a hallway, entering the dungeon through a door, the open door portals...this is fantastic.
I hadn't even gotten to quest 6 yet when I commented this, but what a fantastic opening. A clash between the bad guy factions before you even make the scene.
It has some really fun stuff in there.
I think that (if you have all the expansions) a good idea is to start with “heroquest” (original campaign) and “first light” at the same time with the same group of players and eight characters to choose from, creating an A team and a B team. The player who plays Zargon, Morcar... “Zarcar” has to study the order in which to intersperse the different missions so that they have a narrative coherence. Once “Heroquest” and “First Light” have been finished the rest of the expansions can continue to be played with the two teams fulfilling quests separately (with a certain level of cooperation between teams at the discretion of “Zarcar”).
I mentioned elsewhere in the comments that I think I would probably handle it by starting with the original core campaign, dropping the entire First Light campaign in just before the heroes wake the Witch Lord, and then going back to the original campaign to fight the Witch Lord and set up Kellar's Keep and Return of the Witch Lord. I would do it all with the same team, adjusting treasure and difficulty as necessary.
This past summer I brought over the core set to play with my brother and his family. We played through the first two missions up to the rescue of Sir Ragnar. My brother didn't like that there were so many pieces to manage (probably because of his kids). However, this might be the solution I have been searching for in my ever continuing scheme to get his family hooked on HeroQuest!
Perhaps, but bear in mind, the number of pieces hasn't been reduced in First Light - they have just replaced all the plastic miniatures with standees and furniture tokens. Fingers crossed for you though!
Thank you for this deep dive on this! It looks so exciting that I can't wait to play this!
It's always exciting when Stephen Baker gets behind the DM screen to create a new campaign, and this is a good one.
This almost feels as if this new set is going to have its own series of expansions.
We may yet see a proper story with Sir Ragnar, but the next expansions are supposed to be Crypt of Perpetual Darkness and Wizards of Morcar so I don't see this plot being revisited for a while.
I could see at least an expansion without clashing materials. An expansion could include a couple of newer roles, two (or even three) boss minis (perhaps one of them is sir Ragnard ?), a few modular tiles. Treasure cards, relics, tokens, monster cards, and such, the new quests. The usual set of dice. Since it's somewhat lacking on minis it could be sold for cheaper.
Yelp, this being a more portable heroquest was already good enough for me. But now I'm sure I will get this set as an intro to the world of Heroquest.
Lots of good stuff in this box - quest and components.
These quests seem really fun, simple but has little gameplay twists to make it feel more narrative. I may include them in my classic HQ.
Yeah, some nice ideas in this one.
Thank you! I can also apply this new rule regarding the use of fireplace and cupboard to my original core set.
Absolutely. I'm surprised they didn't take the chance to introduce rules for all of the furniture types.
Hmmm.... interesting! I like the idea of two groups of heroes (if they were a bit more distinct). The greatest advantage being one group can handle the Witch Lord, while the other goes to Kellars' Keep.
If the OG group takes the Witchlord (which makes sense, as they would be [SPOILER BLOCK]. But this quest pack needed to have more to do with the army if that's the case, so group B feel like they have to be the ones to rescue the king!
Still, a good go at it. I would have liked to see more unique Artifacts rather than just repeats of the originals. I find it hilarious to think of two nearly identical groups of heroes meeting up both wearing nearly identical equipment. 😅
Have you ever seen the film Sean of the Dead? There is a moment in that film where the protagonists bump into an identical group of survivors. I imagine it would be very much like that!
My group is starting Frozen Horror next month. If only us Zargons had a deep dove like this for thta quest pack 🤔
Funny you should mention that...
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Haha! GREAT TIMING!
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring OMG are you making one??
Frozen Horror is the next deep dive, and should be on the channel in February. I have nearly got through them all now!
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoringdon’t forget MotM and RotDM.
Wow, I was not expecting the Ragnar character to be built up like this. The placement of these quests is sort of weird but since our family was going to do MotM next, followed by RotDM, we might slip this before MotM, just so we can see a more natural progression of his downfall.
With a bit of tweaking I think First Light can be slotted into a longer story in a few different places.
I have pre-ordered this despite initial misgivings, but as my group is very well-established at this point, I am going to have to improvise a lot of the story. Since there are several quests in Jungles of Delthrak that you don't normally play, and my group wants to play those once they conclude their main chosen story, I was probably going to invent some time travel magic shenanigans to handwave it. Might have to do the same for this and throw in more monsters to make it a challenge for them. Will very likely make Ragnar feature more, since my party would be aware of his betrayal already, but won't be able to intervene until he shows his true colours in order to preserve the timeline. I might theme it as a Quantum Leap style story, where present Mentor tells of Quindrak's rise to power because another party never returned, so he shunts my current party into the new party to change the outcome or something.
That or just ignore all of the stuff about it being concurrent and replace Ragnar's stuff so it doesn't conflict.
Yes, if you are playing with an existing group, some narrative twists will probably be necessary. It's a fun quest, though, so I think it's worth it.
Regarding the “looseness” of the story, in Discord former Avalon hill staff Chris Nadeau (Encarmine) explained that loose threads were intentional. He wrote: “Heroquest is a "sandbox", intentionally so. To fill every narrative gap is to stifle the creativity of players, and thus destroy the very essence of the brand. It is a vanilla story merely intended to provide the base platform for players to express themselves and customize their experience to the desired tone they seek in their game play.”
There's been a lot of water under the bridge since that comment. We are in a world where Jungles of Delthrak, Prophecy of Telor, and Rise of the Dread Moon exist, so I think a drive for satisfying narrative is more the intent these days. However, First Light has almost all of the quest introductions setting up a conflict between two major characters that doesn't go anywhere. Which just feels unsatisfying. For new players it doesn't really mean anything; for existing players it feel like we still didn't get the promised Ragnar story we thought we were getting with Dread Moon.
Thanks for the review.
I will pick up for the board to use with my original set.
Thanks for watching.
Mentor running a new team of heroes? I love that idea! I had been running thru the expansions with different groups of heroes mixed with 1 or 2 “veteran” heroes. It was already part of my head cannon. It made sense to me. Zargon’s forces are everywhere. Mentor should run multiple teams to counter their presence. Makes the “far-voice” trait of Mentor, make more sense too.
Great video! Thank you!🙏
Running multiple groups of heroes makes sense, but this does feel weird to me as it's the same composition of heroes (and they even look the same as the original heroes). A different party of heroes, that don't look like clones would have seemed less weird (although admittedly, it's only going to seem weird for existing players, and not new players).
Awesome. Thanks ABNB. It seems like a good starter set.
I think so. Some really fun ideas.
Well, it does seem interesting but it also seems like it needed a few more design passes. Symbols on the maps with no explanation in the quest book, artifacts that don't have corresponding cards, and some obvious questions with no answers. I am looking forward to third parties making a neoprene variant of the new map though.
It has a few gappy spots, and some issues with some of the map icons, which is a bit of a shame, but I still think it's a solid quest with some really fun ideas.
I am looking forward to running this with a different group of players since I have been running the core game with my family. At some point in time I may try and mix people from the two groups.
That will be fun, having two different groups working on different parts of the story. I hope you enjoy it.
Seems that, with some rewrites, this would work well as a sequel to the original. A chance to grab any artefacts you missed the first time around, while experiencing something new. Either that or, you could run the Mythic Quests after this... so Prophecy of Telor, Spirit Queen's Torment etc.
My possible suggestion is elsewhere in the comments, but I feel it sort of slots into the middle of the original campaign, so you would complete this campaign just before going to wake up the Witch Lord.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Huh, yeah that would work. Hmm when I pick this up I might do a fan rewrite of the Quests, put together a "Zargon Guide" that jiggles everything into a cohesive story.
Great Deep Dive!
Thank you.
I love HeroQuest so much I keep buying stuff for it even though I rarely get to play, the most difficult quest is finding people to play it with!😅
Maybe the smaller box will look less intimidating to newbies. I might even lie and tell people it's a 'simplified edition'. 😈
Once people start playing, they usually realise how straightforward and easy to play the game is. It's convincing them to take that first step!
Feb 9th for me. Waiting like a child at Christmas 😂
There's a lot of great stuff in there, I hope you have a lot of fun with it.
At 55 years young have played core and started 2nd expansion. All UK/ European 2021+.
Light version to arrive soon
Barbarian completed his quests, wolf died.
Elf yet to do his for spells.
Have all released sets (general public, not mythical).
Have all heros (monks arrived last week). Already painted, not quested yet!
Desperate to get players all the way through to jungle, but after a few expansion orks we have moved to axian bundle as app slowed down game and "fun" factor for my lady.
Axian seems to make it more fun for players.
Would love to show you my poor painting skills of heros, furniture and monsters so far. Still much to do.
Estimate quest competition and "speed"painting by 2027. We play most fridays😂
It's a multiverse!
I hope not!
Ragnar was a huge missed opportunity! 😢
I really would have loved to see Ragnar being more of a villain for the heroes to fight with. I like the idea of the heroes facing off with a rival group of enemy "heroes" with Ragnar at the helm.
Let's wait for the First Light sequel Baker hinted he was working on ;)@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring
Ball feels like it's been dropped twice at this point. If he ties it all together, that would be nice, but I won't hold my breath about a truly satisfying Ragnar storyline until I see it happen. (Which is not to say I don't think he can do it, just that twice now I have been fooled into thinking Ragnar was going to get a rewarding storyline, and twice it hasn't worked out, so now I will just wait and see.)
looking forward to this 👍👍👍
I hope you enjoy it. I had to cut it down a bit - I probably could have talked about this quest for an hour, there is so much going on!
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoringRelease an extended version LOL
So if I buy first light can I run the core games quest line through the app just using first light components/heroes? Essentially making the quest content doubled with first light.
Yes. With the First Light core set you can run the original core campaign. The only reason to invest in the other core set would be to upgrade the cardboard standees and tokens with miniatures.
Going on the buy list! I’ve got plenty of unpainted minis waiting already!
Is it just me or does Avalon hill not know how to properly set the Staircase in Quests? They are positioned so the top step runs into a wall. Every one of them (nearly) I see in the questbook needs to be flipped to the top step leads into the room.
The top of the steps would be "outside" so the top step should run into a wall. The heroes are usually going down into the dungeons, not up.
The top of the step is the same floor they’re on. It does lead down but the placement again makes no sense going into the wall. Quest 8 has it right and so does the exit of Quest 1 but that’s it.
@nexusfxcc The top stair being the floor they are on rarely makes sense, as the stair tile usually marks the entry point, so the heroes would normally be coming down from the floor above. Due to the shadowing on the tile art, the "full" step would be the top and would therefore not be on the level the heroes are on unless it was a stairway going further down. If anything, quest 8 has it wrong as it suggests the dread warriors are coming from underneath rather than from above. I think it's more a problem with the art than the placement.
In original quests, the stairs were often positioned so that both "step" sides of the tile were touching spaces rather than walls. There is a "straight" stair on the reverse of the tile that they should probably use when the stair is in a narrow space like a corridor.
I’m with ABNB in this one. The heroes are descending into the dungeon, not climbing up to a second floor.
From your review, how hard do you think it would be to rework this quest book and the core quest book to essentially combine them so it's the same group of heroes?
Fairly easy, I would say.
Spoilers...
Start with the original core campaign. Rescue Ragnar, kill Ulag, and probably play up to where the "plot" starts to seriously kick in. Make sure you switch to First Light. Play that to completion, then spin it that Kessandria retreated in order to find a way to raise the Witch Lord. Switch back to the core campaign to play through the awakening and first defeat of the Witch Lord. You will most likely have to adjust difficulty, tweak a few plot points here and there, but that would be the general approach to it.
@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring thanks! That's basically what I plan on doing, but also integrating the Fall of Sir Ragnar fan made quests as well.
Hopefully someone will create some fan quest for Ragnar
I believe there are Ragnar fan quests, but they are from a long time ago before Avalon Hill relaunched the game, so they aren't going to quite fit with what we have now.
Well, that settles it: This is going on the to-buy list. 👍
I think there's a lot of value there for new and existing players. It's a good set.
"Synchro form" sounds like something from a certain other game, also known for its dragons and traps...
I can't think what it sounds like.
The card game, Yu-gi-oh, has a mechanic called Synchro Summon, and also distinctive "Trap cards" as well as many known dragon-type monsters.
Anyway, the word "synchro" doesn't quite sound like high fantasy lingo and sticks out compared to the generally more classical Heroquest vocabulary. Some of the newer expansions have also begun to introduce more modern ("millennial") touches - such as expressions "You know you can do this" or "That crunching noise did *not* sound good".
Just a comment to say First Light is primarily marketed at new players who want a cheaper entry point into HQ, so your remarks on the heroes having duplicate artifacts are kind of strange. If you want to run one group through FL and the Core set, alternating back and forth between quests, that to me, seems like a homebrew usage and so of course you'd need to manage dupes. I could opt to run my group through New Beginnings 4 times so everyone gets free bracers but it'd be weird to complain about there being dupes of the Ring of Fortitude :)
Seriously though, I think other commentors are right, there should be a team A and B, going through their respective starting point, and some enterprising fans will likely devise a "recommended" path through select expansions (with A taking on some and B taking on others). I know Hasbro specifically said they don't plan to release any expansions that require First Light's alternate board, but I hope they DO make an expansion at some point that uses it. It's a great board! They could even sell the board separately if someone doesn't want to buy FL for some reason.
There is specifically a bit in the rules book for returning players who already have the core set to talk about what is different. It would have been a good place to clarify a few things like duplicate items, as it is specifically addressing existing players. Also, the quest is available in the app for anyone to play. So, I don't see anything strange in my comments.
Do bear in mind, this video is my deep dive, aimed more at existing players, which is a different thing to the review I have already published.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Ok, so there are existing/returning PLAYERS (owners of the core set, etc) and then there are existing/returning HEROES (in-game characters that have survived the core game). I personally think the distinction is obvious, that First Light is NOT intended for returning HEROES, but definitely allows for returning PLAYERS.
I guess the storyline kind of makes sense for returning heroes as the quests mention events in the core game (Ragnar's rescue, the Witch King's return) but not when. However that falls apart at the end of both FL and Core because both specifically layout the same details (King needs help, Witch King is still an issue). It wouldn't really make any sense for a group to beat Core and then FL and be told the same thing. Even less sense if the heroes have already played through KK and RotWL prior to FL.
Anyway, just saying, play with new heroes and everything will work out perfectly! :)
I really need some kind of "in-universe" explanation within the narrative for how these four heroes look identical to the main game's four heroes and yet aren't. Such a weird choice. Granted, I'm down for as many variant sculpts of existing character types as possible, but it does seem... illogical. Even the barbarian has the same scars.
The miniatures are definitely representing the same characters. As you noted the barbarian has the same scars, and the dwarf has the same hair and clothes. The elf has the same cloak and sword. Really only the wizard looks different, but I think he just grew his beard out.
My thinking is they wanted a new quest with new heroes, but wanted to honour the original lineup, so they decided to make sculpts that could be used as alternative poses for existing heroes for long-standing players. I would have preferred brand new designs, though.
Same. It feels like a missed opportunity to diversify and expand on the miniatures. I had hoped when this was first announced that we might see the gender variant sculpts from the HasLab campaign, or at least four totally new sculpts and cards of the same character types. I keep my fingers crossed that eventually Avalon Hill will do a box of just alternate hero and monster sculpts for home brewers who want to create their own characters.
I also thought we would be getting the alt-gender figures when this was first announced. It seemed like a good opportunity to do it.
My guess is that really leaves "Advanced Quest" or a re-boxing of the base game with HasLab exclusives as the only real opportunities for those to be included in retail.
Wizards of Morcar is coming this year, and that would be a chance to get an alt-gender wizard (I think we will never get the Mythic sculpts, but new versions). Crypt of Perpetual Darkness is also coming this year, and that seems like a contender for the alt sculpts, as otherwise it will only contain a dragon.
I ordered it :D
I hope you have a lot of fun with it.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring thank you man thanks for your video. Now I just need people to play with haha. Ill try with my girlfriend.
So who gets to be lord of the ring of return of the king?