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One of the members from our gaming group bought a complete second hand copy of Hero Quest, we played it and whilst it was certainly nostalgic, I've got to say it wasn't as good as I remembered.
A new Hero Quest would have to have quite the update to stand up to todays games.

What would you think needed to be changed? (Ive never played heroquest, but am super curious about it.)

Carlovonsexron wrote:
What would you think needed to be changed? (Ive never played heroquest, but am super curious about it.)

Rolling for movement for one thing. Other than that, I seem to remember it being a good game - though the mission where you lost all gear (including any advanced loot) sucked arse - and came just when you were starting to get the hang of the game.

I stopped playing HQ when the player equipped everyone with spears, which allowed diagonal attacks. Monsters never had them, so the players would do the "attack at the door" tactic, which became irritatingly repetitive.

Would have been nice if you could start at any quest, but the quests within a campaign assumed you completed the previous ones (loot).

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
Hmm, what about the valid (at least in Spain) ownership by the as yet to deliver KS company?

Probably not a problem:


- If Restoration get the proper licenses to adapt the old HeroQuest game, there's nothing Game Zone can do about it, even if Restoration didn't have the US trademark.

If the use of the title by the property in publication pre-dates the trademark application, then the original brand can continue to use it without issue from the trademark owner. Trademark laws don't let you own something that someone else already published, and they don't prevent that person from using their brand in the future.

Especially since Gamezone are doing exactly what trademarks are meant to prevent (brand confusion as sales strategy). If Gamezone actually took Restoration to court, it would be a cut and dry issue in favor of Restoration (all they'd have to do is show that HeroQuest was first published before Gamezone's trademark).

Restoration would also benefit from the fact that Gamezone has published nothing physical with the HeroQuest title.


- Oddly, if Restoration have come to an agreement with the owners of the US based RPG called Hero Quest, they would still benefit from the usage pre-dating Gamezone's, just like if they got the proper rights to the original.


- If Restoration Games is pulling the same crap that Gamezone did (which I seriously doubt) well, it won't look good for either of them. But the only thing the Spanish trademark can do is prevent distribution in Spain. There's a small possibility that they'll be able to prevent the Kickstarter from delivering to Spain (or to change the title on Spanish versions of the game). This is a compromise that Gamezone was unwilling to make when they were running their Kickstarter (if they had simply changed the name for US copies of the game, they'd probably have been fine).



- Lastly, there's a possibility that Gamezone will try to shut down Restoration's Kickstarter by appealing to Kcikstarter. I know that Kickstarter usually takes time to investigate those kinds of claims, and I think they'd quickly favor the guys who have a US trademark over the guys whose Kickstarter they shut down for IP violation.

Restoration Games seems to be a serious outfit so I don't see much behind the wringing of hands over trademark issues. MB seems to be amenable to working with them, and GW doesn't mind licensing things now, and most everybody likes free money. Though I wonder what the actual agreement between MB and GW was, hard to believe it wasn't rather one sided for the much larger MB.

The only thing that might be hard with GW is, if I'm not mistaken, they have a policy that licensed games can't come with miniatures.

 Monkeysloth wrote:
The only thing that might be hard with GW is, if I'm not mistaken, they have a policy that licensed games can't come with miniatures.

I think it's more they can't come with minis that might be used in a GW game. Relic (the 40k talisman game) came with busts and the Horus Heresy (siege of terra) game had playing pieces.

 Monkeysloth wrote:
The only thing that might be hard with GW is, if I'm not mistaken, they have a policy that licensed games can't come with miniatures.

I now remember that as well. Mebbe with Warhammer Fantasy replaced with Age of Sigmar, the generic fantasy miniatures for HQL would be less of an issue. I do see Chaos Warriors and the infamous Fimir in the AoS wiki, but not goblins. Forgeworld and the GW US store don't sell fimir. The GW US store sells goblins and Chaos Warriors. Forgeworld sells goblins, but not Chaos Warriors. Pretty obviously, while busts and pawns are fine in FFG boardgames, HQL will need miniatures.

Let's see... We don't know if HQL will have GW-sculpts or entirely different sculpts in the game. Mebbe only the hardcore miniature gamers will notice if the miniatures are changed. Or GW may require HQL to have a different miniature scale (brrr).

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

 Monkeysloth wrote:
The only thing that might be hard with GW is, if I'm not mistaken, they have a policy that licensed games can't come with miniatures.

I think it's more they can't come with minis that might be used in a GW game. Relic (the 40k talisman game) came with busts and the Horus Heresy (siege of terra) game had playing pieces.

I should have added 28-32mm in front but it's still accurate as the only think that had what you'd consider a miniature would have been Chaos in the old world which i think are 15mm pieces. I don't consider busts a mini in the general vernacular of the hobby.


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 ced1106 wrote:

 Monkeysloth wrote:
The only thing that might be hard with GW is, if I'm not mistaken, they have a policy that licensed games can't come with miniatures.

I now remember that as well. Mebbe with Warhammer Fantasy replaced with Age of Sigmar, the generic fantasy miniatures for HQL would be less of an issue. I do see Chaos Warriors and the infamous Fimir in the AoS wiki, but not goblins. Forgeworld and the GW US store don't sell fimir. The GW US store sells goblins and Chaos Warriors. Forgeworld sells goblins, but not Chaos Warriors. Pretty obviously, while busts and pawns are fine in FFG boardgames, HQL will need miniatures.

Let's see... We don't know if HQL will have GW-sculpts or entirely different sculpts in the game. Mebbe only the hardcore miniature gamers will notice if the miniatures are changed. Or GW may require HQL to have a different miniature scale (brrr).

GW knows there's money to be made here. Enforce cardboard standees for the game then sell the Heroquests minis themselves.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

deano2099 wrote:
The entire MO of Restoration Games is taking old games we remember from our youths, updating them enough that they're playable today, and keeping as much of the original feel of the games as possible. If they do Hero Quest, they'll absolutely have all the licenses in place to make it like the original. They'll also probably focus on that, not Advanced Hero Quest, which while the better game, wasn't the game most people played.

But that means getting rights from MB and GW for a game that while dead is not forgotten. It's a bigger ask then half remembered games like Dark Fireball and Tower Island (or whatever they were called, I vaguely recall ads for them from 30+ years ago).

That being said, yeah, unlike the HQ25 effort they do seem to pay for trademarks and copyrights rather than try and snatch expired ones, which for the reasons I mentioned could be problematic.

Not saying it would be easy - just that it's what they do. Equally there's a good chance they're still working out the rights issues, hence nothing being actually announced. I would imagine if they can't sort out the rights issues, they'll just pass on the project, rather than do some sort of halfway-house approach.


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 parakuribo wrote:


GW mentioned the game in one of their articles about Blackstone Fortress. That means they still remember it, and their fans still remember it. The only real obstacle is Hasbro, who may only remember Magic the Gathering 5E(I know what I typed), and may only want people to remember it....

Not that it necessarily helps but one of the owners of Restoration Games worked at Hasbro as a game designer for a long time previously.

Don't think the minis would be a problem. Let's not forget that the FFG version of Talisman had fantasy minis as well.

I'd be curious to see what a reimagined Heroquest looks like, though I still have my original MB Heroquest and WarhammerQuest (and prefer playing the ipad version of the latter).

- What if you leave Games Workshop out of the new HeroQuest?

I mean, the new Talisman editions have basically abandoned the Games Workshop settings that they were originally set in for a generic fantasy setting (even though they're licensed from GW). But if GW owns the rights only to the setting parts of HeroQuest, why not make the game in a generic fantasy setting?


The downside, of course, is that you don't set the game in the old world, and cannot use any proprietary GW stuff like Skaven and Chaos Warriors. Though you could replace them with 'generic' Ratmen and Dark Knights. And I don't think it would be a betrayal to have new sets with new monsters.

The upside- you can make the game with minis (let's be honest, no one wants a HeroQuest with all standees).


I honestly was surprised that Hasbro didn't jump at making a new HeroQuest using one of their Dungeons and Dragons settings after Gamezone demonstrated that people would throw money at it without a second thought.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

 Monkeysloth wrote:
The only thing that might be hard with GW is, if I'm not mistaken, they have a policy that licensed games can't come with miniatures.

I think it's more they can't come with minis that might be used in a GW game. Relic (the 40k talisman game) came with busts and the Horus Heresy (siege of terra) game had playing pieces.

Those examples are all from the era of working with Fantasy Flight Games (who it seems were not willing to have a non-exclusive agreement with GW). But it looks like that policy still stands

We have seen gaming scale miniatures from third parties that are not really compatible with their tabletop games (like the 40k chibis and the Kingdom Hearts Talisman miniatures).


It is hard to say how that wouldn't be a major problem for a new HeroQuest game. Still, it isn't impossible for them to change the contract for Restoration.

Well, we've been down this path, here's honestly hoping it works out well for Restoration Games, but unless something changed, for us it resulted in a complete waste of money and time!

 Shieldwolf Miniatures wrote:
Well, we've been down this path, here's honestly hoping it works out well for Restoration Games, but unless something changed, for us it resulted in a complete waste of money and time!

I guess the first question is whether Restoration Games is itself enough of a change. They've done several Kickstarters like this, and they've been able to accomplish both having the proper rights, manufacturing AND delivering their games.

It is possible that Restoration doesn't have everything line up yet and that they're grabbing the trademark in anticipation of a deal that could still fall through. There isn't an official announcement yet, after all.