The HeroQuest game system has been around for over 30 years. It was relaunched a few years ago to great success and popularity as a new generation is joining with those who played it before. The core game included four classic heroes: a barbarian, a dwarf, an elf, and a wizard. In fact, HeroQuest is a GeekDad Approved tabletop game. In the recently released quest pack, Rise of the Dread Moon, a new hero was introduced: the Knight. Now players can add two new heroes to their collection with the HeroQuest Hero Collection: the Rogue Heir of Elethorn and the Wandering Monk.
What Is the HeroQuest Hero Collection?
Heroquest is a light role-playing adventure game for 2-5 players, ages 14 and up, and takes about 90-120 minutes to play. One player takes on the role of Zargon, the evil sorcerer and controller of the game. The other players assume the roles of the heroes. The hero players must explore a dungeon defeat monsters controlled by Zargon and complete the current quest. The HeroQuest Hero Collection includes two new types of heroes available separately. These heroes can be substituted into a party of four heroes to go on any of the quests found in the core game or the quest packs. Each hero type adds new ways to play with their own special abilities and skills. The HeroQuest core game is required for play. Both heroes are available at your FLGS as well as through online retailers such as Amazon. The Rogue Heir is available for $11.99 while the Wandering Monk has a suggested retail price of $14.99.
HeroQuest was designed by Stephen Baker and published by Avalon Hill and Hasbro, with illustrations by Gary Chalk, Nikki Dawes, Max Dunbar, and Les Edwards.
The Rogue Heir of Elethorn
This hero pack comes with both male and female sculpts of the Rogue Heir. In fact, there is a hero card for each gender as well as a set of five cards for each as well. The Rogue starts off with a dagger which only has 1 attack dice. The Rogue comes with three Rogue skill cards. These can be used multiple times during a quest and are not discarded when used.
Ambidextrous allows the Rogue to make one additional attack with a dagger when they first attack with either a dagger or short sword. Opportunistic Striker lets the Rogue throw an extra combat die when attacking a monster next to another hero. Finally, Combat Mobility lets the Rogue move unseen through spaces occupied by monsters. What is nice is that the artwork on the skills cards shows either the male or female Rogue, so the player can choose to use the one that resembles the gender they are playing.
The set also comes with two different types of equipment cards. Dagger is an extra weapon that can be used up close or thrown. If thrown, the weapon is discarded. However, the Bandolier acts not only as a tool kit for disarming traps but also lets the hero always have a dagger on them. It can only be used by the Rogue and lets the hero throw daggers during the quest without running out. While the Rogue can get in some quick hits, they cannot wear metal armor or carry shields. Therefore, let other heroes lead the way and take the damage.
The Wandering Monk
When you first open the box to this hero pack, you are treated to a visual wonder. The figures are displayed as if on a stage with a background. Below the stage is a compartment with a scroll. So right from the start, this set looks great. Like the Rogue, the Wander Monk comes with two different sculpts, male and female, as well as matching hero cards.
The Monk can only wield daggers, crossbows, handaxes, short swords, and staffs and can refuse to use armor or shields. Their initial attack dice is 1, but when they attack unarmed, they attack with 2 dice. So while you may want to give them weapons, they function best without any.
Rather than use a lot of weapons, the Monk relies on the four elemental styles of martial arts: air, earth, water, and fire. There are four elemental style cards included in the pack. Each is double-sided. The hero can use the ability on one of the sides and then exhaust the card—but does not discard it. The air card allows the Monk to either automatically succeed when jumping over a trap or make one unarmed attack against all adjacent enemies. The earth style card lets the Monk search for secret doors and traps as one action or roll two additional attack dice with an unarmed attack. The water style card offers the choice of splitting your movement up before and after your action or canceling any damage the monk takes. The style card can only be used once the other three elemental cards have been exhausted. This lets the Monk either expel a beam of energy that moves in a straight or diagonal path until it meets a wall or closed door and inflicts 2 damage on all enemies in its path or the monk can inflict 1 point of damage to an adjacent enemy and then that enemy takes two more damage at the end of its next turn. What is great about these elemental style cards is that if the Monk has no monsters in their line of sight at the start of their turn, they can recover all exhausted cards.
Why You Should Get the HeroQuest Hero Collection
Many players have wanted more heroes for HeroQuest. When the game was relaunched through crowdfunding, some pledge tiers offered additional heroes. However, until recently, they have not been available to purchase in retail. I like how these new heroes have skills that allow them to specialize and bring new tactics to the party during quests. Two of the newer quest packs, The Mage of the Mirror and Rise of the Dread Moon, both take place in the kingdom of Elethorn. Therefore, taking the Rogue Heir along for those quests is a great way to thematically include this new hero.
While the Monk seems to have a lot of limitations in the weapons and armor they can use, they more than makeup for it with their elemental style cards. Unlike the spells used by the Elf and the Wizard, these cards are not only good for one use per quest. They can be recovered over and over during the course of a quest. I also like that you have to exhaust all of the other three elements in order to use the powerful fire style.
I have really enjoyed adding both the Rogue Heir and the Wandering Monk to my questing party. In fact, since I did not get review copies of these hero packs, I purchased them myself and am glad that I did. The Rogue requires some caution to avoid taking a lot of damage, especially from more powerful monsters. The Monk, on the other hand, has an additional defend dice and one more body point, so they can go in and inflict damage without worrying too much about taking it. If you are a fan of HeroQuest, then I highly recommend adding both the Rogue Heir and the Wandering Monk to your collection. These heroes along with the expansion quest packs all keep taking HeroQuest to new levels of adventure and excitement.
Here is a trailer for the Rogue Heir of Elethorn.
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