#83 MB – HERO QUEST + EXPANSION SETS (1989)

Hero Quest was at the time the most complex board game ever. Profiting from the fashion of the role-playing games (many of which are set in this ancient age of Warriors, Dwarfs, Elfs and Wizards), MB launched a game together with Games Workshop (a figure manufacturer, worldwide famous for series like Warhammer 2000), which was partially inspired on those.

The four heroes...

...and their abilities.
Also in this pic, the block to keep control of the events happening during the game.

Each player takes the identity of one character, and controls him the whole time, fighting evil creatures and looking for secret doors and corridors. All 4 characters were different in strength and intelligence, and had specific abilities. 

There is a story behind each adventure, which is narrated by the Gamemaster, who, at the same time, controls the evil forces and sets the dungeons as the heroes go by.

Adventure and rule books, plus master edition's adventure number 13 "The Black Guard" (keep reading)

The difference to real role-playing games, is that the action is limited to the board, and not to your imagination, and the second difference is that your characters have simple and fixed values that you cannot change, so you cannot “design” your character.

I remember when it came out in Spain, and the commercial shown on tv, which was amazing. At the time, it was mandatory that toy commercials showed a label indicating if the toy was over 5.000 or over 10.000 pesetar (30 or 60 Euros), and this toy was over 5.000 pesetas, that in 1990 was extremely expensive! (game was edited in Spain one year later).

Nowadays, it’s even more expensive: collectors and players worldwide search the old games to play again with their children, or people who sold their games want to recover it, because it is so much fun. It has become a boardgame classic, and since there seems to be problems with the copyright of the name “HeroQuest”, it doesn’t seem probable that the game will be released again.

These are the monsters included on the basis game, plus the cards for the gamemaster to control them.

A complete set of cards in included in the box, to make the game more exciting. Otherwise it would just be a dice game. The cards above are magic spells, the other ones are Book, Armour and Treasure cards. Gold is used to buy equipment; sometimes heroes find gold or weapons in the rooms they are exploring.

There was a second version released with 12 extra miniatures and 1 new adventure (huge one!) named “Master Edition” or “Advanced Quest”. In these pictures you can see the cover and the additional figures.

Master Edition Box: So amazing looks the game

These are the extra-figures in the "Advanced Quest Version", there are 12 of them, with interchangeable weapons. I photographed four of them, each one with a different weapon, plus a 5th one unarmed.

And these are their abilities.

This is the 13th adventure, only for experts!

After the great success of the basis game, numerous expansions were released. I own two of them:

-“Return of the Witch Lord", a expansion that doesn't include any new figure, but 8 skeletons, 4 zombies and 4 mummys, apart from a few tiles and some new features, like the twisting room.

Contents of the expansion: "Return of the Witch Lord"

Back cover illustration of the adventure book included in the expansion "Return of the Witch Lord"

-“Against the Ogre Horde” includes 7 new figures, and new playing possibilities, since the Ogres can be enemies, or can be hired as unpredictable mercenaries. It was only released in Europe, what makes it a complete rarity, and also very expensive.

Contents of the expansion: "Against the Ogre Horde"

Close-up of the 4 different types of ogres included in the expansion

These expansions, and all the other that I do not own, are extremely valued by collectors, who pay over 100 Euros for each of those packs (some are so rare, that can go up to 200 or 300 Euros). Maybe it’s because of the miniatures, that were made exclusively for the game, or maybe it’s just they are really scarce.

If you want to read more about Morcars Magicians, click here.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: HERO QUEST, HERO QUEST ADVANCED QUEST, RETURN OF THE WITCH LORD, AGAINST THE OGRE HORDE
• Year: 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993
• Company: Milton Bradley (MB) (U.S.A.)
• Size: approx. 51 x 32 cm or 20 x 12,50 inches (basis game box)