You can keep your D20's, I like to roll a D12.
It all started with a trip to a friends house. He had excitingly promised me a look at his "Space Orks." My first sight of some GW models, I immediately knew this was for me, I also realised he had done a terrible job of sticking them together and I definitely knew I could do a better job.
Not having access to a local hobby store, living in a market town in the eighties, my trip into town to look for something similar only presented me with something called Advanced Heroquest. I had previously dabbled with Gibson Games' Sorcerers Cave with my siblings so was familiar with the dungeon delving trope. I had a crisp £20 note from working one day at the local agricultural show, (I am sounding so English right now.) so I made what I can confidently say one of the best value transactions I have made in my life.
It all started with a trip to a friends house. He had excitingly promised me a look at his "Space Orks." My first sight of some GW models, I immediately knew this was for me, I also realised he had done a terrible job of sticking them together and I definitely knew I could do a better job.
Not having access to a local hobby store, living in a market town in the eighties, my trip into town to look for something similar only presented me with something called Advanced Heroquest. I had previously dabbled with Gibson Games' Sorcerers Cave with my siblings so was familiar with the dungeon delving trope. I had a crisp £20 note from working one day at the local agricultural show, (I am sounding so English right now.) so I made what I can confidently say one of the best value transactions I have made in my life.
This dungeon exploring system took over my summers with two of my friends for a good couple of years. Yes the only monsters it came with were 20 identical Shaven warriors. (Ratmen to the un-initiated.) but that didn't stop us. We used cardboard standees for extra monsters, (a pair of scissors, cereal card and some copies of White Dwarf magazine came in handy.) I even managed to find a couple of Ral Partha metal goblins at my local Beatties store.
This was also the beginning of my Love of "house rules" although I didn't call them that then. We wrote our own magic items and spells, created stats for extra monsters and even came up with a sci fi version including beefing up our characters stats with "Bionics".
I still love Advanced Heroquest. I have recently played it again with a new group, with a proper mix of monsters this time from my now extensive collection. We even tried a new sci fi version I have rewritten. The system is a bit clunkier than I remembered, (spellcasters suffer from sitting on their hands until the "big boss" to save spell components. Doorways can become bottle necks.) but it still holds up. I have added to my dungeon tiles with Terraclips and now our heroes can kill Skaven on multiple levels. When my boys are older I hope to fish it out again and take them on a dungeon exploration of their own.
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