This Labor Day weekend I introduce my son and a couple of his friends to a classic Milton Bradley fantasy adventure game called
HeroQuest. Similar to the currently popular
Descent game,
HeroQuest focuses on the dungeon-delving adventures of a group of heroes. One player runs the game, revealing areas of the dungeon as the heroes move throughout the labyrinth.
HeroQuest is played on a rectangular board which has rooms pre-arranged, but the doorways and various paths to and from each room are mapped out in a book that only the dungeon master reads. My experience with
D&D has made me think of this game as more of a co-operative game with the dungeon master providing an adventure rather than strictly pounding their every weakness. That doesn't mean, though, that I'm just making it easy for them to complete the quests.
So far, the boys have gotten through the first 4 quests. Of those, once they got through the entire level without losing any heroes, but every other level they lost at least 2 members of their party. My son's Elf character is the only one who has survived all 4 levels. I've been trying to give the boys pointers on occasion, and they are getting better, but most of the deaths could have been avoided if they had worked together more. One of the biggest mistakes that they made originally was spreading out too much and opening up too much of the dungeon at the same time. Even by the end of the 4th quest they were still making similar mistakes, such as opening up a new room after they had spent their actions for the turn.
I've been enjoying running the game, and the boys also seem to be enjoying the adventures. Not necessarily enough to want to pass up some time to have a Nerf war, but I guess you can't expect kids that age to sit at the table for that much in one day. I only wish that I had more of the expansions to bring more options into the game. For one thing, the armory has next to nothing for the Wizard. I think I'll allow the lighter weapons to be used anyway... if they can ever earn the Wizard enough money to buy something good.
