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The Alchemist's Bench: A Profile of Games Workshop's "Warhammer Quest"

History

Introduction

Warhammer Quest, released in 1995 and now out of print, was Games Workshop's most recent attempt at a dungeon-crawl boardgame. In the HeroQuest tradition, it contains lots of plastic figures and allows players to take on the roles of a Barbarian, Elf, Wizard and Dwarf (with official supplements containing other hero types available separately). Like Advanced HeroQuest, it replaces a standard gameboard with a collection of individual room and hall tiles that can be arranged to make many different floorplans. Like all GW fantasy games, it is set in the version of the Warhammer World that was current at the time of its publication.

WQ Components

Warhammer Quest's excellent "board" actually consists of twenty tiles (nine rooms and about eleven corridors), which can be fit together to create many different dungeon arrangements. The well-illustrated, sturdy WQ board system is worth considering as a permanent substitute for HeroQuest's board.

Warhammer Quest also arguably has the best plastic miniatures ever released with a fantasy boardgame. The miniatures were designed by the same studio that created HeroQuest's and therefore match the size and scale of HeroQuest's figures. They're ideal for expanding the variety of figures in a HeroQuest campaign.

The Board

WQ contains many board tiles that will be of interest to the HeroQuest player. All the board tiles are well made, of a very heavy cardboard. The artwork is beautifully done in a realistic style. The spaces are larger than the spaces on the HeroQuest board, so figures from both games fit without their bases crowding each other.

Warhammer Quest's plastic dungeon doors (all of which are two spaces wide) have horizontal slots built into the side edges of their bases. As tiles are added to the dungeon layout, they're slid into these slots to hold them securely. In other words, the doors' bases are what hold the board together -- the room tiles are perfect rectangles, without any jigsaw puzzle projections. The slots are sized so that they keep a light but secure grip on the tiles, but they don't rub hard enough to wear the images off of the tiles.

As you read the following descriptions, you may find it convenient to view the thumbnail likenesses at http://www.frii.com/~evil/wq/archive/thumbnails/

First, the box contains 11 passage (hallway) tiles. All passages in WQ are two squares wide, and come in different shapes and colors. There are 3 brown/orange passages that are six squares long, three gray passages that are six squares long, one gray stair tile that is six squares long, one green corner tile, four squares long in each direction, and three green 'T' passages that are six squares long in one direction and four squares in the other. While this GW's standard parts list for these components (and it is what we have found in our copies of the game), it is rumored that the exact numbers of some of the passage tiles varies from box to box.

There are also quite a few room tiles. There are four 4x4 rooms, one blue, one brown, one dark blue, and one green. All have various rocks, trash, bones, etc. to decorate them.

There are also five 4x8 rooms called "Objective Rooms." One of the unique things about these rooms is that they are drawn with various obstacles - stairs, swinging bridges, etc. In random quests, one of the Objective Rooms is used as the goal of the quest.

The Objective Rooms include:

1. The Fire Chasm - A crack in the floor reveals a burning inferno. The Heroes must cross over a swinging bridge.
2. The Fighting Pit - A lower level, the pit itself, can be entered by climbing down a dangling rope. The only exit from the pit is through a trap door.
3. The Fountain of Light - A tile with a fountain in the middle.
4. The Tomb Chamber - A tomb, very much reminiscent of the Tomb found in HQ, rests on a raised dais. Stairs ascend from the main level to the tomb.
5. The Idol Chamber - Steps on either side of a platform lead up to the idol.

(In reading the descriptions above, please note that the room tiles are nothing more than flat cardboard, even though some of them represent multi-level rooms. Some fantasy boardgames include 3-D scenery that allows figures to stand at different levels. Warhammer Quest leaves the differences in altitude up to the player's imagination.)

Warhammer Quest includes several kinds of overlay tiles that can be used to customize the room tiles further. The larger overlays are 2 spaces deep and 2 spaces wide. These are usually placed in response to events within the game. For example, if a passage caves in, a tile depicting a pile of rubble is placed in the affected area. One of the Wizard's spells creates the 'Pit Of Despair'. When this spell is cast, a 2 x 2 tile depicting a bottomless pit is placed on the board. A portcullis tile is placed upright in the plastic doorway if the door is closed.

As in HQ, there are 1 x 1 tiles to mark pits and trap doors. There are also "scenery markers," 1 x 1 overlays that depict treasure chests, barrels, weapons rack, skeletons, etc.

Warhammer Quest does not come with any plastic or cardboard furniture of the kind included with HeroQuest. Objects that might have been represented as 3-D props are instead depicted on the room tiles. In our opinion, a miniature standing over a picture of a throne doesn't look nearly as good as a miniature standing next to a three-dimensional throne prop. Of course, it is easy enough to borrow furniture from HeroQuest, and additional props can be purchased from various miniatures manufacturers.

The Figures

Warhammer Quest comes with 91 figures, as follows:

• 6 Orc Warriors
• 6 Orc Archers
• 12 Giant Rats
• 12 Giant Spiders
• 12 Giant Bats
• 6 Night Goblin Archers
• 6 Goblin Spearmen
• 12 Snotlings
• 3 Minotaurs
• 12 Skaven
• 4 Heroes: Barbarian, Dwarf, Wizard, Elf

All minis (plus the giant two-spaces-wide doors) are molded in one shade of gray plastic. When separating plastic figures from their sprues (the plastic "trees" they're molded on), it's wise to use a clipping tool or knife instead of just twisting and pulling. This is true of the original HeroQuest figures, but it's even more important when detaching Warhammer Quest figures.

Most of the figures rely on slotted bases to stand up. (The Minotaurs, Giant Animals and Snotlings are the exceptions. These have built-in bases of their own, like the ones on the minis that came with HeroQuest.) Since the "Slottabases" (as GW insists on calling them) are twice as thick as a built-in HQ figure base, there is a slight effect on the overall height of the new minis.

The WQ figure selection does mesh well with the original HQ figures the new monsters fit neatly into gaps in the original HQ line-up. WQ's Orc Warriors have shields, so they don't duplicate the "well armed but not defended" Orcs that come with HQ. WQ also adds Orcs and Goblins with ranged weapons, further rounding out your "greenskin" collection. Finally, Snotlings look like really tiny Goblins. Each carries a board with a spike through it but looks like he'd have a Defense Dice rating of zero.

As was true in HQ, creatures of a given type tend to be posed identically in WQ. The Skaven (Chaotic Ratmen) suffer from this problem, but they do come with an assortment of different shield designs. (The shields are molded separately and have to be glued on. This is the one instance in WQ when gluing is necessary.)

The Giant Spiders are the stars of the "giant creatures" set. All three "giant" animals -- spiders, rats and bats -- are roughly the size that a large dog would be in HQ scale. The Giant Bats are actually "Giant Bats on a Stick," sculpted in a flying pose atop a post. Presumably we're expected to paint the stick black or a neutral color and try to ignore it. This enabled the use of the flying pose, but it looks a little cheesy anyway.

The Minotaurs are rather impressive. They're a little taller than the HQ Gargoyle, armed with axes or clubs. Although each WQ set comes with three Minotaurs, the mix of axe-wielding vs. club-wielding Minotaurs appears to be randomized. You may open your set and find three with axes, three with clubs, or something in between.

All of the WQ figures are somewhat more detailed than the HQ figures, but the difference is most obvious on the hero figures. The WQ Barbarian is a work of art, in a good sword-swinging pose. The Wizard is good, too. He has a full beard and carries one of those typical GW battlemage staves. It should be noted that in WQ the Wizard may use swords, so the mini has a sword in his hand. The Dwarf is decent, certainly more animated than his HQ counterpart.

The WQ Elf, though, is a disappointment. He is wearing a hood (this hides his ears; it's hard to be sure he really is an Elf) and has some kind of heart motif all over him. He looks like a candygram for Valentine's Day. The HQ Elf is much better.

Finally, the dungeon doors deserve a detailed description of their own. Each door is 2 15/16 inches (7.5 cm) high and 2 15/16 inches (7.5 cm) wide at its highest and widest (the wings on the top - more on this below). The base is 2 3/4 by 1 3/8 inches (6.8 x 3.2 cm), and the actual opening is 1 5/8 inches wide by 2 1/4 inches high (4 x 5.2 cm).

The doors are molded in gray plastic the same color as the minis. Each door Has columns on each side of the doorway, with stone bricks beside them to simulate walls. The lintel is an arch, with a skull in the middle and wings on the ends.

Cosmetic detail differ on each side of the door. One side has a skull on the top of each column, a skull on each side of the arch, and the wings are bat-wings. The other side has a glaring human head on the top of each column with two skulls below the head. This side's archway has griffons above each column, with the wings on each side of the archway the griffon's wings.

Expansions

At the beginning of Warhammer Quest's life, it was strongly supported by Games Workshop. Two expansion packs were released; Lair of the Orc Lord and Catacombs of Terror. Lair of the Orc Lord was a "greenskin" quest, and Catacombs of Terror, an Undead quest. Both contained more board tiles, plus metal figures instead of plastic.

The other expansion that was released was three decks of extra treasure cards. These expanded on the treasure cards that came with the basic set. Later editions of Warhammer Quest included these decks with the basic game.

The Character Packs' Components

Besides the two expansions, GW released nine rather expensive character packs, each of which contained a figure, rulebook and other props specific to one new Hero. The character packs in the series were: Elf Ranger, Dwarf Trollslayer, Wardancer, Chaos Warrior, Pit Fighter, Witch Hunter, Warrior Priest, Bretonnian Knight, and Imperial Noble. The going price was $12 - $15, but the cost of these packs has risen in some locations due to scarcity.

From a HeroQuest viewpoint, the best thing about these sets is the miniature figure. These figures are well-designed and sculpted, they're pewter, and they're ideal for HeroQuest. The fact that they were intended specifically for use as Heroes in a dungeon game shows in their designs.

The rest of the Character Packs' components are not so useful. These consist of a cardboard hero card, a pog-like round cardboard disk with the hero's portrait on it, and a cardboard token depicting the hero's special artifact. All of these are sturdy and illustrated in full color, but their use for HeroQuest is questionable.

The final item in each Character Pack is a rulebook containing supplemental rules that are specific to the Hero. The special rules, or even just the Hero's basic concept, can be adapted into HeroQuest, but a little bit of work is involved. The supplemental heroes do all have interesting unique backgrounds that can expand the world of your HQ campaign and provide the basis for new quest ideas.

In the past year, Games Workshop has quietly released six of Warhammer Quest's Hero miniatures in individual blister packs at a price of $6.50(US) each. They are listed as "Warhammer Heroes" under Games Workshop Online's "New Releases" section. If you just want more figures for HeroQuest, these are a much better buy than the Character Packs. If you think you might want to play Warhammer Quest under its own rules, the additional components will be useful and it's probably worth tracking down the complete Character Packs.

WQ as a Game in its own right

Despite initial similarities to Advanced HeroQuest (the character line-up, the random dungeons, the tile-based board), the WQ rules contain numerous refinements on those of the previous game. One major improvement is a clever card-based system that guarantees that random dungeons lead somewhere (Advanced HeroQuest's random dungeons are generated by die rolls). Every WQ board section is represented by a corresponding card in the "Dungeon" deck. A random game consists of deciding which rooms will be in your dungeon layout, picking out their corresponding Dungeon cards, and shuffling the deck. Exploration consists of turning the Dungeon cards over one at a time and adding the appropriate room to the floor plan.

When the Dungeon deck is shuffled before the game, the card for the "Objective Room" (the one containing the goal of the quest) is manually placed near the bottom of the deck. This way, the players can be assured that their target is near the far end of the dungeon. If the Heroes come to a "T-junction" (i.e., a fork in the road), the remaining cards in the deck are divided into two piles, each of which is assigned to one of the forks. Now the players know that the quest objective still lies somewhere ahead, and their choice of paths matters (there really is a right path and a wrong one), even though the dungeon is still being created "randomly."

The main WQ game and its expansions each contain several kinds of objective room and hazard tiles (with matching dungeon cards). By varying the contents of the Dungeon deck, different kinds of dungeons can be simulated.

The card-based board-randomizing rules are complemented by card- and dice-based event rules. A great variety of possible events are determined through the use of dice, the results from which are looked up on tables. This scheme offers vast numbers of random weapons and artifacts for the Heroes to find. Additionally, Event cards are drawn at specific times, and detail something happening, good or bad, in the dungeon. Each monster has a certain amount of gold, but at times a special treasure card is drawn.

WQ does rise beyond a randomized boardgame by providing support for pre-designed dungeons that are presented by a gamemaster. These, unsurprisingly, are provided in the form of annotated quest maps. The main Warhammer Quest set contains a three level quest. (In HeroQuest terms, that's three quests.) The "Lair of the Orc Lord" expansion set has a 3 level quest and "Catacombs of Terror" offers a 5 level quest.

Random or scripted, Warhammer Quest is very much a dungeon crawl. Initially you learn play with a short introductory booklet, which pretty much covers the same topics as HQ's rulebook. The dice mechanic is different from HQ's -- it boils down to "roll one normal six-sided die and add the result to your character's attribute."

Once you are used to the introductory rules, you can expand into the ones found in the 192 pages of the Roleplay Book. This adds much more flavor to the game, allowing the players to 'roleplay' their characters... within the context of a series of dungeon crawls, and the pauses between them. The advanced Roleplay system is a streamlined (and d6-based) subset of the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay System.

While there are no Chaos Warrior minis included with Warhammer Quest, the Roleplay Book includes detailed rules support for every miniature GW was making around 1995, Chaos Warriors included. There is also a specific "Chaos Magic" spell list for Chaos Sorcerers. There are similar spell lists for Chaos Beastman Shamans and Dark Elves, and rather different ones for Chaos Dwarves, Goblins/Orcs and Skaven.

There is some attention given to life outside of dungeons. The system that tells you what the Heroes go through between quests takes the form of numerous tables of random events. If the heroes want to travel to a distant city in order to buy more exotic goods and weaponry, the players must roll on a table of "hazards". While in a settlement, they must role on a "settlement events" table. And so on.

The documentation encourages the GM to provide roleplaying opportunities within the scenarios. The scenes in which the party is given its missions or learns valuable clues in town are supposed to be acted out. The game system does provide for a fully detailed character, one that includes all of the non-combat stats that were introduced in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

Magic

Impressively sturdy spell cards, similar in design to the "Battle Magic" spell cards that came with Warhammer Fantasy Battle at the time WQ was published, are provided for the Wizard. Disappointingly, similar cards were not provided for other spellcasters, in the main WQ set or in either of its supplements. (The rules for these other magic systems are provided; it's just the cards that are missing.)

There are three types of spell cards - attack, defense, and healing. At the start of the game the cards are seperated into their types, and each stack is shuffled. The Wizard picks the top card of each stack as his spells for that game. The Wizard then rolls 1d6, and takes that many power tokens. The more power tokens the wizard has the greater his chance of a spell being successful. The Wizard may cast each spell as many times as he wants, assuming he has enough power - the spell card is not lost after it is cast.

At the start of each turn the Wizard rolls 1d6. This is the power that the wizard has for that turn. Each spell costs a certain amount of "power". Spells can be cast multiple number of times in a turn if the Wizard has enough power. Each spell token that the Wizard got at the start of the game may be used once to add 1 to his power number.

The Disks

Above, we mentioned that each Hero (in the main WQ set and in the Hero packs) comes with a round, pog-like portrait disk. These are used occasionally within the game for randomization. When a monster threatens two or more Heroes, the Heroes' disks can be tossed in a dice cup or turned face-down and "shell gamed" to see who the monster attacks.

Character Packs

WQ's Character Packs give useful insight into the good and bad results that can come from giving each Hero a detailed rules system of his or her own. A very simple version of this concept can be seen in HeroQuest's inclusion of weapons, spell sets, special skills and quests that can only be used by specific Heroes.

Warhammer Quest goes much further. Each Character Pack includes a booklet full of information about the Hero, ranging in length from 8 to 24 pages. Most of the Heroes come with unique artifacts (represented by cardboard tokens) and attack styles, and some have their own spell schools or skills.

Each Hero also has a complete personal history, explaining his personality and motivations for questing. (Unfortunately, all of the "he" and "his" references are accurate in this case -- no female Heroes were ever released for Warhammer Quest.)

Predictably, giving each Hero some unique rules serves to increase the overall complexity and balance of the game substantially, as the new Hero's rules must interact with the rules and stats of the monsters and other Heroes. Fans of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons may recognize a resemblance to the "Complete Fighter's Handbook" series that TSR published some years ago.

The advantage provided by providing specialized rules and a unique background for each Hero is that it gives the players a richer gaming experience. Each player can focus on the unique strategic aspects of his or her character's attack style. It also gave the player the chance to come up with a reason why his figure was risking his life - greed, revenge, seeking death, etc.

The extra detail also enriches the game as a whole. Adding the character packs allowed the players to get away from the 'standard 4' heroes that are included with every game of this type - Warrior/Barbarian, Elf, Wizard, Dwarf.

Future Support

There were quite a few articles in White Dwarf and the Citadel Journal magazines about WQ. For a complete list of both you can go to The Dungeon of Mugee. These included extra rules, combat/treasure cards, game boards, quests, spell cards, and characters (in a "figgur-n-rulz" deal; the magazine provided the basic rules, but the metal figure and role-playing rules could be obtained through mail order).

One White Dwarf article introduced Dark Secrets cards. These give the WQ Heroes a 'dark' reason for being in the dungeon. Instead of the standard Heroic reason, the character can have some hidden goal that may affect the rest of the group.

Even though GW has ceased production of WQ, it is still supporting it. The last three issues of Citadel Journal have had WQ articles (although one was a comic). This year also saw the release of Deathblow, a Warhammer Quest compendium. Games Workshop promises to release Deathblow 2 soon.

Fan support for Warhammer Quest is also strong, and there are quite a few Warhammer Quest pages on the Internet. These provide many extra rules, characters, quests, boards, etc.

Warhammer Quest Archive

http://www.frii.com/~evil/wq/

Dungeon of Muggee

http://www.fortunecity.com/underworld/roadrash/317/dungeon/

There is also a very active Warhammer Quest newsgroup. Instructions for joining it can be found on any of the sites mentioned above.

Bottom Line

If you enjoy lots of minis, then this is the game for you. In this one case, the board tiles and minis, plus the assorted other goodies, are worth Games Workshop's asking price. If you are using the game to complement HeroQuest, then you get a nice assortment of minis. There is a good assortment of board tiles, which while most are larger than the HQ rooms, still fit nicely into the game.

If you are planning on buying Warhammer Quest to play as a game in its own right, then be assured that it is a solid one. There are rules for easier, more HQ-like dungeon crawls, plus the more advanced Role Playing rules.

The game is out of print, but still available. List price was $70, but it can be found at some locations for much cheaper. It should be noted that if you are buying the game for just the minis, you may want to investigate the plastic sets from GW for about $10 or $15 each. Except for the four hero characters and the doors, all of the minis in WQ are recycled from those very sets (not all of which are currently in production, though).