My tabletop group has had to abandon all of our scheduled games in conjunction with social distancing practices. Since I have no taste for the complexities of playing DnD online any longer but still love a good dungeon crawl, I put together a Roll20 version of Hero Quest. Yes, that old game.

In doing so, I realized that it is really only missing one component to make it ultra awesome; Role Playing.

Is anyone interested in playing a game of Hero Quest where the role playing takes place here and, let's say once a month, we run a Roll20 quest "face to face" on the inter web? It could be reskinned to meet any genre and the face to face part could be text based, but would have to be real time and last about 2-3 hours.

Any ideas or interest?

To be clear I am talking about the HeroQuest board game. Not Hero Quest the rpg. We’d use the very simple board game rules for the dungeon crawling and more or less free form for RP. The rules are available online at no cost. A VTT makes possible to play from a distance.

I loved that game! I had both expansions (which were super hard to find! I only saw them once each and was always grateful I bought them, taught me a life lesson about picking up rare games when the opportunity arose) and I always liked how they had hints of the larger role-playing world around the board game. I would definitely be interested.

I have no experience with Roll20 though, is it difficult and/or costly to learn/utilize? Also, what rules would govern the mechanics? Just use the straight board game rules with a few house rules or something?

It's an interesting idea. I used to play the crap out of that game back in the day. And made a lot of my own dungeons, too.

Also, the "hints of a larger world" are literally the larger world of Warhammer Fantasy. So if you're interested, there's a freaking ton of lore out there.

Really? Was that game based on Warhammer Fantasy?

I mean, the grim, 'it's already over and the bad guys have won' feel definitely fits in the Warhammer Universe.

Not doubting your word, but do you have a source? I'd be really curious to learn where/how it tied into the larger Warhammer world.

I think Hero Quest was a generic fantasy setting, but Advanced Hero Quest was absolutely set in War Hammer. AHQ is a jumbled mess of rules that tries to be a roll playing game similar to DnD but misses the mark pretty heavily. There's something like 40 pages for rules I Hero Quest and 160 or so for advanced.

I like the idea of very simple board game rules for combat and exploration and letting those rules inform the players how they should role-play in the rest of the game. There are some expanded / house rules that add deployability and development without bloating the system too much.

Roll20 would be free for the players. I have a paid account that removes advertisements and gives some extra functionality to the site. Using roll20 is pretty straight forward if you aren't building the game and it is pretty intuitive, if not nuanced, for the game master.

The game I'm setting up for may pals uses custom maps. I would do the same for this game instead of relying on the bland basic board layout.

Again, the role playing would be moderated freeform with a specific story in mind; like "Kill the Dragon," or "Save the Queen."