mandysee_mandydo | Fun With Games

Kathy and I had a night off together so we decided to play some games. First we played Fluxx. Then we played Shark Bait. Then we sat around talking and we thought of what we could play next.

We could ask each other questions from MindTrap. Nope. That's more fun with groups.

HeroQuest is another fun game with groups.

Hey, there's a neat idea: merge MindTrap with HeroQuest so that players would have to answer mind-bending questions in order to get into a room or something bad happens.

Ohh, but wait! what if the baddies were the monsters from Monster Hunters?

And it gets even better!! What if the characters were actually characters from Battle Scarred Veterans Go Hiking?

That would be one seriously messed up game. It could be absolutely pathetic characters going for a monster hunt in a "haunted mansion." Of course the mansion would be a 5WITS style place that's not really haunted but pretend-haunted, which would be the perfect plot seed for BSVGH.

Ohh, but even more-better-er: what if the HeroQuest board was the basement and the Clue board was the main level? The two boards use the same size squares so they could be used interchangeably. This just might work!

So Kathy and I picked out just the right cards to use from Monster Hunters as weapons, props and triggers. Then we picked out figurines from HeroQuest and BattleMasters to represent the creatures from MH (except the zombies). We used random plastic cavemen we had for Cheapass games for the zombies. The we picked out some choice HeroQuest cards for weapons, props and triggers, also. Next we picked out the hero figures from HQ and the pawns from Clue to represent the PCs.

The rules were easy to figure out:

BSVGH rules for the roleplaying aspect

Movement rules as dictated by HeroQuest (2d6)

Combat would resolve as in BSVGH except the "monsters" would have all attributes at normal human (7). Their Pain Points would not be the usual CON x 3 + 2 but rather CON x 3 + (Monster Hunters card value for that "monster").

The players would have to operate under the MH assumptions that werewolves can only be killed by silver and vampires by wood. The mummy can only be killed by "magic" which ties in the HeroQuest cards but with a real-world explanation to back it up in the BSVGH context.

There would be a "victory condition" similar to that of Monster Hunters in that the PCs would get to brag that they killed the most monsters (provided they all survive). This would not be the end of the game, mind you, because it's an RPG and it can't be won! Cards of the killed "monsters" will be handed to the killing player to keep as a sort of trophy.

Cards in general will be used to keep track of who has what item.

We started searching through the box of MindTrap cards to find good cards to use as puzzles. We scrapped the idea of having a riddle at each room because we wanted to stick to the simpler riddles. There weren't enough to go around for every room so we'll be using some to give clues as to where to find certain additional items. Some will just be used to gain access to rooms since they are visual puzzles. Some even turned out to have a decent horror theme, tying them in with the game quite nicely.

Now all that is left is to distribute the monsters, weapons, props and triggers around the two boards. Then we can play it, most likely at Gaming Club. My thought is that if it works out well I can run it as one very wacky RPG/card/board game at EconoCon. I think it will be fun and perhaps the most sadistic and oddly ambitious game of BSVGH, HeroQuest or Monster Hunters I have ever run!

We call it...
MindQuest: Battle Scarred Veterans Go Monster Hunting

(Kathy added the subtitle "Haven't Got a Clue." Very apropos.)