HeroQuest

1.) Trademarked name for a Milton Bradley boardgame.

2.) A plot device in the RuneQuest setting of Glorantha. A heroquest in this context is when a character glorifies the myths of his cult by acting out one of their dramas. Since this is fantasy, they often gain some relevant magical hero power, such as the ability to blind with a gaze for priestesses of Subere, or cheat Death, for priests of Yelm.

The hero power gained is commensurate with the challenge level of the drama. At one end of the scale, a heroquest drama can be played out in the purely mundane realm, which results in a good feeling for a few days. Kind of like going to church on Easter, or Christmas Eve.
More difficult is a quest against another cult, with an assault executed through the spirit plane, perhaps to disrupt their High Holy Day ceremonies. A victorious participant might gain an additional use of the divine magic Blind spell, or they may be awarded the service of a cult spirit.
At the "extreme danger" end of the scale, high-powered cultists can use magic to interact with the God Plane, perhaps even act out their god's dramas in God Time. Failure is disastrous in this level; unlike mundane adventures, Death in the God Plane is often permanent. Not only that, one god's failure in a myth is usually a hostile god's victory. Failing a highly-charged Hero Quest may mean doom to your whole community, by unleashing or failing to mitigate some hostile divine force. This is why Arkat said "no HeroQuesting without humility".

A fantasy boardgame that was later converted into a c64/amstrad computer game.

The board game was developed by Games Workshop (Always a good sign), and published by Milton Bradley. Four expansion packs were later made, 'Return of the Witchlord', 'Kellar's keep', 'Against the ogre horde', and 'Wizards of Morcar'

The original box set contained 35 plastic minatures and 15 pieces of plastic/card furniture (Looks nice, but if you aren't careful sloting the cardboard into the plastic, the cardboard can get ruined). It was one of those attempts at getting people into fantasy roleplaying games, in the same vein as the original boxed set of Dungeons and Dragons or Space Crusade.

It is an elegant game, built for speed of play and as little hassle as possible. Having no encumbrance, initiative or even many non-combat rules.

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The computer games, published by Gremlin Graphics (1991), were almost straight conversions, featuring the same maps and game mechanics, really only adding solo play into the mix. That isn't the real fault of the game, that would be the controling of four characters, which could've been handled better.

The c64 version looked better (the amstrad one being in shades of blue)

Now that the old MB Games "HeroQuest" trademark has expired, Issaries Inc has snapped it up and re-branded Hero Wars under the name that they wanted to use all along. They released the new edition in Summer 2003, ditching the awful trade paperback format of Hero Wars (we all told Greg that was a bad idea) in favour of the industry-standard book format, and a pre-order-only limited edition hardcover.

Character creation has been streamlined, Community Participation has been fixed, and there's a useful index and appendixes. Sorcery has been renamed Wizardry, the main difference being that Wizardry has a cultural context (there are still lone sorcerors, but the Wizardry section doesn't cover them). Common Magic is added, which is a magic system based on the power inherent in the mundane world. The entire Mystical magic system has been dropped. Greg's current thinking is that anyone with "mystic" powers is lying or deceiving themselves, their power must be from either the Theist, Animist, or Sorcerous otherworld, or is actually Common Magic.

There are many fine examples of the rules, that both show the rules being used, and give the narrator ideas on how to run a game.

The book also marks the beginning of Issaries Inc.'s relationship with Steve Jackson Games, who now handle fulfillment and also provide publicity at conventions and game stores through the Men In Black network.