Warhammer Quest

Game

Mainly written by Andy Jones, Warhammer Quest utilized a set of simple game mechanics to simulate the Warriors actions as they explored and fought through the dungeons of the Old World. The game put a strong emphasis on co-operative and thoughtful play by the players in order to survive against the myriad monsters they would inevitably face.

Primarily designed for four players the original game continued the tradition of HeroQuest by supplying a Barbarian, Wizard, Dwarf & Elf as its main Warriors. The game was known for its difficulty, particularly to starting parties, as well as the use of an innovative card-based mechanic to generate the dungeon, monsters & other events, as well as treasure.

The boxed game itself is considered by many hobbyists who remember it to be one of Games Workshop’s best releases. The boxed set contained no less than three books (the Rulebook, Adventure Book & Roleplay Book) a complete set of well-illustrated Dungeon Floor Plans, as well as over 90 miniatures, 10 plastic doorways, a set of 50 ‘Adventure Record Sheets’ where players could keep details about their Warrior, and numerous counters and tokens as game play aids, as well as dice.

The game did utilize almost a full range of monsters that were available through Games Workshop’s Warhammer Fantasy range. It was designed so that players could use their range of Warhammer miniatures (if they had them) to represent their monsters.

Games Workshop stopped producing Warhammer Quest in 1998.

Treasure

The game focused on the acquisition of vast amounts of treasure. These items were often gained after any particular group of Monsters were killed & as a reward for killing all monsters within an Objective room. Treasure was essential to the Warriors development (it could be sold for gold and then in turn pay for training and advancement when enough gold was accumulated) as well as essential in offering extra help through a dungeon, be it through healing, a weapon, extra armour to make the warriors tougher to kill or as a talisman or other trinket that gave the warrior a certain ability that could be used per turn or per adventure.

Treasure was split into two kinds: Dungeon Room treasure and Objective Room treasure. Dungeon room treasure was collected after every group of Dungeon Monsters were killed & Objective room treasure were sometimes collected once the warriors had killed all monsters within the given objective room or as a reward at the end of the Adventure.

Games Workshop released three additional ‘Treasure Packs’, each containing a selection of both Dungeon and Objective Room treasure cards.

Monsters

All of the hostile creatures encountered by Warrior parties are known under the collective name of "Monsters." Practically the entire range of Warhammer creatures of the time were included in the Bestiary section of the Roleplay Book. Monsters are broadly divided into the following species:

Lizardmen are the only major race not to feature in the game. (Note: They were later released, however, as an additional supplement in the Warhammer Quest magazine "Deathblow" and could most appropriately be ecountered if the Warriors partook in the Lost Kingdoms rules from White Dwarf articles 196-197.)

Monsters are encountered according to the current Dungeon level. For example, a small group of Orcs with bows might present a challenge to Battle-level 1 Warriors but would not last long against a very experienced Party. At higher levels an Orc Shaman riding a Wyvern, a group of Ogres, a Gigantic Spider or any one of a hundred other horrors might be encountered instead. The truly dreaded creatures such as Dragons, Vampires and Skaven Verminlords do not appear until the highest Dungeon levels.

Warrior parties usually encounter Monsters of the same level as themselves. This is necessary, for Warriors can find higher-level Monsters very difficult or even impossible to destroy. For example, a level 10 Great Unclean One would rampage through a party of level 5 Warriors and would not be remotely defeatable.

Warhammer Quest Roleplaying

The game was released with a large roleplay book, which added detail. It enabled players to expand their games by introducing a host of roleplaying details & game mechanics. When used, the Roleplay Book offered the players the chance to travel between Settlements, Train to the next level, visit numerous shops and traders, as well as visit Special Locations. The Wizard, Elf, and Dwarf had a Special Location that was exclusive to each of them and, if their luck was good and if they had enough gold, they could buy specialty items to help them in their adventures.

Additionally, the Roleplay Book introduced the element of Psychology, which included new rules for Fear, Terror, Hatred, Breaking (fleeing), and being Prone. There were also rules and descriptions for using two new Characteristics: Luck and Willpower.

The Roleplay book also contained a bestiary of Monsters that the warriors might encounter and employed a number of ‘D66’ tables so Warriors could face more new and terrible foes. The Roleplay book also offered a Hazards Table (for use when traveling to a village, town or city), a Settlement Events Table (for use when spending time in a settlement), extra Treasure and Objective Room Treasure tables as well as ‘Battle-level Monster Tables’ for use as the Warrior’s career progressed.

Through the use of such tables it was possible for a Warrior to be accused of murder, witchcraft or else do an honest day’s work, be accosted by a rampaging bull, gain a pet dog, spend several days in an infirmary or even decide they were going to give up adventuring and settle down to have a family. The Roleplay Book helped flesh out the Warriors lives in between dungeons.

The last section of the Roleplay Book contains rules for a new player: the Gamemaster. This person acts a "referee" or "storyteller" who controls the game, taking the Warriors through a dungeon of his or her own design. This section contains many new ideas for the Gamemaster, as well as the Warriors, and guidelines for writing adventures and Warrior development. It also contains an entire pre-written campaign for the Gamemaster and the Warriors to play as well as introduced the first expansion Warrior of Warhammer Quest: the Dwarf Trollslayer.

Warrior Progression

Every Warrior could be progressed up to 10 stages or ‘Battle Levels’ with 1 representing a new warrior to 10 representing a very experienced, powerful, individual able to take on hordes of monsters on their own.

Typically an RPG would require experience points in order for a Warrior or Adventurer to advance in such levels. In Warhammer Quest experience points were dropped in favour of Gold. A Warrior would need a certain amount of Gold to advance battle-levels and would also use the gold to buy items, or even grandiose extras such as a Castle or Fortress! Every monster encountered and killed by a warrior would be worth a certain amount of Gold, as would any Treasure the Warrior decided to sell at the end of the adventure. The leader carrying the lantern (typically the Barbarian) decides which warrior gained an item of treasure although it was usually required that treasure be distributed equally.

Expansions

A number of expansions were released for Warhammer Quest. These included two new adventure packs, several Warrior packs as well as additional Treasure Card packs & a set of blank Monster Cards & Event cards, where players could record their own monsters from the Warhammer world that were not written within the Roleplay book or else not produced as an official card by Games Workshop.

Adventure packs

There were two adventure packs released for the game. Lair of the Orc Lord contained six new adventures against Greenskins (Orcs & Goblins) while Catacombs of Terror featured six new adventures that pitted the Warriors against the evils of the Undead. Both expansions contained new, pewter models to represent their enemies as well as new Board tiles and cards.

Warrior packs

Games Workshop released packs for nine additional Warriors, all of which had some background within the Warhammer world. The packs consisted of a Warrior model, rulebook and a set of card tokens detailing the warrior’s original statistics & equipment. The rulebooks offered a piece of background as to the warrior-type & a set of rules to use the warrior including details about any new special locations they might visit, skills or equipment they could obtain as well as details about their Battle Level progression. The Warrior Packs released were as follows:

Warhammer Quest and White Dwarf

To accompany Warhammer Quest Games Workshop produced a number of articles in their White Dwarf magazine that added additional elements to the game play such as extra rooms, adventures & other articles. They were as follows:

Warhammer Quest and Citadel Journal

To accompany Warhammer Quest Games Workshop produced a number of articles in their Citadel Journal magazine that added new semi-official adventures and scenarios, alternatives rules, and warriors. Some articles were written by the usual contributors of Warhammer Quest while others were fan-submitted material. They were as follows:

Deathblow Magazine

Deathblow was a dedicated Warhammer Quest journal released by Games Workshop to accompany the game in a similar vein to its Citadel Journal and Fanatic Magazine. Deathblow consisted of only three issues. Deathblow included articles by contributors outside of Games Workshop’s employ and featured articles from White Dwarf, the Citadel Journal and contained new adventures and a selection of other Warhammer Quest related paraphernalia.

Deathblow introduced eight new Warriors: The Halfling Thief, Kislev Shaman, an Assassin, an Ogre, Druid of Albion, Dwarf Brewmaster, Salty Seadog & Lord of Aenarion.

Deathblow was named after Warhammer Quest’s ‘Death-Blow’ mechanic where if a warrior killed a monster in one single strike he could then carry that attack through to an adjacent monster.

Deathblow I

Deathblow II

Deathblow III

Warhammer Quest contributors

Warhammer Quest and its expansions/articles were authored, illustrated or produced in whole, or in part, by the following:

Andy Jones, Geoff Taylor, Richard Wright, Dave Gallagher, John Blanche, Wayne England, Mark Gibbons, Bryan Ansell, Gavin Thorpe, Ian Pickstock, Mark Hawkins, Dean Bass, Steve Anastasoff, Tuomas Pirinen, Mark Hawkins and more.

Dungeon Bowl

Dungeon Bowl was an expansion to Blood Bowl, Originally packaged with its own A5 sized floorplan sheets - the later downloadable version made use of the Warhammer Quest tiles.

Other implementations

On 20 August 2012 GW announced Warhammer Quest for iOS devices. The development company is Rodeo Games. It was released on 30 May 2013.

It was later ported to PC, Mac and Linux by Twistplay and was released by Chilled Mouse on Steam on 7 January 2015, Android on 25 June 2015., and later to the PS4 and Xbox 1.