This is an event that will allow anyone (that means YOU) to design and enter a HeroQuest quest that you create - no fee or experience necessary to participate or submit!
The event is open to HeroQuest players of all skill levels and from all over the world. Whether you are a Hero or a Zargon (or Morcar!), a veteran or a newbie, a collector of the classic edition or a supporter of the new Avalon Hill release, you have what it takes to enter.
THE QUEST IS CALLING...
Your challenge: To design a fun and original quest, for 1 to 5 players, following the rules and theme of the event outlined below. You may use any existing free HeroQuest quest-making tool, an image editor, or even draw and scan your physical quest!
Everything else is up to you! Here are just a few examples of the kind of quest you can create!: ...a new solo quest for a hero to prove themselves... ...a quest that begins and ends in the same room... ...a quest that uses every single tile on the board... ...a quest set in a dungeon, castle, catacombs, cave... ...a rescue mission, a bounty hunt, a murder mystery... ...a skirmish or an all-out war scenario... ...a tower defense, a gladiator-style arena, a labyrinth!
Be sure to read on for the rules, event submission and judgement dates, How To Join And Submit, and the FAQs before marching off to design your perfect quest!
THE RULES
Before you go off designing the ultimate quest, there are a number of mandatory rules to follow for the jam.
There are eight simple but mandatory rules; any who dare abandon these laws shall be disqualified.
Participants will be expected to have read, understood, and agreed to the below!
1. Each participant can only submit ONE quest. 2. Each Quest can only use one full-size board (no "double-quests"). 3. Quests can only use the board once (no "Dark Company" style quests). 4. Quests must only be ONE page (legible on printed A4 or Letter paper). 5. Quests assets limited to those outlined in the limits section below. 6. Plagiarism is prohibited; do not infringe IP / copyright of others. 7. All qualifying submissions will be bundled in a free digital collection on Itch. Quests may be presented on AshQuest (specific license information below). 8. Keep entries safe-for-work and tasteful. Misconduct toward other participants is prohibited. 9. Do not use generative AI in your submission, and do not use it for your submission's page for any purpose.
Designers may use asset types provided from one of the game systems plus one of the officially released expansion sources listed below - this is important, so read carefully:
Designers may use any of the resources included in the game systems: --HeroQuest Game System --HeroQuest: First Light
...and ONE, only ONE OF THE FOLLOWING CONTENT EXPANSIONS!!:
--Kellar's Keep --Return of the Witch Lord --Frozen Horror --Mage of the Mirror --Against the Ogre Horde --Wizards of Morcar --Prophecy of Telor --Spirit Queen's Torment --Rise of the Dread Moon --Jungles of Delthrak --Crypt of Perpetual Darkness
You may also elect to use NO expansion for a greater challenge.
The following "Hero Collection" expansions may be used and do not count as content expansions for the purpose of this event:
--Commander of the Guardian Knights --Rogue Heir of Elethorn --Path of the Wandering Monk
As to NUMBER OF ASSETS USED, designers may use any number of asset. Because of this, your ACCESSIBILITY rating may suffer depending on what you use -- if you are aiming to score high or win, be mindful of this!
TARGET AUDIENCE
The target party of heroes for any given quest can be anything - a single Barbarian, a full party of four classic heroes, a Wizard and a Warlock, a Druid in a party with a Dwarf and three mercenaries, and more.
Further, the quest can be as easy or as difficult as is warranted by the quest designer for the party intended - an introductory quest for a party of new players, a challenging but rewarding dungeon with a boss for players of mixed skill levels, or a special quest designed for a strong party of heroes who have powerful weapons and full access to hiring mercenaries!
When submitting a quest for judgement, know that by default, your quest will be assumed to be played with a party of FOUR NEW HEROES.
If your quest is intended to be played by a specific configuration or experience level of heroes, you MUST state this in the QUEST NOTES, meaning it is part of your submission itself.
THE THEME
For the first time, the Quest Jam has a theme!:
The theme is "breakable object."
Somewhere in your quest, you must place or mention something (door, piece of furniture, floor, wall, statue, stone monster, etc.) that can be broken. The object can be anything, and it isn't necessary to make it break to win the quest. How you interpret this challenge is up to you!
THE TIMELINE is as follows.
JOIN: Participants can JOIN at any time from NOW until the JUDGEMENT PERIOD.
SUBMISSION PERIOD: The SUBMISSION PERIOD is specified at the top of this page (under the banner) . If the SUBMISSION PERIOD hasn't started yet, the timer on this page will display a countdown showing when it begins. If the SUBMISSION PERIOD has started, the timer will display a countdown showing when it ends. The SUBMISSION PERIOD will be open approximately one month. You will NOT be able to submit before it begins, but make sure you submit before the JUDGEMENT PERIOD.
JUDGEMENT PERIOD: The JUDGEMENT PERIOD begins after the SUBMISSION PERIOD ends...however, the length of the JUDGEMENT PERIOD itself MAY CHANGE depending on volume of submissions.
You will NOT be able to submit or update anything during this date!
The grand prize winner shall thence be crowned champion of the 2026 games, and will receive a prize package of homebrew HeroQuest items, sponsored and sent by Ash:
--Craig Leslie's QuestExpansion quest book, "The Empire's Last Gleaming" --Lestodante's Skill Cards (classic or modern size) --Lestodante's NINJA and WOLF skill cards --Forges of Nuln's POWER DICE (set of six, different colors, winner's choice) --Keep an eye on this space for updates!
Every qualifying quest will receive a video presentation and review of its submitted form. In addition, a selection of top-rated submissions and Judge's Picks will be given special set-up video dramatizations and commentary.
(Ask your own, they may be added here!)
What is HeroQuest?
HeroQuest is a table-top dungeon-crawling board game, first released in the late 80's by Milton Bradley and Games Workshop. A game for two to five players, it pits four hopefully cooperative heroes against one dungeon master (known as Zargon) in an epic campaign of 14 quests, where the heroes explore dungeons and catacombs, face many dangerous monsters, avoid traps, hunt for treasure and powerful artifacts, upgrade their armor and weapons and more. The game has enjoyed an active and passionate community for thirty years and recently celebrated a re-release from Avalon Hill, who have not only introduced new heroes and campaigns but also recreated many of the classic expansions to make them once again accessible.
What is a Quest Jam?
A Jam is a limited-time event whereupon participants enter to show off their created works, usually within specified limitations or following a theme. Jam can act as contests, in which submissions are judged by peers, a panel or by the host. In this Jam, the created works are Quests -- HeroQuest Quests!
Each participant will use free Quest-building online tools specified above to design a quest of their own, to submit to the jam.
What is itch.io?
Itch is a platform for users to share their game-related works, from completed commercial or free games to demos, works in progress, musical or graphical asset packs, game engines, plugins, tabletop rpg books, visual novels and more. Lots of different gamers use itch to explore and find new games every single day. Itch is also home to an enormous amount of jams, providing tools that anyone can use to host their own.
Do I need to own HeroQuest to enter the Jam?
While experience playing HeroQuest is definitely a plus, no purchase is necessary to participate! Participants should be familiar with the rules and flow of gameplay of HeroQuest, and will be expected to submit quests that fall squarely within the core gameplay of the game system (any edition, including any number of expansion content outlined below).
What do I need to do to enter the Jam?
Follow the instructions below to the letter!
-Because the event is being held on the itch.io platform, you'll have to have (or create) a free itch.io account. Quests can only be submitted by itch.io members. A user must be at least 13 years of age to interact with itch.io in any way!
-Create your quest using one of the quest makers described above.
-Ensure your quest meets all of the submission conditions and conforms to the rules of the jam.
-Submit your quest in any of the following formats: PDF, JPG, PNG. -Wait for the judgement period!
What is HQuestBuilder?
HQuestBuilder is a free online HeroQuest quest design app made by Squidgemonster. It has everything necessary to easily make a HeroQuest quest and even entire campaigns.
What happens when I submit?
Your quest will be available for all to see, ready for anyone to play, and will be judged by the panel assembled for the event.
Entries, at AshQuest's discretion, may be featured in video content and have a spotlight on AshQuest's YouTube channel where a presentation, recap or live playthrough may be presented.
Can I make my own NPCs/Monsters/Artifacts etc?
Participants are allowed to create monsters with custom stats.
Participants are allowed to create artifacts, items, spells and equipment that do not have accompanying cards.
Participants are allowed to create playable, monster and non-playable characters (such as Sir Ragnar and Princess Milandriel), represented by any of the materials listed above. Specify in the quest notes what must represent who in this case!
Participants are allowed to create any mechanics they wish (any special rules must be explained in the Quest Notes).
Can I place any descriptive text, quest notes, wandering monster info, or anything else that would normally go in the bottom half of the quest, onto the map?
As long as it does not change the size of the map graphic (i.e shrinking it to make room for more text) this is alright.
Can I use Warhammer IP in my submitted Quest?
This is acceptable but limited to terms used in classic editions of HeroQuest (Chaos, Fimir, certain locations, etc).
What happens if I win?
The winner will be announced publicly right on the jam page, as well as on my channel.
I (Ash) will contact the winner directly using the communication method they provide with their jam submission, and will take steps to verify the legitimacy of the account.Afterwards, the winner may consent to be sent applicable prizes!
What if I need to add graphics or icons in an app, because the above apps didn't have the resources I needed?
Post-processing is allowed for this event, which means if a particular quest-building app does not have the resources you need, you are free to add the resources by any means necessary so long as you submit following all other rules above.
Can I use room tiles outside of the board?
Only a single board may be used, with no tiles beyond; room tiles on the board are fine, but may not lay beyond the board.
Can I edit my own quest before the submission period ends? How many tries do I get?
Once submitted, participants will still be able to edit and reupload their submissions, as many times as they wish. However, after the judgement period begins, no quest may be updated or changed in any way until after the jam judgement period is over. Video presentations will always use the latest qualifying submitted version of an entry.
What happens if my quest is disqualified / removed?
Due to an unpredictable scope of entrants, I cannot guarantee that any notification will be granted nor any reason given, but I will try to notify the quest submitter in the event of a disqualification. In the event a submission is disqualified before the submission end date, the participant may fix their quest and re-submit before the deadline if able. Any participants found to re-submit quests that do not follow submission guidelines may be removed and barred from re-entering, with or without notice!
The responsibility of ensuring an entry meets the submission criteria belongs to the participant!
What if I want to enter, but don't feel comfortable sharing my information?
If you win, you may turn down the prize if you are not comfortable sending your contact information! You'll still have the 'bragging rights' of being the HeroQuest Quest Jam winner!
If the prize cannot be claimed by the winner, then the prize is considered forfeit and won by the second place winner, and the process will begin again.
Ash reserves the right to break ties on any arbitrary judgement criterion at the time of the tiebreaker.
How are the entries judged?
All the entries will be judged by a panel of judges including Ash, who will rate them on their own merits across the categories. The rankings are SUBJECTIVE and based on the perspective and experience of each judge -- no two entries may be judged the same! Only the FIRST page of a submission will be judged, and everything after completely disregarded / ignored; feel free to include more pages of a Quest for the general public to check out, to add optional quest notes, dialogue, modes of play or lore, but these will NOT be referenced when judging.
What rights or licenses are conferred when I submit my quest? Do I still retain authorship?
Any applicable ownership and / or copyright of any material remains that of the creator(s). No rights are surrendered nor conferred. When you submit your quest, you grant Ash a non-exclusive, global, non-sublicensable, perpetual, irrevocable license to create video content about the contents of the submission (map notes, layout, introduction and so on) and distribute such content on any online platform including but not limited to YouTube. This is only necessary to ensure that video content can be made and shared to any country on any video platform at any time, and that links to such videos can be shared across any social media platform.
You also grant Ash the permission to include the quest submission in a free collection of quests to be made available to the general public at no charge after the event, so that fans and community members can retrieve the entirety of the submissions conveniently.
WHAT IF I SUBMIT A NONSENSICAL TROLL QUEST JUST FOR LAUGHS?
If it's playable and the quest notes make sense, it will be a legitimate entry. If not, it will likely be disqualified.
WHAT IF I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS?
Feel free to use the community tab to ask - or you can join the Discord and ask Ash directly: https://discord.gg/rrGdtCU
What does Ash get out of this?
I get to host an amazing jam, play your quests on my channel for all to see, and maybe even hopefully get more attention so I can run even more amazing HeroQuest jams!
If I win, will I need to pay anything to receive physical prizes?
No fee or payment is necessary to receive prizes.
GOOD LUCK, BRAVE HEROES!
An AmalgamAsh Studios LLC event.
This event is not sponsored, judged or endorsed in any way by Avalon Hill, Hasbro or Games Workshop.
