Post by AmalgamAsh in HeroQuest Difficulty Calculator comments

HeroQuest Difficulty Calculator » Comments

Viewing post in HeroQuest Difficulty Calculator comments

This calculator assumes monster will get first strike, which is part of the maximum difficulty :) that chainsaw goblin isn't gonna be tough to take out, but it's gonna suck regardless!

So after two years of iterations and proba ly hundreds of logically extreme examples like the above, it's all accounted for already (even movement really - the user can pin movement into the S columns should they desire, to add an edge, or a fudge number).

No worries either though, liking the formulas isn't required and I highly encourage folks to come up with their own -- make it better, or make something entirely different!

Best of luck!

GAPSoftware12 days ago

Hero movement usually reveals the monster(s) location, so how would they get first strike? It admittedly happens on occasion but for the most part, player 1 kicks open a door and rushes in and attacks whoever they can reach. Then the other 3 jump in, then the monster's turn. I Homebrew that ranged mobs attack immediately when revealed, but otherwise... I understand you're going for max difficulty but it definitely seems odd to make an edge case (player 4 opening a door with the last of their movement) the basis of the difficulty system.

To step back for a second, I want to thank you again for your hard work on this. It's an amazing tool and my focus on the formulas is intended to be constructive feedback, but probably comes across like criticism. I'll stop beating the dead horse and go back to working on my own stuff now. Thank you again for the tool and for the clarifications. Carry on good sir!

AmalgamAsh12 days ago

No worries and thank you very much! :)

(Just to answer the formula Q and for anyone else wondering about this!)

It assumes the monster first strike in order to ensure the AD attribute is relevant if the monster has no other significant attributes - in practice if a monster has 10 attack, but 1 BP and 0 DD, and we assume the heroes kill it on sight, the tool can't give a fair measurement of that monster. It works against the purpose of the tool to discount it entirely when it's not a guarantee that it'll die upon being encountered.

That's a logical extreme, but the actual formula used would provide the same bell curves if we took away the first strike -- it is left in to make sure the cases like the above can be correctly mathematically accounted for, especially when said monster is encountered in a group.

The numbers mean nothing on their own though -- it is with comparison and frame of reference that any of it will start to make sense for the quest designer.

Also, apologies for not catching this sooner, but I looked again at your 8 goblin / 1 abomination scenario and I assumed that was meant to be compared singularly...but the numbers you have aren't what the calculator should be returning at all.

8 goblins singularly would give a quest difficulty of 32 while the abomination has 24. 8 goblins together in a room have a difficulty of 144. Sounds like there is a calculation bug I may have missed, and if you could reproduce it and show where it's coming up with that, I'd appreciate it!

GAPSoftware11 days ago

No, that's a brain problem on my side. it's 3*8=24, not 4*8=24. So I should've said SIX Goblins (individually) is equal to 1 Abomination. I wasn't doing the scenario thing, just comparing base stats.

So how about this?

Gargoyle is Skirmish = 60.
5 Goblins is Skirmish = 60.

I'm curious how that would actually play out. Do you think it would be close?

I think it would be a lot closer than mine:
1 Gargoyle = 11
2 Goblins = (4*1.25 + 4*1.25) = 10

I'm warming to your formulas and unwavering persuasion!

itch.io

Viewing post in HeroQuest Difficulty Calculator comments