Firstly I'd like to thank the organisers who has put on this competition we all love this game and other dungeon crawlers and to have this opportunity is amazing.
My names Dave I am the creator of this adventure and I have been developing my own homebrew rule set- and this is one of the adventures from that system. however it has been modified for basic hero quest players and game masters to enjoy without any of my custom rules and character skills and leveling.
My intent was to create a unique boss fight- not just a tough creature but I wanted a thrilling game that required team work and strategy rather than simply running up and hitting it, a game where in a round you may withdraw to protect a team mate and move around the boss chamber.
Also replayability of the boss fight seeing different heroes and different heroes wielding different artifacts would create a fun conversation afterwards I also wanted the boss to have special abilities and to telegraph those abilities so players could prepare and react as part of their strategy
and by sheer coincidence this particular game requires something breaking which also goes alongside my rules for a frozen dungeon in an iceburg where the floor itself breaks revealing freezing water below (think Azog, vs Thorin in the battle of 5 armies the hobbit) while i had additional rules for this i have added a simplified version for this game
I also wanted to create rewards for exploration in the form of the poem that gives the heroes a chance to learn about the boss fight ahead of time and prepare, while the boss fight can be played without finding the hidden library- there going to take some hits before they learn. Not everything has to be treasure- knowledge that will help players can be just as rewarding and help in world building
the ghost dream is an idea like a ghostly premanition giving you a chance to fight the boss in a warm up first with no real consequences,
and finally as you will see in the notes I believe that a dungeon is a living entity in that rooms have a reason for being there and the monsters within need to have a reason for being there, i have never liked empty room with skeleton and orc in there- that little room needs a reason- perhaps the orc is a prisoner because he did a bad thing and the skeleton is a guard- a punishment for example- that story element i think takes your game oh hum to hooraa
truth be told I love heroquest but have not found many to play with- so instead I paint and I design adventures and I enjoy the game when others enjoy my work. It is rewarding when others enjoy your work and others want to see the next thing you are working on.
what did I cut: The long history of the dungeon which is part of a larger dungeon for part 2, more frozen ice hole rules (such as when 2 holes connect making a larger hole)
I also had a story as to why the goblins are in the dungeon which was the original champion (the ghost you meet early on) stole an artifact from them and they are trying to get it back, and the goblins and abominations were battling each other
the original hero lured the lava ogre to a frozen dungeon and originally tried to kill the ogre but realised they were not strong enough so instead trapped it here- and broke off the part of the dungeon which has been floating for the last few centuries but as the power is lessening the ghost has made the icebug come to shore in hopes of heroes can finish the job
there was a good 3 paragraph back story to it
I also wanted to introduce my lock picking mechanic but didn't have the room
more details on the boss fight were also cut due to space