Two Ways to Play Without Zargon
The printed HeroQuest rules assume one player is Zargon. The rulebook says that if fewer than five people are playing, one person must still play as Zargon. Plenty of groups want everyone on the heroes' side, though, and plenty of players want to explore the dungeon alone. You have two options:
- The official way: the free HeroQuest Companion App can run Zargon for you.
- The paper way: the unofficial house rules on this page replace Zargon with a few priority rules, some tables and the game's own dice.
The Official Way: Digital Zargon
Hasbro's HeroQuest Companion App is free on iOS and Google Play and launched in November 2021. As well as narration (Mentor introduces each quest and Zargon reacts as it goes), sound and Body and Mind tracking, it can take the role of a Digital Zargon.
- Up to four players can play purely as heroes, cooperating against the app.
- Or you can play alone and control all four heroes yourself.
- The app reveals rooms and dangers as you explore. It tells you where to place monsters and how to move them, while you still roll the dice and handle the cards.
Since the core Quest Book, the app has added quests from the later packs, including Kellar's Keep, Return of the Witch Lord, The Frozen Horror, The Mage of the Mirror, Rise of the Dread Moon, Against the Ogre Horde, The Prophecy of Telor, Spirit Queen's Torment, Jungles of Delthrak and First Light. If you own the app and a phone or tablet, it is the easiest way to play without a Zargon, and it keeps the quest maps a surprise.
Not the same thing: some packs, such as The Mage of the Mirror, open with a short quest for a single hero before the others join. That is part of the story, not a solo system. And the "Solo Combatants" rule in Against the Ogre Horde is an arena rule for a lone surviving team member, not a way to play alone.
The Paper Way: Zargon's Rules
Unofficial house rules. Everything from here to the end of the page is this guide's own design, not Avalon Hill's. It uses the normal HeroQuest rules for movement, combat, searching and spells, and replaces only the decisions a Zargon player would make.
Setup
- Run all four base heroes yourself, or two heroes each with a friend. Four heroes are the safest party; one hero alone dies quickly in the core quests.
- Option A, a Quest Book quest: cover the quest map with a sheet of paper. Slide it aside only to read the room or corridor a hero can now see, and read the quest notes for that area only when it is revealed.
- Option B, a random dungeon: use the tables below to fill each room as you open it. Your goal is to find the objective room and then return to the stairway.
How Monsters Behave
On Zargon's turn, activate monsters one at a time, starting with the one closest to a hero. Each monster follows the first rule on this list that it can. Like heroes, monsters move then attack, or attack then move, never part of each.
- Adjacent to a hero? Attack. If several heroes are adjacent, attack the one with the fewest Body Points left. If that is a tie, attack the one with fewer defend dice, then the one whose player turn comes next.
- Can it reach a hero this turn? Move by the shortest route to a square next to that hero, then attack. If it can reach more than one hero, use the same order as rule 1.
- Can it see a hero? Move its full Movement toward the nearest hero it can see, staying in corridors and rooms the heroes have revealed.
- Otherwise it stays where it is. Guards wait for the heroes to come to them.
Spellcasting monsters such as a Dread Sorcerer cast instead of attacking when they can see a hero and have a spell left. Use the spells the quest notes give them. In a random dungeon, deal one Dread spell card face down and cast it the first time a hero is in line of sight. Then the sorcerer fights with its normal attack.
The Dread Clock
A real Zargon punishes slow, careful play with wandering monsters. At the end of every Zargon turn, roll one combat die. On a black shield, mark the Dread Clock. At three marks, a wandering monster appears next to the hero who searched most recently (or next to the hero farthest from the stairway, if nobody has searched). Use the quest's listed wandering monster, or roll for the type below, then clear the clock. A black shield comes up one time in six, so the clock fills after about 18 turns on average.
Random Dungeon Tables
When a hero opens a door into a room nobody has seen yet, roll the two red dice on the Room Table. When a hero first looks down a new corridor, roll one red die: on a 6, a wandering monster waits there.
Room Table (2 red dice)
| Roll | Room | Chance |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Dread lair: a Monster Roll plus one Dread Warrior. If the heroes have explored 5 or more rooms, the objective is here. | 2.8% |
| 3 | Trapped room: unless the room has been searched for traps, the first hero to step in rolls one combat die and loses 1 Body Point on a skull. | 5.6% |
| 4–5 | Empty room. | 19.4% |
| 6–8 | Guarded room: a Monster Roll, with at least one monster. | 44.4% |
| 9 | Storeroom: a Monster Roll, plus a chest or cupboard to search. | 11.1% |
| 10 | Quiet room: empty, but a search for secret doors here always finds one. | 8.3% |
| 11 | Patrol: a Monster Roll. These monsters take a turn right away, before the heroes move again. | 5.6% |
| 12 | Throne room: if 5 or more rooms are explored, the objective is here, guarded by a Gargoyle (or a named villain from a quest you own) and a Monster Roll. Otherwise treat it as a guarded room. | 2.8% |
If the heroes have explored 10 rooms and still haven't found the objective, the next room with any monsters in it holds it.
Monster Roll and Monster Type
Monster Roll: roll one combat die for each hero in the party. Each skull is one monster. Then roll a red die for the type: 1–2 Goblins, 3–4 Orcs, 5 Skeletons or Zombies, 6 one Abomination or Dread Warrior with any others as Orcs. Use the stats on the monster cards.
| Skulls on a Monster Roll | 2 heroes | 3 heroes | 4 heroes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 25.0% | 12.5% | 6.3% |
| 1 | 50.0% | 37.5% | 25.0% |
| 2 | 25.0% | 37.5% | 37.5% |
| 3 | – | 12.5% | 25.0% |
| 4 | – | – | 6.3% |
A party of four meets two monsters per room on average, which suits the base game's monster count.
The Skull Oracle
Sometimes you'll want to know something no table covers. Is the portcullis locked? Does the Orc chieftain flee? Ask a yes-or-no question, decide how likely the answer is, and roll that many combat dice. You get a Yes if enough skulls come up. Roll one red die at the same time: on a 6, add a twist, "Yes, and…" or "No, and…".
| Likelihood | Roll | Yes | Yes, and | No | No, and |
|---|
Ask a question, then roll.
Roll a Room
Roll when a hero opens a new door.
An Example of Play
Hrolf the Barbarian kicks open a door in a random dungeon. The red dice show 3 and 4: a guarded room. The Monster Roll for a party of four comes up with two skulls, and the red die shows a 4, so two Orcs stand inside.
On Zargon's turn, both Orcs can reach Hrolf, the only hero they can see, so they move next to him and attack (rule 2). Hrolf survives with 6 Body Points. Next turn, Bram Coldiron the Dwarf steps up beside him, and Thessaly Varn the Elf and Oswin Tallow the Wizard hang back in the corridor.
Oswin wonders whether a third Orc is hiding behind the rack of weapons. It seems unlikely, so he rolls four combat dice. Only one skull shows: no. The red die is a 2, so there's no twist. At the end of the turn the Dread Clock die shows a black shield, its first mark.
Try It at the Table
- Play Quest 1, The Trial, with the map covered and the monster rules above. It shows quickly whether the priority list feels fair to you.
- Run a four-room random dungeon with only the Barbarian and the Wizard. Note when the Dread Clock fills and whether the party reaches the stairs.
- If a rule above makes the monsters too clever or too dumb for your taste, change it. Write your version down so the next game plays the same way.