Alchemist's Bench: Issue 7

IN THIS ISSUE

WELCOME

NEWS

Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast; Red Dragon's Guild update; Games Workshop's discontinued items sale

FEATURE

TSR's New Miniatures Plans

QUEST DESIGN

A Notch Above: HeroQuest Improvements

MINIATURES

Female Heroes

GAME PROFILE

TSR's DragonQuest

NEW MONSTER

the Manscorpion

WELCOME!

The Alchemist's Bench is a completely free e-mail based newsletter that exists to provide information, ideas and interesting new gaming material for Milton Bradley's terrific yet out-of-print HeroQuest boardgame.

Also, feel free to visit our website for back issues of this newsletter and assorted other goodies. It's small but growing fast, and, like this newsletter, it's free! The URL is http://www.heroscribe.org/thealchemistsbench/

A WORD FOR SUBSCRIBERS WHO RECEIVE OUR ATTACHMENTS

Different internet providers impose different restrictions on the size of attachments that their users can receive. If an attachment is ever too large to come through your server, or if it ever gets 'garbled' in the transmission, simply click on the links provided to download the files that were in the attachment. (These links are found throughout the newsletter, as part of the articles that describe the downloads.

ATTACHMENT

This Issue's attachment file is a ZIP archive containing a BMP file. The BMP is a monster card and attack diagram for the Manscorpion, which is this issue's featured monster. If you do not receive our attachments, you can obtain the file by going to http://www.heroscribe.org/thealchemistsbench/monsters/index.html and clicking on the appropriate link.

NEWS

HASBRO BUYS WOTC

On Sept. 30, 1999, toy and game giant Hasbro announced that it had successfully completed its acquisition of fantasy game publisher Wizards of the Coast ("WotC"). In the weeks preceding that announcement, Hasbro and WotC both made a series of public statements suggesting that Hasbro was interested in benefiting from WotC's year-round success and expertise in the hobby market. It has been made clear that, at least for now, WotC's existing management will continue to run their organization in their existing Seattle facility.

Although we must emphasize that no additional information has been confirmed, it is hard to resist contemplating the possibilities the buyout presents. It brings the publisher of "Dungeons and Dragons" and "Magic: the Gathering" under the same corporate umbrella as HeroQuest manufacturer Milton Bradley. Will intracorporate synergy result in a new wave of fantasy boardgames? Only time will tell.

RED DRAGON'S GUILD UPDATE

There have been another round of changes and additions on The Red Dragon's Guild Website.

Six spell colleges for use with the Advanced HeroQuest Board Game have been added. These can be converted to work with the original HeroQuest Board Game, with a little work, and they were kindly contributed by Tommy De Coninck.

The Red Dragon's Guild is also providing images for players to use to create their own HeroQuest cards in the original styles of those found in the game. There is also now a modified version of the Monster Card type found on the site which can be added to the Monster Card back from the game.

In addition to these additions, some broken links which appeared on the Links Page have been fixed.

Site proprietor Ernie 'Thorin' Polegato says, "I hope to add more in the near future so keep visiting the site, as I do not intend to leave it lie dormant. If you have any comments, suggestions, or contributions, please email me at phantagia or at the sister site, Gilgor's Dungeon Realm, at zargon1969 ."

GW SALE on OUT-OF-PRINT SETS

GW mail order has announced they are selling off some out-of-print box sets. There are box sets of Orcs, Skaven, and Goblins for $5 each. You can get their from GW homepage ( http://www.games-workshop.com/) at the bottom there is a box titled "Areas to Explore". In this box scroll down to "New Releases" and open this section. In the scroll box on the "New Releases" page, find the section titled "OOP Warhammer Boxed Sets" and open this section.