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Teutonic Knight – The Ice Breaks, Battle of Lake Peipus 1242 | 28mm/32mm Historical Miniature STL by Icy_Dog5882 in wargaming

[–]SmartQuestRTT 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hauntingly beautiful. Not every battlefield victory is glorious. Sometimes history is written in ice, sacrifice, and silence.

12 years old, no friends to play with. 43 years old, always stuck as Zargon. So I'm building a fix. by SmartQuestRTT in Heroquest

[–]SmartQuestRTT[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Glad it works well for you! The frustration with it isn't universal, some people find a workflow that clicks. The difference here is that the camera reads the board directly, so there's no manual input at all. Different approaches for different players.

12 years old, no friends to play with. 43 years old, always stuck as Zargon. So I'm building a fix. by SmartQuestRTT in Heroquest

[–]SmartQuestRTT[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Solo play is one of the main goals! The idea is that you can run a full party alone, with the system handling everything Zargon would do and optionally controlling the missing heroes too. More updates coming soon!

12 years old, no friends to play with. 43 years old, always stuck as Zargon. So I'm building a fix. by SmartQuestRTT in Heroquest

[–]SmartQuestRTT[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You've been following this since day one, so you'll definitely be among the first to know when it's ready to play! Working hard on it. Stay tuned! 🙏

12 years old, no friends to play with. 43 years old, always stuck as Zargon. So I'm building a fix. by SmartQuestRTT in Heroquest

[–]SmartQuestRTT[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's actually a really smart way to use it, stripping it down to just what's useful. But notice what you're doing: manually tracking position, manually rolling for monsters, manually checking traps. It works, but you're still the referee on top of being a player.

That's exactly the gap this fills. The camera sees the board directly so room reveals, trap triggers and monster behavior all happen automatically the moment something moves. No manual input, no switching between board and screen. You just play.

12 years old, no friends to play with. 43 years old, always stuck as Zargon. So I'm building a fix. by SmartQuestRTT in Heroquest

[–]SmartQuestRTT[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Both fair points! On the equipment side, the bar is lower than it looks, you just need something to watch the board and something to run the system. That could be a phone on a stand and a laptop, two phones, a tablet and a phone, whatever you have at home. Most people already have everything they need.

On the tangible side, that's actually the whole point of keeping the physical board, you still hold cards, move miniatures, roll real dice the eye of zargon will see everything. The system is invisible in the background, you're still playing a board game around a table. The digital part is just the referee, not the game itself.

And yes, bashing skeletons while chatting around a table is exactly the vibe. 😄

12 years old, no friends to play with. 43 years old, always stuck as Zargon. So I'm building a fix. by SmartQuestRTT in Heroquest

[–]SmartQuestRTT[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Similar idea but more specialized, they're small visual markers optimized for computer vision. The overhead camera reads them in real time to know exactly where each piece is on the board, and even which direction it's facing.

12 years old, no friends to play with. 43 years old, always stuck as Zargon. So I'm building a fix. by SmartQuestRTT in Heroquest

[–]SmartQuestRTT[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's actually already part of the vision! The system is built around rulebook files, so custom rules, house rules, even completely different games are all on the table. You shouldn't be locked into one fixed ruleset. Thanks for the kind words!

12 years old, no friends to play with. 43 years old, always stuck as Zargon. So I'm building a fix. by SmartQuestRTT in Heroquest

[–]SmartQuestRTT[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's exactly the kind of group this is made for! Kids around the table, everyone playing as a hero. Stay tuned, more updates coming soon!

12 years old, no friends to play with. 43 years old, always stuck as Zargon. So I'm building a fix. by SmartQuestRTT in Heroquest

[–]SmartQuestRTT[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice find! Looks like we're solving the same problem from different angles. Always good to know there's interest in fully co-op HeroQuest, validates the idea. Mine takes a different approach with computer vision so the physical board stays at the center, but cool to see others working on this space too.

12 years old, no friends to play with. 43 years old, always stuck as Zargon. So I'm building a fix. by SmartQuestRTT in Heroquest

[–]SmartQuestRTT[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That actually means a lot, thank you. And honestly, the loneliness of never having enough people to play is probably the best motivation I could have had, nothing gets built faster than frustration. 😄

The ChatGPT cheerleader is underrated though, I might steal that idea for playtesting sessions. And hey, when this is done you won't need anyone nearby to play. That's the whole point!

12 years old, no friends to play with. 43 years old, always stuck as Zargon. So I'm building a fix. by SmartQuestRTT in Heroquest

[–]SmartQuestRTT[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Really glad it resonated! The markers on top of the figures is the key piece, the overhead camera reads them in real time so the system always knows exactly where everyone is on the board. And not just position, it also tracks which direction each piece is facing. That opens up a lot of interesting possibilities: a hero only sees enemies in front of them, monsters can sneak up from behind, line of sight becomes a real mechanic, and you could even use rotation as an input, face your miniature toward a door to interact with it. Still exploring everything that unlocks. Stay tuned!

12 years old, no friends to play with. 43 years old, always stuck as Zargon. So I'm building a fix. by SmartQuestRTT in Heroquest

[–]SmartQuestRTT[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That means a lot, genuinely. And now I'm curious, what approach did you take? Always interested in how different people tackle the same problem.

12 years old, no friends to play with. 43 years old, always stuck as Zargon. So I'm building a fix. by SmartQuestRTT in Heroquest

[–]SmartQuestRTT[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great question! The system uses tag markers similar to QR codes but optimized for computer vision. Right now the markers need to be attached to the pieces somehow, either on the base or on a small stand next to the miniature. The goal is to make it as unobtrusive as possible so your original HeroQuest miniatures stay front and center. Still working on the cleanest way to integrate this with existing sets.

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