Sunday Musings - GameZone's Unheroic Quest
Usually, I take exactly an hour and a half to write a Sunday Musings. This one though was too important to get wrong. This is the culmination of a few weeks research and following threads the try and get a complete story.
Let us travel the roads of memory and nostalgia until we reach the well trodden path of 1989. Here, the much-loved and always fondly-remembered release of Heroquest by Milton Bradly (MB Games) takes place, becoming a entry point into board gaming, RPG's and Tabletop wargaming. Stephen Baker designed a hybrid of blending dungeon-crawling mechanics of RPG's within the tighter and faster paced framework of a board game was a revolution upon release. Players took on the archetypes of Dwarf, Elf, Barbarian or Wizard and took to battling monsters, uncovering treasures and defeating ancient evil in trap filled dungeons. The miniatures, designed by the Citadel Miniatures team, brought to life a game that was further expanded with art by Les Edwards and Garry Chalk. It was a brush with a dark, evocative world filled with immense and immersive storytelling possibilities.
But let's go back a little further. MB Games, was founded in 1860, and became a household name by the mid 20th centaury for the family and children's board games it created. MB Games was genuinely one of the world's most recognisable brands when it was bought in 1984 by Hasbro as part of the aggressive expansion Hasbro undertook back during that decade. Shortly after, Hasbro also bought up Parker Brothers, who created games such as Cluedo and Monopoly. During the 90s, Hasbro began to consolidate it's various subsidiaries into a broader brand portfolio (which is how Transformers: Beast Wars was released with the Kenner logo). MG Games and Parker Brothers became Hasbro Games, which was later dropped in 2009 in favour of the more in-house Hasbro Gaming.** By this point, Heroquest had fallen truly by the wayside, being locked away in the extensive vault of intellectual properties, remembered and often hunted down in second hand sales but with a completed journey.
Fast forward now to 2013. Spanish company GameZone Miniatures, led by founder Dionisio Rubio Rodríguez announced a plan to release a 25th Anniversary edition of Heroquest. The project launched on Kickstarter, raising around $540,000 in three days before Kickstarter cancelled the campaign citing questions concerning IP ownership. Rodríguez had very smartly framed the campaign as a tribute to the original, with updated rules, beautifully sculpted miniatures and multiple redesigned components that all seemed to keep the spirit of the original release. However, they did not have the rights to the board game, not permission from Hasbro to remake it. What makes this even stranger is that it wasn't Hasbro who first sounded the alarm, but instead a company named Moon Design, who had the rights to the Glorantha-based RPG game RuneQuest, which had both a module called Hero Quest, as well as a separate RPG set in the same world (which was also named Hero Wars).
Moon Design took legal action quickly to protect the trademark, though it appeared GameZone did have rights for the name in Spain, but not globally and even then that wasn't exactly cut and dry. Kickstarter suspended the campaign quickly and very soon a glaring omission had been uncovered. The lack of permissions were evident but confusion was abound as the realisation of multiple rights holders for different uses of the names across different countries rose. Lánzanos, the campaign manger for GameZone at this point backed out completely.
Mike Selinker, who worked on Pathfinder and Betrayal At House On The Hill had this to say:
“If this goes through, we’re going to see other companies take runs at IPs they don’t own.”
GameZone however decided that rather than sit back and let these rights settle into something workable, decided to shift to a Spanish-only crowdfunding site. Funds were raised quickly once again, but the legal limbo continued and no physical product was ever released.
The backdrop of community response was waves of enthusiasm, confusion and frustration. From the start, people became excited by the possibility, with BoardGameGeek and DakkaDakka reporting on the campaign regularly, and forums ready to welcome a beloved game back with open arms. However, the legal issues, a complete lack of communication and constant unfulfilled promises broke that excitement into something much darker. Tempers flared as deadline after deadline was missed, with constant failures in communication.
One forum user posted that: "Definitely mismanaged at this point, there is some physical product to show for the money invested. I honestly still think Dionisio wants to deliver this game but this perfectionism has to stop at some point", and another that : "Things are rolling. As I have said on several occasions I have been complaining to Lánzanos (plus Gamezone) about their treatment. Well, Lánzanos answered."
In November of 2017, the Association of Affected Heroquest 25th Anniversary / TseuQuesT was formed to gather complaints from backers who had yet to receive what they had paid for. By the end of the year they had built up a frame of 700 complaints and 21gb of documentation to be handed to the courts.
The argument of mismanagement vs malicious intent spread like wildfire, as customers became convinced of fraud from GameZone. The situation went from bad to worse as rumours spread of Rodríguez disappearing at the same time that GameZone began failing to respond to legal inquiries or refund requests. Backers began filing complaints with consumer protection agencies and police with culminated in legal charges of fraud being brought against Rodríguez. The minature designs from the game began to be sold on the site at this point, but still no backer had been sent a single box. It appears, looking at some posts translated through Google, that boxes were ready to ship but the lack of actual funds meant that there was no way to ship them.
To muddy the waters further, somewhere around here Gamezone changed it's name to Ludofilia.
By 2021, it was clear that the HeroQuest 25th Anniversary project would never be fulfilled. While prototype miniatures and game components were intermittently shown, they never culminated in a finished product. Dionisio Rodríguez and Gamezone Miniatures largely vanished from public view, and lawsuits and allegations mounted. Debts and public opinion souring mounted further up for GameZone/Ludofilia. Towards the end of the year, Gamezone/Ludofilia put out a press release that read:
Ludofilia’s tabletop game is being rebranded as TseuQuesT.
– Ludofilia, in an accord with Hasbro, has renounced all its valid Heroquest trademarks throughout Europe. Ludofilia used those trademarks to cover its version of the board game that it offered in crowdfunding and pre-sale. From now on the board game will be RENAMED TseuQuesT. The exact contents or the game itself will remain unchanged.
-It only the name has changed, all of the board game content remains unchanged, except for the use of the new brand TseuQuesT to encompass all its components.
– Both Backers and pre-sale customers have had to endure with extreme patience the continuous delays of the official launch of our board game. Finally,the foreseen delivery date by the European-based printing company is for the end of the first quarter of 2022. If all goes well, from that date we will start shipping your games.
-Optionally, Backers and pre-sales customers will have the chance to exchange their reserved copies of the Ludofilia game for copies of the Hasbro version of Heroquest: ONLY 1 FOR BACKER (more information on CANJE HQ)
-This exclusive exchange offer for crowdfunding backers and pre-sales made by customers until the day before this announcement -November 15, 2021-
-From this moment, any new client who wants to pre-buy the TseuQuesT board game can do so here.
-The current price of the TseuQuesT is the same as offered during the crowdfunding campaign, and will remain until the day of its official launch, at which time its price will be adjusted upwards.
We greatly thank Hasbro for their professionalism and cordiality since our first contact at the beginning of 2013 until now.
In 2022, Spanish news outlets reported that Rodríguez was under investigation for aggravated fraud related to the crowdfunding campaign. While some components had been manufactured, none of the full games promised were ever delivered with the investigation still ongoing. Legal proceedings in Spain moved slowly, but the case became a cautionary tale in the gaming world.
Despite the disappointment surrounding the 25th Anniversary Edition, HeroQuest itself remains a cherished title. Its legacy inspired an entire genre of dungeon-crawling board games, from Descent to Gloomhaven. In 2020, Hasbro—through its gaming imprint Avalon Hill—finally re-released HeroQuest in an officially sanctioned, updated edition***. This move provided a measure of closure for longtime fans and reaffirmed the game's place in the pantheon of tabletop classics.
Gamezone’s failed HeroQuest revival was a cautionary tale of passion unchecked by legal due diligence. What began as a tribute to a beloved classic ended in controversy, lawsuits, and bitter disappointment. Yet the story also underscores the profound impact HeroQuest had on a generation of gamers—its influence so strong that even an unofficial attempt to revive it could raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in mere days.
In Febuary 2025, Spanish newspaper El Diario de Sevilla that the Spanish legal system had found no case of fraud, and Gamezone began to release the product under the new name of TseuQuest, which appears to have found a fanbase, though many had soured greatly on the concept and had no need to purchases with an official remake now on the shelves. Spanish newsite Elpural.com reported that all charges would be dropped if the Spanish language copies of TseuQuest were delivered, with an inspection of the 1000 boxes held in storage taking place to verify the contents matched that of the backers. If this was not done, Rodríguez faced up to a six years sentence. Lánzanos returned as campaign manager to get the boxes into the hands of the community who had waited a decade. Unfortunately, this ruling can only be enforced in Spain and Italy, with the rest of the world still uncertain if anything will appear in the post.
Despite these setbacks, the original HeroQuest continues to be celebrated by fans worldwide. Its influence can be seen in numerous modern board games that draw inspiration from its design and gameplay mechanics. The nostalgia surrounding HeroQuest remains strong, and its legacy endures as a testament to the enduring appeal of classic tabletop gaming.
Gamezone's attempt to revive HeroQuest was a bold endeavor fueled by passion and a deep appreciation for the original game. While legal hurdles and missteps ultimately led to the project's demise, the ambition behind it highlighted the lasting impact of HeroQuest on the gaming community. The story serves as a reminder of the complexities involved in reviving beloved classics and the importance of navigating legal landscapes in the world of intellectual property.
**Hasbro's Gotta Hasbro. Even back then.
***Far too american for my liking.