From the Q&A: Why was HeroQuest renamed QuestWorlds?
Posted by Michael O'Brien on 14th Mar 2025
From our Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: Why was HeroQuest renamed QuestWorlds?
A: In the 1970s, Chaosium founder Greg Stafford first used the term "heroquest" to describe a transformative journey in which a quester enters the realm of the gods to reenact a myth, returning with gifts or special knowledge, and later began designing a roleplaying game exploring those themes. Robin D Laws worked with Greg as lead designer.
That TTRPG was originally published as Hero Wars in 2000, only because Greg Stafford's preferred title HeroQuest was already taken, by the totally unrelated 1989 Milton Bradley board game.
Later, Greg learned that Milton Bradley's HeroQuest trademark had lapsed. This gave him the opportunity to bring out a new edition of his TTRPG in 2003, now called HeroQuest, the title he'd wanted all along. And in 2015 HeroQuest Glorantha set the game intrinsically in Glorantha, Greg Stafford's fantasy universe.
In 2020 Hasbro, which now owned the old Milton Bradley board game IP (but not the trademark), approached Chaosium about purchasing the trademark. A deal was done, and ownership of the HeroQuest trademark was duly transferred. Under their Avalon Hill imprint, Hasbro rereleased the HeroQuest board game in 2021. Meanwhile, the HeroQuest TTRPG was rebranded as "Questworlds". QuestWorlds is available now. The QuestWorlds System Reference Document (SRD) has been been released under the ORC License for others to use.
TL/DR the name of the game changed the first time (2003) because Greg Stafford discovered the title he'd always wanted – HeroQuest – was now available, the original trademark owners having let it lapse. The name changed the second time (2020) because a deal was made to transfer the trademark back to the current owners of the board game.
Get your copy of the new QuestWorlds!
QuestWorlds offers a complete, rules-light system focussed on resolving in-play conflicts quickly and easily. It centers around a simple core mechanic and optional rules that allow you to customize your game to suit any setting or genre.
- PDF from Chaosium: $19.99*.
- PDF from DriveThruRPG: $19.99
- Softcover from DriveThruRPG: $29.99
- Softcover + PDF from DriveThruRPG: $39.99
$49.98
*If you purchase the PDF from Chaosium.com, you can deduct the cost of the PDF from the price of the physical book from Chaosium when it is out later this year.