From what I saw there and read about in the original link, it looks like the Heroica series will build upon the principles of earlier LEGO-based boardgames to produce a dungeon-crawling game, complete with combat and resource management. I can say from personal experience that these LEGO boardgames are quite fun; my 8 year-old son in particular enjoys them. Indeed, when I told him about and showed him Heroica, he expressed great interest in it. I can't say that I'm surprised: he adores LEGO and the only aspect of my Dwimmermount campaign that's grabbed his attention is the use of miniatures and dungeon tiles. Heroica combines those two things together to produce a complete game -- plus it introduces the basic principles of classical dungeon crawling. What's not to love?
I expect I'll be picking these games up for the family once they're available.
Given how many people I've seen using Lego for rpgs and wargames, and the company's moves into boardgames, I've been wondering how long it would take them to come out with something like this. There is a lot of potential in this kind of thing, so I'll be interested to see what they have in store.
ReplyDeleteThe German explanation is only an introduction for people unaware of rpg: "It's inspired by video games .... you don't just play red or green, you play a character ... Heroica takes place in a fantastical world..."
ReplyDeleteWe just bought my son a giant Scarab Beetle lego set on the weekend. I think he'd like this too. :)
ReplyDeleteUh oh. So much for my bank account.
ReplyDelete- ARk
My 7 year-old just built a giant LEGO dungeon in the basement with the intention of being the DM for his friends (to whom he wants to send formal invitations).
ReplyDeleteWe will indeed be alllllll over this...
I have seriously considered getting various lego knight figures and using them as miniatures instead of actual minis. You can change out weapons, headgear, etc. quite easily. The only problem is that it's difficult to find a broad selection, and I got rid of the ones I had growing up ages ago.
ReplyDeleteHave you guys seen this?:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.brikwars.com/
It's essentially a do-it-yourself wargaming system.
And then there are these LEGO games @ Amazon.com:
LEGO Lava Dragon Game
LEGO Minotaurus Game
LEGO Magikus Game
Given these resources, I could see a lot of ways to work LEGO minis and such into the game.
Also, see this photo stream on flickr.
Thanks for sharing the vid! My son is all about the set with (what appears to be) the rangers on the cover.
ReplyDeleteThere's also
ReplyDeleteEvil Stevie's Pirate Game by Steve Jackson (the US one not the UK one).
And BrickQuest by Peter Guenther.
Frank
Looks very interesting, thanks for the heads-up!
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's time to sell my 40K army and go back to Lego...
ReplyDeleteheres a review of minotaurus.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tNkPuYveXw
looks cool
Minotaurus is a sweet game.
ReplyDeleteI have it and have played it many games. The short game (1 guy home wins) has been fun for non-gamers as well as my serious gaming buddies. The long game (all guys home to win) is in some ways even more fun, bringing out a lot of political maneuvering and strange stretegies.
The rules actually encourage you to customize the dice and create your own rules variations (they give a few examples) which has a very old-school game principle vibe to it.
At least in Australia, Lego figures are actually more expensive than normal miniatures.
ReplyDeleteAbout a month ago, I made a joking comment about starting a Lego club at the Community College at which I'm taking classes.
ReplyDeleteIt just had Its third "meeting" today...
It sounds great, and I've played several Lego games before (Minotaurus is fun), but the title saddens me. I've been designing a supers RPG called Superheroica. :-(
ReplyDeleteWe used legos all the time to suplement our metal figures, we would premake walls and set them down using the random dungeon generator in the DMG to kill an afternoon. I also remember running all of UK 7 Dark Clouds Gather using legos including building the flying manta ray thing for the final battle in the sky.
ReplyDeleteThe "Heroica" line looks awesome. I have enjoyed the fact that LEGO is expanding their offerings.
ReplyDeleteAnd to think, in the early/mid '90s, LEGO sued a college student for publishing a set of wargame rules using LEGO figures. One of their beefs was their toys weren't oriented towards violence...
ReplyDeleteLooks very cool. Seems like each player has their own "character sheet" in the form of a small LEGO platform with removable tokens (for hit points? attributes? equipment?) Neat!
ReplyDeleteI love playing the other LEGO boardgames with my daughter, though those big customizable dice with the rubber edges tend to bounce off the table! (we have to roll them in the box top)
I simply cannot understand why I didn't think of this myself. It's ingenious. I was obsessed with Lego back as a lad: I had the big giant pirate ship and the evil castle, and everything.
ReplyDeleteMan.
After looking at the video, I can see the micro-dungeon functioning as an overhead map. Once players are in an encounter, you could reveal the zone made to full LEGO figure scale.
ReplyDeleteSeems like each player has their own "character sheet" in the form of a small LEGO platform with removable tokens
ReplyDeleteThat "character sheet" is called "backpack" in the game, and the woman explains that you can take your equipment ("weapons and potions") won in one "level" to the next "level" (= box) to fight another "end evil one", even in German ("Endböser") a very clunky term for "boss monster".
Word verification: endsquat (...!)
"character sheet" is called "backpack" in the game" etc.
ReplyDeleteWell. That's BrickQuest and it's been around as a free rules set since 2003. I'll go out on limb and say Heroica will be inferior because A) BQ uses full sized minifigs with all the equipment options b) 90% of the Lego games suck wind. They ship with superficial and often broken rules which the buyer is encouraged to "customize" ie fix to make a playable game. Check their ratings and reviews on Boardgamegeek.
I'd agree Minotaurus is one of the better games. Creationary is Pictionary with Lego. It's okay but since Pictionary is Charades on paper that's not really original is it?
ReplyDeleteThe others I've seen and tried have been pretty disappointing.
Way back in my middle school days, I used to play a fairly simple Wargame for recreating WWII battles. We did the massive D-Day invasion with LEGO. I would not be surprised to find out that Gary or Dave used it in their games at some point(?) Anyway, I have two hellions(kids) that will love this stuff ... Bad Rules? all the more fun for Dad to fix!
ReplyDeleteMy son and I are now playing "Minotaurica", which introduces the Minotaur of Minotaurus into Heroica. We replaced one of the die-tiles with the black one and when you roll it that player gets to move the Monotaur and try and catch another player. When it does that player has to return to the last 'door' (save point) that hero went through. Very fun to combine the Lego Games elements with one another...
ReplyDelete