Lego Heroica (another actual play report)

Last night, my grandson Lance came over to hang out for awhile.  His mom had softball and he hadn't been over lately, so it was a good time.

Anyway, Lance is a Legomaniac.  Seriously.  He loves the Legos.

We played air hockey for a few games but eventually I couldn't resist busting out the new Lego Heroica set I bought.  He was instantly captivated.

Being the incorrigible DM that I am, I couldn't help but tinker with the rules.  I explained to him that we were going to explore the complete castle (3 games; different layouts).  During the first two games, whatever magic or treasure we found, we would carry that over to the next game.  If our characters died in the first two games, they could regenerate and we could regenerate all our hit points between session.  In the final session, if we died -- we were out.  We'd need to team up to defeat the goblin king.

In my back pocket I had a rule that if no one character made progress during a turn, the goblin king would get one random reinforcement from the goblin jar.  Never had to use that.  Lance didn't fool around.

The first game was occupied mostly by Lance getting a handle on what his characters could do.  He took the knight and the wizard.  I took the barbarian and the druid.  Basically, you roll the Lego die to move and if you end up fighting you roll the die again to fight.  The one symbol that is common to both rolls is the shield.  If you roll a shield during movement, you can use your ranged power.  If you roll a shield during combat you can use your melee skill.  Here's a picture of a page from the rules.  You can see what the character skills are at the bottom:

During game two, we started to discuss strategy.  We talked about what weapons we should buy with our gold and who should have them.  We discussed who should have the potions.  The weapons duplicate the skills of each warrior.  That way, you could have a barbarian (close combat) who also has the staff (healing). 

When the map was laid out for Game 2, we talked about what we'd do first and if we should split the party (in Lego this is a good idea).  We talked about what order we should visit the rooms and we made sure we'd have enough keys to open the locked doors.

During Game 3, I really thought Lance would be afraid that his characters would die.  He wasn't.  At one point, his knight with only 2 HPs left charged a green and grey goblin.  The green does 1 if you lose in battle; the grey does 2.  He took on the green first and won.  Then he took on the grey.  That could have been the end.  Nope.  He rolled a shield and took him out.  High-fives across the table.

At the end of the battle, we had to go 1:1 with the goblin king.  My barbarian had a potion of strength (instant kill) and I told Lance to just wait.  Nope.  He ran right in with his knight and rolled a sword.  Dead goblin king.

"Ha!  I got him!  I didn't have to wait for you!"  He was really proud of himself.

Great game, great fun.  This just might be the "gateway drug" that the OSR needs.  A few rules tweaks and you've really got something.

Proposed Rules Tweaks for Heroica to OSR conversion (not playtested yet):

• All damage is 1.  You can attack diagonally.  Monsters take multiple hits to kill based on their color.
• Spend gold for healing potions (heal 2 pts; 3 gold)
• No regeneration.
• If the heroes fool around and don't make progress toward the goal, add one random monster to the board in unexplored areas.
• Maybe have a GM and reveal the dungeon one room at a time.
• Allow the monsters to move (I think this is already in the rules).  Wandering monsters from explored areas when the GM rolls a shield during monster movement.

Lego Heroica - Actual Play Report (Castle Fortaan)

I went out to Target tonight to buy dog food and I found myself drifting over into the toy section.  I like to take a look around at Target because in the past, I've found Heroscape on clearance and other games as well.

So, what did I find?  Lego Heroica!

This is the Castle Fortaan set ($30)

Target had two of the other sets, but not the Waldurk Forest, which is the other one I really want... Actually, who am I kidding?  I'll be buying all four...

You can download the rules here (check them out!)

Anyway, I busted open the box, which is quite sturdy and will store the game well for some time to come.  Inside, I found four bags of Lego parts, a rulebook, a scenario book and the instructions for how to build the set.

You only have to build it once -- you can disassemble it and store it in the box for future play.  The pieces build out like dungeon tiles and corridors.  You can assemble it nearly any way you'd like.  There are three "scenarios" or dungeons in the book.  Each one is set up a little different and each one shows you where the monsters are and where the magic items are.

There are four characters, a barbarian, a wizard, a druid and a knight.  Each one has a special ability that sets them apart.

The game is played by rolling a really cool Lego die and reading the "pips" to move.  Then, if you are adjacent to a monster, you roll the die again and read the "symbols" to determine the outcome of combat.

You can find gold, magic potions and magic items.  You can search chests -- some are trapped and some have treasure.  You have to find keys to open locked doors.

I convinced my wife to play and the game was quite fun.  It requires a bit of teamwork at the start to get past the locked doors and the monsters (there are quite a few to defeat on the way).  At the end, I was in position to take the throne when my wife's wizard blasted the goblin king to oblivion.  Huzzah!  It took about 20 minutes to play one scenario.

What's Good?

The whole game is good.  It's not complicated and I can tell that it has a bit of replay value.  Kids will probably love it.  I really liked it.

What Would You Hack?

There's a rule in the game called "Battle Heroica."  One player runs all the monsters.  Sound familiar?  If I ran that version of the game, I wouldn't lay the whole map out.  I'd build it as you go.  Sound familiar?

I could also go digging through my Lego box to find a bunch more bricks to make more tiles...  :)

You literally could use this as a dungeon representation at a tiny scale.  One "stud" being 5' of actual scale.  The little guys could be used to set up a marching order very easily.  The abstract nature of the old school games would work perfectly.

If your Heroica hero "dies" you just kinda have to sit there until you regenerate.  You could give monsters a number of hits to kill (instead of just dying after one) and you could make all monsters do 1 pip of damage (some do 3 and you only have 4...), but when you're dead you're dead.  Would make defeating the adventure a bit harder AND more rewarding.

You could easily add new kinds of magic items, potions, monsters, traps, etc. to this game if you have the Legos to do it.  Of course, you could go all "abstract" and forget about the Legos.  In actuality, if you turned this into a campaign game, a little character sheet would make that easier.

All in all, great game, lots of fun and lots of ways to tinker (don'tcha just love tinkering?)

In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming

Bought my grandson Matt this cool Lego Atlantis: Gateway of the Squid model.

He put it together by himself tonight and his dad sent me this picture.  I hope he had fun and I hope it isn't in pieces the next time I'm over there...  :)

I thought I'd post it here because it looks like the mind flayer with the magical trident and the cthulhoid monster are going to make a quick meal of the two scuba divers.

Poor dumb, dead bastards...

Lego Heroica

This looks AWESOME!  Lego Dungeons!

I'll be buying all four sets as soon as they are available!


Wish I could understand the voiceover...  :(