Lego Heroica - and further?

[Janx]

can't XP celebrim right now. But I agree.

thanks for bringing this game to my attention. The wife is out shopping for presents, and there's a nephew on the list who'd be a candidate (and I had told her before she left to look at legos...)

Since Legos is pretty modular, it seems a good candiate for plugging in more parts, etc. Dredge up the castle lego guys and put weapons in their hands (weapons doing more/less damage)

make up some spells for the wizard, and some thief skills for the Sneak(like pick locks, disarm trap).

Since the game board looks like its modular (just snap in those pathway pieces), you can make any kind of dungeon.

Stick to the format, 4 HP for characters (just like the video games actually). Make the opposition and challenges more varied on the board.

 

[S'mon]

My 4 year old likes the stuff in the 3e D&D Starter Set I have, but finds the actual adventures far too dull.

I'd suggest getting a starter set box - the Pathfinder Beginner Box looks great - and use the props, but make your own, high octane adventures for it. Reskin stuff so you're saving the princess, not old man Gangee's prize pig or whatever the in-box starter quest is.

 

[Twowolves]

I'd go Heroscape or Pathfinder Beginner Box. Or both.

 

[Walking Dad]

Just a note for the OP, because he mentioned minis ->
The Pathfinder Box contains cardboard standing counters, but you can purchase the miniatures separately.

If you think your son would be satisfied with cardboard, there are also other sets for Pathfinder and numerous sites with free ones for printing at home.

 

[IronWolf]

As some others have mentioned this certainly might be the opportunity to move him to RPGs where the world is wide open with things. Right now is a great time to consider this for the younger set with the recently released Pathfinder Beginner Box.

With the cardboard pawns it includes you will have pretty decent visual representation early on and can always supplement with minis as you go. The rules are scaled back just a bit for easier learning. Looks like a great set and might be perfect for this.

 

[Olli]

i have ordered the PF Beginner set, but i think it will be to heavy on the reading side... but i will give it a look, before I decide.

I really consider going on from GW´s d6 system (mordheim) and see how it goes from there. Are the old plasticmolds for the Mordheim game still available?

I think they would be great to assemble and paint togehter

 

[GreyLord]

I don´t know, who knows Lego Heroica, a game i would call "Hero quest Ultra light". After my 7 year old son got this game from Santa, he talks about nothing else (beside Lego Indiana Jones PC, but thats another story). All in all it looks like a gamer in the making...

But, after 3 days of very intense gaming (including first attempts at houseruling on his side) he bugs me for something more "grown up" (his words, not mine).

So, after Heroquest and Warhammerquest will cost me a fortune, if i can evn lay hands on it here in Germany, where do we go from here?

He just started school this year, so it should be light on the reading side, and it must have visual props!!!!

hope there is somebody out there who can help us.

There are some games that are very Heroquest like, but not heroquest these days.

The first that comes to mind, but is currently hard to find is a game called

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/17226/descent-journeys-in-the-dark

It's currently out of print because they are making a second edition...

Descent: Journeys in the Dark (Second Edition) | Board Game | BoardGameGeek

Second edition will run $80, so that could be considered pretty expensive though.

Be aware though, Descent is more aggressive in many ways than Heroquest and in some ways is more a tactics type game.

If you go to certain internet sites (Magic the Gathering Cards, Singles, Miniatures & Board Games at CoolStuffInc.com. seems to have the cheapest prices and currently have 2e for preorder at $52 or around that).

Tomb has some items which are similar to Heroquest, but very different as it is competitive and you control a party as a whole...with a lot of party deaths and recruiting MORE party members.

I would actually NOT suggest the D&D Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of Ashardalon, Legend of Drizzt games for something akin to Heroquest...that's just me.

Claustrophobia is yet another game more in the line with dungeon crawling that many have enjoyed

Claustrophobia | Board Game | BoardGameGeek

If you wouldn't mind something more in line with futuristic play some other games that have popped up would be

Doom The board game...if you can find it...

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10640/doom-the-boardgame

Though much easier to find would be the newly released Gears of War game

Gears of War: The Board Game | Board Game | BoardGameGeek

It's also a cooperative game.

All the above have the dungeon crawling dynamic like Heroquest, and normally the different dice with symbols that you roll (well claustrophobia and Tomb don't really but do have the bunch of dice you roll).

A new one that's come out, but that I haven't tried or played that may also fit the bill would be Mage Knight Board game

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/96848/mage-knight-board-game


If you like more of the role aspect of growing a character rather than dungeon crawling there are a few other options. This is my favorite type of these types of games.

The first would be the classic Talisman...

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/27627/talisman-fourth-edition

Though my favorite for 3 or less players would actually be

Runebound (Second Edition) | Board Game | BoardGameGeek

Which is a blast to play.

Some say Prophecy is a better game overall

Prophecy | Board Game | BoardGameGeek

All the links will lead you to site with reviews of each and impressions to help you make a better choice.

There are others that are more aggressive in player to player, not really dungeoncrawlers as Heroscape is, these games would be things like Dungeoneer, Space Crusade, heroclix, Dungeon Bash, and others. Another called Super Dungeon Explore is supposedly good...BUT you have to put together the actual minis to play it...which some have complained about.

Hope that gives you a good list of ideas and areas to research.

 

[Stormonu]

If it's the minis your child is drooling over, look at those from Schleich and Safari, LTD (I was entranced with Safari's dragon line, I bought about 3-4 for my D&D game). While most are the wrong scale for D&D, they'd be great at their own scale for mock battles and such.

With figures in tow, you can make the game as simple or as complex as your child wants. For example, my two (ages 10 and 8), they're perfectly content with resolving their army men battles with Rock-Paper-Scissors. When daddy lets them play with the Dungeon Tiles and plastic D&D minis they come up with their own game rules for the whole thing (both have played some BECM & 3.5E D&D).


On a side note:

Happily, my eldest is now of the age he's getting into Warhammer 40k. His army of choice, is of course, Chaos Space Marines (which I loathe with a passion - damn Defilers ). I'm an old gamer, so he's faced off against my Space Marine, Eldar, Tau, Tyranid and new Necron army. He's been beating me so far (the little bugger), until my Doomsday Ark I just got last week took out his main weapon (and his brother's "borrowed" Tyranid army laid into his flank). As I've been telling my friends; if you can't find gamers, make yer own.

 

[Coldwyn]

Servus Olli.
I asume you´re a native german-speaker and you want to use localised or german material, so I´d recommend Dungeonslayers (Either through dungeonslayer.de or Uhrwerk Verlag). It´s free, usable with a Lego-Dungeon, and so on.

 

[D'karr]

I don´t know, who knows Lego Heroica, a game i would call "Hero quest Ultra light". After my 7 year old son got this game from Santa, he talks about nothing else (beside Lego Indiana Jones PC, but thats another story). All in all it looks like a gamer in the making...

But, after 3 days of very intense gaming (including first attempts at houseruling on his side) he bugs me for something more "grown up" (his words, not mine).

So, after Heroquest and Warhammerquest will cost me a fortune, if i can evn lay hands on it here in Germany, where do we go from here?

He just started school this year, so it should be light on the reading side, and it must have visual props!!!!

hope there is somebody out there who can help us.

My son showed interest in gaming when he was 4. So we started with a very simple game. The only "stats" he had to remember was his AC (defense), there were no stats, etc. I would tell him the number he had to roll to hit and every hit eliminated one "monster" from the game. We played using my extensive collection of miniatures and his mega-blocks. The majority of the game was me telling him about his surroundings and asking him, "what do you want to do now?" He had a blast. He's now 12, and plays regularly in our gaming group.

This year my 7 and 9 year old daughters have asked to play, so I devised the same game, but they have hit points, and an attack mod so that they can exercise the "math" part of the game. I stress the idea that this is a game of imagination and we play very fast and lose with the "rules". We used the miniatures and tiles from the various D&D Boardgames.

I didn't find the added complexity of the actual D&D Rules, or Pathfinder to be a good introduction for kids.