Heroica: The LEGO RPG You Forgot

[@hondaaccord1399]

On my knees like a starved man witnessing the divine mercy of a loving god, I haven't seen anybody mention LEGO Heroica, Minotaurus, Creationary, ANYTHING

[@CaptainTimeStories]

Same…. I’ve been hoping for years the heroica fandom isn’t dead… please stay with us…

[@elijahhayter3026]

⁠@@CaptainTimeStories we stand strong, brother, yet silent.

[@orgononjamie]

On my knees spreading open like a hooker, does anyone remember the Lego CDs or Blue Rays(Forgot which one) where you could choose answers and shit. Literally all I remember.

[@diegeticfridge9167]

MINOTAURUS WAS THE SHIT

[@josh.c36]

lfg

[@th3d3liv3ryman6]

miss when lego just threw out random themes

[@Jmilton2000]

"Heroica: The LEGO RPG You Forgot" * me looking over ar the Heroica poster on my wall * No, I don't think I forgot about it

[@EXFrost]

Autistic?

[@finboror]

I have one too!

[@GwendolynFilm]

I also have that poster haha

[@techmaster9775]

Me who still has 4 sets stored safely at my mom's and sometimes forces the family to play it with me

[@Makaneek5060]

Also have that lol

[@Bonezee]

The pro-level tech for the scepter of summoning is actually to pair it with the rogue's ability and use it to farm gold.

[@Mmmmmmmmmmmac]

never thought I’d see someone metagaming lego’s heroica

[@warlock2507]

I could NEVER forget Heroica.

[@nneykobar_hali]

You and me warlock , you and me.

[@Bigsoz]

Same

[@jaylenjayden9305]

Me too

[@sonic234sonikero4]

I *LOVE* that game, i really want a new computer to play it online, because here there weren't any of them

[@Tep123]

amazing board game. i still have it luckily and didnt throw it away!

[@eggsntoast4298]

Maaaaaan. Used to love this game. Me and the boys would disregard the hero's sometimes and play it with the monsters. 4 players, one for the goblins, one for the forest, one for the caves, and one for the undead. Use to play it like a turn based strategy game. Goblins always had the edge thanks to owning the bay. But I remember building little structures to act as a barracks or defensive walls. Even went to some lego stores to get more of the space pieces to make more board. We made our own sub game with Heroica. I need to rebuild those sets and call the boys. Tonights a Heroica Night.

[@blam320]

Please share the rules you came up with!

[@orka5352]

I really loved these as a kid and my parents actually got me all of them. Probably never once played the game correctly or even read the rules but more or less just had a dungeon crawler for a kid.

[@terrylong8894]

It's almost like a VERY simplified Hero Quest. You don't have to worry about having to find somebody to be the dungeon master. You just play through and fight the monsters until you either die or get to the end of the game, and its endlessly expandable. If somebody wanted a single player fantasy adventure game without having to shell out a crapload of money, this would be a good one.

[@Evanflame-rk9xu]

I used to make entire new AREAS to play with dude. I loved heroica

[@kegeramanyanghakiki9576]

damm, you must be rich or sumn, as an ex-kid from the third world country, buying lego was never even in my mind for how expensive it was. We got the fake and the big one instead. But hey, i played the shit out of it no matter what. Ahaha, simpler times.

[@TeenWithACarrotIDK]

@@kegeramanyanghakiki9576 well, Lego is actually starting to get expensive even for people in first world countries lol.

[@cheng9260]

Brooo i used to do the same with the one my grandpa and grandma gifted me

[@ron_with_the_crosstrek_spo7919]

My childhood was several decades behind me when I stumbled onto Heroica. This game had so much potential, and it is a shame that Lego discontinued it. Like every Lego set, it only comes alive when you start building your own models and making up your own stories. What Heroica had was the ability to be a blank canvas for someone to create their own dungeon crawler adventure game with its own set of rules. In true Lego form, the more bricks you had, the more canvas you had for creating. I was lucky enough to find about a dozen Ilrion sets on clearance towards the end of Heroica's time in stores. Those sets along with other sets of Fortaan, Waldurk, Nathuz, and Draida have given me several tubs of Heroica sets to build worlds on an epic scale, in Heroica's case, about the size of the dining room table. This video gives me hope that someday, I may take those tubs of bricks with me to a convention or game night and find fellow Heroica fans who can bring worlds to life.

[@lexibyday9504]

I think the world needs to get out of the "it's for kids so it doesn't need to be good" mindset.

[@NathanielKolk]

I agree, but it doesn’t make as much money, which is all the executives think about

[@lexibyday9504]

@@NathanielKolk I thnk the world needs to get out of the "top priority is making a profit" mindset.

[@intellectualpencil7627]

Agreed

[@NathanielKolk]

@@lexibyday9504 But money is the only language they speak, it runs our capitalist society.

[@completelyferrouschemist6776]

If you make it too good, adults will force their way in and push younger audiences around. Then it stops being for kids, and starts being for pushy adults who don't like sharing with anyone else. There needs to be a fine veneer where it's for families, not for everybody. That way, the context is around kids and adults, instead of one or the other.

[@captaincomic8678]

I've wanted LEGO to revisit Heroica for YEARS; when I was younger and used to mess around with LDD I remember workshopping a Marvel-themed version and trying to rework the rules to create more proper boss encounters and such, using different colored tiles to show where bosses would move next after the players' turn, having marked "hazard" spaces, new item types, et cetera. I remember specifically having a prison set built out where you had the main boss behind three security doors, which you had to unlock by fighting three different mini-bosses, each guarding a backup generator that could be used to unlock a door.

[@harlannguyen4048]

That sounds really cool. Who knew that Heroica has such a fan following even after all of these years?

[@olimor1]

Been playing this every (almost) Friday for the past year with my friend, I’ve added my own desert, graveyard and frozen tundra level, the graveyard has crypts with different seals and the frozen tundra has a mansion you need keys to enter and slippery ice paths, and the desert has booby traps! The original rules are lacking… so I’ve made my own rules, there’s camps with shops where you can buy potions (and weapons) and enemies give gold and higher level enemies gives victory points (encouraging battling them) That’s just scratching the surface I have a note on my phone with over 300 lines for text! I love this game and I really like making my own rules for it, makes me think feel like it’s my own game :)

[@matijakovac473]

Damn would you mind posting your rules in the comment?😅

[@bdeamon1]

I also would like to see your extended rules if you want to post them or maybe link them

[@CaptainTimeStories]

Hey I’m wondering if you know anyone else that does this? I got my own moc too and crazy ruleset… I’m hoping the fandom isn’t dead

[@bdeamon1]

@@CaptainTimeStories I've seen vids of people making grand Heroica moc gameboards, so I'd say more dormant or niche than dead

[@olimor1]

@@matijakovac473 it’s very long but I’ll try

[@micahdye7215]

I 1000% forgot about this but suddenly remembered with 100% certainty that I was obsessed with these when I was younger. I collected most of them if I remember, but I think I can attribute my current D&D obsession to this game

[@MatiNuva1724]

Heroica casually being one of my top 5 LEGO Themes. It really deserved more

[@smilejenkins]

what's so casual about it?

[@LJ1624]

If my DM ever pulls one of these bad boys out for a Dungeon crawl I'd be so hype the whole session!!

[@chickenpie4402]

How dare you accusing me of forgotting Heroica. I had the starter set and the forest one. In fact I still have them, although a few pieces lost or broke (The red guy my beloved :( ) over the time. I really liked back then and still love it to this day, but I always faced the problem, that I didn't had anyone to play with. My family deemed it to dificult. Not that they wouldn't had the mental capicity to learn it, but they lacked the motivation. Anyway my faveorite game mode was the team heroes vs team monsters. When one of the players controlled all the monsters. That really brought some life in the board.

[@mrmacju1530]

Heroica will always have a place in my heart as it is the only Lego theme where I've ever collected all the sets.

[@piotrbijak3545]

Man as a kid I never had a single set of these but I remember watching the little 3d how to play the game tutorials over and over religiously, so I still remember the series fondly

[@ordogordo6589]

I would just play the web game over and over with the different characters until my computer time was up ✊⛓️

[@grobulae]

Me too!

[@isiffrin]

This is me but instead of the internet my school or one of my friends had the lego sets as I never got one. (any chance I got to buy a new lego set would just end up being a Ninjago one)

[@randam1005]

Same here. Lego wasn't really a big thing where I lived so there was no hope of ever getting the sets

[@bocar4127]

Same. I never owned many legos as a little kid because we couldn’t afford them but I remember the pyramid one specifically because one of my cousins owned the set lol

[@JayTohab]

I adored these LEGO boardgames, so sad they didn't really take off.

[@ShadowEclipex]

Man, Heroica was such a cool concept and fun to play. Though most of my enjoyment of the game was seeing the possivel potential with the game.

[@gar2yc]

Never forgotten... Mine are still well kept and pristine, held in the highest regard as one of LEGO's best tabletop game.

[@Nam3y123]

I didn't forget. These came out at the exact right time to be permanently stuck in my memory. I was at the age where I felt a pressure to ditch my "kids' stuff," cartoons and toys and such, so Lego Games and especially Heroica always struck me as the way to do Legos while being a grown-up. After all, it's Lego D&D before Lego D&D!

[@Froge2617]

I REMEMBER PLAYING THIS ON THE LEGO GAMES WEBSITE WHEN I WAS LITTLE!!!!! I CANT BELIEVE THIS!!!!

[@KRBrickBot]

Ganrash looks like it has common enough parts to buy and piece together. It's a little detour from Draida Bay for an early weapon pickup.

[@terraminator4379]

I just unlocked a childhood memory I had long forgotten, thanks

[@mystic-malevolence]

Funny that you mention Ninjago; Season 13 actually came with a board game which played very similarly to Heroica. All of the sets had some structure with board game tiles, your characters had health bars, there were traps and enemies and your movement and combat were determined by spinning a 6-sided Lego top. The sets could be placed on an included paper board, but they could also be connected directly together.

[@joshualoiacono5488]

Wow I forgot: these spawned an era of lego game-design for me! Absolutely loved Lego Games and especially Heroica. Also that is the proper reaction to Ninjago still making seasons.

[@JamesTDG]

6:23 looking at releases of the instructions, the polybag looks safe enough to remake from pick a brick places.

[@a_ghost8926]

That’s what I was thinking as well, the only pieces he would have trouble getting would probably be the minifigs

[@sebikelifeuk]

This unlocked some seriously old beautiful family memories, my parents got me all of these lego games as a kid, used to get them for Christmas and birthdays, unlimited memories playing these with my siblings and neighbours, wow thank you so much for bringing these memories back, the pyramid and Minotaur ones have the deepest memories… and then I also remember at my Nan and grandads I used to play the lego ninjago game on their laptop lol, what a beautiful childhood I truly cherish…

[@davewire87]

I still own the entire series of Heroica. I also have a few of the other games, Atlantis, the Minotaur one, and the dragon one.

[@bobograndman]

A friend and me went crazy with this concept and did a bunch of expansions on the map, like a dnd campaign kinda. We found it’s much more fun for the special ability icon on the dice to represent ability recharge. So you roll it x times to charge the ability and use it whenever you want.

[@mattwcook9127]

I was just old enough when Heroica came out to be responsible with the sets... As such, I still have all the instructions and boxes... Except for Fortaan which got moldy due to water getting spilled on it that I didn't know about until it was too late. Looking forward to when my nephew is old enough to teach this game to!

[@SilvaStreamer6130]

bro that’s awesome I found a box my brother used to have and built the Fortaan set back up, just ordered waldurk forest and am looking forward to building the set aswell and play it lol

[@ninjajack6457]

My god…never clicked on a recommended video so fast. I always wanted to have this game as a kid, even tried to remake it myself.

[@Sikun88]

2 things are missing. The Storage Box/case with extra pieces and the PlayMatt. And the Card set, a card for every hero/item (a free giveaway)

[@kindcurls8945]

Had the minotaur one as a kid. Didn't even play the game that much, just loved the little minifigures and making my own mazes and stories with the pieces. Loved how customisable the dice was!

[@AJordan44-]

I do remember Heroica. This is the best video about it I've seen. I loved it, and had the third set and base the others based on pics and stuff I found from other sets and prices I owned as a kid

[@hipisss5836]

I really loved Heroica concept as a kid. Sadly, my family was to poor to buy me those and I only got the first, smallest set. But even with just that, I remember playing this quite a few times.

[@joshricks1273]

I absolutely loved the Heroica games. My friends and I played over and over during speech and debate trips. It's a shame that they were LEGO because trying to get all of them now would require a bank loan. But man, these games were great!

[@RoninCatholic]

I never forgot. Heroica is what got me back into collecting Lego in 2012. For a while I was intentionally collecting in Microfigure scale, treating full sized minifigures as "Giants" for my Heroicas to fight. I sometimes go back to the set of houserules/combination with the fanmade board game BrickQuest and try to revise them despite having no fellow players to do a full tabletop RPG in Lego...especially not at microfig scale, since people are obviously gonna want the customization of full minifigures.

[@citrusfruit4662]

This brings back so many memories. These sets are definitely responsible for some of the things I’ve come up with and it actually makes me want to do something kind of like it

[@Xaxares]

Oh man i remember those. A friend of mine had a few sets. We ended up homebrewing our own thing with it.

[@Daedalus-Inc]

This! I used to have a Heroica poster, and greatly enjoyed the flash game before it was deleted from existence.

[@Bonezee]

you can still play the flash game using the wayback machine

[@intelli-gent9863]

Funny you should mention that. With Lego announcing the D&D set my mind instantly went to Heroica. I got one set from that theme and I wish I got more because that was a very fun game. Very simple with easy rules. Maybe after this D&D set is released it might create a resurgence of the game? Dang, now I really want to play it again xD

[@EnDungeoned]

I have a couple of these sets kicking around - I got them both 2nd hand around 2012, Hero pieces were missing. But being a big TTRPG fan I could see the potential in them for getting kids playing. Shame they never made anything more of it

[@TheJoppa99]

7:36 A cool little thing some of you may want to know, the runes says "Heroica". I knew that learning that alphabet would be useful one day!

[@Dieselnaut16]

Holy shit finally I see someone else acknowledge Heroica I loved playing the Fortaan castle board as a kid. Me and my friend would also make our own custom boards this was so fun

[@JustJeBoom]

I love Lego Heroica. I remember being very impressed by the Lego dice that came with it.

[@mattmakermusic]

Oh man, Heroica. I still have all of the sets from when I was a kid, and this video makes me feel very nostalgic for the good ol' days. Might have to shake the dust off of them...

[@Z0ink1nat0r]

You. good sir, have unintentionally unlocked childhood memories in thousands of people(myself included)

[@asc3nded397]

I had so much fun building my own layouts and boards for this game as a kid

[@Coloradorivr]

I'm so happy you and others here remembered Heroica. That shit was what made my middle school lunch time very fun. I'm honestly sad it and other lego table top games are now usually just remembered in small circles, and lego really never went back to it.

[@jametsu]

I had a bunch of Lego Games sets when I was a kid. They were soooo much fun. I remember the Minotaur one and the pirate ship one.

[@jandepaepe4262]

Okay so I've been designing a ttrpg for my master project for nearly 2 years now, and I'm honestly impressed LEGO even picked up this project, but I think the main way they dropped the ball is the following: as you mentioned, the dice make up a big part of the players' decisions. A simple way they could have given the players more choice would have been to let players throw 3 equal dice and pick whichever result they wanted... And i honestly can't believe not a single person designing this project had this single idea, since I came up with it in like, 2 seconds and I hope LEGO at least hired semi-capable and experienced game designers to make this thing. Game designer who could have come up with the same solution in the same time period

[@ezraho8449]

The die piece was a pretty expensive one so they likely couldn’t include multiple in a single box. Likely they didn’t want it to be unplayable with just one box.

[@jandepaepe4262]

@@ezraho8449 i wasn’t aware of that! Thanks for the insight

[@mikato2]

So when my brother and I were kids, we had a similar but slightly different idea: utilize the fact that the dice are *also* lego. Each character has three dice: physical, mental, magical. And as your character levels up (we never did decide precisely how this should happen) you could add points to each of these three attributes, and then distribute them among the faces of the relevant dice. And when you want to do something, you decide which die is relevant and how difficult it should be, and roll it. I think the highest any one face of the die could go was 20, because there's 4 studs on each face, and differently colored round pips had different values. Don't think we ever said what the maximum total was, but I don't think we planned for anything to hit 120. Similarly, each stat started at 6 (enough for one one-point pip on each face) but nothing said you had to have *anything* on any given face of any of the dice. You could totally stack all points in a stat on one face of the die, and have a 1/6 chance of blowing it out of the water, but at all other times completely fail to accomplish anything. Also, this being lego, your character was a minifigure, go ham with the lore, go ham with any of the various bits of equipment that could be equipped to a minifig. What your gear *did* was dependent on spending money (we used the Heroica inventory/HP as a basis for this part) and was usually to the tune of making certain actions easier (or possible at all by having a more specific power), but the more elaborately overdesigned it was, the better.

[@Microtransagolor]

@@mikato2 actually insane idea????? i'm going to steal this but with one die for each player(starts empty, one exp per monster killed or according to monster's strength/completing quests?), and they'll have to determine what kind of exp(experience pips) they'll want to place and on what part of the die

[@kittyclaws7657]

I just stared at the preview for about 10 seconds thinking whether I know what this about or not. Then I felt a shiver go down my spine. HOLY SH*T. I REMEMBER THIS GAME. I am Siberian and my family never had much money for LEGO so my mom bought this game because it was cheaper and had the LEGO logo on it. Damn, what a memory you helped me uncover! Thank you!

[@jamestorrie6550]

Bro the memories that flooded back watching this is insane

[@JannahSWT]

I sadly ever only had one set of heroica but still i loved the small lego board games era, it was a great time!

[@wyrdcyko]

I've been thinking about this game for years, thank you for letting me remember the name.

[@owenschmidt6166]

So many memories came back watching this. Definitely dusting the boxes off and playing some rounds.

[@Rikka_Roll]

I had all of these when I was younger, I never forgot.

[@fabianschreck4393]

Wow... I had so many of these games as a kid and totally forgot about them.

[@OwlOwl900]

I remember staring at the pictures and pages of these sets in the lego magazine wanting them so badly

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

Creating rules for the Warriors from Minotaurus, the Pirates from Pirate Plank, and the Sheiks from Ramses' Pyramid was something I always wanted to try. But I never got any Heroica sets!

[@CaptainTimeStories]

OMG I still play this! I have a moc that I still tinker with. I compulsively buy microfigures on bricklink to add to it. Seriously where is the heroica fandom at, I’ve looked all over and I can’t find it. Hit me up if you wanna talk. Seriously I still spend so much time playing heroica.

[@DivineArchangelAzrael]

the nostalgia flashbang this video gave me. How did i forget these masterpieces

[@miguelmulero2802]

I absolutely LOVED this LEGO series and I remembered watching the animated series over and over again.

[@vladapatera123]

I will never forget the amount of fun I had with it with my friends when i was younger

[@trickponystudios]

I still have my Caverns of Nathuz.

[@cicerothenekoknightplaysall]

Wow lost memory acquired. I haven't thought about this since I was a kid

[@maxomatic76]

We have the Minotaur set of this game. I think that's what it was called.

[@erubianwarlord8208]

the minotaur was a separate game in the bigger series

[@ThatGenericPyro]

Minotaurus

[@2Horrible]

I had the forest set, i used all the jumper plates for a minecraft build. I remember the og videos where the set designers made a full world map by combining 20 sets. Good times

[@dustinzaccaria7644]

What is the URL of the Heroica website, so I can have a look at archived content on the Wayback archive.

[@josephmartins8882]

Had that poster on my wall for nearly 10 years. I never forgot it… amazing to see it mentioned in this current year

[@feleedman]

We need the ninjago video asap

[@nomiss9246]

I only had one set. However ! I am now realizing that it inspired so much in me. It was my first experience of heroic fantasy and the classes stuck with me leading to me wanting to make a game, then a book and now a TTRPG. The first inspiration never truly disappeared. So that was a nice throwback

[@tf2warhammerdude]

While watching this I had like a core memory unlocked. I never had the set, but I remember the animations. God damn.

[@Skylite0228]

I had all 5 of the sets and loved them. I played w all of them combined for hours at a time.

[@kingemmoden214]

I remember how mind blowing it was to combine the sets together into one giant board. Heroica and the Hero Factory video games on the Lego website are some of my fondest Lego memories

[@captainloser6237]

When I was 10 or 11, my best friend had all of the Heroica sets. He and I would put them all together and have a massive game. It was sick. I miss Heroica

[@germansausage7310]

I think the real lego themed game people forgot about is "Lego: universe". Its a game ill never forget and will always wish it would come back.

[@whitewolf6113]

I used to make custom expansions for Lego Heroica as a kid, man this took me back 🥹

[@innocent_red_head]

My beloved heroica, how i missed you

[@chipsetcharlie8171]

When i saw this video pop up on my for you i actually started to tear up, like i almost cried. So NOSTALGIC!!

[@-megawolf-805]

So glad to see someone cover these again! Supposedly these sets didn't sell well, but as a kid I was always into odd black sheep lines like this one. Heroica as a game is very basic, but the fact that you can literally build your own modular dungeon boardgame is still so cool to me. It's no wonder I ended up getting into D&D later in life.

[@KevinReillySV]

I loved the Minotaur game! What deep core memories

[@NIK1357]

As proud owner of all heroica sets, im very happy to see that this serie not forgotten

[@nram3930]

This unlocked some old, OLD memories. I vividly remember these characters, but I must have been 3 years old and barely sentient when playing with these. God tier lego sets ;)

[@scottvergin4732]

I remember having a DM who had us use Legos for our characters and maps. It was incredibly fun

[@karolzzieba8146]

I loved Heroica, I played it obsessively with my friend, with whom we were building our own maps, having multi-character battles and so on... but man, watching your video I just couldn't get over the fact you used ost from Skylanders. I mean, I love that game, I'm collecting these guys since 2013 and argh, something so nostalgic to me with music from game I play since childhood, I love that so much God, I wrote that comment before finishing the video and then heard Rayman music. Another great throwback. Man, this video is literally me

[@BileyyggR]

You just unlocked a memory! We didn't have money for lego sets, so I tried to create my own using other lego pieces I already got...

[@roborex6]

This video just unlocked so many memories of Lego games I used to play on the Lego site

[@BrianBors]

I did forget this one. but as a tabletop rpg fan trying to teach this to kids from time to time when this came out, I followed it with special interest. Thanks for bring back the memories.

[@f1lipka]

Oh my god I totally forgot about Heroica. But when I saw this video I got flashbacks and nostalgia :D thanks for doing video about this.

[@ThorStone214]

I never forgot about it. I just wish they would continued it. I have a set in my room.

[@MothFable]

dude seeing the logo for the dice gave me such monstrous nostalgia. i had the minotaur set as a kid(still have one of the micro figures floating around in my tub of legos) the nostalgia hit tho.... man you should put up a warning lol.

[@dipperpines2793]

I barely played with these lego games at all, but I remember always seeing them. Just the box art at ~90s in gave me so many flashbacks to my childhood (and I remember watching the heroica animations, gosh seeing those again hit hard)

[@asdf-pd1uj]

I have several sets in pieces scattered across my lego boxes I still have. I absolutely loved to build custom campaigns with it, incredible product. I hope it returns someday.

[@hyrulechampion5451]

I used to make custom maps and enemies when I was a Kid for Heroica

[@Dalazyfox]

It's good to see someone talking about Heroica. It was a part of my childhood and even though I couldn't get my hands on any of the LEGO sets, I've played the video game a lot. The music and sound effects from the game live rent free in my brain. Lots of nostalgia and a well made video. Good job

[@Busterdrag]

I was always told that Lego Heroica was literally Hero Quest: Lego Edition, and I think it shows. Makes me want to play it, Hero Quest is my jam.

[@lilschlagen]

Dude I had like half of these games you showed on screen and I haven't thought about them in years. I remember loving Heroica. I begged my grandparents to get me one of the expansions for my birthday. I remember it being pretty simple but very fun.

[@oweeenie1754]

BRUHHH im having my inner lives unlocked off this water of life type video