HeroScape is coming back!

[Grungebob]

Originally Posted by Just_a_Bill

This is so foundational to my entire Heroscape experience. I remember drooling over the RotV box in Target those two decades ago, but didn't buy it because I had no idea when I would find time/opponents to play with. To my surprise, my daughters bought it for me for Christmas, played it with me, and liked it. There was an immediate conjunction of quality design, the cool mixture of historical, fantasy, and sci-fi elements, and (most important) an activity I could share with my kids. Half the fun of getting new stuff was revealing it to them.

This is part of the reason the transition to D&Dscape was hard for me. As the focus shifted away from Valhalla and toward the D&D worlds, it became less and less something that my kids were interested in. It probably did a good job of serving those who craved more evil monsters from the ethereal planes of hell, it was just less and less a parent-child gaming experience. Not because it was "too evil" but because the aesthetics just felt less and less like Valhalla. The more the original design paradigms got left behind, the less my kids and I had to hang onto emotionally. Great gameplay is good, but divorced from the original design aesthetic and the attention to detail in important non-gameplay elements, it just wasn't the same experience.

And here we go again with nearly all fantasy elements with names that sound like D&D characters. Plus a Marro in pants who's confused about whether he hates his own general or not. It kinda feels like a brute-force fantasy monster mashup that has Heroscape's name and underlying gameplay, but not much emphasis on Heroscape's roots of charm, accessibility, and good storytelling. I guess the designers find those things boring.

Anyway that's my gut feeling. There's just not much in this initial offering that inspires me in that way. It's not building on the things that made Heroscape great for us. I realize I'm in the minority among those who still even hang out on this site, and I don't expect any of this to change. Just explaining one perspective. And honestly I'm kinda happy that I don't feel the compulsion to relapse into my old plastic crack addiction.

I can’t say I agree with everything you’ve said, but I do understand where you’re coming from.

If anything, Heroscape had a complete lack of theme, relying heavily on a certain toy aesthetic and player imagination. Any time theme is introduced in a more cohesive way, you lose some of that charm, and hem in the player’s imagination.

However, what theme does do, is increase immersion and define certain player goals. Scenarios make more sense, abilities find more relevance, and the meta feels richer. Perhaps those are things that kids don’t care about, but Heroscape casts a wide net.

[Finrod]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Given that they reverted to AoA designs instead of doing their own original stuff, the scenarios should be a nice first real window into the design chops of Renegade. Something to watch!

Nonsense. We've already seen that. Oberon became Irene.

[Finrod]

Interesting side note on retailer orders. Right now, only the unpainted versions are available for pre-order (at least in the distributor that my friend uses).

They do have a huge "launch package" incentive that requires ordering 8 master sets, 12 battle boxes and 6 terrain packs. In return, the retailer gets a bunch of the Sgt Drake promos, posters, etc. And a Heroscape branded demo table with a demo copy of the PAINTED master set.

So as a retailer, you get a painted copy to set up and help promote... but you only get unpainted versions to sell.

[Good Pig]

Originally Posted by Finrod

Interesting side note on retailer orders. Right now, only the unpainted versions are available for pre-order (at least in the distributor that my friend uses).

They do have a huge "launch package" incentive that requires ordering 8 master sets, 12 battle boxes and 6 terrain packs. In return, the retailer gets a bunch of the Sgt Drake promos, posters, etc. And a Heroscape branded demo table with a demo copy of the PAINTED master set.

So as a retailer, you get a painted copy to set up and help promote... but you only get unpainted versions to sell.

Have any distributors or online retailers (other than direct through Renegade) been announced? And where else have you seen it available to pre-order? Thanks.

[boromir96]

Originally Posted by Good Pig

Have any distributors or online retailers (other than direct through Renegade) been announced? And where else have you seen it available to pre-order? Thanks.

You can preorder through Hasbro Pulse and Amazon.

[Myriadite]

Originally Posted by boromir96

You can preorder through Hasbro Pulse and Amazon.

As well as Board Game Bliss.

[Finrod]

Originally Posted by Good Pig

Have any distributors or online retailers (other than direct through Renegade) been announced? And where else have you seen it available to pre-order? Thanks.

I'm looking at the information my friend receives for his store from his distributor (not sure if I can give out that specific information), for RETAILERS.

From that distributor right now, retailers can only order the unpainted sets. They can't get any of the painted ones.

As it stands right now, you can only get the painted editions directly from Renegade or Hasbro.

[Good Pig]

Awesome, thanks everyone who responded.

Not sure if this was mentioned, but it's kind of odd that the unpainted versions of the product show the figures painted on the box art. For any buyers not on this website, they might be feeling some bait and switch once they open the box.

[STAROCEAN980]

Originally Posted by Good Pig

Awesome, thanks everyone who responded.

Not sure if this was mentioned, but it's kind of odd that the unpainted versions of the product show the figures painted on the box art. For any buyers not on this website, they might be feeling some bait and switch once they open the box.

I was thinking the same thing when I saw the stuff listed on Amazon. They do put in small text at the bottom of one of the preview images that the figures come unpainted, but I can imagine hardly anybody pays attention to that. I could definitely see a lot of people being misled and disappointed/upset after purchasing.

[nyys]

Originally Posted by STAROCEAN980

I was thinking the same thing when I saw the stuff listed on Amazon. They do put in small text at the bottom of one of the preview images that the figures come unpainted, but I can imagine hardly anybody pays attention to that. I could definitely see a lot of people being misled and disappointed/upset after purchasing.

Most minis games do that. At least all the ones I've seen. They show you what the figures could look like, but in small print have a disclaimer that they come unpainted (and in some cases unassembled).

HeroScape is a little different in that, until now, always came pre-painted and is probably more susceptible to folks who don't know better feeling hosed.

[Just_a_Bill]

Originally Posted by Good Pig

it's kind of odd that the unpainted versions of the product show the figures painted on the box art

Yeah, this could cause some problems with casual customers who aren't following the online chatter. Surely there will be some returns to Amazon, but maybe it won't be enough to harm the product line.

What seems even more bizarre is how both the product packages and the supporting web images fail to show any pictures of the walls or trees. They could have made the battlefield scenes come alive with that stuff, but instead it looks like they maybe just went with some early marketing images of figures sitting on tiles. Nobody had a couple of hours free one afternoon to pose a proper product shot? (Or maybe none of the missing stuff has been actually produced yet.)

Also weird is that the Master Set images don't even show the glyphs, order markers, wound markers, dice.... Now I can maybe see why they might not want to show the army cards, which kinda look like cartoon crap compared to the old ones, but leaving out all this component detail could be sending a subtle visual message that you're not getting a whole lot for your $125 or $225.

It all feels ... I don't know ... rushed?

[Tmac2200]

I have a feeling these aren't the final production boxes. They still have time to make packaging adjustments assuming the plan is to release in August.