Discussion: Why Heroscape is an Amazing and Successful Game

[SuperSamyon]

It would be unfair to only focus on the failure of Heroscape as a retail product without also discussing the success of Heroscape as a board game.

This thread is for all the new players who are unsure on what the appeal of Heroscape is to find out why this game is so amazing.

Please share with us why Heroscape was a successful game to you.

Heroscape is for me the most addicting and amazing board game I have ever played. It simultaneously makes me introverted and extroverted as it is the one product that can make me escape into my own world one day as I think of new creative ways to play only to seek out friends the next so that I can have someone to play with.

It made me ask this question, "what is it about this game that makes me want to spend thousands of dollars on it and spend hours playing it?"

I realized the answer to that question is right here in this forum's creative community: Heroscape is a game that allows your imagination to come to life.

One's experience with Heroscape is limited only by one's own imagination. It embodies everything that we as young and old men (and women) use to enjoy as a kid. We have action figures that allow us to act out our battles, cards that allow us to show off cool super powers, a playset that lets us rekindle our love of connecting and building things (and playing with Legos), a story that lets us transport ourselves to a world where anything is possible, and to finally once and for all decide who is the strongest one of all as we play out the battle to end all battles! Best of all, for many of you it also meant rekindling your imagination and exploring all these things with your children.

What was your favorite and most addicting part of Heroscape?

For me, while I enjoyed making cool maps, I enjoyed creating an army even more. Having the perfect army primed for battle was the most exciting part of Heroscape. When my friends and I would sit around a table drafting an army, we would spend hours drafting the troops that would help our imagination run wild and lead us to victory.

I loved that I could put some Matrix agents against some dragons. Who hasn't wondered how modern weaponry would fare against a stealth like ninja? How cool is it that Spiderman can face off against a bunch of Elfs while avoiding the likes of Batman and Robin? How freaking amazing is it that we can even have a place to act any of this stuff out?

Remember when you were a kid and you would draw the most ridiculous pictures with the most ridiculous backstory that tried to make sense of the ridiculous chaos on your paper? I feel that that is what Heroscape did for me: it helped me make sense of all those ridiculous battles I would imagine in my head and finally answer the question of "who would win if X fought Y...?"

While this game was aimed at children, I feel that it was adults who enjoyed it the most. One of my favorite stories has always been the story of the boy who never grew up named Peter Pan. As a child, I use to think "I wish I could be a Toys R Us kid forever." Heroscape seems to answer that wish. It connects you with your inner child and lets you for only a moment be whisked back to Never Never Land where your biggest concern is fighting off a band of pirates (or ninjas).

Heroscape is truly anything you make it and that is why it is in my opinion, an incredibly successful and addicting game. If one simply peruses through this forum, one will see just how creative this game can be and how much it has touched its community.

1. We have a gifted and talented custom community who tirelessly work to include all the heroes of fiction in the Heroscape universe.

2. We have a community who continues on with "official" releases so that the world of Heroscape never fades away.

3. We have Comic book lovers who took the Marvel Master Set template and ran with it to make a version of Heroscape that is more fantastic than anything the original designers could have imagined.

4. We have gifted writers who create fiction to further enrich the world of Heroscape and tell the tales that must be told.

5. We have artist who work to paint the pictures that are in all of our minds.

6. And we have passionate gamers who are willing to travel hundreds of miles just to play with old friends.

What other game can boast of such creativity?

Those are just my observations, what are yours?

[Fabien Esenwein]

I like Heroscape for the same reason that I like dungeons and dragons, and for the same reason I liked Warhammer fantasy. I just love to daydream at school about all the cool armies I could use in the tournament, or to draw bad pictures of Cyprien. I was drawn to Heroscape because it was a game that I could spend an unlimited amount of time on; something that I could do anywhere with just my head. As a Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Master, it was also very nice to play Heroscape because of all of the beautiful figures. I just love to put my party up against Shurrak or the Wyvern because they can't just google the mini on their phones to get a complete list of it's stats. The Valhallan backstory of Heroscape also inspired a campaign, in which the party was summoned to Valhalla just before Death, and had to serve under the great General Jandar and resist the temptation to try to regain their old lives. Building the maps is really cool and all, but I've never been much of a fan. I prefer to download pre-made maps so as to ensure a fair and fun game. Heroscape was successful because it had unlimited potential. There are very few game systems out there that combine games with such quick and easy customizability (GURPS does all of that too, but after reading 4 rulebooks and being unable to play I quickly lost interest). I believe that Heroscape is so popular because it appeals to such an incredibly huge audience, and is an EPIC game on top of that.

[Dad_Scaper]

I love me some tournaments. If there's a tournament scene near you then you should go play; if there isn't then you should start one.

Also I like breaking my posts into paragraphs (*cough* Fabien *cough*).

[shafizele]

Please share with us why Heroscape was a successful game to you.

Simply put, it was all about customization and it's uniqueness. Originally I got hooked by a friend and the battle part of it was cool. Then I discovered a whole wackload of battle simulator games but the terrain kept me with scape. Seriously, I used to just build battlefields just like one would play with lego, it was the ultimate hook factor for me and the selling point to a lot of people too. The terrain can be used for pretty much any game that even remotely resembles a scale battle simulator and it looks friggin cool.

What was your favorite and most addicting part of Heroscape?

I think I answered this already but as I got older the idea of robots and orcs fighting was truly epic in my mind. I used to (and still do quite often) create all sorts of fantasy scenario's. "Elves fight their way out of an orc ambush", "undead horde survival", "Good vs evil castle siege's". The absolute lack of any "ending" to heroscape keeps me hooked. By this I mean even if I somehow bore myself by playing one game mode too much, there are an uncountable amount of other ways I can still play.

Originally Posted by SuperSamyon

1. We have a gifted and talented custom community who tirelessly work to include all the heroes of fiction in the Heroscape universe.

2. We have a community who continues on with "official" releases so that the world of Heroscape never fades away.

3. We have Comic book lovers who took the Marvel Master Set template and ran with it to make a version of Heroscape that is more fantastic than anything the original designers could have imagined.

4. We have gifted writers who create fiction to further enrich the world of Heroscape and tell the tales that must be told.

Agree with this fully, I have only 1 thing to add... You simply can't walk away from a game in which you roll dice with skulls on them

[Agent Minivann]

I have to go back to my first read through the rules (was it really 7 years ago?). I was looking at the different things that were done with scenarios and thinking I could do anything with the tools given to me. And making custom units didn't even occur to me.

[AMIS]

Please share with us why Heroscape was a successful game to you.

For me the game was all about imagination possibilities.

It tragically "ended" before we could get Zulu warriors, Judge Dredd, Space marines, and dog-riding Halflings.
Of course thanks to the easy to understand set of rules, customs can be generated by anyone and the folks in this forum have come up with some brilliant innovations.
Note: There are even some amazing customs outside of the normal groups that create the unofficial new wave of superheroes and classic sides of the game. Heroscapers has a huge wealth of knowledge.

What was your favorite and most addicting part of Heroscape?

Watching my two sons play the game.

Oh, one was far too young when we started playing and sometimes sometimes the rules just fell away breaking down into a game of who can flick Sgt. Drake the furthest. Poor guy... But a couple of years later they both follow the rules and the heartache of losing becomes less and less (not to worry I'll get over it sooner or later).

I am trying to collect all the figures on a budget that will probably never let me do it but at least my kids will be able to play on long after I'm gone.

[Bloody Bogle]

Originally Posted by shafizele

I think I answered this already but as I got older the idea of robots and orcs fighting was truly epic in my mind. I used to (and still do quite often) create all sorts of fantasy scenario's. "Elves fight their way out of an orc ambush", "undead horde survival", "Good vs evil castle siege's".

The single greatest heroscape story I can tell is that at the beginning of the summer, I invited a bunch of friends over, and we attempted to have a small tournament (It ended in failure, but that's not the point of this post). After I had finished up my game, I turn to my friend Harry, who was fielding Romans against Glads/Blasts, and ask him how he was doing. He turned to me with a crazed look in his eye, and practically yelled, "We're 2nd Century warriors fighting robots! How do you think its going!?!?"

Sorry I got a little off topic, but I agree, its the fact that not only is a match up like that possible, but not even uncommon, that makes Heroscape such a great game. (Along with building awesome maps, of course)

[CanScape]

I like campy movies, ridiculous comedies and sci-fi nerdiness...and westerns, samurais n' ninjas as well as castles, knights, dragons...and ancient Romans, Greeks...and giant insects going crazy and alien invasions and zombies and vampires and cowboys and indians...and robots and sasquatches and ogres and dwarves.

So all that stuff; throw it into a game with good rules, balanced gameplay and a field of terrain that's second literally to none: perfect game! About as perfect as can be, in my opinion.

In my mind, if I couldn't have all those ingredients, it wouldn't be what it is. It's a toy, it's a game, it's collectible and has enough demand that should I sell it (never, lol!) I'd make a good chunk of my change back.

It's only limited by your imagination, but if you want something quick and easy to set up, you can. You can go huge if you want (something I don't think the rules are that great at simulating, but if you have the patience it can be done).

It has penguins with machine guns!...well, maybe not quite, but you 'could'.

Now those are my reasons; somebody else might think those are detriments...the nerd factor is high, as is the cost if you're a completist but it just had so many things going for it, it'll always be a classic for those lucky enough to get to try it.

[Samuel Brown]

Everyone, one day another company will buy rights to heroscape it's only a matter of time. As long as this sites and other sites stay active companies will notice. Just keep playing and doing your thing and one day you will look in the paper and find "Fantasy Flights bought rights to Heroscape" or somthing like that. We all talk about it and we know it was an insanly popular game. Keep on supporting

[ozzy-scaper]

I introduced a friend of mine to HS just last night. He's a serious gamer and retailer of said serious games. It was awesome to see him jump in and have a blast. We played a vampire vs agents battle over TJ terrain. He's now scrambling madly to buy terrain (the morning after). THAT's why I love this game - it's gaming distilled to its purest most satisfying form. Imagination and ludricrous battles filled with 'those' moments of "Did you see that?!" Bring on the HS Kickstarter - I'll back that 'till it hurts!

[Hogg]

I like Heroscape for a bunch of reasons.

The cross-genre mash up. It had an established story but never felt like it took its self too seriously.

It was Diet Warhammer. I want to play 40K but don't have the time/money to invest. HS scratched the itch.

The Terrain. Way cool, big attention getter. Useful for tons of gaming.

The rules. I initially passed the game up figuring it wasn't a serious game. Later one of my friends picked it up and I was surprised to find the rules worked well.

The chase. I love to collect stuff. I was into HS during the prime when we were getting lots of releases. I still have dreams about finding cool stuff in the toy aisle.

The little glimpse behind the curtain through this website. I enjoyed getting information about the development from the people who were doing the work.

I even built a shrine for Heroscape:

[hose]

Pretty much everything Hogg said is what got me "into" the game. But what keeps me coming back is the combination of strategy and luck. No matter how good your plan is, the dice can always throw you a curve. I can play over and over again and no two matches play out the same. The luck factor also helps balance the game a little for inexperienced players, and can lead to some very memorable games. When your last guy last five more rounds against an undead horde, it is pretty fun whether you win or lose.

edit: I forgot the people on this web site. It is pretty clear you guys love the game. It is so much easier to admit to being an addict when I know I am not the only one. And the C3V/SOV, C3G, and other customs are just flat out awesome. It's hard not to love what you guys have done.