The last few RenegadeCon events have included a Heroscape Designers Roundtable… which isn’t actually round, since they are appearing on camera via Zoom or Teams or some such wizardry of our modern age. But there is a lot of talking – and this time around there were some interesting bits about the new era of Heroscape that begins this summer. The questions are pretty straightforward to begin with – but later in the discussion the team falls into a conversation about points of inspiration and Heroscape lore that is absolute catnip for those of us who’ve clocked 22 years with this game system.
Regarding the picture at the top of this article: apologies to Anais & Dyllan who do not usually have the “when’s Alex gonna stop talking?” vibe going on… and to Alex, who looks like he’s just seen the mothership from Close Encounters. (Also, I’m jealous about Dyllan’s shirt…)
I also added a special bonus section on Dyllan’s Dev Diary that was released earlier this week… so it’s double the Heroscape content!
Heroscape Game Designer Roundtable
Anais had a number of questions for Alex & Dyllan – starting with a softball about what their favorite new sculpt is from the Secrets of the Citadel reveal. Dyllan had two options – Eel & F’Foh (which he noted had great table presence) and the serious glow-up of Sudema in her new & improved version. (Sudema is a classic Heroscape character – which I’ve always liked.) Alex went with Takanawa Kaiga, noting that he’s a sucker for samurai characters as well as being happy that we’re getting more mounted characters in the game. He also mentioned the “ancient cursed sword” that Kaiga carries – which I’m really curious to see in an actual Heroscape battle.
Next, Alex was prodded to talk about a new innovation in Heroscape character design: the advent of multi-class characters. He shared that it was a logical next step in design for the game. The example he used was Nishi Souta (from the upcoming Battle Box) – since he was a samurai from the Edo period who also was a detective, giving him both the Lawman and Samurai classes just made sense. From a gameplay perspective, the addition of these kind of characters gives players the opportunity to bridge the gaps between different synergies as well reaching back to knit contemporary and “old skool” Heroscape together by leaning into existing class groupings.
My quick rundown of the new army cards shows that five other heroes in this summer release are multi-class. Personally, I think this is a smart design decision – particularly for those of us with extensive Heroscape collections. Having new ways to mix & match armies to take advantage of synergies is great, since one of the joys of Heroscape is crafting the perfect team.
The team didn’t delve deeply into the next topic – the return of historical heroes/squads to Heroscape – but they did make sure to mention that they want to bring more historicals into the game (and hinted at new stuff that will likely drop this fall!). Dyllan did suggest that historical figures are one of the “three pillars” of Heroscape along with fantasy and science fiction.
Anais then asked which of the units was trickiest to design – but Alex took the question another direction and talked about the difficulties of designing a well-balanced Battle Box. Since they are key introduction point for new players, they need to serve as a self-contained entry point that provides a fun but not overwhelming experience. Additionally, they need to exist within the broader Heroscape borders to make them meaningful to long-time players/fans.
The characters in a Battle Box have to make sense in the box itself and add functionality to the wider game. (Alex listed Sudema as a good example, since her powers help with undead army builds not in the Battle Box.) Dyllan mentioned that Nishi Souta is a good example – he has a bonding power that won’t trigger in any of the Battle for Blackscar scenarios (thus making him a slightly easier character for new players) that works brilliantly for building armies as you add more figures to your collection.
Anais continued on with a related topic – is it easier (or more difficult) to design non-characters game changers: glyphs, terrain, destructible objects, etc.? Dyllan noted that the major issue here is keeping in mind the need for cool “swing for the fences” elements that work well in casual (aka “kitchen table”) play but also to create elements that are more appropriate for balanced tournament-level play as well. He talked about Shroudshrooms and their potential use in both settings – which just makes me more excited to get my hands on some of them!
Alex added that new terrain refreshes the game space – that we are finally seeing completely new terrain elements with Ancient Lands (this summer) and Shores (late this spring) terrain boxes. At this point, Anais correctly noted that “Looks awesome, plays awesome” could well be the Heroscape motto.
The next part of the discussion focused on “fan service” and callouts & homages. Alex talked about the decades worth of history, lore, and fandom… and expressed gratitude for the gift of being able to work in a world full of awesome stuff. He noted that the Eisen Expedition characters actually were created due to concept art from Avalon Hill development period.
As far as direct callouts or homages, Alex said that they never are really referencing anything specific but instead pulling ideas from “the collective consciousness of nerds, pop culture, and literature.” (OK, all three of those pretty much describe me circa 1989.) He gave some examples: Kaiga’s “cursed sword”, the “genius invents supersuit” of Gimbal, and the “Adventurers League” vibe of the Eisen Expedition. Heroscape is, at its heart, “a stew of fun ideas tweaked to fit in with the world of Heroscape and the Valkyrie generals and the ongoing storyline.”
Dyllan evidently is a big fan of film noir – so he brought up the creation of Cainak, Private Eye – part of the trio of officers of the law in the Battle Box. They used this hard-boiled/noir/steampunk character as the narrator of the scenario text for Battle for Blackscar… and having him as a part of things not only adds an element to Heroscape it didn’t have, it also provides a name check of James M. Cain, one of the earliest writers of hardboiled American crime fiction. (You may well know some of his stories that were turned into popular films – both The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity are his work.)
Alex jumped in to share the joy of smashing tropes together – creating three officers of the law with incredibly different backgrounds/heritages to be a team:
- Nishi Souta – Edo period of Japanese history & traditional police officer
- “Blink” Dawson – an anthropomorphic Vorid character with definite Billy the Kid/Wild West vibes
- Cainak – Private Eye – a hard-boiled detective who is an orc from a steampunk-ish world
Alex summed it up nicely – “that’s a very Heroscape set of figures”. (Agreed!)
As I referenced at the beginning, eventually they got around to talking about the influence of lore on designing for Heroscape. Dyllan shared that he was/is a long-time fan of all the Heroscape lore that has been shared, specifically mentioning Thormun’s Journal. (The multiple entries in the journal were published in Heroscape rulebooks and online during the initial run from 2004-2010… and make for some interesting background reading for those of you who’ve only been around since Renegade brought Heroscape back to life.)
Dyllan also spent some time talking about the original Heroscape cartoon/advertisement… which I somehow have missed all these years. Since I don’t want to be as ignorant as I was, here it is in all its early 2000s animated glory!
OK, that’s just cool.
And, of course, since Dyllan is not only a fellow ‘Scaper but also a designer/developer, he talked about the funky background characters in Jandar’s summoning chamber: “Who are you and what are you doing here?!” In particular, he fixated on the “fish guy” who was already Jandar’s ally when Sgt. Drake Alexander was summoned… and celebrated that the fish guy in Omnicron armor is now joining the fray as Frizzt Galagan!
According to the team, Frizzt will not be the last background character from that commercial. (Yes, you may go back and watch it again to see if you can find a character you want to cheer for.)
All this lore talk prompted questions about the ongoing storyline – forcing Alex to wonder aloud “What am I allowed to tell?” (Everything. We want everything.)
Instead, Alex simply set the stage for what’s coming. Following the death of the “big bad” (Valkyrie General Utgar), a period of relative peace begins to unravel as the fragile alliances splinter into smaller groupings. As the story moves forward, what will these new alliances look like and how will they shift the balance of power on Valhalla? (Alex also dropped a hint that Utgar might return – which fits with the comic book rule of “if you don’t see the body, they’re not dead… and if you do see the body, it’s still 50/50 on whether they’re coming back or not”.)
The acclerant moving forward is the discovery of a forgotten lost civilization in the caverns below Valhalla’s surface. Alex shared that we’ll learn more about the wellsprings and where they came from and how they were used. There is ancient technology/magic afoot that will influence the fights that occur. (Yes, I’m quoting Arthur C. Clarke in my head like any good sci-fi reader from the 60s/70s: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”)
As Jandar works with the remains of a defeated Utgar’s armies to form the New Alliance, Einar partners his wealth with the industrious new arrival Volarak to form the Clockwork Combine. Meanwhile, Queen Qhyrion and Revna collude to further their causes, creating the Umbral Covenant. Ullar and Aquilla vow to prevent Valhalla’s lands from being further ravaged by war, forming the Verdant Pact.
All four of these new factions turn their attention to new discovery of the Citadel, a vast underground city left behind by the Erilar, the ancestors of the Kyrie. Their ancient civilization built the Wellsprings on Valhalla, and no doubt the secret to undoing the storm raging on Valhalla’s surface is buried there too. But as no faction can trust the others, new conflicts emerge as the Citadel becomes the battlefield that will determine Valhalla’s fate – above and below.
That led to the final question – since we’ve seen the New Alliance & Clockwork Combine (two of the new alliances) receive boxes this summer, when will the other two get their day in the sun? Dyllan shared that both the Umbral Covenant and the Verdant Pact will have some new stuff in the fall of 2026 and a LOT of new toys in the spring of 2027. (He noted that a few of these items are some of the favorite things they’ve been working on and that a few of these have been in the pipeline for a LONG time.)
Heroscape Dev Diary
Earlier this week, Dyllan was back in my YouTube feed with a Dev Diary and gave all of us (including interviewer Rina Amaranthine) some more insights into the design and direction of Heroscape.
As a self-proclaimed “Marro fan boy”, Dyllan picked the Might of the New Alliance box as his favorite new release (well, at least today it is!). He’s pleased as punch to have a new Marro figure in Heroscape that he had a hand in designing.
22 years ago, he shared, the vibe of the game really grabbed him – orcs fighting robots fighting wizards fighting WWII soldiers – and then the quality of the rules and system design. And then there was the Marro – no other game has something quite like them. A number of their powers rely on d20 rolls – he glossed that as “a high variance species”. (Not to hate on the Marro – but those d20s have let me down sometimes.) With Kha-Re-Ga, Dyllan noted, you have a new Marro Hivelord “scary shrimp amalgam” who lives and dies by those d20 rolls as she burrows her way into enemy formations (Hive Tunneling). (Evidently, Lee Houff – another Heroscape designer – calls her “Madame Shrimp.”)
Heroscape is pretty “high variance” in the scope of miniatures gaming according to Dyllan. (I’d agree with him – but I probably have less minis experience than he does.) He digs into another favorite miniatures game (X-Wing… which I have played a good bit of) and explains that building a fleet/team in X-Wing is about minimizing the variance/effect of die rolls. Dyllan goes on to say that you really can’t do that in Heroscape – what with the turn order system, the nature of squads and heroes, etc. In fact, he suggests that Heroscape really wants you to maximize the variance in your favor – you want to be rolling more dice more often or have more bodies to absorb damage. It’s not a “carefully crafted plan” kind of game. (At this point, I had a flashback to a game of Heroscape I played with my sons in which one elf wizard – Jordhawn – used her Rain of Fire power to wipe out seven figures in the first turn of the game. “High variance” indeed!)
Dyllan leans into one of the key things that I love about Heroscape – this high variance system (coupled with the incredible variety of heroes & squads) leads to great stories. The push & pull of the game and the emotional swings are part & parcel to why I’m such a fan. He also mentions the “I dumped out the toy box” vibe of the game which impacts not only kitchen table play but also make the tournament community enjoyable. (Again, I haven’t experienced Heroscape tournaments – but I’m glad they’re out there to keep this game I love publishing new stuff.)
Rina & Dyllan then drifted into talking about the G.I. Joe boxes which are getting ready to release next week. Dyllan talked about the fun of working on that IP and the challenge of adapting another IP and being faithful to the original source while still being a great unit in Heroscape. Thematically, G.I. Joe is not a stretch for Valhalla – what with Sgt. Drake being “Joe adjacent”. (My favorite quote from this discussion: “You’ve already got a WW2 hero with a katana – that’s pretty G.I. Joe-coded.”) I’ll be posting a review of the new G.I. Joe boxes (and the Caverns of Valhalla) in the next couple of weeks – my copies just arrived yesterday afternoon!
After a bit of “check out your local FLGS to try the new stuff” and “GenCon & AdeptiCon” advertisement-ish talk, Dyllan did give the ‘Scape community props for their willingness to try different formats and new challenges… and walks us through how his local group changes formats on a regular basis.
Rina then asked Dyllan if he felt like he has an advantage as a designer/developer when playing folks of similar experience levels. He replied that Heroscape does somewhat level the playing field (the “high variance” stuff he talked about earlier) but two years of working on the game in addition to a couple of decades playing as a “civilian” makes a difference. That said, Dyllan called out actual names of folks who definitely have more mad ‘Scape skillz than he does.
He points out that knowledge of the characters as well as counter-strategies for those characters helps… but he’s been beaten by relative newbies and won against storied players. That’s Heroscape – it’s friendly for all ages and levels of experience – it’s a system that is easy to teach and still has tactical depth. (My sons were both playing Heroscape by the time they were 6 years old – not always with great strategic thinking, but always having a blast.)
A final question – what’s the most recent game that sticks in your memory? The one that pops out first is in a multi-format tournament Dyllan talked about earlier. He was running an Unfathomable/Relentless army and was off to a great lead… looked like smooth sailing. All his opponent had left was Agent Carr.
Those of us who’ve played old skool Heroscape can see the next part of this story coming from a mile away. Agent Carr destroyed all but one figure in Dyllan’s army – and that Gelyrie managed to finally put Carr down. (This was the OG Agent Carr… the key figure in a number of armies I’ve built over the years. There is a new one coming… and he’s riding Dund.)
Last bit of info: new historicals coming in the fall from an era/place we haven’t seen before!
The pictures of Heroscape figures in this article are all clips from the excellent Character Bios pages on the new Heroscape site.
A reminder: I’ve received review copies of the new Heroscape material. Back in the day, I also received some promo figures, a couple of Volcarren Wasteland boxes, and a wave of figures as a “thank you” for my work as a playtester. (I also received a very cool Heroscape T-shirt which fit 42 year old Mark but isn’t as kind to 61 year old Mark. But I still have it hanging in my closet.)
