"Castle Fortaan", a Heroica set
LEGO Games is a LEGO Theme, which was first released in 2009 and discontinued in 2013. Unlike with all other LEGO themes, Games was essentially a collection of assorted Board Games, and featured both original and licensed sets, such as ones themed around Harry Potter and Star Wars. Another major difference from other themes was that Games didn't use traditional minifigures, but rather smaller, simpler playing pieces, that could be placed on 1-by-1 stud.Perharps the most notable original sub-theme was Heroica. Taking place in its own Standard Fantasy Setting, the series numbered five sets and featured a simple storyline about saving the kingdom from a horde of goblins. Its gameplay was a mix of standard Roll-and-Move mechanics and a simplified Dungeon Crawling RPG. It featured inventory, shop mechanics, and multiple playable characters, each with his own special ability.
Heroica setting provides examples of:
- Awesome, but Impractical: Special abilities of your heroes are highly situational. They can be activated only with a "Heroica Shield" roll (basically a natural 6 on a d6), which might never happen when you need it. As for long-range abilities, it's often better to ignore them and walk up to the monster to defeat it in close combat, so other players don't get ahead of you.
- Barbarian Hero: Barbarian, naturally. As for the heroic part, he is featured in all four initial sets, tied only with Mage.
- Bat Out of Hell: Giant bats are normal enemies in both Caverns of Nathuz and Ilrion sets. The latter also has its boss monster, an even bigger bat, that has four health pieces.
- Booby Trap: All chests have a chance to be booby-trapped, dealing damage to the character, should the player roll the skull symbol on the die.
- Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: Barbarian is a Barbarian Hero who is missing a tooth and has an unsightly stubble. His weapon is, naturally, a double-bladed axe.
- Color-Coded Characters: Every hero has a signature color. Barbarian is yellow, Mage is red, Druid is beige, Ranger is blue, Thief is black, Knight is silver, Prince is navy, and Sage is white. These colors are used in their inventories, so it's easier to tell them apart.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: After losing all of you health pieces, you simply roll the die every turn, and replenish your HP for the rolled number. It means that death, on average, sets you back for two turns.
- Devious Daggers: Thief is shown using a dagger. Any other character can buy one and use a weaker version of Thief's ability to steal gold pieces from defeated enemies.
- Distressed Dude: The King was captured and is being held in the Ilrion sewers.
- Druidic Sickle: Druid is depicted wielding a sickle on a long handle. It can be bought by other classes, allowing them to use a weaker version of Druid's ability.
- Forest Ranger: Ranger is found in the Waldurk Forest set, and wields a bow.
- Giant Spider: Large spiders are normal enemies in Waldurk Forest.
- Heart Container: The relic of Castle Fortaan, the helmet, properly should be placed on a health piece, which you can add to your inventory after claiming the relic. An alternate scenario is to have goblin king wear it, so players have to defeat him twice.
- Herd-Hitting Attack: Barbarian's special ability hits all enemies around, if he happens to fight more than one at once.
- Interchangeable Antimatter Keys: Castle Fortaan features several doors and keys, which fit for any of them, but must be left behind. Unusually, you can just break through the door with a high enough roll.
- Magic Staff: Mage is shown wielding a staff with a flaming head. A copy can be bought by other characters, who can use it to defeat enemies from afar. Sage is also shown with one, but it doesn't appear in the shop.
- Money Spider: Not usually, but Thief's ability can be used to get a gold piece from a defeated enemy. That includes bats and actual spiders.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Prince is a playable character in the Ilrion set.
- Short Range Guy, Long Range Guy: Barbarian and Mage are featured together in three out of five sets, as well as being the only playable characters in the Draida Bay set. Their special abilities are used on short and long range, respectively.
- White Mage: Druid can heal himself as his special ability. Before the fifth set, it was the only non-combat special ability among all playable characters.
LEGO Games in general provide examples of:
- Chromatic Arrangement: The robots in Robo Champ are green, red, and blue.
- Dem Bones: Skeletons are among the minifigures you can find in Monster 4. You use them as wild cards; they act as one of the monsters you are placing in a row. The game's official description says the monsters play with the skeletons, implying sentience.
- Floating Limbs: Whenever playing pieces are shown "in-character", their arms are still absent, and their hands are shown as floating balls of flesh. Their legs, meanwhile, are drawn in a single piece, and they move solely by hopping.
- Literal Wild Card: Skeletons in Monster 4 act as wild cards, taking the place of one of the monsters you would otherwise place.
- Official Game Variant: Rule booklets encourage introducing home rules and provide several samples. Heroica, for example, has "Battle Mode", in which one player takes control of the monster army.
- Sword and Sandal: Mini Taurus is heavily based on the Greek myth of minotaur, and features playing pieces modeled after stereotypical Ancient Greek warriors, complete with stylized Corinthian helmet.
