When I was a kid, I often perused the dog-eared Avalon Hill catalog, longing for the all the games held therein. The one that really called to me was Magic Realm. I mean, it had an interchangeable board and promised a superb fantasy adventure. Sadly, I never was able to afford it, and forgot about it when I went off to college. Nowadays, I’m quite glad I didn’t pick it up - the rulebook looks like a fierce monster. But one day, when perusing the internet, I saw pictures of Return of the Heroes (Pegasus Press, 2003 - Lutz Stepponat). Immediately I recalled my longing for Magic Realm, as Return of the Heroes looked like an ultimate fantasy game. I enjoy fantasy-themed games, but how often does one actually feel like a board game version of the role-playing experience?
And after playing the game, I conclude that while not perfect Return of the Heroes comes pretty close to being the best role-playing board game that I’ve played. It’s involving, fun, and every game plays out differently. There’s room for expandability, and it’s quite easy to pick up. Many things have been reduced to simple mechanics, but in this case, I believe that the simplicity of the game works for it. Some folks may think that the lack of complexity equals a lack of theme; but the theme in the game is quite strong, and it’s an enjoyable romp - especially for the younger set.
(The following rules are greatly condensed)
Sixteen square tiles form the game board in either a predetermined setup or a random one - player’s choice. Each player chooses one character out of the four provided (dwarf, elf, fighter, mage, or cleric) and takes the associated card for that person, as well as a cardboard stand-up token to move around the board for that person. Each player places hit point tokens and golden coins on their board equal to their starting statistics. The player boards also show the value of the player’s magical (blue), ranged (green), and close (red) combat. Random encounter tokens are shuffled, with two placed on every board at different locations. Another set of random encounter tokens is placed in a cloth bag, and yet some more tokens - Nameless, his guards, and his servants are placed at the side of the board. Each player is given two heroic deed cards with detailed instructions of how to complete the tasks on them. A pile of number chits, dice, and experience cubes are placed near the board, as each player places both their character token and house piece on their starting location. A pile of “Nameless” cards is shuffled, and one is placed face-down near the board - that character will be “Nameless” for this game. One player is chosen to go first, and then play proceeds clockwise around the table.
On a turn, a player may move their character from one location to other locations - moving up to their total movement allotment (noted on the character cards). The locations are connected via paths on which the characters move. Most of the locations have a tan color, which means anyone can move there. Others are colored differently, which means that they are “hidden” paths. For a player to move to one of those, they must roll two dice and get equal to or less than the number on that location to move there. Otherwise, they still move towards the location, but their turn immediately ends. One tile also has water locations, which cost money to move across, or players can possibly use a boat.
If a player moves to a location that has a random encounter tile, the tile is flipped over, and the player deals with the event. Events, both those flipped over and those pulled from the bag, have different effects depending on the color of the border.
- Red borders: These guys are the enemies, and the player must immediately initiate combat against them. Each monster has one or two hit points and shows one to three numbers on the side, each in a different color. Players choose what kind of combat to fight the monster with, but only if that color is shown on the monster tile. Players then take two dice and roll them, striving to roll a number equal to or less than the combat number on their card, including any negative modifiers on the monster tile. If the player succeeds, the monster is killed (or the player must attempt it again, if the monster has more than one hit point). If the player fails, they lose one of their hit point tokens, and the round ends.
- Blue borders: These are tasks that the player can accept to increase their experience. Each player has room for four tasks on their player board and can complete them in any order they like. Most of the tasks involve the player visiting an exact location on the board; others require the player to take a specific item to another place, etc. - all with different rewards.
- Green borders: These tiles stay on the board for the duration of the game and have a variety of effects - such as trainers, who can increase players skills; or markets, where players can purchase items.
- Duel borders: Some tiles have two different colors on them - such as purple and red. These tiles can only be visited by players who have the matching task tile or matching heroic deed tile. All other players must ignore them.
Whenever a tile is removed from the board, a tile is randomly drawn from the bag and placed on the coordinates printed on the tile. (Each board section has a letter, and each location has a number - makes them easy to cross-reference).
Whenever a player defeats an enemy or finishes a task or quest, they receive a reward. Rewards can be gold, items, or experience cubes. Players place blue, red, or green experience cubes on the associated tracks after their numbers. Once the cubes reach a certain column in each track, the player’s skill in that type of combat increases. They then roll additional dice when using that combat skill, and pick the lowest two. When tasks are completed, another tile is placed on the board from the bag. When a player finishes the first of the three tasks on one of their heroic deed tiles, the “Nameless” tile is put into the cloth bag. When the “Nameless” tile is drawn, the guard tokens are placed around his tower, and several of his servants come out onto the board with the rest tossed into the bag. This intensifies the game quite a bit, with bad guys all over the place.
Other rules about the game...
- Players can heal up their hit points by returning to their house and skip a turn. There are also a few other locations where players can heal up a bit.
- When a player visits one of the markets, several item tiles are turned over, and they have the chance to buy as many of them as they can afford. After they buy, other players have the chance to buy the leftover tiles - with one gold coin per purchase going to the player who visited the market.
- Bought tiles can increase movement (horse, boots), give extra hit points (armor, shield), increase fighting skills (weapons), recover hit points (potions), or allow a one time powerful attack (scrolls).
- If a player dies, they lose all experience cubes, all tasks, and all but one item. They then start over at their house next turn.
- Once a player completes each task on one of their heroic deed cards, they receive a precious stone, which is the only way to enter the tower of evil to fight “Nameless.”
- Sometimes an event is drawn from the bag, allowing all players to compete using one of their skills, with the winner(s) getting experience cubes.
Once a player has their precious stone, and Nameless is on the board, they may travel to his tower to fight him. The player must first defeat one of the four guards around the tower. On the following turn (if he defeated the guard), the player may attack Nameless, revealing the enemy and fighting to the death. Nameless has several hit points and possibly some special abilities. If the player dies, Nameless and his guards heal all hit points; and the player goes back to their house as normal. If the player defeats Nameless, they are the winner of the game!
Some comments on the game...
1.) Artwork: The art in the game, done by Tom Thiel, Hans-Georg Schneider and Christian Hanisch, is absolutely incredible. Everything looks fantastic from the art on the tiles to the very nicely drawn character pictures. Each character sheet can be flipped over to show either male or female persona. There are no stat differences, but it adds some visual difference to the game. Many of the small tiles have pictures on them, but the tiles are the biggest draw to the game. They all have a different type of terrain on them and seamlessly fit together to form a visually stunning fantasy world. The artwork in this game is probably some of my favorite to ever grace a board game - it’s incredibly thematic.
2.) Components: The components for the game are top notch. One could replace the cardboard heroes with miniatures if they were so inclined, but I found no need for this. Everything fits inside a medium-size box with a very nice plastic insert. All the tiles, character cards, “Nameless” cards, and tiles were of good quality; and since they are handled a lot, this is important. The gold coins are wooden yellow pieces, and the experience counters are different colored cubes. The hit point counters are red glass stones, and five six-sided dice are provided. The box looks sharp on the shelf, and with a few plastic bags the whole thing transports easily. The game simply looks fantastic on the table and will definitely catch attention.
3.) Rules: The game comes with a rule booklet, a glossary booklet, a large setup sheet, and another short rules booklet. All of these are fully illustrated, with examples and nice formatting. Yet the game, as simplistic as it is, still isn’t that easy to figure out from the rules. Some important things are mentioned once - and some not at all. The rule booklet is written in narrative format, which may sound nifty, but isn’t the easiest to understand. I read everything twice and still was unsure on some things, until I downloaded a simplified rules explanation from www.boardgamegeek.com. The game isn’t that hard to understand; I can easily teach it to people, even kids, but the rules could have been written better. I do enjoy the game setup sheet; it was very useful, and the glossary makes looking things up useful (although I found two tiles that weren’t mentioned). It’s the initial learning of the game that provided the confusion.
4.) Players: The game is for one through four players, even though there are five characters provided. I tested it out, and a five-player game actually works fairly well with some slight modifications. The solitaire game is fairly interesting - the backside of the setup sheet is used as a countdown to the game end. Players are trying to get the highest score they possibly can. The solitaire game is actually pretty fun, but I enjoyed the game best when played with the maximum number of players.
5.) Time: The game is a little on the longish side with my games lasting from two to three hours. However, a player’s turn is so short that the downtime is actually quite small. Players only move and take an action, which doesn’t mean that there’s much analyzing going on. I played the game with hyperactive kids, and none of them were bored - ever, the entire time we played it.
6.) RPG: The game has a lot of features that RPGers will enjoy. It’s not the definitive role playing experience, however. Players have a lot of freedom of movement, but the mechanics keep people from “thinking outside the box”, as it were. But this is sacrificed because the game is actually quite good. The mechanics work together well, the different characters are well-balanced, and I think that “German” gamers will enjoy the game. Yes, enjoying the theme is probably a prerequisite to liking the game, but good game play was NOT sacrificed. The characters are fairly well balanced, too. The dwarf has a lot of hit points but is terribly slow; while the mage is quite powerful, but has only two hit points. With experience, though, any character can be built close to exactly what a player wants from them.
7.) Dying: When a character dies (and it’s not too difficult to happen), a player is setback a bit. However, dying does not mean that a player is out of the game - they can easily catch back up if they work quickly. Dying near the end of the game, however, seems to be more devastating. If my character dies in the beginning, when I only have a few cubes, then it’s no problem to start over. But losing piles of resource cubes and most of your hard-earned possessions near the end can be horrific. Before fighting Nameless, a character must make sure that they are buff and ready for everything.
8.) Expandability: This is a game that is just begging for add-ons, whether they are official or not. On the internet I found new encounter tiles, new character sheets, and more land tiles. There is just so much that can be added, and some optional rules are even included in the rules themselves, with more variations available at the companies website, www.us.pegasus.de. (Not in English).
9.) Fun Factor: The game is a lot of fun. Yes, with the die rolling and tile drawing there’s a good deal of randomness in the game. But it’s such a blast to play. Everyone is running around the board, completing quests, and trying to maximize their advantages. The game almost feels like a race with each player trying to be the fastest to increase their character stats. Everyone I’ve played the game with has massively enjoyed it, and I can see it hitting the table frequently in the future.
Despite the rules problems, this game is at tremendously fun one. And, unlike many games where the theme is so strong, the mechanics don’t suffer. Mr. Stepponat has taken the complicated experience systems of many RPG and condensed them down into a simple, “designer” game mechanic. If you are looking for a light, board game version of a fantasy quest, then this is a tremendous one. Downtime is minimal, components are tremendous, and the fun factor is high. It may be too simple for some, but it really struck a chord with me; and the fact that every game plays out differently means the replayability is high. Magic Realm is still on eBay, available for high price; but I no longer want it, I finally have the game I’ve longed for.
Tom Vasel
“Real men play board games.”
