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Level One Noob
United States
Maryland
Come read my Arkham Horror stories on Twitter @ArkhamHorror
Image courtesy of Smizmazmarlemagne
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When the boardgamegeek news mentioned that we would be able to create blogs on the site, I thought this might be a good opportunity. I have never been interested in blogging before, but given the potential audience here and the possibility of creating a focused blog on the cross-section of two of my favorite hobbies (LEGO and board-gaming), it seemed like it might be the right venue for an expanded discussion on supplementing board games with LEGO. And who am I to say no to something that could be another time-sink?
I thought I would begin with an overview of my own creations, given that most of my knowledge and experience lies with imagining, designing, and building them. Eventually I plan to go into greater depth on each of them, imparting what advice I can on how I go about the creative process of making them and trying to figure out how best to guide others who are interested in doing the same, a difficult challenge to be sure!
In addition, I'd like this blog to further explore the wonderful creations in LEGO that others have provided here. I have a few in mind, but I am sure there are still more that are as of yet undiscovered, and I have no doubt that there are many deserving of all the attention they can receive.
But for now, I'll stick with what I know and know well...
LEGO and board games -- the early years
Before I was really into board games, I was really into LEGO, but the game obsession was there lurking and waiting to find form. I made several large scale Wild West towns out of what is still the best theme the company ever ginned up, and these frequently were the scene of violent dice based shoot-outs between various gangs of hoodlums who took shots at one another as well as hitting any of the fleeing townsfolk (good times, those). It even ventured into a pseudo-RPG territory when the town entered the modern era and the newcomers that moved in brought frozen zombies with them (that didn't end well). Sadly, the town is packed up for now, but perhaps pictures will emerge should I discuss these first forays in greater detail.
My first real taste of mixing actual board games (you know, the kind with "rules") and LEGO probably involves extensive use of figures and accessories (guns, knives, and dynamite, for instance) to supplement chits and cardboard tokens in games that couldn't possibly contain all the characters and creatures and what not they needed any other way. In particular I am thinking of the old "Betrayal at House on the Hill" here, which ended up being a box populated by LEGO versions of practically everything that came up in the game, including custom characters, my favorite being my choice for the Madman, who ended up always being a poor guy in a rabbit suit. (Don't ask what set I bought to get the rabbit.)
But never did it occur to me that I might want to build something to supplement the board game, until I ended up with Android.
Building out of necessity
When I bought FantasyFlight's Android I knew immediately that I had to find some way to organize the completely unorganized components or else I would not play the game all that often. So I took a weekend along with a supply of blue and yellow bricks and some gray tiles to produce a nice small set of racks that could fit gently into the original box and keep all the pieces in order.
But even during this phase, I had something else in mind. Yes, my first major project in designing a LEGO accessory for a board game was driven purely by my desire to be able to play the nightmarishly component-laden Arkham Horror more. I loved the game, but was too lazy to set it up every time. So like any good "lazy" person, I spent hours and hours working feverishly to ensure that I had a holder for the cards and chits that would allow me to leave Arkham out for vast lengths of time while still keeping it in relative good order. This is still the most involved undertaking I have done with LEGO (if you limit it to the stuff for board games anyway) and the most useful. There are a great deal of bricks tied up in these two racks.
I went on to do the same for other games with mixed results. Race for the Galaxy has one that I still use to this day and Descent's ... well, that one is nice, but it really was infeasible given that I couldn't make something to handle all the cards, plastic monsters, cardboard, etc. AND fit back in the box (I admit, I now use tackle boxes for Descent).
Building out of a need to make sure we couldn't say "that roll didn't count"
I love dice-heavy games, but I hate when I roll the dice and it just falls flat on the table, doesn't roll or bounce and reveals ... ta-da... a "1". So I turned, like so many, to the idea of having a dice tower. If ever a game needed one it was Arkham Horror, where cheating is second only to forgetting that there's an environment in play...
I can't tell you where I got the terrible horrible monstrous idea for my exploding bloody alien monster in a cult house dice tower, but it did turn out great. I still use it to this day, even if there's not much in the way of a randomization inside tower itself (just a bumpy red slope).
My next ideas of a chthonian tentacle creature bursting from a chimney and a rendition of an open mouth inside an open gate at the Black Cave turned out nicely too.
I even tried my hand at making a zombie dice tower for Last Night on Earth (poor guy looks kind of like Homer Simpson with a black wig).
By the time I made an enormous castle-themed one for Descent and Runebound, I was really just showing off. This one has two wells and two towers, one a bridge over a ruined waterfall and the other a crumbling tower, which has the most intricate interior I have yet designed.
And as for what I have coming next? There are some ideas rolling around in my head. I think the next is likely going to be understated and hopefully one that I can provide some guidance on building.
Building just because
So this final image really had no utility at all. It's just one of my many failed experiments in LEGO, a dice tower that was just too damn wide to work, but I think it still makes a nice set piece for the Last Night on Earth game, and I haven't the heart to tear it down yet, even though I need the red tiles.
At any rate, I hope I am far from done with my creations, and if I ever figure it out, I'd love to find a way to pass on what I've learned in my decades long experience to others interested in the medium.
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