IAmWillGibson

Just to chime in, it's a very cute set that I like quite a bit. It may be responsible for rocketing me out of my dim age (I was never really in a dark age) when I picked it up at the Rockefeller store two years ago. I'd also gotten the NYC Duplo brick at the same time, and they combine well to make a solid part of my Bricky New York set-up. Now, if I hadn't gotten it from New York, I don't know if I'd love it as much as I do, because it's so clearly from that trip. But even without that, it's a good model. It opens and has a core!

Thanks, dude. That's the goal. I updated the above rules a smidge, adding more stuff about monsters that I'd forgotten to include. Now to build a protoype and try playing it out with these rules. ONly thing I'll need to fudge is the page/curse thing, because I don't have that many books and it's sort of a fundamental mechanic.

Definitely cool. Probably a better use of excess dice than I had, which was to strip the rubber off one. It makes a neat piece I'm still trying to figure out how to use, but the dimensions are all non-standard on it so it's pretty screwy-louis. Still, this is a heck of a display piece.

MISKATONIC VALLEY Welcome to Miskatonic Valley, a place of mystery, magic, and monsters. Investigators, Investigator Pack, Monsters, Ancient One [big bad monster], Store, Items [Revolver x2, Axe x2, Needle x2, Turkey x2], Books, Bookshelves [slope65 2x2x2 + panel 1x2x1], Pages [white 1x2 tile], Curses [black 1x2 tile], Space, the Star Chart, Stars, LEGO Dice AIM: Race through the Miskatonic Valley on a mission to gather the pages of the Necronomicon, and avoid collecting curses. Once the Ancient One awakens, do whatever you can to destroy its physical form before it reaches Sentinel Hill! BUILDING THE GAME: Before you start playing, build the board using the building instructions. Miskatonic Valley uses two LEGO dice; the Investigator die and the Monster die. Build them using the tiles shown below: INVESTIGATOR DIE: Elder Sign, Hit/6, Hit/6, Skull/5, Skull/5, Hit/Skull/4 MONSTER DIE: Worship, Summon, Red tile, Blue tile, Red tile/Blue tile, Red tile/Blue tile Place the following items inside the books, 1 per book: 5 Pages and 4 Curses. Close the books, shuffle them, and place one at each location that has a bookshelf. Starting with the youngest player, each player chooses an investigator and takes the matching Investigator Pack with 4 Health [red cones] and 4 Wits [blue cones] on it. Place your investigator on the plate in front of the Sanitarium. LOCATIONS: There are two types of locations in Miskatonic Valley, those with bookshelves and those without, and are located in one of three regions. The following locations have bookshelves: ARKHAM Miskatonic University, Historical Society, Witch House DUNWICH Sentinel Hill, Whateley Farm, Marshland INNSMOUTH Devil Reef, Order of Dagon Hall, Gilman House Each region also has a special location that does not have a bookshelf, but does have another effect; see below. PLAYING THE GAME: The youngest player goes first. Play then continues clockwise. THE STAR CHART: At the start of the game one star is placed on the last space of each arm of the Star Chart. After each investigator has taken a turn, move one star one space closer to the center of the Star Chart. MOVING INVESTIGATORS: On your turn roll the Investigator die and move your investigator up to the number of spaces rolled. You can't move into a space you've already been in this turn. Elder Sign: Move up to 6 spaces AND move one star away from the center of the Star Chart. Six: Move up to 6 spaces. Five: Move up to 5 spaces. Four: Move up to 4 spaces. If you end your move in a space occupied by another investigator, move your investigator forward to the first available space. If you move into a space adjacent to a monster, you MUST end your move in that space and fight the monster. You may not move diagonally. MONSTERS: There are different kinds of monsters in Miskatonic Valley. Deep Ones are common, and have 1 Health. Shoggoths are much more rare, and have 2 Health. At the end of your turn, choose one monster and move it 1 space. You can't move it next to an investigator. If there are no monsters on the board, add a 1 Health Monster in front of a location, but not next to an investigator. FIGHTING MONSTERS: If you fight a monster, roll the Investigator die again to find out what happens. Elder Sign: The monster loses 1 Health AND move one star away from the center of the Star Chart. Hit: The monster loses 1 Health. Skull: Move back 1 space away from the monster and roll the Monster die. Hit/ Skull: The monster loses 1 Health AND move back 1 space away from the monster and roll the Monster die. If the monster's Health is less than 1, you've defeated it. Take it off the board. If it still has Health and you are still next to it, you must keep fighting it! If you are adjacent to two or more monsters at the same time, choose which one to fight first. If you win, immediately fight the next monster. You may not fight diagonally. THE MONSTER DIE: If a Monster wins a fight against you, roll the Monster die to find out what happens. RED: Lose 1 Health. BLUE: Lose 1 Wits. RED/BLUE: Lose 1 Health AND 1 Wits. WORSHIP: Move one star closer to the center of the Star Chart. SUMMON: Add a 1 Health Monster to the board in front of a location, but not next to an investigator. HEALTH AND WITS: If your Wits are reduced to 0, any Wits you lose must instead be lost as Health. If your Health is reduced to 0, move your Investigator to the space in front of the Sanitarium. If you start your turn in front of the Sanitarium, instead of moving, you may roll both LEGO Dice. The Monster die tells you what you heal [Red = Health, Blue = Wits, Red/Blue = both, Summon or Worship = you pick Health or Wits], and the Investigator die tells you how much [heal the number rolled MINUS 3; if you roll the Elder Sign, heal 4]. You can't leave the Sanitarium if your Health is 0. COLLECTING THINGS YOU'LL NEED: When you stop moving in front of a location with a bookshelf, if there is a book there, collect it. If there is no book on the bookshelf, you may take one from another player, but you must give them one of yours if you have one. When you take a book from a bookshelf, you can look inside it for free, but don't show anyone else what's inside! During your turn you can look inside any books you have collected, but you LOSE 1 Wits for each book you open. Any time a book is opened, move one star one space closer to the center of the Star Chart. If you stop in front of the Dunwich General Store or Innsmouth First National Grocery, you can take one Item from the Store that you don't already have and put it on your Investigator Pack. ITEMS: Revolver Instead of moving, you can shoot [see below]. After you use this item for the second time, return it to the Store. Axe When you roll an Elder Sign, you can move your investigator up to 4 spaces and automatically hit an adjacent monster. If you lose Health, return this item to the Store. Needle At any time, return this item to the Store and restore 1 Wits. Whenever you roll an Elder Sign while you have this item, restore 1 Wits. Turkey At any time, return this item to the Store and restore 2 Health. SHOOTING: If you have a Revolver, you can shoot. Roll the Investigator die; the number rolled MINUS 3 is the number of spaces away from you that you can shoot [you can shoot 4 away when you roll an Elder Sign]. If a monster is within that distance in a straight line, it loses 1 Health. WHEN THE STARS ARE RIGHT: When all four stars are in the middle of the Star Chart, the Ancient One will awaken and begin its terrible march across Miskatonic Valley. Place it on the board in the brown space in front of Devil Reef, and place the Star Chart in the box [you won't need it any more]. Every player now opens any books they have collected and places the revealed Pages and Curses in front of them. At the end of each player's turn, the Ancient One moves two spaces closer to Sentinel Hill. If it would enter a space occupied by another figure [investigator or monster], that figure is moved to any space 1 space away from the Ancient One. Once the Ancient One is awoken, the Monster die behaves differently. If WORSHIP is rolled, add a 2 Health monster to the board in front of a location. FIGHTING THE ANCIENT ONE, PAGES, & CURSES: The Ancient One can be fought like a monster, but it is bigger and tougher. It begins with 6 Health, and during each fight, it IGNORES the first time it is hit. If an investigator who has at least 1 Page rolls an Elder Sign, it counts as a hit, AND the Ancient One loses 1 extra Health. Once during each fight, an investigator can put one of their Pages in the box to re-roll the Investigator die if they don't like the result. When the Ancient One hits an investigator, after rolling the Monster die to see what happens, that investigator ALSO loses Health and/or Wits equal to the number of Curses they have [you can choose how many of each you lose, as long as the total equals the number of Curses]. If the Ancient One reaches Sentinel Hill, the game ends and all investigators lose.

Turtle, Squirrel, Magic show, check!

You know, you're all correct. Cuusoo does need more votes for the Cthulhu project.

Hmm. I loves me some Holiday sets. I was severely on the fence about getting the new Holiday House or whatever it's called Winter Village Cottage, but if I get it on Brick Friday along with this bonus set, that might make it a buy rather than a wait. Although it still depends on images, to see if if really adds to Wintertown or is just sorta more of the same.

I get a pretty distinct Springer vibe. I mean, he's a green robot who turns into a car and a helicopter?

So I was scoping out Winners and I saw something weird. It was a Cobi set, which is something I've never seen in nature. It was also cheap cheap [6 bucks for 160 pieces] and a fairly interesting set, all things considered, so I picked it up. It's a 30s style gangster car, really long and narrow and strange, but an interesting thing to have if only to remind myself why LEGO is what it is and all other things aren't. Still, I appreciate not-LEGO when it presents something LEGO doesn't, and the quality ain't half bad. It's only about... 17% bad. Anyone else seeing these pop up at Winners or anywhere locally?

I was at the LEGO Store in New York and got the US calendar, which mentions Brick Friday and the special Holiday set this year [i guess just one, unlike the two last year] as well as a "spend 75, get a PAB box" again, like last year. I'd basically capped my spending for the year, but that's a hard 1-2 combo deal to ignore. Hopefully this is in Canada again. I see no reason why it won't be.

I'm definitely getting Mirkwood, Bag End, and the Warg set. The other ones... I dunno. I like the Goblin King, but I'm not gonna be able to afford it.

I just picked these up a few days ago when I was there. They're silly, but I love them all the same. The Statue sorta rides that line of being good and being terrible, and it's hard to decide how I feel about it. I think if the Minifigure didn't exist, it would be good, and the attempt at brick-building it is as good as can be at the tiny scale [it looks decent and more aesthetically appropriate with the Architecture NY buildings than the CMF Statue would]. Oh, and the pieces really shoulda been sand green instead of regular green, but what are ya gonna do? Although if you turn the slope/flame representing the torch 45 degrees to the front, the whole thing looks a ton better. Also, I wanna get little NYCTaxi stickers to put on the doors of the cab, and something for the ad bar. That woulda really solidified that set.

I love when, even if it's just coincidence, Creator sets come out that compliment other sets. Like how when DINOSAURS was released, there was also the Red T-Rex that sorta-kinda went along with it. And now, there's the Eagle set, which, hey presto, sorta fits in scale and theme with the LOTR/ Hobbit sets. So yeah, I'm gonna definitely get one of those if only to put the Middle Earth crew.

I'm in for at least a few of these. Not a fan of the Shellraiser, so that's one I'll skip [hope I can get those turtles elsewhere] but it is supposed to be a retrofitted subway car, so I'll be anticipating the changes people make so that it runs on tracks.

So I just got the set thanks to Bricktober double VIP, and after about 6 hours [maybe I'm slow] the house is built. It's beautiful! And I stick by my pre-review that this is the best LEGO set ever, man. Although, seriously, step 100 has to be some kind of record. Adding 74 pieces is one step is crazy.

Heh, I can't message you either. Post more, dude! Just out of curiosity, where are you located? That ma influence how much follow-up I'll put into this.

I got 32. I feel I'm still missing some.

I was thinking it through a bit more, trying to iron out the key points of the game itself minus the theme, and I've gotten it down to a Heroica framework of moving and fighting but with an added wrinkle of memory and bluffing. [EDITED OUT, see below. I've added the "full" rules as they currently are.]

EDIT Full rules and better pictures later on in the thread! I've decided I'm going to devote my empty-brain time to trying to develop a LEGO game that looks nice and is fun to play. That sounds easy, right? Now, most LEGO games are... let's say simplistic. They're really pretty basic, for the most part. But there's a certain charm to that, and I'm not entirely interested in making something complicated for complication's sake. So there's a certain amount of the LEGO Game design ethos I want to maintain. It shouldn't be dumb, but it shouldn't be convoluted either. The theme I want to try and capture is Lovecraft and the Cthulhu mythos. Sure, there are dozens and hundreds of games out there with this theme. It's not really something that needs another game. But, as I touched on above, I find many of them to be so very complicated. Part of that is the point, I guess, but I want a game that is actually fun and easy to play. Basically, I want to take Heroica, add in a dash of City Alarm [my current favorite LEGO Game], and smother it in the trappings of every other Lovecraft game ever. But here's where I'm asking for input or involvement or help. I have some very loose ideas as to how the game could work, but I'd love a collaborator who's into this sorta thing to aid in the development of the various parts. Here's what I've got so far: basically set up like Heroica, with a character and a Hero pack. Add blue cones for Sanity, 'cause that seems required. The point of the game, such as it currently is, is to travel to various locations collecting pages of the Necronomicon. This would be represented by micro-scale buildings, like this, that may or may not be Miskatonic University. Before the game begins, players would randomly insert tiles into book pieces, and then randomize and place the book pieces either inside the buildings [the roof comes off] or behind them or whatever [they could be simple facades to save on the piece count]. Pieces would either be the Necronomicon page you're after, or something to trigger a monster or somesuch. I haven't quite gotten to that part yet. Perhaps you'd need to collect the right number, or however many you have would help you to battle the final monster... that will require some experimentation. The map would either be all of Lovecraft Country with each stop representing a location [more like City Alarm] or design it more like Heroica, with each location being a smaller map. That would be more work, but could be more fun, and offer more interesting monster options. Monsters themselves could be decorated microfigures, or larger, brick-built things, or more abstract representations: Obviously, there's lots to brainstorm and figure out, but that's the starting point. And so again, I ask if anyone who thinks this isn't a ridiculously terrible idea and wants to help make it the best game it can be, here's your time to chime in!

Ach! Get one! I'm totally good for it! 'Cause I dunno the next time I'll be in Burlington, and the two TRUs near me have nothin' whatsoever.

My personal favourite part is that Barad-dûr is built with those boss Flying V guitars. I love that aspect of these games.

So here's my whole Heroica story: I originally wanted to get the whole line, back when it was first announced, because I loved the idea of LEGO games. Then some time passed, and I got some of the other games, and seeing the cost on the Heroica sets and weighing it against the fun I had with the games I'd gotten [which, sadly, wasn't terribly high most of the time] I went with a pass on them. And then I saw Nathuz at Value Village for, like, 2 bucks, only missing [as far as I can tell] one torch and the build instructions. And then I got the castle on sale at Walmart. And they sat there for a bit, and I was toying with keeping them together or busting them for parts. And then I finally played it, and man, it's a fun game! I got very into it, very quickly. It seems now that, happenstancially, Chapters is liquidating the games, so with some judicious shopping I got Waldurk for about 10 bucks and had Draida given to me as a gift. And then I bought Ilrion, just 'cause. So I went a little Heroica mad, but I'm sad now that I'm late to the party. This is a long lead-in for a simple question, but basically, did anyone around here happen to get an extra Ganrash from Toys R Us at some point in the past few weeks? I'd love to have the game fully-full. It's an extra burn because yesterday when I was getting Ilrion, the RY had the "buy a game, get a Ganrash" sign up still, but the guy checked the back and they were all gone, apparently. Anyone have any local [Toronto] leads? Thanks, dudes.

I jazzed up the toes a bit, and ran it through the POV-Ray to get this: I'm showing this mostly to justify the 36 hours my computer took to render this.

Okay, so those worked, and, honestly, a day and a half later, it pooped out this little gem: Here's the bigger version. And, of course, I notice now the digital model is missing a piece! Ach!! Anyway, so would it have taken even longer to render on this steam-powered computer if I hadn't have told it to not worry about the little "LEGO" on the studs?

Ahh, rock ' roll. Thanks!