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Evil has returned to haunt the keep… The lich has been reincarnated. Hero, the immortal king, defeated the lich years ago, but now the lich has returned, hungry for vengeance, leading his army of undead. But valiant adventurers have invaded his lair and seek to fight their way to his throne, in order to confront him and send him back to his grave. Whether you are the lich or the adventurers, in order to triumph, you will need to prove yourself with the wisdom to choose the right path, the strength to strike down your enemies and the luck to forge your destiny! Whether you prefer the hardness of stone, the finesse of paper or the edge of the blade, your fate is in your hands!

When it comes to role-playing (RPG) card games, there is usually an investment of time and energy to learn to play that can often be intimidating for an inexperienced or first-time player. Like a traditional card game, winning or losing is a mixture of strategy, luck, and the combination of cards in your hand. In RPG/Strategy card games you “build” a deck, customizing your selection of cards before the game begins, to play to your strengths or game strategies. Many card games I’ve picked up require a huge investment in “boosters” to build a useable deck, and then you have to find someone to play with, typically facing your deck against theirs. While luck, strategy, and skill is involved, usually whoever has the best cards wins. Unlike other games I’ve played, Hero: Immortal King (or Hero IK) from Asmodee Editions is ready to play right out of the box. While you can buy additional boxes to build your own deck, it is not necessary in order to play the game. Also, you don’t pit your cards against someone else’s since both players use the same deck.

Hero IK is designed for two players, with one player as Adventurer and the other as the Dungeon Master (DM), but it also includes rules for a Solitaire game so you can play the game as soon as you crack it open. In the role of Adventurer, you have to navigate your way through the passageways (represented by Dungeon Cards) of a dungeon in search of the Final Monster. As the DM, you can use a series of ambushes and traps to foil the Adventurer and keep him from reaching the Final Monster. Instead of scoring, a series of colored chips is used to keep track of how courageous (Courage tokens possessed by Adventurer) or demoralized (Fear tokens possessed by DM) the Adventurer is. If the Adventurer runs out of Courage tokens before beating the Final Boss, the game is over. In addition to the Fear and Courage tokens, the Adventurer has Mana tokens that can be used to access special abilities, and the DM has Tenacity tokens that can be used to boost Dungeon Cards’ attack strength.

In the solitaire game there is no DM, so traps, ambushes, and other special attacks don’t come into play. Instead, the use of Fear tokens is modified. Whenever the Adventurer loses a fight and a Fear token is added to the DM’s pile, the new number of Fear tokens is selected from a list of scenarios to tell you the outcome. For example, in The Lair of the Lich’s easy scenario: If the DM gains a second Fear token, “The Greenskins are mobilized. Greenskins gain a bonus of +1 Strength”. There are three Solitaire scenarios included in the instruction manual: The Dead of Night (Easy), In Search of Abunakkashii (Medium), and Meet the Lich (Difficult). You can create your own additional scenarios or download more from Asmodee Editions.

Presently there are three Hero IK games: The Lair of the Lich, The Infernal Forge, and the Den of Dementia. They all follow the same gameplay rules and can be played individually or combined to build a customized deck. The cards are even numbered in the lower right-hand corner so you can easily separate them if you decide to play the standard game again.

While most of the battles are decided with the role of a die, plus whatever special skills, abilities, or attacks the Adventurer (or DM) adds, the Greenskins (kind of like trolls) have a different way of settling things in a two-player game: Rock, Paper, Scissors. This brought about a few laughs when timing was off, so you might want to play a few rounds of RPS with your partner before the game begins, just to make sure you aren’t showing on the third count when they are going on the fourth. The game is fairly well-balanced, but is geared towards the Adventurer. The DM only has so much they can do, but it is fun to watch the Adventurer squirm as you lay ambushes to thwart their progress. In The Lair of the Lich, there are no trap cards, but they have been added to The Infernal Forge and Den of Dementia, as well as additional heroes, monsters, and Final Monsters to make things a bit more difficult.

The instruction book is actually more detailed than you realize the first time reading it through, and it is a bit difficult to understand until you actually start playing the game. Maybe I’m a slow learner, but I used the book for just about every hand for the first five or six Solitaire games I played. Every time I played, I learned more or understood an aspect of the gameplay I didn’t really get before. The cards have everything on their face that you need to know once you know how to read them, though, and eventually the book won’t be necessary except for the Scenario chart when playing the Solitaire version.

After familiarizing myself with the Solitiare version of the game, I played Hero IK as DM with my 15-year-old son as Adventurer. He used to play Yu-Gi-Oh! and other similar games when he was younger, so learning a new, more mature card game appealed to him. About halfway through our first game, when I asked him what he thought about it, he replied, “Much better than Yu-Gi-Oh!” As we discussed the game, we both agreed that while it is fun the way it is, its real strength will be in the unlimited possibilities opened up once it is customized. We are already making plans for customizing our game rules and decks once we are more confident with the three standard games (with and without constructed decks).

The cards are about the same size as, but more durable than, standard game cards, with rounded edges to cut back on getting dog ears on the corners. The artwork is a Manga or Anime style that at times reminds me of the animated films The Lord of the Rings and The Last Unicorn. In addition to the 60-card deck, there are two die (one standard 6-sided die and one 8,10 or 12-sided die) and 28 tokens. Everything stores away in a sturdy box about the size of a paperback novel. The lid fits snugly so it will be easy to take the game from its place on your bookshelf and toss it in a bag or backpack when you head out to hang with friends. It’s fairly easy to learn how to play and, after many of the possible scenarios have played out, Hero IK has lots of potential for expansion and customization without getting bogged down in some of the more complicated game rules seen in other games. Some hard-core gamers might say this is a watered down or “lite” version of a RPG/Strategy card game, but that would be overlooking the possibilities of this streamlined and enjoyable game. Whether you are a solitary gamer, one who doesn’t have time for long games, or someone who has wanted to try their hand at a card game but has been too intimidated to try it, I recommend picking up Hero: Immortal King.

Contents
• 4 adventurer cards
• 7 equipment cards
• 48 dungeon cards
• 1 final monster card
• 1 6-sided die
• 1 12-sided die* or a 10-sided die** or an 8-sided die***
• 4 Mana tokens
• 4 Tenacity tokens
• 10 Courage tokens
• 10 Fear tokens

Hero IK supports 1-2 players, ages 9 and up. Game length: about 30 minutes.

Order now at Amazon.com:
Hero: Immortal King: The Lair of the Lich

Or order directly through the Asmodee Editions website.

Hero: Immortal King: The Lair of the Lich, Hero: Immortal King: The Infernal Forge, and Hero: Immortal King: Den of Dementia are distributed by Asmodee Editions (US), a subsidiary of Asmodee Editions (France).