Sandbox Tabletop Gaming Lego Style

One of the many perks that comes with having a sixteen month old is being able to loiter in the toy section of various stores without social anxiety. Today I stopped by Target and took the opportunity to peruse the toy isles while my daughter played with various Halloween items (the life-sized animated witch, by the way, delighted rather than terrified her. I, however, flinched a bit.)

I came across the new (at least, new to me) Lego game series. Being a middle school teacher I am aware of the Lego MMORPG and the 3D online Lego-building. The games, however, were new to me and I immediately starting working out RPG applications. Not only do you build the board, but you can build the dice as well. This is a product all game designers will enjoy. We all can go out and buy blank die to label and a box of Legos, but these games offer ready rules to master, then provide the plasticity and uniform bits to grow and develop one's own game.

I thought back to my own childhood playing the Dungeons and Dragons Labyrinth Game. This electronic game has you build a labyrinth as you look for treasure and pray the dragon doesn't wake and chase you down. I had hours of fun with this game. One of the main reasons I enjoyed it so much was the plastic nature; it was different each time and I felt that I was building the labyrinth. It was a blend of Battleship and Legos, but with really cool miniatures. There was even a large dragon mini that felt heavy in my nine year old hands.