Inn Plain Sight
Putting Lego into your D&D is a pretty obviously choice, and we’ve been doing it for years. Those who already owned Lego before playing D&D, or, just had easy access to the plastic minifigures, have come upon this idea on their own, if they haven’t already heard about the concept from someone else. Certainly, the little yellow castle dudes were cheaper and easier to get your hands on than the solid pewter figures of old. You can even find rules online dating back to the beginnings of BBSes and Usenet for Lego battles in space or at sea. It isn’t any wonder that eventually we'd get D&D putting themselves in Lego. There were already third-party toy brick sets running with the idea, perhaps even better than what the official Lego themselves is about to release. What do we think of that?
Lego has yet to recognize Never Say Dice as reviewers and sending us press copies of sets, so we’ll have to rely on pictures... for now. Based on those, there's a lot to love about the Red Dragon’s Tale set. It covers a lot. There's a Dragon AND what appears to be a Dungeon. What else do they even need? We get a castle, several minifigures with fantastic custom pieces and multiple monsters. Featured in photos you can see an awesome owlbear, a cartoon-y (but interesting) Beholder and a displacer beast. The set is FULL of fun little details. The one disappointing block from the set seems to be the gelatinous cube. It's small with barely anything captured. Perhaps it gets a pass, though, you can always expand upon the given model and improve it. The major downfall of this set seems to be the pricetag. Set as $359.99 on the Lego site, you’re unlike to see this on my table, or those any of your other D&D/Lego-loving friends. We can only hope they put out some less expensive sets that are just as lovely. Lego has just become too expensive, but such is the direction of capitalism. Perhaps we can set up our own campaign against it... like not buying things that are ridiculously-priced.
To Place or not to Place
Unfortunately, the answer to the question of whether to incorporate product placement “synergies” or not is a no-brainer for the afore-metioned Capitalism Beast. Of course you'll do it! As long as you think you can make it profitable. While it may just be a Never Say Dice opinion, taking this route can often feel a little off-putting. It works well for Lego/D&D, which is no surprise given the decades of castle and pirate sets. It can be a little jarring though, seeing properties like Doctor Who, Assassins Creed, and Fallout jammed into a Magic the Gathering card deck. That may not be just capitalism, though. There's already the tendency for players to use D&D rules for every media property imaginable, even when there are already viable alternatives. Never Say Dice won’t judge you too harshly though, we understand the pain of buying a new system and getting everyone around your tables to adopt them. (Although we ourselves are big fans of free generic systems like Risus as well.)
Where does all of this leave us when it comes to Lego Product Placements? This still seems like a good match, and Lego don't let us down very often. The pricing leave much to be desired, though. While you’re unlikely to see this set’s minifigures on NSD's tables, you’ll still likely see Lego bricks of some sort there. (Don’t get me started on Wizkid customer service.) Until next week, enjoy your Lego, your dice, and your tables... not necessarily in that order.
- A
Send questions, comments, and Duplo conspiracy theories to neversaydice20@gmail.com or Tweet us @nevesaydice2.
