LEGO Ideas D&D voting has begun

The first one looks the best and there are some neat MOCs here but none of these seem like particularly interesting ideas.

None of the above
No appeal in spite of plenty of Rpging over the years

My favourite is the Dragon's Keep, but the Transforming Mimic is also pretty neat.

@CCC said:
" @legoverslinder said:
"... and they don't explain verry well what the tower actually does."

It's a dice tower. You put the dice in at the top, they fall out the bottom. The idea is that they will bang into parts inside to help randomise the throw. It stops people cheating when rolling / throwing dice.
"

The only way someone could "cheat" with dice is by dropping them at a fairly low level from the resting surface opposed to actually rolling / throwing the dice. What a proper dice tower provides tho is a way to truly randomize the roll without having to resort to digital randomizers which in my experience tend not to be truly random and takes away from the enjoyment of interacting with physical dice.

I want to vote for Dragon’s Keep, but I’m worried the Ideas process will create something robbed of its originality and flair.

Checking my predictions...

0 = entree
X = entree + chosen for vote
no = not entered

X- UCS Beholder
X- UCS Tiamat
0- Recreation of 1st edition AD&D Players Handbook cover (thieves removing gem eye from demon statue)
no- Drizzt Do'Urden Bust
0- dice sets made from Lego... probably 5x sized
no- OG D&D cartoon.
no- UCS Owlbear. (as a dare)

No Drizzt bust, but someone did sneak him as a minifig... I am over 50% for entry predictions... not a stellar win, but I'll take it given that some made the vote.

Very underwhelming entries IMO. I voted for the Keep as that was the only one I was slightly interested in. Played D&D many years ago so I am familiar with the franchise.

This is actually the first time I am looking forward to LEGO putting their twist on the design, as I think the treatment will likely help the winner regardless of which one is chosen.

Dragon's Keep has the most storytelling kids play value, and it's a detailed build like AFOLs tend to love, but it does not scream D&D from a distance, could be any generic fantasy, and it would likely be expensive. I'd like it maybe as part of a larger D&D play theme but not as a standalone Ideas set.

Xanathar is better than a generic Beholder, the functional accessories are neat but won't look good scattered about on their own (really like the dragon build displayed on the shelf though) . I'm not sure it takes advantage of the LEGO system that much, depends on how interesting the Beholder build would be.

Transforming mimic: really like the transformation, clever mechanisms can make for an interesting build, but the closed chest on its own doesn't make for an interesting display model. This is similar to the Mario ? Block but not as effective. And I already have a mimic chest that I painted on my shelf.

Tiamat tower could be a striking display/center piece, I love dragons, but a good part of the budget would go into that generic tower whose functionality I'm not too sure would be of value in practice.

Monster Manual screams D&D and screams LEGO fun build and toy, the scale and variety is perfect. It's a great mix of play and display that could be of value to people that aren't even into D&D, monsters go rawr. Having a book touches upon a key touchstone of the D&D playing experience, the other options don't really do that. Easily gets my vote.

It could even be the start of a whole line of products: a Player's Handbook that focuses on creating characters/custom minifigures, a Dungeon Master's Guide with dungeon scenery and maybe utilities like an initiative tracker, dice box, etc, and then more books based on iconic adventures like Ravenloft or the Tomb of Annihilation etc. It's a great concept.

@Brick_Belt said:
"Wonder why they didn't choose this Mimic?

My thoughts exacly
"

I can safely say these creators rolled a Nat 20 for a building check!
My personal favorite is Tiamat.

as a former dice chucker i felt i had to vote, so Dice Tower it is.

any result will be out of my price point, anyway *shrug*

I have my favorites among the 600 entries which I am unable to find anymore, which is a shame as they were really fantastic and I would rather have 3 votes among say the 100 entries which received a comment, and allow fate to determine the winner, rather than forcing everyone to choose among just 5.

If they have the licensing for D&D, there could a real opportunity to combine Lego with D&D, making PC minifigures (Fighters, Wizards, Rogues, etc.), monsters (Dragons, Giants, Elementals, etc.), and set pieces (bridges, forest clearings, dungeon rooms, etc.). These would be used during D&D sessions as miniatures. However, this could dip into the market for miniatures WotC produces. On second thought, there is probably fine print in the license that Lego can't do this. Disregard.

Dragons and castles are all very good, but few things says D&D to me more instantly then a Mimic or a Beholder.

@busyman said:
"I'm kinda disappointed. I voted for the Dragon Keep because it checks the most boxes: minifigure scale, class diversity, beholder, tavern, forest, castle, dungeon.

I think it will win, however they do need to slim it down, otherwise it will be 300-500$ again.

Does it need a full sized dragon? Make that a separate set and put 3 kobold dragon worshippers instead: 1 shaman and 2 grunts. Make the tavern smaller. Make the tower shorter or integrate it into the mountain. "

I’d be happy if it was the scale of say, a Ninjago dragon. Those make for good figures to have for boss fights.

Why are these all based on the D&D cartoon? Terrible, just terrible.

I can't get the entries to load on the Ideas Vote page . . . anyone else having difficulty?

@Sutures said:
"Checking my predictions...

0 = entree
X = entree + chosen for vote
no = not entered

X- UCS Beholder
X- UCS Tiamat
0- Recreation of 1st edition AD&D Players Handbook cover (thieves removing gem eye from demon statue)
no- Drizzt Do'Urden Bust
0- dice sets made from Lego... probably 5x sized
no- OG D&D cartoon.
no- UCS Owlbear. (as a dare)

No Drizzt bust, but someone did sneak him as a minifig... I am over 50% for entry predictions... not a stellar win, but I'll take it given that some made the vote."

Drizzt Do'Urden. they got spiders could playing board without roof...

@JDawg5:
Just in terms of minifig-based scenes, 76408, 76403, 76400, 76388, and 76386 are all first-time subjects that are currently listed on LEGO.com. There are also several large sculptures, a microscale model of nearly the entire castle, Wizard Chess (the first time a chess board has also been a minifig-scale playset), Brickheadz, and sets that provide Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw uniforms (I believe Luna was the only Ravenclaw student in the original run, and Hufflepuff never got any students until the 2018 relaunch). Several characters have also received their first minifig under the relaunch.

Wanting to see the theme go away because you just don’t care for the IP, or because you have issues with the author are valid reasons (but apparently more than balanced out by continuing strong sales). Saying there’s “nothing new”, however, is patently untrue.

@CCC:
You can use standard dice with drilled pips when rolling high is desired. This matters more for a select few other games that exclusively use D6’s (I think Shadowrun might be a “pip-dice RPG”), but Hoyle fills their pips to make their Vegas-style dice perfectly balanced and unbiased. Monopoly-style dice roll slightly high. I’m not sure one of these “dice towers” will affect that bias, though.

@crazylegoman said:
"

The underlying problem I see with most of the voting options is how a person would use the sets once they're built. Most of them seem like they're made to just sit on a shelf and be looked at, which besides just this contest, is a disturbing trend we've been seeing in a large number of LEGO set the past few years. People buy a set *just* for display and have zero intention to play with it, modify it or build anything on their own with the pieces."

I don’t know why you think this is a disturbing trend. For years, and I mean years, people have been buying Lego to display. Lego has leaned into that more lately with sets that are obviously meant to be displayed (globe, guitar, typewriter), but it shouldn’t be viewed as a problem. It’s just one of the many ways Lego can be enjoyed. Am I wrong for buying all of the modular sets and building a city, which are essentially just on display? Or for collecting all of the pirate ships and having them on a shelf prominently?

Voted Dragon’s Keep. Let’s see how much Lego will price the final product at lol (guessing $599 per how overpriced things have been)

I have a feeling that the Dragon’s keep will win. Personally I want the Tiamat dice tower but the dragon’s keep would be my second choice

@CCC said:
" @darkstonegrey said:
" @CCC said:
" @legoverslinder said:
"... and they don't explain verry well what the tower actually does."

It's a dice tower. You put the dice in at the top, they fall out the bottom. The idea is that they will bang into parts inside to help randomise the throw. It stops people cheating when rolling / throwing dice.
"

The only way someone could "cheat" with dice is by dropping them at a fairly low level from the resting surface opposed to actually rolling / throwing the dice. What a proper dice tower provides tho is a way to truly randomize the roll without having to resort to digital randomizers which in my experience tend not to be truly random and takes away from the enjoyment of interacting with physical dice."

Of course you can cheat when using dice. There are techniques where you spin them or flick them that bias the way the die lands. You can cheat with a dice cup if you spin the die round the edges before flipping it over.

As I said in my answer, the tower is there to randomise the throw.
"

Dice cups are a good example of dropping the dice opposed to rolling / throwing the dice. If anyone insists on using dice cups in our games it's required that they must thrown from the cup and not simply inverting and placing it down on the table.

In every D&D session I've ever played from what I can remember we always used hands only, and in the early days the DM was the only one who rolled the dice for everyone unless there was a saving roll required, for which he'd hand the player one of his d20s and have them roll. Now adays tho each player brings their own set of dice; some very cool designs out there and with the friends I've played with none were at all interested in "cheating" the rolls. Maybe that's more common in convention settings with strangers.

DRAGON'S KEEP: JOURNEY'S END

Anyone here made an entry into the Lego Ideas Avatar competition?

@bananaworld said:
"
Hmmm, I'd quite like to add "hundreds of little pink legs" to that Transforming Mimic..."

Trunkie!

@CCC:
Weighting the dice is straight-up cheating. Realizing that most pip dice are inherently unbalanced is just paying attention. Mostly this meant _NOT_ using pip dice when playing GURPS, since sixes are bad. Nearly everyone in my group used D6’s that had numerals carved into them, since they’re more balanced than pip dice, and the one guy who ran Shadowrun games didn’t car what we brought to the game. Fair rolls were still expected. Skittering the dice across the table, or dropping the dice on the table would usually result in being told to roll it again (unless the result sucked, in which case serves you right). The one exception to all of this that I recall was one time the GM was bound and determined to make sure that a player’s “fair” roll turned out favorable so they wouldn’t die or something, and there was some pinball-style shenanigans to get the dice to “naturally” land on a good number (you’d be surprised how hard you have to bump a heavy table to get stationary dice to roll to the next number).

Now, I do own a trio of D6’s that I got as a gag, and would never use in a game (except one time I think I was told to use them) because they absolutely would roll a little high. They’re at least 2” across, and have pips that are not only drilled over 1/4” deep, but they aren’t even lined up nicely. I have some really tiny pip D6’s that will actually fit completely inside the pips. I don’t use those either because they’re so small no GM would trust you unless you’re seated right next to them where they can lean over and check that you’re not lying.

Now, back in the early days of D&D, yeah, dice belonged to the DM, since most players could only get their hands on D6’s from board games. It was also common in those days to fill in the numbers with a contrasting color of crayon so they’d be easier to read. Now, many players have dice collections, and might use specific dice based on what game or character they’re playing, or what action they’re taking. One guy I know collected weird dice, like a D7 and a D3 (both rolled fair).

I agree that I would’ve liked a chance to vote on a wider selection of entries — and I don’t just mean my own : ) … maybe LEGO didn’t expect quite so many entries; it feels like some additional good ideas have gone to waste. Howsoever, congrats to the winners so far and best of luck!

@skyraider17 said:
"...

Would've loved to see something like a modular dungeon/encounter system, or even a player/NPC miniature variety pack full of weapons, heads, bodies, accessories, etc to make 'custom' minis"

I'm not a D&D player, but I would have bought something like that - there was an Idea submission for a modular dungeon layout a while back that I thought looked really fun. It also seems to fit the concept of D&D better than a static build....

The dragon tower is OK, it seems to be popular and might turn out a nice set if the designers choose that one, but I can't say as it really screams D&D to me.....

This is really too bad, don't care for any of these builds. A dice tower, a huge generic castle model (well-designed but not what i'm looking for), and 3 display models. I was hoping for BUILDINGS. Agree with the earlier comment about wish there were parts limits.

Cool sets, but it won't let me vote for some reason.

@quark12000 said:
"Cool sets, but it won't let me vote for some reason."
Have you voted or otherwise used Ideas before? If not and you have an old (yet valid) VIP account, it could be that. Some older VIP accounts are incompatible with Ideas. If that’s the case, there’s nothing you can do except create a parallel VIP/Ideas account.

Hugely disappointed in LEGO's selections. None of this is practical for use at the table.

I'm not a connaisseur of Dungeons & Dragons, but in my opinion the Mimic has the highest potential to be turned into an affordable, unique and at the same time typical D&D model. But only if LEGO designers are capable of updating the design AND using the considerable internal space to add something extra to the model: storage space, hiding spot for characters (some unique minifigs?), a pop-up feature,...