Back in 2014, an inexpensive little deck building game call Star Realms captured the hearts of many gamers. Star Realms sold out of its first print run rather quickly, and went on to win more than its fare share of rewards.

Since that time, we’ve seen a number of expansions for Star Realms, along with some full on reimplementations. The first of which, Cthulhu Realms, gave the game a Lovecraftian spin. While I thought this was a solid offering, it wasn’t my favorite version. It’s this newest reimplementation that I love and that we are going to talk about today.

Hero Realms

Our newest Game of the Week is Hero Realms, which not only gives Star Realms a fantasy theme, but adds some small changes that really do a lot to improve the game. And that last point is key. Because many times you will see a game with a new theme and it’s clearly just that. The same exact game with new art. However, when you can take the core of a game and make it better, now you’ve got something.

In Hero Realms, the goal of the game is to reduce your opponent’s life to zero. This is accomplished by adding cards to your starter deck through the game’s deck building mechanic. Each player starts with a 10 cards personal deck (either identical or varied with the extra Character Packs) and are able to add new attacks, champions, and other cards from the shared market row.

However it’s these character packs that really make Hero Realms shine. Available in the standard fantasy character classes (fighter, rogue, cleric, wizard, ranger) these not only give players some unique powers, but can also shape how you will approach the game. They were a great addition and I wouldn’t ever want to play the game without them.

The game play in Hero Realms is very easy to learn, and it also includes a variety of modes of play depending on the player count. Game designers Robert Dougherty and Darwin Kastle have definitely refined the gameplay in their *realms games over the years and I think Hero Realms is their best work to date. What has me the most excited though is the upcoming campaign pack that will take Hero Realms into fully cooperative play. I cannot wait for that to finally be released.

1-4 PLAYERS • AGES 12+ • 20-30 MINUTES • $17