"When You Need an Act of Heroism, We Are at Your Service."
Heroica! The RPG is an online roleplay established on the Eurobricks forums
. Loosely based on the LEGO subtheme of the same name, the game has blossomed since its creation in 2011. It is unique, due to the fact that the world is completely crafted by the players - over a dozen Game Masters have contributed, shaping the world of Olegaia to what it is today. It is still going strong today, thanks to the thriving playerbase.
The story revolves mainly around Eubric, a cutthroat city with no true government. Instead, six houses rule the city, stuck in constant feuds. All the while the Wolfgang, a criminal syndicate headed by werewolves, constantly tries to wreak havoc on the six houses and remove their influence on Eubric. In the middle of all of the city's chaos, an organization known as Heroica dispatches heroes to all who need them. Established 250 years ago after the Orcish wars, Heroica Hall is now host to over 70 heroes (all created and played by forum goers who joined the game) - all of different species: humans, orcs, trolls, elves, and even undead.
The first "universe" of Heroica! The RPG had eventually come to an end around 2018. As of 2019, Heroica RPG 2.0 is being actively planned, but has not started yet. In the meantime, you can freely read all the threads that constitute the first universe here.
Heroica: The RPG contains examples of:
- Aerith and Bob: Hero names range from things like "Arthur J. Regulus VII", "Lord Lawrence Boomingham", "Aberforth Swindle", "Nerwen Calmcacil", "Galen Woodward"...to "Monk Pretzel" and "Tomas".
- Amazon Chaser: Dogged Nice Guy Tarn Valco was this to Action Girl Tensi Hightribe early on.
- Anachronism Stew: Even ignoring the player characters copiously quoting memes and song lyrics, it's pretty safe to say that clockwork robots did not exist in the time of knights and castles.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: The ultimate end of Lady Wren, along with Felton, one of the Lancers of the Wren story arc.
- Atomic F-Bomb: Yamsar's reaction to his Hero bodyguards being taken out by demonic dinner entrees.
- Awesome, but Impractical: The Cursed-effect takes away 3 max health per Round. It's terrifyingly deadly to Heroes...but since few enemies have healing abilities, it's far easier to kill them with regular attacks.
- A Zeigfried Did It: Literally. The resident wizarding dynasty, the Zeigfrieds, tends to get blamed for a lot of strange things...including by the game's creator.
- Body Horror: Retraga the Dragon has a giant green parasite latched to her, the transparent organism filled with squirming tentacles.
- Boring, but Practical:
- Venom. It only takes away one health point per round, but it has been used to devastating effect. Guts has been known to poison enemies, then spend the rest of the battle waiting around for them to die.
- Counterstrikes are a popular option for Knights and other characters with high Shield Power to take out enemies with dangerous special attacks.
- Built with LEGO: As expected for a Eurobricks forum creation.
- Character Filibuster: Arthur is well known for this trope. Including in combat. "By the GODS! Shut your flappy faces and fight!"
- Cluster F-Bomb: Yamsar the chef. Doubly effective since the forum's swear filter is in effect for almost all of the players.
- Compelling Voice: One of Baba The Witch's powers.
- Crisis Crossover: The Dastan Trilogy can easily be considered this, progressing the Wren and Lion Knight story arcs while several more are worked with, not to mention the vast amount of character arcs involved.
- Darker and Edgier:
- The Wren arc wasn't exactly all smiles to begin with, but the final quest definitely takes it to a new level.
- Cruel Angel's Thesis was a Mafia-esque game that involved the heroes being infiltrated by a dark angel's cult and having to murder each other to root them out. This was the first time, aside from Arasmyth's "death" in Quest 35, that heroes have been killed on screen, complete with red snakes and trans-red studs to represent blood and guts.
- Deadpan Snarker: Many. The Proggs are an entire race of them.
- Elemental Powers: Mages and their adanced classes can harness any of the eight elements. Different Elements have different advantages in combat, but all need gems to work.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The land of Charis is this to France.
- Funetik Aksent: How pretty much everyone from Charis speaks, particularly Umbra Shadeaux.
- Godhood Seeker: The ultimate goal of Lady Wren, one of the first introduced villains.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Captain Patricia Cousland, captain of the Eubric Town Watch. Her lack of faith in Heroes is not entirely unjustified, though...
- Kudzu Plot: Naturally, given that most QMs start at least one or two story arcs of their own. The game creator has at least ten.
- LEGO Genetics: Quite literally, for a number of creatures in the Heroica world. The Proggs, for example, look like a mixture between scorpions, mollusks, and crustaceans.
- Live-Action Escort Mission: Many of the prominent NPCs pull this at some point or another during the Dastan Trilogy. It goes about as well as you'd expect.
- Mysterious Stranger: A fair number of Heroes start off this way, Sylph Solanum being one of the more prominent examples.
- Omnicidal Maniac: The Regret wants each and every remotely human lifeform dead, and is willing to do anything to do it.
- Only Mostly Dead: Phoenix Essences allow for this or Non-Lethal K.O., Depending on the Writer.
- Prequel: Cruel Angel's Thesis: Downfall of Heores is a Flashback rather than an Origins Episode, revealing some of the goings on in Heroica just before the Test Quest.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: If you come from the Empire of Dastan (and aren't a villain), you are either one of these or a Suicidal Pacifist.
- Reluctant Warrior: Mallelio. Although he wants to be a Badass Pacifist (like his protégé Princess Ella), his loyalty to the Empire of Dastan and to the Heroes drags him into combat far more often than he'd like. Not that he's particularly good at it.
- Rule of Cool: The RPG runs on this; Heroica features Steampunk airships and androids built by allies of a Dying Race of Warrior Monks coexisting in the same world as pirates, dragons, archmages, and dinosaurs.
- Shout-Out: Countless. Considering many Game Masters love almost every form of media, you can see anything from Game of Thrones to Final Fantasy shout outs.
- Theme Naming:
- All of the Lion Knights have names related to lions, knights, or at the very least beginning in "L" or "K". There are two exceptions: Admiral Matthias Thraune, the head of the Lion Knight fleet, and Simbad, the generic Lion Knight pikeman who delivers important information to the Heroes and posts the Lion Knights' Quest notices in Heroica Hall.
- The Gladius Unit's members are named after the stages of a stab wound: The Bleeding, The Wound, The Suffering, and The Regret.
- The Syndicate: The Wolfgang. Their leader, Ulric Wolfkin, even plans to take over Eubric, the city the game centers around! Note that there is also a former vigilante group called The Syndicate, but they are not nearly as powerful as the Wolfgang.
- Those Two Guys: Christian and Jacob, two ex-member of the Paladin order definitely qualify; they've been locked up, at the Henrys, and working as mechanics.
- True Final Boss: Of the Progg arc. After defeating Rhodus, Aquos, and Eidolon, The Regret reveals himself as the cause of all of the destruction in Luosh, even being One of the first Proggs ever created. Cue two-phase boss battle!
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Originally, every single Shaman in Heroica went shirtless upon completion of their training. Became something of a tired joke among the players, and was eventually defied.
- Webcomic Time: The finale of the Wren story arc lasted over three months in real-world time. The finale of the Progg story arc lasted six. In-universe, both Quests took place over the course of a single nightnote .
- Wham Episode: Several, mainly the final or second to last quest in a QM's plotline. For the main storyline, Quest 66.
- Where It All Began: Quest 38 was basically this for the Wren Arc, showing the beginning of the titular character's downfall.
- World of Snark: Generally everyone gets in on the snark at one time or another.
