Copyright Toby Minton 2025.
This started out as a Buffy the Vampire Slayer board game. Sort of. Well, the basic mechanics did. Sort of.
Long story short: I made up a Buffy board game and playtested it at a con. At a panel of game industry pros, I asked them how to get a game based on a popular IP published. They said don’t. Popular IPs are too expensive for game publishers to deal with, so you’re better off making something original.
So I did.
I started over from the top, and this time I made a superhero board game. What kind? I’m glad you asked. It’s a cooperative adventure board game for 1–5 players that takes 1–3 hours to play.
My Hero is a game about average people stepping up to do what’s needed to defend The City from villains who grow more powerful every day. At its heart, it’s a game about the power of belief. Villains are getting more powerful because people are afraid and believe the villains have power. When you, as the up and coming heroes, fight crime and save the day, people start believing in you. The more they believe, the more powerful you become. Will you become powerful enough to stop the mastermind behind the latest plot? There’s only one way to find out.
HOW IT CAME TOGETHER
Tools: Sketch, pens, paper, paint, cardboard, pushpins, 3D printer, DeviantArt, and a lot of time.
Team: Toby Minton + many playtesters.
Iterations: I lost track. Each time I play it, I make some notes of things to tweak or improve. Then at some point I do a reprint. We could be at version 6, or maybe 35.
WHAT WORKS WELL
I LOVE how the power cards turned out. More specifically, I love how they tuck under the player sheets and spin and flip as you improve them.
I also had way too much fun with the flavor text on the various item and event cards.
WHAT COULD BE BETTER
Not needing a game master is delightful. I adore cooperative games, and sometimes I need to play solo. So I made each event card describe the basic tactics of the villains and henchmen. It’s kind of like playing with AI, but without the loss of jobs and theft of creative property.
You do have to make some choices though (who to target and when to combine attacks) and make an effort to play the enemies to best effect, even if it costs you the game. In that regard, the automation could use a little work. I see players wrestle with the temptation to have the enemies make a bad move in order to set the heroes up for success. Does that need fixing? Maybe. Then again, when players want more of a challenge, they have the power to play the enemies smarter. And vice versa.
WHAT THIS PROJECT TAUGHT ME
Making your own game is rewarding on many levels. And it’s a project that will never end, unless you decide to call it good enough and publish, which you have to do at some point. Perfectionism be damned.
Toby Minton 