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Custom Heroes box art
2017 Ranked #2,146

Custom Heroes

Card-crafting game where players upgrade transparent cards and build powerful fantasy heroes over successive rounds. Each enhancement permanently changes a card's future use, so every choice must create combinations strong enough to outlast rivals.

Family Games Card Game Fantasy Ladder Climbing Layering

Players

2-6

Play time

Not listed

Age

14+

Complexity

1.63/5

Rating

6.80

Harder to teach Highly interactive Deep strategy

Overview

At a glance

Is this game right for my group?

ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.

Teachability 2.4/5

Harder to teach

Replay value 4.0/5

High replayability

Interaction 3.7/5

Highly interactive

Player scaling 4.0/5

Scales well

Strategic depth 4.5/5

Deep strategy

See all 5 specifications

How it plays

How does it play?

Custom Heroes is a card-crafting, climbing trick game in which plastic cards are added to sleeves in order to modify the cards already in those sleeves. Please note: Custom Heroes is shipped with a protective plastic film on each card which should be removed prior to play.

Core mechanisms

Key systems that shape the decisions players make.

Read the full game description

Custom Heroes is a card-crafting, climbing trick game in which plastic cards are added to sleeves in order to modify the cards already in those sleeves. Please note: Custom Heroes is shipped with a protective plastic film on each card which should be removed prior to play. Once removed the colors will be more vibrant and it will be easier to see cards in a stack inside a sleeve. The players attempt to win rounds by getting rid of their cards as quickly as possible using the classic climbing trick mechanic. e.g. If a player leads with three 4s then the next player must play three of a kind of equal or higher value. When all players pass, the last player to have played cards leads a new trick with whatever card or set of equal cards they want. Go out of cards first for first place, second for second, etc. However, you also have advancements you can sleeve onto your cards. These may increase or decrease the value of the cards, or even add new abilities such as turning a card into a wild or reversing the direction of the values (i.e. you are now playing lower numbers instead of higher) or making cards count as multiple copies of themselves, etc. But since all of the cards are reshuffled and dealt to start a new round, the changes you made may end up with someone else (and vice versa), and the common distribution of values will begin to change and shift over multiple hands. Thus, a good strategy must factor in not just doing well in the current hand, but also managing your resources (card advancements) over multiple hands and maximizing their impact though well timed plays. You earn points and more advancements based on your end of round position. Be the first player to go out each round and gain the most points, but draw fewer new advancements for the next hand. To win a player must first get to 10 points, and then win a hand. Inspired by the public domain game Daihinmin

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Editions

Language and publisher variants currently recorded in the catalog.

Edition Year Language Publisher / Region
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Player resources

Rulebooks, player aids, FAQs, and solo resources.

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Game and edition data

All specifications (5)

Play and group

Players
2–6
Best with
3–6
Play time
45 min
Age
14+
Complexity
1.6/5
Credits and catalog connections

Credits

Designers

1
John D. Clair

Publishers

1
Alderac Entertainment Group

Linked items

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