Such a versatile box of RPG minis

If you follow along with these humble reviews you will know that The Meeple Guild – the little group I game with – like mini game offerings.

And, you will know too we have become eager fans of Helios – a Canadian mini manufacturer which is doing some very cool stuff (check out their entire range at www.heliostabletop.ca)

The coolest of the cool coming from Helios are their Mythic Encounter boxes. The boxes contain a handful of minis around a particular theme which you can paint up and drop into most fantasy RPG games – a situation aided by Helios actually offering up some pre-generated rules for what can be a sweet random encounter in a game session.

The rules really are the icing on the top with the boxes, reducing the workload on a GM to get the minis to the gaming table.

The Curse of the Eternal Pharaoh Mythic Encounter box is probably the most versatile of the boxes to-date. While the Egyptian-themed ‘baddies’ in this box can slip neatly into a typical D&D-style dungeon crawl, they fit thematically into pulp RPGs, think ‘The Mummy’, or could be dropped into a modern museum heist game setting smoothly too.

The Curse of the Eternal Pharaoh Mythic Encounter was designed with both versatility and compatibility in mind, admitted Nick Di Scipio, owner at Helios via email.

“When we plan these sets, we try to strike a balance between highly unique encounters that deliver a one-of-a-kind experience like our Haemoturgy Lab, (previously reviewed and a set more horror-themed), and more broadly versatile sets that can slot into a wide range of campaigns and settings so DMs with different tastes and styles can all find something that works for them,” he said.

Canadian designer

“The sculpted details in this set lean into that ancient desert civilization aesthetic; you can just as easily drop them into a fantasy tomb-crawl, a pulp desert expedition, or even a modern museum heist where the displays don’t stay as inanimate as they should. That broad usability was intentional, because it lets DMs spin different stories without the minis ever feeling out of place.”

It is this versatility that makes this mythic box an easy first choice from the Helios line.

“As for my personal favourite, it has to be the Pharaoh Lich,” said Di Scipio.” The sculpts intricate detail and commanding presence immediately screamed ‘final boss’ to me. I love how its design combines the regal garbs of a pharaoh with the sinister aura of undeath, making it both awe-inspiring and terrifying on the table.

“On top of that, I’ve always enjoyed the mechanics behind lich-type monsters so this piece felt like the perfect centerpiece to anchor the entire encounter.”

It’s a box which beg the question; ‘when is Helios creating skirmish rules to pit box-versus-box?’

“On the skirmish rules idea, to be honest it's not something we've fully thought through yet, but it’s definitely been floating around in the background among many other ideas we have,” said Di Scipio. We're actually in the midst of releasing our first retail product - Mythic Mystery Hero Minis and so right now the focus is on that as well as working on the latest mythic box 'Crimson Feast' but as we expand, I'm sure this is definitely something we can revisit!”

Well from this reviewers point of view bring skirmish rules to the front burner, turning up the heat to high so ideas for them percolate faster, would be something to be undertaken sooner rather than later.

In the mean time though check out The Curse of the Eternal Pharaoh, it’s a good one.