Frequently Asked Questions

Last Updated: 10/07/10

What is Hero Mages?

Hero Mages is a free, online, multiplayer turn-based strategy game for 2-4 players that uniquely blends skill, luck, and social politics. Originally designed as a board game, Hero Mages can be learned how to play in minutes and offers a unique and exciting experience each time you play.

Do I have to download or install anything to play Hero Mages?

Hero Mages can be played from any web browser that has the latest version of Adobe Flash Player plugin installed. No download or installation of game software is required.

What system requirements are required to play Hero Mages?

Hero Mages will run on any computer that meets the system requirements for Adobe Flash Player. For an optimal experience, however, we recommend a dual-core processor and at least 1GB of memory.

Do I need to buy anything or pay a subscription fee in order to play?

Absolutely not! Every player receives a free set of characters when they create their account that can be used to play Hero Mages indefinitely. The game can also be played without creating an account by logging in as a guest, though you will be limited to using a preset team of characters.

What does this site sell?

While Hero Mages is entirely free to play, we also offer paid services for those wishing to expand the gameplay of Hero Mages. For a small, one-time fee, players can purchase access to special content such as unique characters and the ability to build custom maps.

What is a Mage?

"Mage" is another word for "Magician" or "Sorcerer".

How is Hero Mages like a board game?

Hero Mages was originally designed as a strategy board game that used an intricate dungeon as the board, miniature figurines for characters, cards for spells, and a set of twenty-sided dice for calculating combat results. Due to the high costs of the game's intricate components, we coded all of the game mechanics into Flash so we could distribute the game to a much wider audience: the online community!

Though we've evolved the rules of the game since its initial conception and outfitted it with a modern computer interface, the feel of the classic board game remains. Players still move miniatures (except they're animated units now!), still draw cards, and still roll dice to calculate all combat results. You can even opt to enable seeing your dice roll within the game!

The particularly unique advantage of the board game mechanics is that players can visually see and comprehend the precise impact of their character's abilities. In typical computer strategy games, it can be difficult to understand or appreciate how much a +2 attack bonus is improving the skill of your character, but in Hero Mages, you can actually see an extra 2 dice being rolled- making the thrill of powering up your characters all the more exciting.

Why is the game shown from a top-down perspective?

We chose to use a bird's eye top-down perspective for the game versus the more typical isometric perspective to give player's the feeling that they are looking directly over the battlefield as if they were playing a board game. The square grid makes it quick and easy to calculate what spaces your characters can move to and what spaces they can see. Using this perspective also allows us to manipulate the character facings with code, resulting in a smaller filesize that enables players to load the game faster.

Is there a single player mode?

While there is not yet an official single player campaign, we have recently incorporated the ability to add computer opponents that can be fought against as a single player or cooperatively as a team with other online players. A full-fledged single player story campaign is among many new features coming in the future.

Why is the world of Hero Mages called Papillion?

The name “Papillion” is French in origin and means “butterfly.” This is a reference to a famous Taoist story in which a central figure in the religion dreamed he was a butterfly and questioned what is real and what is not. Taoism is referenced to demonstrate that Papillion was and is a peaceful, contented place; however, it is fear that is bringing war to the lands.

A butterfly is also a symbol of transformation, freedom, and beauty – these are all positive aspects and indicative of the states that our characters found themselves in before the prophecy was foretold of a Hero Mage emerging.

There are many different philosophical themes that Hero Mages uses throughout the game to enhance the gamers’ experience. For example, the characters’ names were chosen for a particular purpose – see if you can discover what the meanings are!

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