LEGO crowdsources fans for official Dungeons & Dragons Ideas set
You arrive at a tiny, plastic inn.
LEGO is working on an official Dungeons & Dragons-themed set for its popular Ideas brand, and the toy maker is turning to fans and players to supply inspiration.
The Danish brickmongers posted the competition to the LEGO Ideas website on October 5th, outlining rules for submission to be followed by both a public vote and judging by a panel composed of both LEGO and Wizards of the Coast employees.
LEGO Ideas is a particular branch of sets concepted outside the company by fans, submitted to LEGO and then, if approved, produced as actual sets to be sold around the world. Enterprising plastic architects normally submit digital mockups that can gain massive support from the community, tipping the Ideas employees off to potential winners.
This D&D cross-promotion, which ostensibly celebrates the 50th anniversary of the mega-popular tabletop RPG, will work a little differently. All submissions will go before the combined judging panel who will pick at most five fan-made designs for public voting. Those same judges will then take the community’s opinion into account when picking the ultimate winner.
Submissions can be displays or dioramas, more functional pieces meant to be used on the table during play or complex “ultimate builds” based on the world and characters in Wizards of the Coast’s high fantasy world. Be careful about what you submit - the contract states that participants waive the ownership and rights to collect royalty from elements of their designs (think original characters, places, items, lore, etc.) over to Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast, whether it is selected or denied.
The eventual winner will collect 1% of all profit from the sale of their set - which normally range in price between $60 and $200, depending on size - as well as 10 boxes of their creation, a bio in the back of the instruction booklet and a nondescript “prize package of Dungeons & Dragons goodies”. Everyone else who made it to at least the fan vote also gets some D&D swag and two fantasy-adjacent LEGO sets, to boot.
Submissions are open and will remain so through November 14th. Public voting on the shortlist should begin around November 28th, and the eventual winner will be announced on December 19th. Here’s hoping we see some real, functional terrain or monster minis somewhere in the competition, as the household toy has a long history as quick, handy and (relatively) cheaper tabletop imagination aides.