Mass Effect: The Board Game is created by Modiphius Entertainment (stylized: MŌDIPHIÜS) with official licensing from IP holder BioWare. One of the two lead game designers is my friend Calvin Wong Tze Loon 黃子倫.
I was so excited when I heard that he had worked on the game, and I knew I wanted to talk about it with him. I reached out, and I loved everything that Calvin said. I am looking forward to sharing it with you, as well as some photos I took of the media copy of Mass Effect: The Board Game that Modiphius Entertainment provided me.
Interview with Game Designer Calvin Wong Tze Loon 黃子倫
Radiant: Hi Calvin!
Radiant: I was wondering if you’d be willing to answer some questions about [Mass Effect: The Board Game]
Calvin: Yeah, sure!
Radiant: Obviously masc and fem Shepard were a must, but what went into deciding which other iconic characters would be in the game?
Calvin: There were 3 levels to this which was:
Calvin: First [co-designer Eric M. Lang] and I decided – we wanted a variety of abilities to be represented for gameplay reasons, but also if you’re gonna have a biotic character, you’re going to have Liara as one of the most remembered and iconic.
Calvin: Once we laid out a cast that had the ability sprawl and represented the ‘feel’ of Mass Effect, the second layer was BioWare saying ‘yes we’re happy with this.’
Calvin: Then the third level is realities of production. Originally Mass Effect: The Board Game was going to have the line-up of Jane Shepard, John Shepard, Liara, Garrus, Tali, Wrex, and Mordin.
Calvin: We had to cut Mordin because 7 minis required 2 molds, whereas 6 minis required 1, and those molds cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Calvin: Using another mold for just one more character would be like having a second disc for a video game just to add one more character. The cost and logistics weren’t worth it. At that point, you ask yourself, what makes more sense, adding five new characters? Or taking away 1? Taking away one at that point was probably an easy choice.
Calvin: Why Mordin? [Why] not anyone else? He had the most ability overlap between Liara and Tali, and also, he was a ‘Mass Effect 2’ character when the rest of the squad was [from the original Mass Effect game].
Note that the above image of Mordin is from his cameo in Mass Effect: Andromeda, not Mass Effect 2.
Radiant: You said [on social media that] you were the one who added pronouns to the game. Liara is confirmed to [use] she/they. Was this the board game team’s choice or did it come from BioWare?
Calvin: With any decision using a license, the decision is mutual
BioWare and Game Designer Calvin Wong Tze Loon 黃子倫 both came to the mutual decision that in the current canon, Liara’s pronouns are best represented as she/they. Asari are mono-gender and mostly feminine presenting, but not female. She/her and they/them both capture these parts of their identity.Calvin: [As mentioned on my Twitter,] I was the one who proposed it initially. I thought it would be nice to help our players feel included.
Calvin: But at the end of the day, we’re playing in their universe – If [BioWare] wants to expand how (e.g.) Asari use pronouns and think about gender in a future game, our interpretation would then become non-canon
Related: Voice Actors in Dragon Age: The Veilguard – Full Announced Cast
Radiant: Will the minifigures ever be sold separately? I would love to get an extra set to paint.
Calvin: There are resin figures you can buy separately, but [the poses are different]. I don’t know of any plans to sell the current poses in the box as a separate line.
Radiant: Immediate follow up: Do you have a link to the resin figure set and are they painted or unpainted? Either way, I will link [them] in the article.
Calvin linked the resin figures to me, and told me there was a link for ordering in USA, UK, and the rest of the world. They will be linked at the bottom of this section.
Calvin: As you can see, they’re unpainted resin miniatures.
Calvin: They’re very high quality and meant for collectors, wargamers, people who want to use them for TTRPGs, or painters.
Calvin: They’re not aimed at the regular board game audience who are usually very happy with just gray plastic single piece minis.
Calvin: But they’ve got the squad, minis for every enemy in the game, and the Elites too
Heroes of the Normandy Alpha Minifigures
Go straight to the premium resin version of the heroes in the box here:
Mass Effect: The Board Game + All Minifigures and Bundles
You can browse all the Resin Mass Effect: The Board Game Minifigures here:
Radiant: What was your favorite thing about making the game?
Calvin: God, where to start?
Calvin: Creating new lore, writing for my favorite space blorbos, the money’s definitely nice…
Calvin: I think my favorite aspect was getting to do the abilities, designing them, naming them, and theming them to the characters was something I took the lead on in this project.
Calvin: Eric as the more experienced designer naturally led most of the work, but abilities were something I did most of the legwork on.
Calvin: I’m very proud of them.
Calvin: Then Eric added his ideas and the development team did their input, and the final result we’re really happy with.
Radiant: These answers on fantastic
Radiant: Do you have a favorite mechanic?
Calvin: The standout mechanic for the game is the dice pool which shrinks as the round advances.
Calvin: Which was Eric’s idea and I think works great for simulating the chaos of squad combat without having ‘dangit I missed’ moments.
Calvin: It is my favorite mechanic for sure, it makes the game unique and works super well with all of the other advancement mechanics like Paragon dice and Renegade tokens that we added to the game.
Calvin: My [other] favorite mechanic is actually another of Eric’s which is the Star result on the dice.
Calvin: Rolling a star powers your character’s special ability, and rerolling any stars could potentially result in even more stars, exploding constantly until you have a wealth of power to spend.
Calvin: Players are incentivized to use their abilities instead of hoarding them because rolling stars when your meter is full does nothing, and that fun tension of ‘Should I use it now? Save it? OMG I AM ROLLING SO MANY STARS!!!’ is always a high point of every play session.
Calvin: I love it.
Radiant: I love this! Thanks for sharing.
Calvin: Also thanks!!!
Radiant G conducted this interview with Calvin Wong Tze Loon 黃子倫 on October 13, 2024. Anything not proceeded by a name is additional information or context Radiant added afterwards.
