The Tales of a Customizer

This is the collection of the Customizing Your 'Scape Acts. Please scroll to the very bottom to also see the "Designer's Blog" links.

Customizing your 'Scape: Act 1
If your like me, you'll want to customize your games so they are same old same old each and every time you play. But then again, I've taken that to an extreme of changing my Sorry Game a little bit(now it's awesome-r-)

There are 4 ways you can make your Heroscape different from everyone else's:

1. Making new maps: this is the most common way of new games.
2. Make house rules.
3. Make custom characters: what I'll be talking about over the next few blogs.
4. Make custom terrain: face it, those rocks ain't gonna cut it when you want to make your boards less range-friendly.

For new guys this place should help you out.

To help prepare you look thoroughly over any official cards you do have for proper wording.
And check out some cool sculpts too:
                                                   Such as this one.

Customizing Your 'Scape Act 2
Let's see here, if you bought 2 boxes of MS3, you'd have 2 sets of figures with 2 sets of Uniques. Because 1 player cannot use the 2 of the same Unique Army Card in their army, it's time to figure out how to keep your extra figure from collecting dust. You can turn it into a custom figure. The process is lengthy, though you can trim it down rather easily. This is done by using a few tricks which I'll show you guys later(they most certainly do work, I've personally used these on just about each one of my customs).

To get you started learn about a few different programs(some people prefer one over the other): GIMP, MSE, Paint, and Microsoft Word(for spelling). This text should help all aspiring and seasoned Custom makers. I call it the Bible of Customs.
Customizing Your 'Scape: Act 3
Last time, I hinted at making a custom-making life easier. So here is my checklist of the design/imagery aspect. Note that I won't always use every single one, but I will go with some of them.

• Using pieces that are already in HeroScape or were converted by another custom maker a la card. In other words use something that already has a card made.

•  Using something called secondary powers. Basically powers that already exist in Scape(such as Flying) or powers that aren't unheard of in Scape.

• When in the initial steps of power design, think about how the piece your going to make would fight. That'll cut down the hassles later.

• Make sure that the custom powers in combination you are making doesn't look too much like any particular official piece, or you'll just be making a custom of something we have seen. It is however acceptable to make (example)"Dragon Bonding" if you don't own Greenscale Warriors though(end example).

• If your using a piece already found in HS for the custom's figure, just use the size on the card! 

• If your making a remake of a currently existing figure, you can use very similar stats as the original. And powers. And sculpt sometimes.

Here is an example:

This is my custom, the Deathwalker P-9500. As you may know, the sculpt is the DW9K as is the hit zone. That's one "shortcut"(not really a shortcut, it is just how I do customs, I use pieces I already own so I don't have to go buy more). The original DW9K had similar stats to this guy. Both of their life, move, range values are the same. Their defense is a little different. DW9K has 9 defense, and DW9.5K has 8 defense plus the defensive power Tough(which enables a free shield upon being attacked by a normal attack). Their attack is a little different as well but is to help allow the player to choose this one's normal attack over either of its special ones. They have almost the same stats on their left stat box(featuring race/army card type/class/personality/size) with the exception of personality. The original had a Precise personality, this one is Wild(that was a specialized choice on my part). Some may recognize the powers Tough and Explosion Special Attack from earlier pieces. I couldn't choose which to implement, so I stuck both on there as secondary powers. The Gatling Gun Special Attack, though similar to Mimring's Fireline/ Rhogar Dragonspine's Dragonbreath Special Attack, is unique in it's usage and application though.

Customizing Your 'Scape: Act 4
I suggested looking at official cards to help you learn about wording, learn new powers, and to keep you from creating "more of the same". But it may also be noticed that official cards also resemble my checklist when creating customs. Most often, it has to do with powers that have been used over a few times. Examples of common powers include Tough, Flying and Life Drain. It's also common for the design team to keep pieces individuals. Though some comparisons are often made, most of the time you would be trying to compare apples to oranges if you compared two different pieces. In simpler terms, its the official pieces that help make the custom.

Customizing Your 'Scape: Act 5
Easily a great way to begin the design process is to determine at least one of 2 things: 1. What you want to accomplish with this custom unit -or- 2. The name of it. This can really set the level of quality according to general power rankings. Plus, you can always change it later.

Though I normally don't give previews of my customs, I think this unfinished guy will really be a great example. Note that he is still in the design phase and will probably pop up from time to time.

Though I'll definitely be fixing that image, the point here is that Ragnarok(name pending) is a great name and will get a better than average card. Just something to look forward to I guess.
Customizing Your 'Scape: Act 6
It's not good to think about how well a Custom is metagame-wise, so I simply don't. Just as long as you don't mess up the point value of the card, you'll be fine. Accurate pricing is done more often than not by play-testing. So bust out those HeroScape figures, make a map and take a rough estimate...Woah, woah, woah. Not yet Tiger. Start by making sure you won't reach too many Troubles Due To Wording. Although, you may need to include a part of the text later, this can really get annoying if it has to be done too often.

This custom presented my cousin and I some trouble when playing it(point value hadn't been a concern, as we were attempting to make awesomely powerful customs). I had Lavitz and this guy drafted and Lavitz was the last to die.

We eventually concluded that when Lavitz died and they were your last unit, you won't get to use Passing the Stone to bring in Albert. Basically, check the questions before playing them too much. I lost that one by the way.
Customizing your 'Scape: Act 7
The long and hard part of making customs is most easily play-testing. Other than being incredibly important to making a balanced custom, it opens up plenty of true observations. It allows you to see what will get used more often than you anticipated or less often even.

You may be snickering(or outright laughing) at this custom. First of all he is lazy. He has a defense of 1. He gets so tired of flapping his wings that he can(will?) only fly for 4 spaces instead of the whole 5. And he costs more than Mimring and only 5 points less than **********, the newest dragon. The attack is only 3 and he won't eve bother to use a fireball to scorch his enemies like other dragons. As an Outcast, he shouldn't actually even be in Valhalla. Or should he? Disengage is an odd power for someone whose lazy. Maybe that Snoozefire power will shed some light on this custom? Well if he gets attacked, he only has to fail his defense roll to burn the enemy to french toast. That power became the most used power of the custom(for obvious reasons). His other 2 powers might be used maybe once or twice. In order to better represent his true price, I couldn't put the cost of flying and disengage due to their practical worthlessness on this guy. It can be hard sometimes.
Customizing Your 'Scape: Act 8
Custom creator Chardar has decided to tap into the finer arts of card creation. This is probably a piece that may be rarely usable, but the card is simply beautiful.
The dark colorings really bring out the flavor of the demon. Boiling lava in the background also looks sweet. Cards this good looking do require the use of specialized computer painting tools. Chardar made this from GIMP. Simply bringing a card of this spectacle would cause a little 'oohing' and 'aahing' to boot. Although somebody could talk all day about how to use GIMP, this thread would probably be much more useful: whitestuff's advanced gimpshop tutorial.

Customizing Scape: Playtesting

Customizing Your Scape: Act 9
Our littlest robot... Could it become the next big custom?

 I can see it now... remote control movement, detonation powers, ooh even land rover ideas. Well, this picture is horrible, but I'm sure you could find little drones at some big box stores. Toys in general make perfect customs. You can also use them to proxy(meaning to use instead of) the figures for various squads or heroes. Especially common toys like toy soldiers can become your Airborne Elite or use toy spiders to fight as Fyorlag Spiders. Or just go ahead and use them for customs.


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Designer's Blog 

Tactical Combat Unit

Throwers of the Tarn