A Self Introduction (pt. 2)

See part 1 here.

03 Jan 2011

New year, new blog entry.

As it is a new year and we reflect on the past year to make goals for the next year, I think it’s very appropriate for me to list what I hope to contribute to the great community that is Heroscapers.

Let me look first at my past failings. I know I am not very good at making custom figures or even re-painting existing figures. There’s a certain amount of dexterity required for these things that I just don’t have. I have yet to try re-basing figures from other games, etc. but it seems like something I can probably do (I think I’ll start by re-basing some hero-clix for C3G figures), though there are others that are already doing it far better than me. I’ve tried building maps, and while I am getting better they still pale in comparison to those I’ve seen here.

Now we can repair some of the damage to my self esteem by exploring my strengths. I am getting better at building maps. Anything that I’ve made that is actually playable and balanced is pretty flat and is simply mirrored or rotated. Nice, but nothing to brag about. I’ve been trying to make some asymmetric maps, but everything so far has been too lopsided for a fair game. While they are still pretty simple I have instead started to develop some maps with hidden symmetries (pronounced “less obvious”) that are getting pretty close. I hope to have a preview or two out in about a month for everyone to throw their 2 cents at. Ultimately, using the feedback from these I’d like to get one of my asymmetric maps balanced and playable, hopefully within about 6 months. (I know that’s a long time to modify an existing map, but I’m a busy guy)

I have a pretty good memory and a very strong imagination. This has allowed me to create a few scenarios that add a little excitement to the game and I feel they’re pretty consistent with the official story line. Since I normally play with nieces and nephews while babysitting most of these are 1v2 or 1v3 scenarios that appear to stack the odds in favor of the bad guy (me) with things like height advantage, glyphs and larger armies but still (intentionally) favor the good guys (the kids) just enough that they almost always win while keeping it close. While the stories are descent, the battles themselves are not well balanced (again, intentionally) but I’d like to revisit some of them, re-balance them and share some competitive 1v2 and 1v3 scenarios.

Lastly DnD-scape has given me an intriguing idea. DnD, to me, is about several individual players working together or separately against an opposing force. My idea will incorporate the gameplay of heroscape and the multiplayer experience of the paper and pencil DnD, but that will have to wait for another time.