Heroes of Fiction: Design Thread
 

I've had an idea of doing a thread like this for some time. Basically, I'd like to have a core group of people that choose and create a custom for any character from fiction. That character needs to be somewhat known. For instance, you could do Terminator or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. They can be from movies, TV, literature, video games, etc. The core group will create characters one at a time and they will be reviewed and critiqued by the group. I think a similar funtionality to the HoSS (Heroes of StarWars 'Scape) would work best. If you're interested, please post in this thread.

Current Designers:
Balantai
Lamaclown
jcmcminis
Taeblewalker
mac122
Machineking
McHotcakes
Confred

Phase 1: Designer Chooses Character
Initial post should contain:
Character's name.
What fictional genre the character is from. I.E. Movie: Star Wars, Literature: Harry Potter, Television: Transformers, etc.
What miniature you will be using.
A short description of the character or link to a description.
Any specific direction you're looking to take the character.
NOTE: Actual stats and Special Powers you are considering are not needed in this phase.



Phase 2: Brainstorming Stage

• Only 1 post per person. Anyone from the community is welcome to post, but please limit it to one post for this stage. If you think of something afterwards and/or want to make changes to what you have suggested, then go back & edit your post.
• If you disagree with ideas somebody else has put forward do so in your own initial post. Don't start a discussion about it, just state clearly why you disagree & offer something in it's place.
• Remember at this stage the wording doesn't have to be accurate or official or even written like a power, just put your thoughts down as they come to you as it is only brainstorming. It'll be up to the designer to take what he likes & try to put them into something close to official wording.
• The chosen figure must remain in the Brainstorming Phase for at least 24 hours. If the designer feels that he wants to wait longer, he may.

Phase 3: Draft Stage
Once the designer feels he has enough info to start creating a card, he may post his first draft.
Use this template:

During the Draft Stage, all aspects of the card should be discussed including stats, Special Powers, cost and power wording.

Phase 4: Voting Stage
When the designer feels that the card is ready for creation, he may propose to finalize the card. To finalize the card, there needs to be approval (thumbs up) from a majority of the active designers. After the card is finalized, the next designer in order is activated and the process resets.

Important Note
In order to get your chance to design, you will need to be an active participator in this thread. That doesn't mean 10 posts per day. It doesn't mean you need to post every day, either. It just means that you contribute regularly in a positive manner.

Finished Designs:
Found here.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

I'm interested, but don't have much time. I might be able to find time to help though.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

Sounds like fun! Count me in.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

I like this, count me in, I've actually already done several video game characters.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

Ideally, this thread won't be that time intensive. When it's your turn to create a custom, I would expect you to be pretty active, but otherwise, a post a day should be more than suffice.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

There are a couple of items that would need discussion, though.

• Should these cards be on Vahallascape or Marvelscape skins?
• Is a miniature required?
• Will they use movie, tv, video game art or will they use miniature photo?

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

Here's my penny and a half.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

I'm in, but Mac ninja'd all my responses to your question before I could even answer them. ;)

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

I have PM'd someone about creating all of our cards for this "project". (I hate using the word 'project' because it makes it sound like work) If he accepts, we'll ask him if he's willing to do Vahalla cards and if he's willing to do photo and mini versions.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

Side note, are you planning on doing this kind of as each figure comes, or by series/movie/whatever? Do you have a preliminary list of possible future cards for design? Is the list subject to change with availability of figures or proxies?

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

I would love to do this, but considering the only minature modeling tools I have are a nondrying clay, I don't know what I can do.

Also, I'm a newb to creating customs.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

Hrockle,

I have no intention of modeling or molding any minis. :D There are a large variety of minis you can find online that could probably serve the purpose of proxing almost any custom you can think of.

In other words, don't worry, and we'd love to have you here with us.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

Thanks, I already have a couple ideas, just have to find the right figure.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

I'd like to leave it completely up to each individual designer. If one of our designers has a fetish for LotR, he can make a character every time it gets to his turn. I envision the beauty of this thread to be it's wide variety of genres and ideas.

As long as a suitable figure or proxy exists, it's fair game to create that card.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

No hurry. It'll probably be a couple days before we start on the first card.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

Cool deal. We are going to need some kind of structure to all this. Do you have ideas about that?

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

Yes. I have a bunch of ideas. :D

The rotation already exists in my initial post. One at a time, we choose a semi-famous fictional character and post a first draft. The draft needs to include the miniature being used. We then give ideas and possible critiques to the designer. It's ultimately the designer's decision what stays and what goes. Once the card has been hashed out, including cost, we'll need 'thumb ups' from a majority of the designers. We'll then get the custom on a card and move on to the next designer.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

Hey Balantai, what if we already have a card made up for a particular character? I even have an idea on backstory on why he was brought to valhalla and everything.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

Guess what I am asking Balantai is can I go 1st and then you can skip me the 1st time around in the rotation.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

I do have a concern here. In doing a little online research for ideas on upcoming cards, I am noticing there is not alot of possiblity for proxy/similiar figures out there. Is having a figure going to be a requirement for making the card or can we skirt that sometimes if a suitable proxy/figure cannot be found?

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

Since I've already been doing some of this, and I haven't been a part of a group project before, I would love to pitch in as well (obviously, I would do figs from classic literature ;)).

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

If we can't find a figure, then we should at least find a stand-in - a figure that would have most of the same characteristics like species and size. Like Roger Moore when he replaced Sean Connery as James Bond.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

I generally like to have figs for the cards I make. You would be surprised at just how many figs are out there that could appropriately fill the need. It takes some searching around sometimes, but they are out there.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

I'd like in, but I'm concerned by the breadth of the thread. "Heroes of Fiction" is a REALLY wide net: it pretty much covers everything, including all of the customs projects that already exist. I might suggest making a couple different threads, such as "Heroes of Cinema," and "Heroes of Literature," so that things don't just get entirely muddled together.

That said, I definitely have some ideas I'd like to get out there. :twisted:

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

That's not entirely a bad idea. One for Cinema, one for Literature, one for Television, one for Video Games and that's all I got right now. Anything I missed?

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

I like to help out with this project, but I'm not suer how much time I could devote to it. I can definitley playtest a bit and make a couple of cards.

Instead of different threads, the cards could simply be divided into different groups, just as C3G cards are divided into different waves.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

I have fantastic news for this project. A3n has graciously accepted putting our finished ccustoms on cards. For those of you that don't know A3n, he is one of two card designers for C3G. (The other is GreyOwl.)

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

So, will the cards be on Vahallascape backings, or Marvelscape ones. Personaly, I think the majority of fictional characters can be grouped under the Vahallan generals.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

That doesn't begin to cover it! That's AWESOME news!

Along the lines of Machineking's idea, I think we could keep them all in this thread. Just sort them out on the front page like the HoSS figures are sorted by Episode.

Hmmm, I wonder if I could find a Mr. Burns figure....;)

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

I agree that finding a way of separating figs from different genres is a good idea.

mac122 probably has the best idea so far. That way we can avoid cluttering this sub-forum with multiple threads for the same project.

As for a Burns miniature... so close but no cigar. It is a travesty that he is so neglected (of course he is the one who's murder you are trying to solve).

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

Doh! Though I will have to look at our Simpson's Clue game to see if those figs are close to scale.

BTW, meant to do this earlier, but it's great to have you on board, Lamaclown.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

Thank you!
I am very excited to be a part of a community project.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

I don't mind if you already have a character created, as long as you are open to changes on the character. If you're set on the power set and wording already, he's probably better off left as one of your own customs.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

Im open to suggestions for change. So if its ok with you, can i go ahead and post it for review and then you can skip me in the 1st rotation?

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

If we design multiple characters from the same series, we could also sub-group them based on that series.

In addition, characters from movies or television based on literature should be in the literature section.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

I don't know about that. Often the characters from movies are nothing like the characters from the book. Take VanHelsing for example. The only resemblance of Hugh Jackman's character to Bram Stoker's character is that they both hunted Dracula.

Some leeway is fine but if the characters are totally dissimilar (as in the above example) I think we should keep them separate.

Just my :2cents:
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Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

Part 1 - Yes.
Part 2 - Maybe. I think it will depend on where the designer is getting their inspiration. Characters can change drastically from one medium to the next. Movies often merge multiple characters into one or add a snazzy new ability not found in the book.

OOF! Lamaclown ninja's are painful!

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

I was thinking more about series like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, where the movie is more heavily based on the books, but I see your point.

P.S. How would the selection process work? Would the designer choose a figure to design, design the figure, and then post it for critique, or would the supporters vote on a figure, brainstrom ideas, and have the designer take the brainstorming ideas and create a cohesive card based on them.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

Let's get a couple more things hashed out before we start the process. We're all excited. :D

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

Maybe to start we should create a list of characters. If just to start the brainstorming process.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

I really don't want to limit what can and can't be made. Since we're leaning towards putting these customs on Vahalla cards, I see nothing wrong with reinventing Star Wars or Comic Book characters if someone is so inclined.

As far as grouping is concerned, I don't think that's anything we really need to get hung up on. We could have the same custom in multiple sections. For instance, Gandalf could go in the Movie section and the Literature section.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

It's going to be up to the designer to decide which character to create. Perhaps the best option is to post the character that you want to create first and let everyone give their opinion. After that, the designer can pick what he likes from the suggestions and post a card. It would a bit different from most of the other projects and I think it would work.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

Designer chooses a figure to design, brainstorm ideas, designer takes brainstorming ideas and creates a cohesive card.

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

That's in interesting twist. :up:
So when we present a character, we give a short bio and maybe some links for more info and then maybe give the group an idea where you'd like to go with the design but not present stats and abilities. Sound right?

Re: Heroes of Fiction Thread
 

Sounds good. We can probaly use wikipedia for info.

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I would be interested in doing a character. Possibilities I'm interested in: The Kids from the D&D cartoon, Spellsinger, Papa Smurf

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Another question. If asupporter doesn't have the time to make a card when his postion in the rotation comes up, could he pass, or delay his turn?