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Getting my boyfriend to be more accepting of customs

RaylaSan

New member
My boyfriend is a huge Heroscape fan, owns pretty much all the sets and everything, it's one of the main things he obsesses about a lot. Not too long ago, I remember asking my boyfriend what his opinions on customs were and if he was aware of them.

He didn't care too much about custom terrain, but he had a particularly strong distaste for custom figures. He had no rhyme, nor no good reason to actually hate them. He just didn't like them, I would force him to look at the cool customs people had made, and while he did admit that he thought some of them were cool looking, he honestly felt that it wasn't made by a true Heroscape fan because they wanted to mess up with the sanctity of the game? I don't know, It was confusing…

Anyway, he made it quite clear to me that he absolutely hated customs and would never learn to appreciate them. Therefore, I did what any normal girlfriend would do, and bought him a custom Heroscape figure for his birthday, and a regular Heroscape figure he didn't already own, to see what would happen.

He opened both presents, and he was really happy to see a Heroscape figure he didn't already own, something more to add to his collection. He opened the custom, and he had the most disappointed look of disgust and horror in his face, he immediately began to point out everything that was wrong with the figure and the card it came with, example would be wrong font choice, wrong base, and stuff like that.

Thankfully, despite his obvious distaste for the figure, he did agree to play one game with him.

Fast forward a year later, and that custom figure is now part of his main army, he apparently liked the way it trolled his opponents.
 
Welcome to the site!

Well this is an interesting case. Honestly, my advice is that if he doesn't want to play with customs, don't force him to. Or at the least, allow for an equal amount of customs-allowed games, and official-only games.
I'm not going to lie, I don't get why somebody would be against them to that degree, but if somebody has mental hangups they can be hard to change. Pressuring them into changing is just going to make them dig their heels in deeper.
If you still want him to get more into customs, try going with the big official projects. C3V or C3G if he likes superheroes. Get the correct figures that match the cards, rebase them if you can, and print out the card on a fancy cardstock. Both of these projects make a large effort to maintain that "official" feel that so many of us custom-makers just can't do on our own.
 
Was this a custom from eBay? Sounds like it, if it came with a card and an already-based figure.

I'd be careful with those. A lot of them are low-quality and unbalanced. The cards especially tend to have inconsistent wording and typos. I do think the figures are often cool.

I have nothing against customs, I'd just make sure you're using good customs. How you determine that is up to you, though, as long as your games are fun!
 
The game was discontinued, I think some new stuff is better than none. And the customs on this site get put through a rigorous process to make sure they’re worth playing with. I’ll echo the above, C3V and C3G are awesome and feel like fitting additions to the game. But I mean even if he doesn’t like customs, at least you play Heroscape right? I had to wait for my kids to get old enough before someone in the house would play it with me.
 
"Customs" includes a lot of stuff. I wouldn't encourage him to "like" the random stuff from eBay or whatever, but he might find something he likes in the C3V (or C3G, if he likes superhero stuff). The C3V has collected high praise from the likes of Craig Van Ness, the original designer of Heroscape, and from Jerry Hawthorne, also a Heroscape designer and the designer of other games, such as Mice & Mystics. You can follow the link in my sig to see what it's all about.

But I wouldn't encourage him to like random stuff from the internet, if that's what you mean. I hope you & he find what he's looking for! And what you're looking for! :)
 
My boyfriend is a huge Heroscape fan
That's good!

owns pretty much all the sets and everything
That's even better!

but he had a particularly strong distaste for custom figures...while he did admit that he thought some of them were cool looking, he honestly felt that it wasn't made by a true Heroscape fan because they wanted to mess up with the sanctity of the game
I can understand that (though I would argue no custom creator intends to 'mess up the sanctity of the game'). No matter the game, there's undoubtedly something that feels different about expansions that are unofficial. There's no reason a custom addition to a game can't be at least as good as the real stuff, but it often just doesn't feel right, because it's not official. However,

he made it quite clear to me that he absolutely hated customs and would never learn to appreciate them.
He's wrong. No game is perfect (though Heroscape is pretty darn good). There's always some minor flaw, some little improvement, something missing, and that's where customs can step in.

Therefore, I did what any normal girlfriend would do, and bought him a custom Heroscape figure for his birthday, and a regular Heroscape figure he didn't already own, to see what would happen.
MQUSuzc.gif


Fast forward a year later, and that custom figure is now part of his main army, he apparently liked the way it trolled his opponents.
That's not a terrible result! However, I'm curious about the unit and how it "trolls" opponents. I would hate to see all this effort turn into something that ends up being a negative play experience.

As others have already pointed out, there are some dos and don'ts of customs. Do stay away from eBay if you can help it. There are just some truly awful customs out there, not worth your time or money. Don't miss out on C3V! These are the closest thing to official figures since the game's cancellation, and even have the blessing of several members of the official design and playtest teams.

That being said, if there's a custom out there somewhere that you or he finds interesting, give it a try! Worst that can happen is you stop using it after one play, but not to worry, there are plenty more where that came from. Welcome to the site and happy 'scaping!
 
Damn, Craig. You're the best.

@RaylaSan , Craig's name is right there on the official Heroscape box. If anything will get your boyfriend beyond the official canon, that should be it.
 
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I highly recommend C3V and C3G customs!

Oh wow, thanks for the comment, I'm only familiar with the game, and I don't think my boyfriend (or I) know too much about C3V or C3G customs. Is it possible to get a quick explanation to what it is, and to where to get these customs? :)
 
Directions

VC (Valhalla Customs) comprises C3V (Classic Custom Creators of Valhalla) and SoV (Soldiers of Valhalla). C3G (Comic Custom Creators Guild) is a project with different goals.

C3V designs, tests, and releases units intended to be fully compatible with classic Heroscape. SoV has a group of judges who test user submitted customs with the same goal. Both are quite rigorous and typically use miniatures from other games. I've worked with C3V and seen how SoV runs things (and even got a submission approved by them).

C3G is more focused on expanding upon the base idea created in the marvel set that was released. Their stuff is not intended or tested to be played with classic Heroscape, but can be. What they have created is a plethora of units with diverse power sets based on recognizable (and less recognizable) existing characters usually pulled from the Heroclix line of figures. It plays somewhat differently than classic Heroscape, but it is very fun, and I'm part of the group that is like the quality control before it starts getting tested.

All three groups are full of excellent people who can direct you to anything you might find interesting. I highly recommend checking them out.

~Dysole, who hopes she isn't overwhelming you with information in her links
 
My boyfriend is a huge Heroscape fan
That's good!

owns pretty much all the sets and everything
That's even better!

but he had a particularly strong distaste for custom figures...while he did admit that he thought some of them were cool looking, he honestly felt that it wasn't made by a true Heroscape fan because they wanted to mess up with the sanctity of the game
I can understand that (though I would argue no custom creator intends to 'mess up the sanctity of the game'). No matter the game, there's undoubtedly something that feels different about expansions that are unofficial. There's no reason a custom addition to a game can't be at least as good as the real stuff, but it often just doesn't feel right, because it's not official. However,

he made it quite clear to me that he absolutely hated customs and would never learn to appreciate them.
He's wrong. No game is perfect (though Heroscape is pretty darn good). There's always some minor flaw, some little improvement, something missing, and that's where customs can step in.

Therefore, I did what any normal girlfriend would do, and bought him a custom Heroscape figure for his birthday, and a regular Heroscape figure he didn't already own, to see what would happen.
MQUSuzc.gif


Fast forward a year later, and that custom figure is now part of his main army, he apparently liked the way it trolled his opponents.
That's not a terrible result! However, I'm curious about the unit and how it "trolls" opponents. I would hate to see all this effort turn into something that ends up being a negative play experience.

As others have already pointed out, there are some dos and don'ts of customs. Do stay away from eBay if you can help it. There are just some truly awful customs out there, not worth your time or money. Don't miss out on C3V! These are the closest thing to official figures since the game's cancellation, and even have the blessing of several members of the official design and playtest teams.

That being said, if there's a custom out there somewhere that you or he finds interesting, give it a try! Worst that can happen is you stop using it after one play, but not to worry, there are plenty more where that came from. Welcome to the site and happy 'scaping!

Thank you so much for the comment, it means the world. We would like to try avoiding ebay for customs if we can, and eventually it would be great to eventually experience C3V customs as well. However, as I'm researching C3V customs, and the like. I would love to know where do we get the figures for these customs? Do we obtain it from other sets, or do we make it ourselves?

My boyfriend doesn't even know of the existence of C3V, as he barely ever uses the internet, so this is a whole other world that he doesn't even know about. Heck, he's convinced that he might as well be the only person in the world who plays this game now.

But it's honestly amazing to learn about C3V and of it's creation, I looked at some of the cards, and they look really good. We would love to get our hands on them eventually, perhaps when we've fully researched this beast.

Thanks so much for your comment. It means the world to me, that you took the time to come up with such a detailed response.
 
Re: Directions

VC (Valhalla Customs) comprises C3V (Classic Custom Creators of Valhalla) and SoV (Soldiers of Valhalla). C3G (Comic Custom Creators Guild) is a project with different goals.

C3V designs, tests, and releases units intended to be fully compatible with classic Heroscape. SoV has a group of judges who test user submitted customs with the same goal. Both are quite rigorous and typically use miniatures from other games. I've worked with C3V and seen how SoV runs things (and even got a submission approved by them).

C3G is more focused on expanding upon the base idea created in the marvel set that was released. Their stuff is not intended or tested to be played with classic Heroscape, but can be. What they have created is a plethora of units with diverse power sets based on recognizable (and less recognizable) existing characters usually pulled from the Heroclix line of figures. It plays somewhat differently than classic Heroscape, but it is very fun, and I'm part of the group that is like the quality control before it starts getting tested.

All three groups are full of excellent people who can direct you to anything you might find interesting. I highly recommend checking them out.

~Dysole, who hopes she isn't overwhelming you with information in her links

Alright, thank you so much for giving me the basic run down of C3V and SOV, I was able to understand it more clearly without having to go on millions of forums to find my answer.
 
Thank you so much for the comment, it means the world. We would like to try avoiding ebay for customs if we can, and eventually it would be great to eventually experience C3V customs as well. However, as I'm researching C3V customs, and the like. I would love to know where do we get the figures for these customs? Do we obtain it from other sets, or do we make it ourselves?
All C3V miniatures come from somwhere else, usually another miniature game. If you look beneath the cards on any C3V (or C3G) “books” you’ll see some blue text that will tell you the name of the model and what line it’s from. Then you can go to any of the many sites that sell miniature game models and purchase it, if it’s in stock obviously.
 
Thank you so much for the comment, it means the world. We would like to try avoiding ebay for customs if we can, and eventually it would be great to eventually experience C3V customs as well. However, as I'm researching C3V customs, and the like. I would love to know where do we get the figures for these customs? Do we obtain it from other sets, or do we make it ourselves?
All C3V miniatures come from somwhere else, usually another miniature game. If you look beneath the cards on any C3V (or C3G) “books” you’ll see some blue text that will tell you the name of the model and what line it’s from. Then you can go to any of the many sites that sell miniature game models and purchase it, if it’s in stock obviously.

Ah, that makes sense, thanks for telling me. :eek:
 
There's a link in my sig to an index of all the C3V & SoV units. The mini info is there, as Nobody said.

Happy hunting!
 
I highly recommend C3V and C3G customs!

@truth - this needs to go on front page during next C3V/C3G release!
@RaylaSan - I will earn my Title with this post, but see my VC (C3V & SoV) 3/page PDF compilation for all the army cards up to 3 years ago (I really need to update) as well as my Heroscape C3V & SoV Spreadsheet which has a list of all C3V units, with what miniature they use, and links on where to buy. Also, here is some places for getting into Heroscape in general:
Check out the Links to all Heroscape Websites and Online Stores, for which the sites there also sell other miniatures besides herosape. Also buy MtG:Arena of the Planeswalkers where right now you can get 75 figures in the 3 sets for less than $20. If you want to by Custom Heroscape figures that groups have already designed, see the following spreadsheets that have direct links to online stores, as well as card threads/images on Heroscapers:
[/QUOTE]
 
After I rebuild my classic HS collection due to selling it all off back in the day I plan on checking out the C3V's. I'm glad that the community is still going pretty strong to have all these new units coming out. The new flag bearer looks really gnarly.
 
Perhaps the most important thing to know about C3V (and C3G) is that they specifically continue new card production to complete, compliment, and extend what was originally produced in the official ones. Some original cards were clearly intended to work with future cards that were never produced, and are therefore "incomplete." Other categories of figures were left with very few or only single members.

The entire 'new' seventh Valkrill (brown) faction only had four cards when Heroscape's publication stopped, but is now a full faction with 24 cards--see my new thread on it in this site section for a complete roster of both the official and custom cards it now includes.

Besides their threads in the Customs section, the Home Page showcases new C3V/C3G waves of new cards as they come out!
 
Just read through this thread for the first time.

All I can say is :-D
 
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