Author Archives: AFDStudios

HM3: Prize items

I've wrapped up several outstanding contest prizes and have posted all but one to the live HeroMachine 3 app. First up, two of our winners -- DiCicatriz (Character Contest 30) and SuperFan1 (Friday Night Fights) -- decided to have portraits done of themselves, and they now live in Head-Winners:

superfan-dicicatris

Kyle decided to go with the classic Viking helmet in Headgear-Standard for his Character Contest 29 victory:

kyle-viking-helmet-hm

Finally, Hakoon has approved his British-flag guitar, but it's not actually available in ItemRight-Music yet, as I'm still working on the set. But this is what it looks like:

hakoon-rough

Thanks to those guys for picking great prizes, I hope everyone enjoys them. And if you've won a contest but I haven't drawn your prize yet, never fear, I am working on them!

RP: That's what she said! And she … and that other she …

black-dwarf-arsenic-tigerrod

Lazy Teenage Superheroes

Mike Ashton sent me a link to a trailer for a short film he made for under $300, and it's pretty amazing. Take a look at "Lazy Teenage Superheroes":

Good luck with the film, Mike!

The sword's the thing … or is it?

rpgcornerheader
Welcome to RPG Corner, a place where you can share your knowledge and thoughts of the Role Playing Game world. Each week we will have a new topic to discuss, so feel free to talk it up, make suggestions, post images, and have a good time.

This week's topic is weapons.

dnd_weapons_legacyLet's face it, for an awful lot of us RPG fans, the fight's the thing. Back when we used to play "Champions" regularly, we would joke about everything else being a search for the "large open space", the immediate prelude to battle. Few things are as satisfying in the gaming world as grabbing a big double handful of dice to fling across the table, determining just how much damage your Hammer of DOOM! did to the bad guys.

Every system has certain iconic weapons that resonate with you, whether it be your fledgling D&D Fighter's frantic search for a bastard sword -- we didn't know what it was, but it felt delicious saying "bastard" where your mom couldn't hear, and it did wicked damage -- or a strange and burning desire to find Foxbat's ping-pong gun.

So have at it -- what weapons did you most commonly use in your RPG? By no means should you limit it to pen and paper RPGs, either, if there was a special Final Fantasy item that really tickled your fancy, I'd love to hear about it.

For fantasy, did you stick with the basic longsword, or did you prefer to go with the Friar Tuck special quarterstaff, a whip, scythe, or some other more uncommon choice?

What "special" or magical weapons do you remember your characters aquiring? Does your super-powered character have some awesome weapon you think is aweesome?

So have at it, folks, the RPG Corner is open for geeking!

HM3: Kaldath's FNF prize

Kaldath and I have finished his Friday Night Fights semi-final prize, a faerie dragonlet now live in Companions-Standard. Enjoy!

Note that the eyes are blank so you can place any eye you like behind the figure for the proper orientation and effect.

SOD.092 – Invincible

Invincible is © Robert Kirkman.

RP: WAY more important than good fences

ladyluck-87-1950-rubber

(From "Lady Luck" number 87, 1950.)

Patterns and Open Help Thread

People still have a hard time with patterning and masking in HeroMachine 3, so I wanted to take a quick moment to show how to get custom patterns on your items. Also, if you have any questions about anything else HeroMachine related -- like how to get a particular effect, for instance -- just chime in in the comments and either I or one of the other folks here will try to lend a hand.

You can use any item in the program for a pattern, not just the ones in the default Pattern tab. First, pick the item you want to apply the pattern to (a basic male body in this case), then the pattern you want to put onto it. In the sample, I've picked the actual Patterns Standard set.

patternmenu

Next, choose the actual item you want to be the pattern, then color and scale it how you want to be sure it covers everything. Here I had to scale the leopard pattern up quite a bit to cover up to the neckline and feet. I also made the colors somewhat transparent so they'd look more like fur.

leopard1

Finally, click the pattern item to make sure it's the active one. Next click the Mask tool and then -- and this is important -- click on the item you are trying to apply the pattern to, not the pattern itself. In this case, that means I clicked on the Leopard skin pattern, then clicked Mask, then clicked on the Body.

leopard2

That's it! You can do this with flags (in the Background-Shapes set) to get a patriotic looking character, or anything else, really.

Feel free to post your "Help!" requests in the comments.

SOD.091 – Invisible Woman

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RP: Too … many … Tiger Woods jokes …

ladyluck-87-1950-nakedgolf

(From "Lady Luck", number 87, 1950.)