Galaxy Zento Heroclix!

No, no, I'm  not actually getting my characters made into clix yet. Sorry, I sure wish I were. No, today I'm diving into my personal fantasy of having my characters made into clix. What's Heroclix? Heroclix is a tabletop game played on a map. It uses figurines of comicbook characters on special game dials to simulate comic book battles. Here, are a couple of site you can visit to learn about it:

Heroclix.com

HCRealms.com

HeroclixWorld.com

Anyway, it's my fantasy that one fine day my characters will become a set of Heroclix. I will likely do more than one blog on this. Why? Because I've actually made a set and designed dials too! HA! Credit for how I was able to make the dial maps goes to HCRealms. Love those guys. So if you don't totally understand this, it's okay. This post is just part of my dream.

So, allow me to show you the team of PAC (Parahuman Activity Commission), federal agents. They are in my novel Chaos Rising available on Amazon.

SANDSTORM: You see him right there, the worlds most powerful elemental. He has quite a few special powers (black bordered sections). General info for those who don't know the game. Each vertical section of numbers shows up in a special window on the plastic dial base. See the symbols on the left? Those are for (in order from top to bottom) Movement (how many spaces the character can go); Attack (how good the character is at attacking other characters); Defense (the number an attacker has to make with dice to hit this character) and Damage (how many times you turn another character's dial toward KO when this character hits them).

Now back to it. Those who know heroclix may just choke a little at the sight of power like this. His ability to switch up powers serves to show just how many ways he can use his elemental forces. Since he's an elemental/weather controller and shape changer, it all makes sense. He has a high price tag in use since he costs 260 points. You wouldn't see him in lower point games.

ELECTRODE: The Nuclear-Electric Man moves at twice the speed of light and hurls super powered lightning. He's Sandstorm's partner and protege. His points allow for  a duo team with his partner in a 400 point match. I'm confident they'd be dangerous. I should also mention their Team Ability since listed on a team (PAC). When outwitted their defense rises by 1. His trait is powerful, but outwittable, unlike most.

ATOMIZER: He can cause inanimate objects to go atomic by mental command. He can control those explosions to any magnitude (as far as he knows). His favorite object is a ping pong ball. He tosses them at perpetrators to subdue them shockwave style.  He's Redeagle's partner. His special attack power has been done before so it shouldn't be too much of stretch. It lasts his whole dial but his attack numbers aren't outrageous.

REDEAGLE: The Native American hero with animal senses, super strength and a wicked eye for shooting. He and his partner Atomizer fit nicely in a very small team for 200 points. They would also work well for general built teams. I think his dial is really pretty basic for sharpshooter character with a couple extra powers.

BLACKTIDE: This dial demonstrates his disintegrative powers and all the ways they work. He punches through defense like a champion and it's nearly lethal to attack him up close. Fortunately, he has to get fairly close to be dangerous. But that's where his partner, Nyhtwulf comes in.

NYHTWULF: The Twilie demon who is Blacktide's partner, point costed to be with his friend. It's dangerous to attack Blacktide up close, and dangerous to attack his partner from range. Never mind the fact that Nyhtwulf can carry a friend 12 spaces. They can almost human shield each other.

So playing them all together as one massive team will cost 849 points. Not awful for a large point team. I don't think they are terribly off balance either. Each team of two fits in a team point category and should be able to hold their own there. So, Heroclix fans, what do you think of my guys as clix? What would you do differently? Let your voice be heard in comments and have a great day!

Tabletop, Wil Wheaton, and Internet Judgment

(Language warning)

Incidents with Wil Wheaton's blog last week created an uproar on the net of tidal proportions. Who doesn't know that Wil Wheaton runs the coolest game demoing show on the net? If you haven't watched Tabletop, you are missing out. Alas, his third season has had some problems that he comes out to explain in the following of his blog posts:

TABLETOP, KINGDOM BUILDER AND SCREWING UP THE RULES

CRITICAL FAILURE

Before I get too far, I'm going to quote Wil on that second blog post where he says something that hits remarkably close to home for me and my project.

Note that first sentence. It's of incredible importance. It's a solemn reminder that we are human. Something that people seem to want to cast aside when it comes to the internet. You aren't allowed to be human on the internet. The entirety of both those blog posts show that Wil is just that, human. It shows that he deals with all the same bull that someone new to the industry can deal with.

It's also an important lesson in dealing with people who aren't going to like what you do. It's a lesson I learned, but I wasn't prepared for the level of gross "shitting on" I was going to receive. It honestly took me by surprise. As Wil said in his second blog post, he may not have responded to the issues in the best way he could. Same goes for me. But there are points for everyone when the needling just hits that nerve one too many times.

You're supposed to always be positive and always wear a happy face. But that's not the human thing to do when people are taking that gratuitous dump on your work.

When my art work was attacked; hold on, let me explain that. It felt like being attacked because the feedback consisted of unhelpful negative remarks given in force of numbers. When 8-15 people line up in one comment thread to say things like:

"Your work looks like a five year old did it."
"It looks purposely bad."
"It's abysmal."
"My kid could do better on MS Paint."
"Hire someone else to do it."

It's only natural to feel  outnumbered and it shook me up. Then I had people ask me questions that they clearly didn't want the answers to. When they got the answer they said I was full of excuses. But you know what all that really means? Two things.

-I'll never impress those people with anything. No, Nothing. Accept it.
-Those are the absolute wrong people for me to show my work to.

My artwork is my achievement. Do I expect it to be the permanent face of my project. No I don't. But it's still my achievement. These people have no idea how  hard it was for me to do what I did, and frankly, they don't give two shits.

So I have to get this going in my mind. When someone lines up to shit on my work, I need to dismiss them. I have too much to do to worry about their woes. If they have a constructive idea to toss my way, I'm all cool with that. If they just don't like my games or stories. That's fine too.

But even in the practice of that, I'm human. Has being human alienated me? Probably to some degree. I feel bad about that, but I just have to dust myself off and keep working.

I think Wil Wheaton is going to bounce back from this and keep doing amazing things. I'm sure I can follow that example.

I have to stick with the facts that matter too. People who have played my game have enjoyed it. I have published two books. I have actually fully developed and designed a prototype in solid cardboard. These are my achievements. Let no amount of elitist shit ever tarnish them.