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Thanks for the feedback, Kaylin. I have gone through the tutorials and studied various examples of Zypping. It is a really neat effect that adds a lot of dimension and pizzazz. Many HMers that have mastered the technique with incredible results.
Alas, not me.48 – The Circus is in Town!
I’m not a big fan of the circus. Clowns are creepy. These are some of my laziest designs given my lack of interest in the subject. So I am going to post just a couple of entries.
First is a circus performer, an acrobat. The original is from HeroMachine 2.5; the second is an HM 3 re-design. Not too thrilled with the HM3 version. He’s supposed to be standing on a ball. The ball is flat. Here is where a bit of Zypping would create the 3D effect that could have saved this picture.
Circus Performer HM 2.5
HM 3 Beta
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@Kaylin88100 said:
He looks pretty good, despite the lack of zypping (which we really need to rename…I haven’t seen or heard of Zyp in ages…)Neither have I. However, just like a Contest / Challenge Custom Item is part of the HeroMachine program, “zypping” is part of the HM lexicon. The term is his legacy.
48 – The Circus is in Town!
Second entry: Madame Macabre, the Mystic Murderess. Though her backstory is incomplete, I include her in my meta-verse. The tattoos were originally purple but they blended too much with the dress. Not thrilled with the tattoos themselves. They are simply masked gloves. Might have to re-visit their design.
Madame Macabre
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Character Contest 49 – Scorpio
First subject in the Zodiac Character Contests. Though, my sign, Aries is first and Scorpio is the eighth, the contest started around late October.
One design, which I did not enter, was based on 1980s action movies such as “Rambo,” “Delta Force,” and, of course Dolph Lundgren’s “Red Scorpio.” For obvious reasons, I felt the character was too cheesy, so I passed.
Scorpio
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Character Contest 49 – Scorpio
My next Scorpio was supposed to be more menacing. Desert Scorpio stands in the middle of a sandstorm. I needed something to fill the deadspace to his left. The camel poking his head into the picture makes the design somewhat humorous.
Desert Scorpio
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Thanks, Scatman.
Character Contest 49 – Scorpio
I drew inspiration for my last entry from some of my favorite artists: Jim Croce, Gordon Lightfoot, and other mellow gold musicians. This is a personal favorite of mine.
1970’s Songwriting / Singing Sensation “Scorpio”
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Thanks, MisterDinoMan
Character Contest 50 – Lord Random the Third
Another contest using Seventh Sanctum to generate character names. Only one entry for this contest. I blogged this earlier. I don’t drive. If I miss the bus or can’t hitch a ride, I take cabs. Poor planning is very expensive. Seventh Sanctum offered me a chance to vent with the selection of “Seer Hack.”
Seer Hack
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Character Contest 51 – Alien Nation
Oyshins are a race from one of my GURPS Space campaigns. The players were members of a first contact team: a mix of soldiers, pilots, mechanics, traders, archaelogists, xenobiologists, linguists, and other specialists and random characters. Their last expedition took them to Sah where they encountered the komodo dragon-like primitives.
Since HeroMachine did not have a komodo dragon head, I used the crocodile. Which caused my Oyshin to “evolve” into a heavier set. Not that komodos are small! But this Oyshins became bulkier, more deliberate. Not the fast strikers that I originally envisioned.
The encounter was amicable with the team exchanging cigars and Denver omelettes for cultural effects (weapons, art, jewelry, etc.). Trouble began when an excavation company arrived then began to strip-mine the Oyshin’s mountain homes. With limited supplies and ammo, the adventurers fought to destroy the mining operation. They did not have enough knowledge of the native culture or language to effectively communicate their intentions.
The Oyshin made no distinction between the outsiders and would routinely ambush the contact team. Try as they could, the crew could not prevent Oyshin casualties. Oyshins are extremely tough. There really is no such thing as a “knockout blow” when fighting an Oyshin. They go into a white hot rage.
By the end of the encounter, the Oyshins were decimated, the contact team almost a third of the crew, and trade disputes exploded into interstellar war. The surviving members of the team were conscripted by their respective governments and employers to fight the wars. Often times, they would face one another on the battlefield.
The band that an Oyshin wears represents his caste (hunter, warrior, or cook). The race thinks not much further ahead than the next meal. The Oyshin depicted wears purple for a war chief.
Oyshin Warrior
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HeroMachine 2.5
Character Contest 51 – Alien Nation
I am a huge fan of matinees and serials from the 1930s and 1940s. I have some recurring characters and plots centered around this “Golden Age” of Hollywood. All are original to HeroMachine: The Queen of Venus, Astro-Captain Jack and the Space Pirate Raiders, Solar Ray, Sugary Sweet Plumdrop Chewing Gum, and Golden Eagle Tobacco.
Solar Ray
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Backstory
Solar Ray
Starring Jimmy Huntsman (b. March 18, 1914 – d. March 16, 1941)Solar Ray was a popular Saturday matinee during the 1930s sponsored by Golden Eagle Tobacco Theater. The serial’s star was Hollywood newcomer Jimmy Huntsman (né Arthur James Herschell) as Solar Ray, three-fingered alien Prince of the Sun. With his companion Corona the Helio-chimp, Solar Ray fought the evil Nightmen of Pluto who sought to destroy the sun.
It was not the Nightmen who extinguished Jimmy’s bright star. The studio that produced Astro-Captain Jack and the Space Pirate Raiders sued Golden Eagle Tobacco for copyright infringement. After a three year run of weekly filming, Jimmy was out of work. He never landed another acting gig on the silver screen.
Tragically, Jimmy Huntsman died of pneumonia just two days shy of his 27th birthday. It wasn’t until 1998 when Golden Eagle Tobacco settled his estate with his surviving daughter. Golden Eagle’s official position is that smoking two packs of cigarettes a day while wearing an enclosed fishbowl helmet as stipulated in Jimmy’s contract did not contribute to his lung cancer.
Character Contest 51 – Alien Nation
Last entry and another personal favorite: The Tithonian Devil. I should expand this story.
The Tithonian Devil
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Story
Mars, 15 April 2032 A.D.
12:25 Zulu
The three-man rescue team pulled up to the ridge on their schooners. They stood in awe. Before them lay the “ruins” of the mythical city of Tithonia. Commander Michael Padrovski snapped back to the mission. Red Eagle had lost contact with the reconnaissance team.Padrovski noticed what he thought could be an abandoned road that wound its way down the ridge and toward the ruins. The rescue team started their descent into the valley. Though rough, the team was able to negotiate the trail. All of a sudden, Captain Bradshaw’s schooner lurched. Bradshaw tumbled down the rocky face. The schooner rolled as well, landing on Bradshaw and rupturing his suit. Padrovski and Mission Specialist Darshana Sangma watched in horror as Bradshaw lashed violently. Everyone, including the crew back at the Red Eagle, heard his blood-choked screams over the comm. Then… silence… Not even the whispers of the Martian wind.
Commander Padrovski pressed forward. They were too close to the homing beacon to give up hope on the reconnaissance team. Sangma broke the silence with a prayer. She followed Padrovski into what now seemed the mouth of hell. Before she could catch up to Padrovski, the battery on her schooner died.
As he drove into the village of anomalous rock formations, the Commander pointed toward what looked like the supposed power generator. Between its “buttresses” there was an emergency tent. Padrovski’s hopes rose. He dismounted and rushed into the tent. Inside, there was nothing: no teammates living or dead, no equipment, not even the beacon itself. The Martian Maniac re-calibrated his homing sensor twice. It kept saying the same thing. He was right on top of the beacon.
Padrovski exited the tent. The sensor quit then suddenly picked up a new beacon. Spooked, but undaunted, he climbed back on the schooner and headed toward the signal. He did not stop to notice that he had left Sangma stranded.
The beacon led Padrovski to what was said to be the temple. Approaching from behind, it looked like a dome atop a trapezoid reminiscent of a Meso-American pyramid or possibly the Dome of the Rock. He circled the massive block. He found an obvious entrance, a long stairwell leading to an open archway in the dome. By estimate, the area of the base was 360 feet by 180 feet. It stood roughly 150 feet tall.
The Commander began to wish that he were the mission’s lead scientist not its Saint Bernard. A sudden flashing blue light from the top of the stairs brought him back into focus. He checked his sensor to confirm. It was the emergency beacon. Too far to walk, he first made an open channel call for survivors to respond. The only reply was from Sangma. She told Padrovski that she had repaired her schooner and was en route.
Padrovski acknowledged. Eager to find the recon team, he raced his schooner up the escalade. Sangma reached the rendez-vous at the base of the temple. She hailed the Commander several times. She could barely hear a garbled voice through the static. The comm abruptly ended transmission with an ear-piercing whine.
The Martian wind began to howl. A giant dust storm rolled over the ridge. Darshana’s heart froze. Her eyes welled with tears. Her only chance for shelter, possibly survival, was inside the temple. She gunned the schooner.
Having escaped the devil wind, Darshana looked all down at the valley. It was now engulfed in a surreal cloud of Martian sand. She chose to enter the temple in case the wind carried it higher. She frantically tried to re-establish contact with Commander Padrovsky.
The halls in the temple were massive. Large enough to navigate the schooner. Despite the high beam tri-lights, it was darker than the Martian midnight. Darshana drove wildly until she reached what she believed to be the heart of the temple.
Without warning, the chamber was illuminated. Propped in front of the young astronaut was the corpse of an alien. This was more than a temple, it was a tomb! History erased itself before Darshana’s eyes.
Darshana awoke months later in a hospital bed on earth screaming, “Diabolus Tithonius!”
Character Contest 52 – Sagittarius
Centaurs and archers. Here is one version of the Greek myth of Nessus.
Nessus
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The myth
During an adventure, Hercules and his second wife Deianeira arrived at the River Evenus. Nessus, the river’s self-proclaimed ferryman, offered the demi-god and his bride passage. He carried Deianeira first. Once across, Nessus started to run. He intended to kidnap the fair maiden.Hercules quickly struck the centaur with a poison arrow. Before he died,Nessus told Deianeira to use his blood should Hercules ever be unfaithful. Suspecting that Hercules was indeed cheating, jealous Deianeira stained a tunic with the blood. When the demi-god donned the tunic, he felt pain so intense that he set himself on fire. Zeus rescued Hercules before he burned to death.
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