I’ve rarely tried to do anything serious with this. I mostly just try to break it and make the silliest combinations I can. I don’t save these, but here are a few screenshots of the ones I did record.
5 Likes
Never heard of it before now, but it seems like a pretty cool service! If I played tabletop games more often I’d probably be more interested in getting a figure produced. As it is though, those prices made me go 
.
Fooled around a little with it, and made a vague approximation of myself.
2 Likes
The prices are probably the only downside to Hero Forge, sadly. The model downloads are much cheaper at around 10 USD, but there aren’t very many readily accessible 3D printers that can print them to any decent quality.
Back when I first discovered Hero Forge, the premium plastic models were only 20-25 USD. Nowadays they’re more like 30 USD. The durability and quality also feels like it’s gone down. The premium plastic figure I ordered many years ago has held up without so much as a bend, even in pretty rough storage, but every premium plastic figure my friends have ordered for our D&D game have broken from just basic use and handling.
The normal plastic figure I ordered even snapped at the figure’s ankles. Took a lot of patience and some glue to get it back to somewhat normal, but even now I’m very wary of storing it anywhere in fear it’s going to just shatter. The grey primer on that figure also rubs off pretty easily.
3 Likes
Yeah, STL files and a printer are the way to go. They’re infinitely cheaper as well.
1 Like
Wait, hero forge works on mobile?
1 Like
Performed another experiment.
This time around, instead of trying to break it, I was trying to understand its painting system better. In prior ones, I typically would use some of the default mass color options and change things here and there. Went from scratch, definitely need to get better at it.
Though my experiment subject is my interpretation of a catgirl/catfolk. IRL, I tend to refer to cats as “demon furballs,” so that probably helps.
4 Likes
a cat human dragon with a dead person shield
the hero we need but don’t deserve
or want
3 Likes
Honestly sounds like something that you would make and then slap Shrek’s face all over it.
2 Likes
lemme get to that
4 Likes
2 Likes
Why does one character have a Hero Factory energy shield? And how does Hero Forge work? I need to test this out!
1 Like
Because hex energy shields have an uncommon status in Sci-Fi and Hero Factory is just one of a few that has them. As for Hero Forge, it’s a browser-based program that allows you to design your own tabletop minis from a wide selection of premade assets. I’m sure the link is already in the topic, but assuming you haven’t visited the site already, it’s mostly self-explanatory.
And there are a variety of options not only to customize your figure, but to buy them as well. Different materials, quality of paint, or even just the model file.
2 Likes
I’ve been using Hero Forge a lot for my upcoming D&D campaign, it’s definitely fun using the creator- made a bunch of characters already (including fan ones).
Got Clockwerk from Sly Cooper
Radagon from Elden Ring
And BROLY from Dragon Ball (Tho getting DB style hair in hero forge is basically impossible)
My only gripe with hero forge is price. If I were to buy a colored Clockwerk, it would be ~$100, which is a big oof.
3 Likes
Two crazy things:
First off, the Kobold Space Marine!
Seeing as they have very little health in D&D, I made one that can take some heavy damage.
And then, my attempt at a Toa figure:
It also looks a bit like Clay Moorington in Nexo Knights.
2 Likes
I actually use Hero Forge a lot as a starting point for when I do drawings or illustrations of my D&D characters.
It usually helps me nail down details in a design, using the pieces as inspiration. It’s a quick, easy, and fun way to mess around with ideas and iterations on a design without being overwhelmed by choice.
Never played, but on its own that figure looks sick!
I honestly wouldn’t go for the colored options. It’s by far more fun and cheaper to paint them yourself.
That being said, I’m iffy on their prices. They used to be considerably cheaper; I got a figure in their premium plastic for $25 about four or five years ago. Nowadays, you can get a figure in their normal plastic for about $35.
The sad thing is that my premium plastic figure is still around and kicking. Not even a bend anywhere on it. My normal plastic figure broke right at the ankles in about a month of just carrying it around. Friends of mine who got figures in the same plastic saw weapons breaking off as well.
That being said, the print quality and detail, even on their cheapest plastic, is much better than probably any printer you can get on the market for cheap or use for free at a library. The tradeoff there is that their cheapest plastic is extremely fragile.
Their digital models are only $10, which is great, and you can make as many of them as you want. What kinda sucks is that you’re unlikely to have access to a printer that will get even remotely close to a nice-looking level of detail.
2 Likes
So, recently I came across a YouTuber by the name of Derf who makes Hero Forge videos and tutorials.
From just one video of his, I learned more about the things you can do in this software than anything I learned over the years of just messing around with it myself.
And I was shocked but also kind of embarrassed that it never occurred to me that of course there are people out there who push systems like these to their absolute limits and treat it as an art form in and of itself.
I highly recommend to anyone interested in more advanced Hero Forge techniques to give his channel a look. You will learn things you didn’t know were even possible.
I decided to go back and remake a few of my old models and even tried my hand at doing one from scratch, so here those are:
My oldest D&D character, Ghar.
One of my friends’ characters from the same campaign as Ghar, Arrgath, with and without his helmet.
A friend’s character from our second campaign, Mildri.
And Kaos, another friend’s character from a short-lived Pathfinder 2e campaign, built from scratch.
A big boon to Hero Forge is also the new Face Customizer feature. It really helped me nail the likenesses for these characters (aside from Kaos, since most non-humanoid ancestries don’t have it) and it’s one of the best additions to the software in a long time, probably since they added clothing layers. Every model can truly be unique now and doesn’t have to have that “Hero Forge” look, if you get me.
7 Likes
