The
character creation system of Champions Online is a robust and amazing
tool that allows users to make just about anything their imagination
can come up with. Want to play with it for fame and glory? We've given
you some backstories to work with, and now we want you to show off your
character creation talents and send them our way. We'll highlight the
winners in upcoming issues of this new regular feature.

face="Arial" size="3">Here’s how it
works: We give you the basic details of a hero or heroine like their
back story and some ideas for powers, and you take it and run with the
idea using the character creator. Don’t feel you need to
stick strictly to what powers we’ve assigned them either. As
the main idea of the character remains intact, all’s fine.

face="Arial" size="3">This week
we’ve got a new skeleton hero that needs a look, and when
you’ve created him simply take some in-game screens of your
creation and mail them to href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank"> color="#0000ff" face="Arial" size="3">[email protected] face="Arial" size="3">
with a brief description of how
you came up with the look and any other details for your masterpiece.
The winners will be featured in the next issue of Skin That Build, and
showcased for all the community to marvel at.

face="Arial" size="3">But before we give you
those, first let’s showcase the winners of last
week’s heroes!  If you didn’t win this
week, be sure to try again this week… you never
know when you’re set to create a work of art.

face="Arial" size="3">Last week we started
this feature with three potential options for our players.  We
received over 30 entries for each character, and after a lot of
deliberation we’ve come to an agreement on the
winners.  Here then, are the best entries for The Balverine,
Crimson Fate, and The Broiler.

face="Arial" size="3">The
Balverine:
Congratulations
to Matt
Leonard
on his submission for The Balverine. There were a bunch of different
submissions for this one (as there were for all the concepts), but this
one we really felt captured the look of a werewolf sort of character,
with an original spin.

face="Arial" size="3">Crimson
Fate:
A
big hearty congratulations to Scott
Xie
too, for his submission of the Crimson Fate. A lot of people really
nailed this one, but in the end we all agreed that Scott's was the best
at capturing the back-story on this hero.

face="Arial" size="3">The
Broiler:
And
lastly we have Sam
Halwa's
interpretation of The Broiler. Sam went into great detail with power
selections and his own artistic vision. So let's let him do the
talking:

face="Arial" size="3">As you can see, I've
taken all the fire powers. Psionic healing is only there for
survivability, and can be colored orange so as to be considered
'fiery'. It's pretty much interchangeable with resurgence, but I like
to try out different things. Rocket jump and chest beam are only there
for show. The real action is in the advantages, which cause DoTs to
spread around easier and can cause slowdown and knockback efffects, as
well as being able to cancel out travel powers. I gave him as much
endurance and recovery boosts as I could with slight boosts to presence
and constitution, again, for survivability.

face="Arial" size="3">Now, for the visual
design I deviated far from the original concept. This is for two
reasons; first because many a fire based hero will spend much of his
time covered in fire effects and thus the designs and symbols on his
costume can easily be obscured. Fire flight is the main culprit there.
Second, I read the name wrong. I thought is was 'The Boiler' and my
mind set to work designing a man covered in gray metal armor adorned
with rivets. Plus most of the pieces I chose couldn't have a flame
pattern on them. However, I chose to just stick with it and I really
like how it ended up.

face="Arial" size="3">Taking a cue from the
line 'living flame contained inside a human body', My concept grew into
a man wearing a massive suit of armor that didn't so much protect him
than it protected everyone else from the intense heat his body
constantly emanated. The inner layer of his costume is a padded flame
retardant jumpsuit. the metal plates of the outer layer contain
numerous heat sinks and cooling systems that run the heat generated by
his body into the large furnace-like backpack. This backpack stores the
thermal energy for later use. He wears goggles because he can only
naturally see in thermal vision and requires the goggles to see
normally. He also cannot speak without breathing fire so he wears a
grill over his mouth. When he wants to breath fire he can make the
grill open, and when he wants to just talk to someone he keeps it shut.
As a final touch I gave him large 'welders mitt' style gloves and had
them blackened around the hand part and lighter towards the ends to
simulate the after effects of his powers making them all burnt and
sooty.

face="Arial" size="3">The
Fallen Angel:
Kicked out of heaven for disobeying the orders of the cosmos, The
Fallen Angel must work his way back to the side of the gods by fighting
evil and depravity in Millennium City.  The power of the
heavens is at his disposal, but none are as dangerous as the two
six-shooters he wears on his hips. 

face="Arial" size="3">This hero’s
main mode of destruction against the forces of evil will undoubtedly be
the guns he calls Heaven’s Fire.  Focusing more on
ranged damage than hand-to-hand combat, the Fallen Angel is all about
reigning terror from above and beyond his enemies’
grasp.  With his the wings given to him by the gods, he can
keep out of his foes’ reach and evade their attacks with
ease. 

face="Arial" size="3">This does not mean
he’s entirely reliant on the guns of his gods,
however.  Given the gift of super-strength from the lords on
high, he has more than enough muscle to deal with the bad guys should
they get too close.  One of his favorite moves is to grab his
foes and toss them dozens of feet away, putting space between them and
his pistols.  The Fallen Angel isn’t invulnerable,
though.  While in the heavens he was granted eternal life,
here on Earth he is much more susceptible to mortal concerns. 
The best tactic for him is still one of ranged combat.