Played Lately: Champions Online

• Here are the five costumes I've made in Champions Online for my character, Arcfire. She's is actually based on a character I played in the Champions role-playing game back in high school. Although I've been carrying the concept around with me for long time, I did not want to remake the costume I envisioned back then. It was (to be charitable) very '80s.

  Enough with the history. Gaze now upon the horrors I wrought from Cryptic's character creator.




• Original - When I rolled up my first character in the open beta, this was the costume I designed. I wanted something that said "Fire!" while maintaining a superheroic look. While I wasn't happy with may of the chest choices, I decided to go with the full tights with an appropriate design. I'm pretty happy with the look and I'm only tweaked it a little in the year since I made it.



• Dark - Every superhero goes through a dark phase. Spider-Man went through the black costume thing. Batman never came out of his phase. Arcfire needed a new look as well. This is the same costume, but with all the yellow stripped out and replaced with black. It's not very original, but I think it works. Currently I only wear this when traveling to Vibora Bay. Something about that city make me want to blend into the darkness.



• Underwater - When I finally arrived in Lemuria, I knew I had to replace my costume. There was no way a micro-miniskirt was going to work under the ocean. Again, this is based on the original costume, but with matching tights for her legs, and without the cape. One of my favorite things about Lemuria is that, by setting it underwater, you have to opportunity to customize your look to fit the environment. Arcfire doesn't wear a breathing apparatus because her magical origin allows her to breath underwater just fine.



• Warrior - For this costume, I was inspired by some of the battle armor designs that Wonder Woman has worn over the years. I like the idea that a hero would have a special costume for taking on the biggest challenges. I haven't actually used this in game. I'm saving it for the endgame lairs, if I ever take the time to do some.



• The New Look - Even with the micro-mini, I felt that Arcfire's costume was a little bit vanilla. So when the new options became available in the Summer Update, I knew I had to update my look. I made two changes to the costume. First, I swapped out her tights for something a little more daring. And I also went for a shorter cape. I'm not sure why, but the long cape didn't look right with the new look. Like most of the rest of the costumes, I kept the gloves and boots because I'm just so happy with them.


• And there you have it. I never thought I'd need that many costumes, but I can't help myself. Have fun and play safe, everyone.

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© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.