Surgery scars, stretch marks added to Hero Forge’s digital miniature maker
“Scars are stories of survival,” the company says.
Popular digital miniature producer Hero Forge recently updated their online builder to include a range of different scars, including stretch marks, surgery scars and various medical procedures.
Hero Forge announced an update on June 8th, just over a week into Pride Month, and used the opportunity to highlight users’ ability to add gender affirming surgery marks onto their characters’ prospective figures. But the breadth of customisation extends beyond that, adding specific scars for mastectomies, pregnancy, organ transplants, stretch marks due to growth or weight and more.
“Scars are stories of survival”, Hero Forge said on the company’s official Twitter account. “Whether the result of a medical procedure, growing up, or choices to become who you were meant to be, scars act as a reminder of past challenges that have been overcome. Now you can elaborate on your character’s history with even more scars.”
Hero Forge has been kicking around in the tabletop scene for a while and remains the go-to website for many RPG players building a custom miniature for their latest Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Once built in their character creator, a physical model can be purchased from the company, or you can download the STL files for use in a personal 3D printer.
The public desire for representation in tabletop, both inside the game and around the table, must often contend with the creative decisions of a company’s design and arts teams. While Hero Forge is still very much a company in that regard, the decision to devote resources toward diversifying available body modification shows an ostensible sensitivity to the wider community’s priorities. Hero Forge similarly added an option for wheelchairs to the creator in 2021.
As one user on Twitter pointed out, the work continues: when asked why the character creator software doesn’t yet support fat and other non-standard body types, Hero Forge said “we are working on it but remember these things take time, sometimes more time than expected.” Check out the new additions for yourself on Hero Forge’s website, or take a gander at our ultimate guide for painting your own plastic treasures.