Painting and Using Miniatures or Not?

Greetings!

I was wondering, how many of you use miniatures in the games? I kinda like the new figure line of plastic creatures pre-painted. That's pretty cool. To be honest, though, I probably have 500 lead miniatures, with only 30% of them painted. I can only guess that I have spent perhaps $3,000-5,000 dollars on boxes and boxes of figures, and they just sit there in my many larger boxes, *sleeping*. Sometimes I bring them out to play, and it's fun, but then it seems after the hassle of getting them all out, spreading them out on the table, trying to keep track of which beastman or which troll is really dead, and not one that just fell over when John bumped the edge of the table to go and get another soda, well, it seems that the players would just prefer that I describe what's going on, and draw a quick map of who's where, and what's what, that actually using the miniatures seems to be more of a hassle than they are worth.

Ah, well, sometimes I dream of having a special room with designed tables, forests, and special shelving where the figures are within easy reach, and it is easier to use the damn things that I have invested so much in over the years. Maybe someday!

How is it for you in actually painting the creatures? I'm pretty good at it, though I tend to be slow. I sometimes fantasize about painting more of them, as I look at them in all of their naked lead glory, but then I think of the hours and hours it would take for me to complete a half dozen of them, and I shake my head and put them back in their boxes to *sleep* some more!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

I use minis when I game. Most of them are the pre-painted variety. But I have picked up a handful of the Reaper's line and worked on painting them. I do find it fun to sit down and paint them, but I rarely find the time to. I don't consider myself an expert painter by any stretch, but its not that hard to get the mini to look at least as good as some of the pre-painted ones.

We don't use them seriously at the moment, we occasionally have some figures or other objects of suitable size to use on a map, but we don't pay attention to the minis themselves.

In the game when I am DMing at the moment, we've been even experimenting not to use any map & minis at all, and go with verbal descriptions only. It requires much more trust from the players tho, as it is often up to the DM to decide about AoO, areas of effects, movements, etc. But in the end there is not as a huge difference as one may imagine.

Painting minis is a complete whole hobby by itself instead

I have been gaming for about 23 years and used minis off and on over that time. When 3.0 was released, my minis were in storage and inaccessible, so they didn't get used. When I retrieved them from storage, I used them in combats that were difficult to visualize, but they were just too difficult to transport to the game on a regular basis. Then, 3.5 was released and so were WOTC's plastic minis. They are light, cheaper than metal minis, less fragile and easier to transport. Now I used them in every session. They have changed the way we play trhe game. It is much more tactics oriented now. I have discovered (and I was one of the die hard skeptics before) that 3.5 combat just cannot be refereed fairly without them. True, their use has made it a different game, but I think the rules are what actually made it so different and the minis are just a useful, very useful, tool for the correct adjudication of those rules. My $0.02

DM

Minis are used sometimes in both the groups I game with, more often in the group that I'm currently playing more regularly with as we have a fighter/rogue character who tends to use combat manoeuvers to get flanking, etc that require square counting. Largely painted or part painted metal minis used rather than D&D minis.

Minis = absolutely

Can't really imagine gaming without minis. Except Burning Wheel, but that would be threadjacking.

Long, long ago, in the days of lead, I painted. Badly. I got a little better, and stopped spraying with gloss

Found a guy to learn some more painting techniques from. Painted some more.

Pre-painted minis came out. You could literally toss them in a box.

I'll never paint again.

I am in the process of selling the vast bulk of my fantasy metal miniatures on eBay. I just don't have the time or inclination anymore to paint them and I have a horde of the WotC pre painted plastics now. As long as they keep releasing those I'll keep buying them. I am keeping a small percentage of my metals just because I like the look of them and/or they are used for a PC.

We'll usually have painted minis for the PCs, and I might paint the occasional special NPC/monster if I am in the odd mood to paint.

Otherwise, I delve into my box full of old, beat-up unpainted minis or Fiery Dragon Counters or IDAdventures stand-ins.

If I use the battlemat at all. I don't use it for small encounters and feel that the map should facilitate the game, not drive it.

I use minis all the time. Nowadays, most of my minis are the pre-painted variety. For the cost, you just can't beat a combination of D&D and Mageknight figures. I do have around 400-500 unpainted minis and I still buy more upon occasion usually when I find a fig from Reaper or Rackham that is just too cool not to have. They usually get used unpainted, since I only get around to painting about 3-4 a year anymore. Once I win the lottery, though, I will have nothing but time to paint!

Kane