New Line of D&D Card Counters

[opteryx]

Hello, new here, and I thought I'd see what the gaming community thought of my idea. I'm a designer/illustrator that's been playing D&D since the early 80's. I realize as great as a table full of painted miniatures look, it's not always practical. I've been looking at the 3 existing card counters I know of and none of them really seem to stack up to what I want to see. I only own SJ's, so correct me if I'm wrong on the others. They are:

Steve Jackson's Cardboard Heroes: Pros: Look great, stand up with front and back sides; Cons: don't confer sizes well, don't really adhere to D&D mythos, PC's look dated

Dragon Scale: Pros: dry erase friendly, show game scale well; Cons: VERY amateur artwork

Firery Dragon: Pros: some nice art, show game scale well; Cons: "portrait" style art, I prefer being able to see the entire character dynamically

I've always been disappointed with Wizards' plastic minis. So I've decided to use my powers for the forces of awesome and make my own card counters!

I'm starting a Dark Sun campaign soon, so I'd focus on that first, what I'd like to know from you: what would you prefer to see? Stand up counters similar to Steve Jackson's, or flat counters. Both would be numbered obviously for record keeping (eg. 1-02, counter set 1-counter #02). Flat counters would come many more to a pack, and I was thinking double sided, the second side showing the creature/character bloodied.

Please let me know what you think, given those pros and cons.

And just to show some credentials: www.skwidcreative.com

Thanks, look forward to your responses!

 

[JoeGKushner]

What about Pig Miniatures?

http://www.pigames.net/store/product_info.php?products_id=275

What about One Monk?

Don't just go with the 'known' names when looking at what's already out. One monk has the huge benefit of being free too.

 

[opteryx]

Thanks, hadn't seen those before. However, I can't say I'm a fan of either companies artwork. Also, I didn't see variation of the same thing. For instance, if I produce 30 orcs, you're going to see 30 different orcs. But regardless, they haven't done anything different from what I've already mentioned. I'm just looking for what consumers (yes, I am going to charge for my work, I do have overhead, and I am a legitimate business, I've already looked into packaging costs!) want: stand up, or double sided flat counters.

 

[Redcrow]

I prefer the stand-up counters rather than the flat tokens myself. I like the look of the Disposable Heroes line from PIGames, but wish they had more variety amongst the mook figures. I don't usually need 10 different poses for a dragon, but it would be nice to see a variety of different poses for creatures that are typically encountered in larger numbers like Goblins, Orcs, Skeletons, etc.

I would like to see figures with good artwork, but they should be distinguishable at a glance. Some tokens I've seen have so much detail or use too many dark/muddled colors its nearly impossible to tell what the image is without picking it up and looking closely at it. That is most often due to some tokens being created by shrinking/cropping art from a larger image.

Unfortunately the ones I have found that are easily distinguishable at a glance typically have an art style that doesn't really appeal to me. Like the One Monk minis.

 

[Gilladian]

I prefer standup counters. I'd also say that as I've gotten older and my eyesight has NOT improved, I'm all for BIG numbers and SIMPLE art. Even just line art.

I don't need or want detailed, complex, highly varied art. I just need something that says "creature 1".

In fact, right now I make my own "counters" from polymer clay. They're just scrap clay hand formed into a cone or flat-sided "lump" with a number carved into each side of it. Others are flatter, larger "turtle-shell" shaped lumps with numbers on the backs. For bigger monsters, I've contemplated making bigger "lumpies", but mostly I resort to plastic animal minis with numbers taped to them.

Maybe I'm just reeally weird and different from everyone else, but I find it actually IMPROVES my ability to imagine the scene if I'm NOT using something that "resembles" the monster. I can SEE the monster on my own. I just need a placeholdder on the table. One that is plain, clear and easy to use.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

For stand-up counters, I prefer a tri-fold counter. The triangular folded shape makes the counter visible from around the table, rather than just straight on.