Painting and Using Miniatures or Not?

[Wombat]

As I've said many times before, I got into rpgs to get away from miniatures wargaming. Yeah, I know that OD&D even mentioned using figures, but they were not really necessary to run the game. Same was true for RuneQuest, Ars Magica and many other games I have favoured over the years.

Since I got back into D&Dness, I noticed the not-too-subtle creeping re-miniature-ization of the game. Now battleboards are necessary in most campaigns, many of the Feats are based around movement of specific distances, etc. The group I am in uses minis, almost always metal, for the battles where we cannot get away without using the battleboard, but for the most part we prefer leaving matters in the imagination.

I loath the randon element of the D&D official minis. One store near me has a few (VERY few!) non-random plastics for sale, but I don't even like most of those. Overall, if I am going to use a mini, I'd rather paint it from the primer up to the sealer. Just feels better that way.

But overall, I prefer not to have to use minis. I find the inhibit the imagination in many games.

 

[freebfrost]

I've used minis in some form (counters, metal minis, etc) for many years. It always helped to visualize where PCs were when the fireball trap went off or the ogres attacked, and so on. The D&D plastic mini line has just made that even more attainable and sustainable for my games.

However, I now find myself investing more in interesting and cool accessories to go with the minis - the Dwarven Forge sets, battlemats, terrain kits, and so on. That's good for my game, but bad for my wallet.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Every battle that is complex and/or challenging will be visualized using miniatures. Between all the games we play, "miniatures" are either plastic minis from the DDM line, metal minis (for when there's no DDM that fits the character; these are usually painted), chess figures, cardstock circles, crown corks, or pieces of paper. Sometimes, some special minis are used, like some plastic dragons from some shop, or super cow (This is a normal cow - I think it's from Playmobil - with a cape made of paper.)

 

[painandgreed]

I'd love to use minis but collecting enough minis to run a campaign as well as the possibility of painting the metal ones (or repainting the platic ones) borders on a hobby the size of playing D&D itself. I might have the money but not the time and space needed. Instead, I resort to graph paper with pencil and eraser to draw everything out and mark location and area of things.

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

My group used to use (and paint!) a lot of miniatures. We started with Citadel miniatures in the early 1980's, back in the days when Citadel did miniatures that where for AD&D and I could buy them, individually wrapped, for ten pence each. Then I used to paint them, with oils, because acrylic miniatures painting was unheard-of at that time.

We moved away from that during the early 1990s. The only gaming environment available to us then was a room which was just too small for minis - so we learned to cope with bits of paper and plenty of imagination.

Nowadays we've got plenty of space again but the minis never came back, because we were all too busy/lazy to build up a new miniatures collection and paint them.

Very recently my son started playing with the few I had left. He's already showing signs of developing into an enthusiastic miniatures painter.

 

[sniffles]

I really need to look into the plastic pre-painted miniatures. We still use mostly metal figures, some painted and some not. Our biggest issue is the lack of concern by other players in the group for the painting jobs. The DM and myself provide most of the miniatures, and the other players feel that it is fine to just sweep them up all together to clear off the table Needless to say, I spend most of my free time just trying to touch up the chips/scuffs/etc caused by this instead of getting to paint the ones that are bare

How rude!! My fellow players would never think of handling someone else's minis so roughly. :\

My biggest problem with the pre-painted ones is that I want to see the miniature before buying it. Unfortunately, there isn't a decent gaming store in my area (The Woodlands, TX - just North of Houston). Sure, I could drive into Houston to go to the only decent store (Nan's), but it is a good hour drive there and back just to look at some miniatures, and I don't even remember them carrying a lot.

I can't believe Houston has such a dearth of good gaming stores. Anyway, the HQ of Reaper minis is in Denton - not that close to Houston, I realize, but they have an online store.

(a transplanted Texan)

 

[nyrfherdr]

Hmmm. Miniatures in D&D.
For years, I would have been surprised to find players that didn't use miniatures with D&D. For me, the two are inextricably linked.

I paint mini's. Lots of them. I have a room set up for gaming that has 2 glass cases with my mini collection.
I have a box of about 100 pre-painted plastic that I take to games in the Hospital where we game with a sick friend, but for the most part, the games take place at my house, where the mini's, battlemats, scenery, props, etc. all are.

Most of the miniatures I own are painted. I have not actually counted my miniatures in a long time, so I couldn't tell you how many I have.
I do have a set of unpainted miniatures, but they are staged to be painted.
So, I guess I would say that most of the mini's I own have been painted.

Game ON!
Nyrfherdr