Worst miniature paint job evAr! Get it off the table!

[seans23]

As a DM, i woudl be insulting my players if I stuck a Barney doll out there for the climax encounter red dragon to the campaign.

I'd find it amusing, actually. Plus it would encourage me to kill it.

 

[Oryan77]

I think the joke mini is like using a joke name for a character. It indicates the player doesn't take the game seriously.

This is exactly what I think.

I prefer to DM a serious game that doesn't have joke names (or joke minis). So I also prefer to DM for people who aren't joke people...gamers aren't known to be comedians in general. Silly?...a lot of them are. Funny?...not a lot of them are.

If anyone has a problem about not wanting someone else to paint a mini for them (when they refuse to do it themselves), they need to quit being a pansy. Suck it up, there's far more serious things to worry about than miniature painters hurting your pride. Throwing Bozo "2-Balls" the Clown on the table is pathetic if it's meant to really be your miniature. If he did it as a joke, I woulda laughed, but I'd be waiting to see the real mini.

I provide minis for everyone to use since I collect DDM. Even before I collected minis, I still used my own money to go out and buy metal minis that I thought worked well for their PC's. If they didn't like the mini, they were free to buy another one themselves (some players did).

BTW, I do have humor in my games...I'm just not lame or silly about it.

 

[shilsen]

Really? Did you see the picture of that thing? That's essentially what it looked like. As a DM, i woudl be insulting my players if I stuck a Barney doll out there for the climax encounter red dragon to the campaign. I'd expect the same respect from my players.

It's all about expectations and judgement here, and obviously yours is different from the player's. Similarly yours differs from mine and many others, and yours agrees with a lot of other people's. If I was a player of yours, you wouldn't be insulting me at all if you used a Barney doll, or a box, or anything else. For me, I'm already using my imagination a whole lot in visualizing a battlemat and a bunch of plastic figures as representing a battlefield and a group of characters and their enemies. If I can manage to pull that off while players are talking and rolling dice and the DM is pretending to be a 30 ft long giant, flying fire-breathing lizard, the particular shape of a miniature on the table is hardly going to destroy my willing suspension of disbelief.

YMMV, and apparently does.

 

[Shadowslayer]

Why is the issue of whether or not its dumb to require painted minis or not even relevant here? Its not.

RPG groups are not a public group as a rule. No one has to let you in. You don't go into a group with its own little set of procedures and customs and vocally demonstrate to them just how stupid you think their customs are. No matter how you slice it, its both rude, disrespectful and insulting.

 

[Twowolves]

He was told ahead of time what the table rules were. He showed up to the game, implicitly agreeing to the rules in order to join the game.

It doesn't matter if he can or can't paint a figure. The OP said other players were willing to paint his mini for him, and with the line of DDM and Reaper minis out there, there is no way he couldn't find something at least approximating his character. That he showed up with such a beast is a deliberate insult to the DM and all the players at the table, childishly attempting to ruin everyone else's fun.

Unless, of course, he was actually playing a brass-balled pink ape with bladder control problems. Then it's the DM's fault for allowing the character in the game in the first place....

 

[Shadowslayer]

Ah yes, the weak bladdered pink monkey template.

Silly all-inclusive DMs. I hate them.

 

[Dire Bare]

One of my players drew this up as a joke and sent it to everyone. He got all pissed right away. I think he's having mental issues.

Wow. While I agree with most of the posters that say your "wierd-painted mini" player was acting childishly, acting out against a rule the group decided upon . . .

You're surprised that forwarding around a picture further mocking him got him riled up? Whichever one of your buds "drew" up that pic and forwarded to the group is also acting immature and childish. And if you all sat around (together or separately) and had a good laugh further at this guy's expense . . . wow, just wow. Immaturity and crass behavior all around, IMHO.

 

[Dire Bare]

People that can't make at least that kind of devotion to my game where I'm busting my butt as a DM just don't cut it. Cripes, the guy could have bought a painted mini, and now that REAPER is coming out with painted mini's (non-randomized) there's no darned excuse.

I can only imagine what this guy's going to do next...probably bring a d20 MODERN handbook and demand to be able to use guns and crap.

Mini's are an integral part of the game and players who are too cheap to contribute even the basics... I mean what the heck?

If the whole group agrees than the table rules are OK and reasonable for your group . . .

Having said that, however . . . "devotion to my game"????? Another WOW from me! I've never expected any of my player's to show devotion at the table, we just get together to have fun. Your group definitely sounds like it has HIGH expectations and might just be a little too proud of that, but that's just me.

Different styles of gaming are cool and all . . . but I've had lots of players who weren't "cheap" or "less devoted" and had jobs that couldn't afford to join your group! There's always at least two or three PHBs floating around at our table, so I would feel silly not allowing someone to play if they didn't bring one. I got lots of extra pencils, and after many years of gaming, way too many dice. Character sheets are pretty easy to come across too. And miniatures?? We use 'em, but would never bar anyone who didn't have enough "devotion" to provide their own painted up masterpiece.

Purchasing an unpainted mini and painted it up is a cost in money, time, and talent that not everybody can afford. Purchasing a single pre-painted mini that resembles your character at a reasonable price isn't always easy either . . . even if you have access to the net and eBay. And while Reaper did just announce a new line of pre-painted mini's . . . there's still the cost of an appropriate single mini that would be an issue for some . . . and more importantly Reaper's line hasn't actually been released yet . . .

While I suppose I could "afford" to join a group with rules such as yours . . . I wouldn't dream of it! I guess my own gaming style is just to laid-back and all . . . Dude.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

I would think the "dude" more then anyone, would understand the need to be ones self. I think the issue here is people just can’t appreciate post modern artwork. Enough said.

http://home.sprynet.com/~mindweb/maincan.htm

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

There's badly painted and BADLY painted. If your description is even generally accurate then use of such a mini, short of EXTREME need, amounts to Bad Form. When other players at the table are even volunteering to paint minis for you, yet you insist on using a miniature to which you've added tiny brass balls and painted with latex gloss house paint using a 1" brush instead of a #1 brush you deserve to be told to get your freakin' miniature off the table and forced to use the iron from the Monopoly game until you can pass muster.