Easy replacement for Minis in 4e?

[Ahnirades]

Rune stones. They're flavourful, correctly sized and heavy enough not to blow away when someone sneezes. The runic inscriptions they carry can be use to track different monster types. For minions just flip them over to their blank side.

With two differently shaped sets for monsters plus a multi-coloured set for PCs you'll have all the small to medium 'miniatures' you'll ever need. For larger creatures just grab an appropriately sized stone from the garden.

There are many cheaply available sets online. Most have an accompanying photo so you can see what you'll be getting. Highly recommended if you're on a budget or just prefer more abstract representation.

 

[Erywin]

Oh WOW, that is a lot of options. You guys all ROCK! Frank, I love the collection of game sprites and other guys, think I might have to steal those! Might try combining them with the idea of foam board. I will post up what I end up doing with pictures if I can get my camera working. It won't be for another few weeks til I get around to it though. Thanks again for all the help and suggestions! Keep 'em coming if you have more!

Cheers,
E

 

[Krensky]

Another option for mounting is pressboard (really heavy cardboard). Depending on where you work, you should be able to salvage lots of it by looking for blue, green, or brown heavy covered classification folders. Failing that, pressboard folders and dividers are cheap at office supply stores.

I use color laser on full page labels, mounted on pressboard, and cut apart with a razor knife and steel ruler. Spray mounting adhesive would work too, and would probably be cheaper, but I'm lazy and have easy access to the labels.

 

[Klaus]

Oh WOW, that is a lot of options. You guys all ROCK! Frank, I love the collection of game sprites and other guys, think I might have to steal those! Might try combining them with the idea of foam board. I will post up what I end up doing with pictures if I can get my camera working. It won't be for another few weeks til I get around to it though. Thanks again for all the help and suggestions! Keep 'em coming if you have more!

Cheers,
E

Disclaimer: I do these for a living...

Try Fiery Dragon's counters for FREE with the Castle of Shadows PDF: H1 - Castle Of Shadows - Fiery Dragon | DriveThruRPG.com

If you like 'em, they're available as PDFs, JPGs or as high-quality, die-cut print products (buying the latter helps ensure more print products in the future).

 

[kitsune9]

Heyas folks,

I am looking at options for substitutes for miniatures in the 4e game I am starting up soon, planning on running the War of the Burning Sky adventure from here. So basically, I was spoiled before I moved, in that a friend of mine had a collection of 100s of minis that we used with 3.5. Now I have moved provinces and don't have the time/money to build up a collection like that. But I love using 1" grid easel pads from Staples to draw maps on, soo easy and my group wants to use minis for their PCs. So what is a DM to do for an inexpensive alternative to prepainted badguy minis? I have looked into standies and they might be a possibility, but would love to hear more options. Thanks for the help.

Cheers,
E

If you have a lot of dice (preferably 12 siders), glue a penny or a base to them and now you have dice counters that are monsters. We use these for a good deal of our encounters though my mini collection has grown large enough that I've managed to go through quite a few sessions without them now.

Other is poker chips with numbers written on them or counters from products like Fiery Dragon if you have a good color printer (unless of course you find their physical product).

 

[Klaus]

If you have a lot of dice (preferably 12 siders), glue a penny or a base to them and now you have dice counters that are monsters. We use these for a good deal of our encounters though my mini collection has grown large enough that I've managed to go through quite a few sessions without them now.

Other is poker chips with numbers written on them or counters from products like Fiery Dragon if you have a good color printer (unless of course you find their physical product).

You can order the print products here: FDP4407 - Counter Collection Paragon 1

A mega-bundle with all counters from the MM1 for all three tiers of play goes for US$75, plus free shipping in the US and Canada.

 

[ggroy]

In the past I have used: chess pieces, checkers pieces, tokens from a monopoly game and other board games, liquid paper containers, and other small figures and pieces of junk to represent players and badguys in place of miniatures.

 

[Rel]

I love, love some cheap minis. You'd be surprised how many you could get for just a few bucks if you're not picky.

If you'd rather not use minis, one idea that somebody offered a long time ago that I made use of was counters made from old collectable card games that you don't want. I used to get 100+ cards every year at GenCon for games that I had no intention of playing. So I'd take them and use a 1 inch punch to punch out the artwork from these cards and have them as counters. My wife had one already in her Stamp It Up stuff but you can probably get one for just a few bucks from almost any craft store.

 

[Cadfan]

Bulk purchased meeples.

 

[Skallgrim]

Disclaimer: I do these for a living...

Only slightly derailing the thread (I hope), I love your work, and the counters have been totally awesome in game play.

Have you considered doing a collection of "effects" counters for play (Flaming Spheres, Wall of Fire squares, Blade Barrier squares, etc). With the PDF files, where you can create as many copies of something as you need, it would be easy, and cool, for all of the Divine and Arcane characters to be able to actually lay down actual graphic representations of their spells and prayers, perhaps even printing them on transparency sheets to allow viewing the underlying maps.

Just a suggestion of something else I'd spend my money on.