alternative "minis" for DnD

[diaglo]

you can bite one of them

plus it makes for great roleplay when the green halfling M&M turns the land shark M&M and says "Eat Me"

 

[rossik]

plus it makes for great roleplay when the green halfling M&M turns the land shark M&M and says "Eat Me"

or "bite me!"



about d&d minis: sure, its very odd to have a skelleton representing a snake, but i use for exemple some "brown" elfs (dont remember the name, sorry) as thiefs/bandits (cause i have lots of them).

if you get the "basic" ones, then theres no big deal about improvisation

 

[Gilladian]

I have three solutions to minis:

1) for monsters, check out the toy section of the dollar store. Look for tubes of children's animals and dinosaurs, etc... I also found a local "gift shop" that specializes in odd stuff - they have plastic toys for between .25 and 1.00 - centipedes, snakes, spiders, turtles, etc... that work perfectly.

2) polymer clay - I've modeled my own simple stand-up counters, and have made elementals, treasure chests, altars, and other furnishings, oozes and blobs, even trees and such. I have an idea for doing a whole bridge and a wagon, too.

3) the standard dice, with each number turned up to represent a different mook.

 

[kenobi65]

3) the standard dice, with each number turned up to represent a different mook.

I know a group that has never used minis, only dice. In fact, they have a tradition that each player picks a specific die to represent his PC, with the die type based on the PC's class (so, the wizard's player has a specific d4 that he always uses, the cleric's player a specific d8, etc.)

 

[evilbob]

I completely agree with the OP: the "official" D&D minis are stupidly over-priced, especially for their extremely poor quality and cheap materials. The commons are priced about right, but everything else is only more expensive because Wizards decided it would be "rare." This is a horrible mechanic they ported directly from their MtG experience.

What I do is: go on eBay and buy tons of commons for pennies apiece. Tons of generic skeletons and wolves and stuff usually go for 13-25 cents each: this is what you'd really expect to pay for a lump of poorly-painted plastic. Plus, you can occasionally get a few nice ones and/or character potentials from the common pile. A few uncommons can round out the mix.

Then, if you're looking for specific characters, I second this:

Reaper is probably my favorite as they make a mini for almost everything you could want. PC, and beasts alike.

Reaper and a few other companies make very nice non-painted minis. Painting is - to me - a pain and bore, but the quality of the minis is good. They're about 3-5 bucks each, which is still way too much, but at least you're getting exactly what you want and they are good quality. And they still cost less than the stupid "rare" prices on D&D minis.

That's what I do and so far it has worked well.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

I've been known to use scrabble and mah jong tiles. not as good on hex maps though.