Chiming in on the D&D minis (merged with "anyone buying the new Mini's?")

[ForceUser]

Preach it, preach it!

Put away your battleboards! Put away your minis! Accept the abstract and get away from miniatures gaming!

Okay, okay, I know I am extreme on this one, but, as I have said before, I got into D&D to get away from miniatures gaming. Let my brother field his armies of Seven Years War and American Civil War troops; I shall deal with mental images and stories of individual heroes!

I love roleplaying and storytelling, but I find combat without minis and tactics to be rather unsatisfying; too abstract, if you will.

 

[buzz]

Yes, they aren't super high quality and in some cases are low quality. But when I want to drop a bunch of orcs on my PCs, now I have tons of them - not counters, not pennies or dice, not unpainted or half-painted metal minis, but orcs.

I can definitely see, once there's a D&D-mini aftermarket (especially if the D&D minis go the way of Chainmail picking up swaths of single types (orcs, bugbears, skeletons). Using nothing but the D&D minis would bug me in the afomentioned color-indistinct way.

I'm sure I'll get more of a chance to play with them in future sessions, so I'll see if the color thing still bothers me.

 

[Luddite]

The use of mini's or counters realy depends on the group and style I am playing. In one group it was not a realy heavy fighting group. Combats were "small" and short. Describing the sceen and figuring out the rolls worked fine. But then players trusted my calls.

With larger battles and more players, I need some type of visual representation. And a grid and counters is easy to do. And this way everyone can "agree" on where everything is.

-The Luddite

 

[buzz]

I love roleplaying and storytelling, but I find combat without minis and tactics to be rather unsatisfying; too abstract, if you will.

I can take or leave minis. More tactically-focused RPGs play better with them, imho.

My real issue, though is that some of the people in my groups are so dang in love with all of their MagKnight and Dwarven Forge paraphernalia that they deploy the stuff at *every possible opportunity*. Every step through a dungeon becomes a construction event, and players get into the habit of thinking and moving tactically even when we're not in combat.

That and the Dawrven Forge stuff, frankly, just gets in my way. Unless I'm standing directly over the table looking straight down, I can't see a dang thing. Sitting down and looking across, all I see is a dungeon wall between me and my mini. I really prefer to break out the battleboard only if a combat is complicated enough to warrant it, and even then all the scenery I need can be provided by a wet-erase marker.

But I could just be weird that way.

 

[Mystery Man]

Got a Cleric of Grummsh and an Ogre over the weekend. Pretty nice, specially the ogre.

 

[Pants]

Okay, okay, I know I am extreme on this one, but, as I have said before, I got into D&D to get away from miniatures gaming.

That's odd, because D&D was built off of a Wargame platform.

I haven't bought any of the minis yet, but if I had money, I'd probably plunk down for an Entry Pack. I'm rather ambivalent on the issue.
On one side, I hate painting the same mini over and over again. It's dull and boring. That and sometimes I just don't feel like painting.
On the other side, the paint jobs look, on the average, pretty poor. Also, the random factor works both ways for me, both a pro and a con.

 

[buzz]

That's odd, because D&D was built off of a Wargame platform.

D&D != minis wargame.

I mean, if someone said "I got into D&D to get away from Chess," would you reply, "That's odd, becuase D&D started as a wargame, and all wargames basically descend from Chess"?

I sympathize with Wombat. If I just wanted to push minis around a battlemat, I'd play MageKnight. D&D, being an RPG, is capable of doing a lot more, and it can bum me out when a DM uses it as nothing more than another skirmish wargame.

Man, serious thread drift here...

 

[ForceUser]

I can take or leave minis. More tactically-focused RPGs play better with them, imho.

My real issue, though is that some of the people in my groups are so dang in love with all of their MagKnight and Dwarven Forge paraphernalia that they deploy the stuff at *every possible opportunity*. Every step through a dungeon becomes a construction event, and players get into the habit of thinking and moving tactically even when we're not in combat.

That and the Dawrven Forge stuff, frankly, just gets in my way. Unless I'm standing directly over the table looking straight down, I can't see a dang thing. Sitting down and looking across, all I see is a dungeon wall between me and my mini. I really prefer to break out the battleboard only if a combat is complicated enough to warrant it, and even then all the scenery I need can be provided by a wet-erase marker.

But I could just be weird that way.

I mostly agree with you here. We don't build dungeons all the way through; like you, I use a battlemat with wet-erase markers. If less detail is needed I also use a dry-erase whiteboard. It does get annoying when players become obessed with minis and moving them around, so I sometimes have to remind them when the minis are superfluous. I only use them when it's time to roll initiative.

 

[Henry]

If they were available in my locale to buy some yet, I'd FREAKING buy some.


As it is, I'm thinking of ordering from Amazon, because they are the most reputable dealer I know with the best prices.

 

[Pants]

D&D != minis wargame.[/b]

Well, no it's not. It descended from a wargame.

I mean, if someone said "I got into D&D to get away from Chess," would you reply, "That's odd, becuase D&D started as a wargame, and all wargames basically descend from Chess"?

That's a bit of a stretch.