JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Counter Collection Gold is from Fiery Dragon Publishing. This one ups the stakes of previous counters by using the 3.5 sized versions of many monsters and has more than 300 perforated counters. These counters are spaced onto 37 pages sized to fit into the tin.
The counters are initially arranged in alphabetical order. For those game masters who don’t want to punch out all of the counters, will find maneuvering through the counters a breeze. At the top of each page, the name and sizes of the creatures is located. For example, if I’m looking for fire giants, I can flip through the counters to page five where we have fire, frost, hill, stone giants, along with clay and flesh golems, each sized large so they take up the space of four counters as opposed to a single counter.
This does present some problems as you might be looking for some counters having medium and huge sized creatures on them. For example, page 15 has almost all of the dwarves, and starts off the medium creatures list, with dwarves. Moving onto page 16, you see the next set of monsters, the behir and bullette, as well as various races of elf. As long as you realize that the alphabetical labeling is starting over, you shouldn’t have too many problems.
In looking over the counters, this is defiantly a game master’s pack. Most of the monsters are only presented on one counter. This means that if you want to run a fire giant adventure, you’ll have to make some copies on some good stock paper. Not all of them are limited to single counters however. All of the tiny creatures for example, have four counters since they take up half the space of a regular counter on both sides. Some of the more popular undead like skeletons and ghouls are included. Same for other ‘fodder’ monsters like orcs where we even have an orc leader included among his soldiers.
One great benefit for players though, is that when multiples are included of races like the half-orc or the human adventurers sheet, we have different illustrations.
In terms of art, I find that I enjoy the larger sized counters greatly. The artist is able to do some more detail and the illustrations don’t look like head shots. For example, the gargantuan tarrasque looks impressive even as the huge titan is imposing. The only problem when using these counters is that despite the better art and the correct sizing, some players still have difficulty adjusting to the size of the creatures as they actually are since height isn’t indicated in any way. The impressive looking fire giant isn’t as imposing if everyone’s using some plastic D&D miniatures and you’ve got a flat counter.
In terms of what you get, the answer is a lot. It would’ve been nice to have a checklist with the appropriate CR listings but alas, it wasn’t meant to be. So instead of going over everything, I’ll hit a few of the major groups. I’ve already mentioned many of the major races and some of the monstrous races like giants but we also have demons that include the balor and marilith, devils like the horned, ice, and pit fiend, various nagas ranging from dark and spirit, to guardian and water.
Now it’s important to note that not everything is included. After all, we don’t have any vermin or standard animals. We don’t have anything that’s going to be covered in the Summoned Creatures Counter Collection. That means we don’t get dire tigers or griffons.
On the other hand, to make up for those missing pieces, we do have a nice bonus. Ed Bourelle of Skeleton Key Games, the master of the e-Adventure Tiles, provides us with a quick 12 piece set of map tiles. These are on nice heavy stock and fully colored including the dark brown background over the light gray stones. This isn’t an advanced set, so we don’t get a lot of Ed’s different tiles like his coffins or dead bodies, but we do get some great details in the dirty tiles themselves and he various torches and other objects around the area. The tiles are easy to use and can be combined to form a few different outlines.
The strengths of this product are the perforated cards, the revised size on the giants and other creatures that changed for 3.5, the bonus tiles are a great addition and a good introduction to Ed’s style of miniature sized cartography, allowing you to use the creatures on a battle matt right away. The product is $5.00 more than the Summoned Creatures tin, but to be honest, the perforation is worth that alone. To me, cutting this things out is a hassle both in time taken to do so, and in my clumsy ways. I’d much rather have it perforated.
If you’re thinking of getting into the counter culture, Counter Collection Gold is the perfect place to start.
The counters are initially arranged in alphabetical order. For those game masters who don’t want to punch out all of the counters, will find maneuvering through the counters a breeze. At the top of each page, the name and sizes of the creatures is located. For example, if I’m looking for fire giants, I can flip through the counters to page five where we have fire, frost, hill, stone giants, along with clay and flesh golems, each sized large so they take up the space of four counters as opposed to a single counter.
This does present some problems as you might be looking for some counters having medium and huge sized creatures on them. For example, page 15 has almost all of the dwarves, and starts off the medium creatures list, with dwarves. Moving onto page 16, you see the next set of monsters, the behir and bullette, as well as various races of elf. As long as you realize that the alphabetical labeling is starting over, you shouldn’t have too many problems.
In looking over the counters, this is defiantly a game master’s pack. Most of the monsters are only presented on one counter. This means that if you want to run a fire giant adventure, you’ll have to make some copies on some good stock paper. Not all of them are limited to single counters however. All of the tiny creatures for example, have four counters since they take up half the space of a regular counter on both sides. Some of the more popular undead like skeletons and ghouls are included. Same for other ‘fodder’ monsters like orcs where we even have an orc leader included among his soldiers.
One great benefit for players though, is that when multiples are included of races like the half-orc or the human adventurers sheet, we have different illustrations.
In terms of art, I find that I enjoy the larger sized counters greatly. The artist is able to do some more detail and the illustrations don’t look like head shots. For example, the gargantuan tarrasque looks impressive even as the huge titan is imposing. The only problem when using these counters is that despite the better art and the correct sizing, some players still have difficulty adjusting to the size of the creatures as they actually are since height isn’t indicated in any way. The impressive looking fire giant isn’t as imposing if everyone’s using some plastic D&D miniatures and you’ve got a flat counter.
In terms of what you get, the answer is a lot. It would’ve been nice to have a checklist with the appropriate CR listings but alas, it wasn’t meant to be. So instead of going over everything, I’ll hit a few of the major groups. I’ve already mentioned many of the major races and some of the monstrous races like giants but we also have demons that include the balor and marilith, devils like the horned, ice, and pit fiend, various nagas ranging from dark and spirit, to guardian and water.
Now it’s important to note that not everything is included. After all, we don’t have any vermin or standard animals. We don’t have anything that’s going to be covered in the Summoned Creatures Counter Collection. That means we don’t get dire tigers or griffons.
On the other hand, to make up for those missing pieces, we do have a nice bonus. Ed Bourelle of Skeleton Key Games, the master of the e-Adventure Tiles, provides us with a quick 12 piece set of map tiles. These are on nice heavy stock and fully colored including the dark brown background over the light gray stones. This isn’t an advanced set, so we don’t get a lot of Ed’s different tiles like his coffins or dead bodies, but we do get some great details in the dirty tiles themselves and he various torches and other objects around the area. The tiles are easy to use and can be combined to form a few different outlines.
The strengths of this product are the perforated cards, the revised size on the giants and other creatures that changed for 3.5, the bonus tiles are a great addition and a good introduction to Ed’s style of miniature sized cartography, allowing you to use the creatures on a battle matt right away. The product is $5.00 more than the Summoned Creatures tin, but to be honest, the perforation is worth that alone. To me, cutting this things out is a hassle both in time taken to do so, and in my clumsy ways. I’d much rather have it perforated.
If you’re thinking of getting into the counter culture, Counter Collection Gold is the perfect place to start.
