Counters or minis?

[Hecatæus]

Sluggy Freelance http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php Jan. 7th uses Legomics for making the strip...it's NIFTY! Not sure if there are any guids to change sickening smilies of the lego guys themselves , but it's creative.

Thanks for the help guys.

=D

 

[mhensley]

Has anyone tried using 15mm scale miniatures for their games? I have toyed with this idea for some time and own quite a few of them. Ral Partha used to make a great line of 15mm figures that you can still get on Ebay.

The advantages are- they are much cheaper than 25-30mm figures, they are easier to transport, they take up less room on your gaming table, and they are quicker to paint.

The disadvantages are- you have to order them by mail, you will not be able to find minis for all monsters, painting them can ruin your eyesite, and the figures don't look as nice as the larger scale figures.

 

[Holden MaGroin]

Counters and Miniatures

Hi All,

I've purchased about 200+ counters from dragonscalecounters...and I must say I'm quite happy with my purchase.

[snip] for the 250 or so counters I've paid about 80 bucks including shipping. I can't really say thier horribly overpriced, most counters are about 25 cents, which is 1/10 the price of a mini.

Ack! $80 for 250 counters? That's a little rich for me - I bought Claudio's Counter Collection for $12.99 and got something like 450 counters - though there are lots of multiples (good when fighting a group of orcs or hobgoblins, though!)

In my group, we each have miniatures for our PCs, and I have miniatures for any specific NPC that I happen to like (my players know that when I bring out an NPC figure, it's gonna big a big fight! )

For most stuff, we use Claudio's Counters. For the monsters that he didn't do, we flip the counters over and write on the back. Looking forward to the new collection, so that I don't have to tape 4 counters together to represent a giant! We've also got a decent artist in the group, and he draws some images for counters that we use frequently - ie: displacer beasts and smaller dragons.

I don't mind the "head & shoulders" look. My group's been playing together (off and on) for 15-20 years and we all have the same general idea of what the monster looks like. Still, it would be cool to have them all mounted on plastic (if the price was lower!)

-HM

 

[smetzger]

And when it comes to counters, I'd actually prefer stand-up cardstock figures, specifically Cardboard Heroes from Steve Jackson Games. They're beautifully illustrated and show the whole figure, not just the head or a cropped Monster manual picture. There were also a lot of such figures made by GDW for its RPG Space:1889, but were very specific for that setting.

Now if only we could get SJG to make a set specifically of the 3e monsters...I can dream, can't I?

I agree. Plus standups mix much better with minis.

 

[Tom Cashel]

Since I don't really buy much in the way of sourcebooks/adventures (make it up on my own, or steal stuff and glom it all together), I prefer to spend the money on minis. Reaper makes the best ones on the market now, IMO, and I have a collection of 400-500, including many of the Ral Partha AD&D monsters, circa 2E. Wish I'd bought more of those.

None of my minis are painted, though. If I got started with that, I'd have to paint them all...something I have absolutely no interest in doing. What...you telling me you painted all the little metal Monopoly pieces? Then metal minis should be fine.

It is kind of a pain to carry them around, but that only happens once a month for me. And I got some Dwarven Forge pieces in the mail yesterday...they are COOL! Just some stairs and stalagmites, but they'll add a lot to the table.

Anyhow...minis all the way. When I have my own house with it's own basement gaming room, with shelves in the closet for all the minis...ah, that'll be swell. Until then, it's Chessex storage boxes. Lots and lots of Chessex.

 

[WSmith]

I don't like counters, except to annotate the fallen. However I won't think twice about using unothadox things like chess pieces and happy meal figures.

 

[Ialdabode]

I'm inclined to use a little of both, to be honest. I'll admit, I'm a cheap SOB - I'm not about to buy a mini for every little thing. On top of that, I don't have the patience to paint them all.

What I've done in the past is scan in the illustration for the monster I want and crop/resize until I can make my own counter, print it out at work, and then use contact paper to attach it to a notecard. I also resort to using the Counter Collection as much as I can - my players often have to use their imagination.