Brother Shatterstone said:
Why is there a need for rarity in figures for D&D...? Seems to me this isn't for D&D but a shot at mageknight.
I really hate to break this to you, but every single miniature line that has ever been released has had rarity in its figures. Same for D&D monsters.
Think about it. How many orc figures are there? How many orcs are encountered in typical D&D games?
Right. Now think about the same for the flumph.
Hmm. I detect a difference in rarity (or commonality).
Because the D&D Miniatures sets are relatively small, collecting the common figures won't be difficult. Getting hold of some of the rares will be - and that's a pain for things like the Ogre. For a figure like the Mind-flayer, things get more complex.
The Ogre's rarity is not really a problem. That's because you can get it in metal easily enough. It's somewhat of a pain if you're wanting to participate in Organised Play where only the official figure will do, but that's a different matter to wanting the figures for the RPG game or a casual game.
The Mindflayer's rarity; now that can be a problem. If you need some mindflayers for a session, it's not something that can be easily attained in metal.
However, at this point you run up against the problem WotC has with miniatures: there has to be something dramatically different about their figures to allow them to compete against the established miniature lines. It's no good if they are "just another Reaper". That just splits the existing market, and thus lower sales for both. Hmm.
One of the attractions WotC has is that it can create specific figures for the D&D game. But that's not enough by itself - certainly not in the metal miniatures market. The reason it's not enough is though there are several unique D&D monsters, very few of them are of such a nature that large quantities would be bought by miniature enthusiasts. The D&D line needs more.
Thus, random, plastic, pre-painted miniatures, scaled for D&D (28mm).
Plastic -> portable. Don't underestimate this. Ask some of the metal miniature enthusiasts how they pack their miniatures for transport, and how antsy they get when people roll dice near their miniatures. One of the selling points of this line is that the figures can take some pretty rough punishment.
Pre-painted -> quick, and appealing to those who don't like painting miniatures, or who never, ever want to paint another orc.
Scale -> One of the selling points over Mage Knight. I love the MK figures for their cheapness, but their scale is completely wonky for D&D. They don't even scale with each other, a lot of the time. The bases are just wrong for D&D as well. (and don't fit with existing 25-28mm miniature lines, either).
Random -> Have you noticed how cheap the D&D miniatures are? They're cheaper than the MageKnight figures are! You
could have cheap plastic figures without them being random, but there's one problem there.
That problem is how many
different sculpts can be made. IIRC, Games Workshop make some very cheap sets of generic plastic orc figures. But, you won't find their more special sculpts in plastic - or at least not cheaply. Unusual figures won't sell very well, and the price for them reaches a point at which it is more economical not to produce the figure at all.
The random nature of the D&D line means that low percentage figures can be made. Because this is D&D, there's a fair chance that a DM will find a use for them. And that's good for those people who want unusual figures. For those that don't want them... well, they'll be rare and hard to get.
For those that want orcs, and don't want the random chance, the secondary market will provide - and probably quite cheaply. Ditto for the mindflayer, though the cost will be more than you might like. OTOH, the current option is to NOT have a mindflayer at all. Oh, goody.
Finally, it should be said that this line will not replace the need for quality metal figures. I would fully expect that most RPG groups will buy the D&D Miniatures line for a basic supply of creatures to fight, then go into the metals for PC figures and specific creatures that are available from the established manufacturers. It would be nice if, at some point, WotC came to an arrangement with Reaper or another company to do some specific D&D-themed metal miniatures, but that would be dependent on the success of this line.
Cheers!
I'd also like to put together a Chaotic Evil Warband for the sole purpose of forming an orc warband. The Cleric of Gruumsh has an ability called "Faction Builder", which allows any orc/half-orc to be part of his warband, despite alignment conflict. So Krusk, the Half-Orc Monk, and the Half-Orc Fighter, who're Chaotic Good, Lawful Neutral, and Lawful Evil respectively, can work with the Chaotic Evil Orcs so long as the Cleric of Gruumsh is selected.
