D&D 5E D&D Next: How Miniatures Should Fit?

[JoeGKushner]

I was just pinging away on Twitter some things I'd like to see D&D next do with miniatures.

1. No core races that are only available as rare or very rare or not available at all without substitutions.

2. No competiting miniature game that has larger sums of cash prize money and uses roughtly the same scale.

3. Remember that some people will not buy products made in China due to human rights issues and that as oil prices continue to increase there may be opportunity to create them locally.

Opinions?

I could've added

4. Smaller companies have made bags of miniatures for zombies for years now. Get us some generic unpainted bags of baddies (generic zombies, goblins, orcs, skeletons, etc...)

 

[Sunseeker]

I would love to see each of the core races get one mini for each of the core classes. I'd love to see it fairly evenly split between M/F minis in non-traditional roles, ie: female fighters, male casters, ect...

I would LOVE bags of generic baddies, the traditional zombies, orcs, ect...but also dwarves, elves, humans, ect... Along with some generic swarms, packs, general beasts and whatnot.

Heck, even if they made a "generic multipack" with say, a wolf, a dwarf, a human, a zombie, that'd be fine too. Just something inexpensive and easy to get a lot of.

 

[Ahnehnois]

I would be quite happy if they dropped the miniatures thing and just did D&D.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

The way I heard it put, your miniatures can be:

• Quality
• Inexpensive
• Non-Random

But you have to pick two.


Personally, I'm mostly interested in Quality and Non-Random. It's why I still buy metal miniatures. But I would love to buy a pack or pre-painted plastic miniatures that included every monster in the monster manual, including multiples of things like orcs, skeletons, etc. I know that would be expensive, but to me, it would be worth it. (It would also be impractical with all the various dragons and whatnot)

 

[Ranganathan]

The way I heard it put, your miniatures can be:

• Quality
• Inexpensive
• Non-Random

But you have to pick two.

Inexpensive and non-random then. There are so many other great companies doing minis that are high quality and that use better materials. Cheap, marginally well painted minis that are non-random is the best WotC could hope with any chance of actually selling them in quantities large enough to justify the effort and cost.

 

[CM]

I really would like to see a license granted to Reaper or another miniatures company to produce iconic D&D stuff in metal again. I love the plastic figures for monsters but always paint metal for players when available.

The boxed sets done by Ral Partha back in the 2e days were some amazing stuff and I miss it dearly.

 

[Sunseeker]

The way I heard it put, your miniatures can be:

• Quality
• Inexpensive
• Non-Random

But you have to pick two.


Personally, I'm mostly interested in Quality and Non-Random. It's why I still buy metal miniatures. But I would love to buy a pack or pre-painted plastic miniatures that included every monster in the monster manual, including multiples of things like orcs, skeletons, etc. I know that would be expensive, but to me, it would be worth it. (It would also be impractical with all the various dragons and whatnot)

I would certainly have to agree with quality and non-random. I want to know what I'm getting when I make a purchase, especially if it's expensive. I don't mind if say maybe there's 5 non-random with a special 6th random though, a little mystery is fun. Having them in metal would be wonderful....but putting them on-par with WH40k minis might bite into my ability to buy them until the ebay and reselling market gets saturated a few years down the road.

I would be quite happy if they dropped the miniatures thing and just did D&D.

Why? I like minis and 3rd-party minis aren't exactly a booming market, it's not like you HAVE to use them, but I certainly do enjoy popping out a Purple Wurm "mini" when the party actually fights one.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I would like miniatures and battle mat to be more of an optional component of the game. Oersonally i rarely use miniatures. This was fairly easy to do with AD&D, but got progressively more dificult over the ciurse of 3E. Would ike to see combat that is less bogged down with tactical rules.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Why? I like minis and 3rd-party minis aren't exactly a booming market, it's not like you HAVE to use them, but I certainly do enjoy popping out a Purple Wurm "mini" when the party actually fights one.

I think WotC would be better served by outsourcing miniatures similar to what Paizo has done. Frankly, they need to focus whatever resources they have on the actual game.

Moreover, while some find miniatures a fun add-on, they're not inherently part of the game, and some saw the 4e explicit focus on battlegrid/miniature play as a cash grab.

I also suspect that companies that only build miniatures make good miniatures, and that all they need is the license to do WotC's monsters in order to roll.

Focus is a good thing.

 

[Dausuul]

The way I heard it put, your miniatures can be:

• Quality
• Inexpensive
• Non-Random

But you have to pick two.

IIRC, the troika was:

• Wide selection
• Reasonable prices
• Non-random

Pick two (Merric's Law of Miniatures). Out of the three, I would choose "wide selection" and "reasonable prices." The secondary market takes care of the randomness aspect. Sure, it means some of the "chase rares" get priced out of my range, but I'll accept that if it means I can get two dozen orcs for less than a buck apiece.