Disappointed with Minis

[Hardhead]

I know that, as a RPGer, I'm not that excited about Archfiends. The monster common list is as follows: Githzerai; Dread Guard; Duergar Warrior; Snig The Axe (a goblin); Zhentarim Fighter; Gravehound; Warrior Skeleton; Cultist Of The Dragon; Cursed Spirit; Gnoll Archer and Orc Raider. The only one there I'm really interested in is the Gnoll Archer. Because I'm going to be using the set for skirmishes as well, it doesn't bother me so much, though.

But I'm not everyone. I don't think Archfiends will do as well as Dragoneye, because it's more limited in its usefulness. It seems more aimed at the FR player and Skirmish player than the general D&D role-player. I may well be mistaken.

It's also for the player that plays a lot of planar stuff. As someone who's group ventures onto the Outer Planes every other adventure, I'm salivating over being able to plop down a vorck in front of my players.

 

[jerichothebard]

Agree and disagree. Why?

First, background. I was an avid hotwheels collector and with hotwheels it is obvious what you are getting when you pick up the carton. The only problem was that the rare ones (which is inevitable with any collection set) are always purchased by the first people in the store, then resold at 25x the original price. Unless you plan on being an avid diehard collector who is willing to wait in a KMart for one hour for the stock boy to get the item to the shelf you were not going to get the rare cars.

Dude... I didn't even know there were rare hot wheels cars...


Quick and dirty solutions to those who dislike minis:

Lego men (www.bricklink.com) and their gear...
green and tan army men
small kid's toys (I have a collection of little figs from Monster's Inc. Mikey looks just like a beholder, and that sneaky lizard guy voiced by Steve Buscemi looks just like a carrion crawler or remorhazz... plus there is a yeti and some other big furry guys)
Steve Jackson Games's cardboard heroes.
Fiery Dragon's counters

None of these are terribly expensive (well, the legos are, but they are posable and you can customize their gear quite easily) and none require much more than some cutting and gluing. All of them are about the right scale, more or less. I do reccommend getting some 2x3 plates to use as bases for the legos, though.



jtb

 

[DaveMage]

This may not be the best time or appropriate place, but have I ever told you that I love you?

So when does Counter Collection Gold hit the streets?

 

[3catcircus]

No it wouldn't. I just paid for several auctions on Ebay. I got:

8 orc warriors
8 kobold warriors
8 zombies
8 human bandits
8 man-at-arms
8 wolves
5 orc spearmen

Total cost: $35 after shipping, or around 66 cents apiece.

The flaw in your logic is assuming everyone wants a set similar to what you bought - most of us can easily get as many commons as we want from buying the booster packs. The other side of that is that we can't afford to keep buying booster packs and amassing a horde or orcs or wolves just for the off chance of *finally* getting that troll or minotaur we want. And it is those uncommons and rares which *will* be cheaper to buy pewter and have someone paint than it would be to buy a plastic mini 2nd-hand.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Minis look great, granted, but they have never been able to address the fundamental issue I have with them as a DM:

Almost always, when I run a battle the PCs are up against multiple, identical enemies. Five goblins. Seven trolls. Four hippogriffs. Eighteen ghasts. Whatever. With identical minis, it's virtually impossible to tell them apart. Three rounds after the fact, I don't know which critters are slowed, which are enervated, which are poisoned, which are wounded, etc... Sure, the DM keeps notes, but there's no visible way to keep track of which minis represent which scribbled notes.

The simple question "I'm going to charge and attack" "Which one?" is difficult to answer.

This problem is so easily solved by numbered counters or dice that I can't see any reason any DM interested in battle-tracking-effiency would ever use anything else.

 

[Teflon Billy]

I find the issue of randomized miniatures and 3.5 to be completely separate. The game works just as well with Fiery Dragon's counter collection...

Buy tin!

My one-man verdict on the Fiery Dragon counters are that they are awesome

I ave some pewter Minis (to represent the Players and important NPC's mostly) that I've painted up, but the rest of the dramatis personae are Fiery Dragon counters.

Good.
Inexpensive.
Functional.

 

[Hardhead]

Minis look great, granted, but they have never been able to address the fundamental issue I have with them as a DM:

Almost always, when I run a battle the PCs are up against multiple, identical enemies. Five goblins. Seven trolls. Four hippogriffs. Eighteen ghasts. Whatever. With identical minis, it's virtually impossible to tell them apart. Three rounds after the fact, I don't know which critters are slowed, which are enervated, which are poisoned, which are wounded, etc... Sure, the DM keeps notes, but there's no visible way to keep track of which minis represent which scribbled notes.

The simple question "I'm going to charge and attack" "Which one?" is difficult to answer.

This problem is so easily solved by numbered counters or dice that I can't see any reason any DM interested in battle-tracking-effiency would ever use anything else.

This is also a problem playing the D&D Minis game. I solve the problem by marking the base with either a |, -, X, O, or something similar. Then, I mark the card the same way. Using a marker on a black base, the mark is hard to see unless you pick up the base and examine it.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

All I can say is wow and WOW! The thing that kept me from buying the Mini's were their random, collectible nature. But after following the links provided earlier ( FRP and Popular Collections ) I now realize how easy and CHEAP it is to get the figures I want .

Thanks for the healthy debate. I'm soooold.

Hrmf. Gonna have to save up some scratch and buy a bunch... heh.

My one-man verdict on the Fiery Dragon counters are that they are awesome

I ave some pewter Minis (to represent the Players and important NPC's mostly) that I've painted up, but the rest of the dramatis personae are Fiery Dragon counters.

Good.
Inexpensive.
Functional.

Gotta put my vote in with Mr. Billy here. I have lots and lots of Fiery Dragon counters mounted on 1/4 inch thick Balsa wood "bases" that cover all the figures/counters I'll ever need. They do the job wonderfully, with the bases are extra easy to pick up and move around, and are, best of all, inexpensive.

Miniatures themselves are a guilty indulgence that I'm ready to dive into!

 

[Doc_Klueless]

For those of you buying this minis from eBay, help out my eBay Search-Fu: What description do you usually put in the search field to pull up individual minis that you're scoping for, or individual minis in general.

 

[KB9JMQ]

Doc, here is what I have in my saved searches
I did a search for the word miniature then drilled down to here
Home > All Categories > Toys & Hobbies > Games > Miniatures, War Games > Other Miniatures, War Games

Hope that helps.

Darrin