fed up with mini randomness...back to counters? (teeny-tiny rant)

[diaglo]

my hat of the d02 WotC minis knows no limits.


the random nature is my biggest complaint.

 

[Buttercup]

I must admit that I never understood the enthusiasm for the WotC minis.

Claudio's counters are the way to go for me. And I wonder...the person who hates the artwork on the counters, is he thinking of Fiery Dragon or Dragonscale? The former are much, much much better than the latter, IMO.

 

[Plane Sailing]

the random nature is my biggest complaint.

Mine too. If I want to buy minis I want to buy what I want. I gave up collecting bubble gum cards when I was 8, I wouldn't start it again for minis.

(I wonder how the business would work if they did allow people to buy what they want, whether it would thrive or what? Would be people who'd start buying make up for those who don't have to buy several sets? I don't imagine it'll ever happen though.

Cheers

 

[Belen]

I love the WOTC minis. I really do not care about the random nature either. I usually buy a case and then trade for those that I want in game. As for a frost giant. I got 4 giants out of my GoL. If I want to throw four frost giants at the party, then I do not think they will mind if I sub some fire giants into the mix as well.

I really do not see the problem. I love the painted minis. I never had enough skill or patience to paint before, so these have been a godsend.

Dave

 

[MerricB]

I wonder how the business would work if they did allow people to buy what they want, whether it would thrive or what? Would be people who'd start buying make up for those who don't have to buy several sets? I don't imagine it'll ever happen though.

Merric's Law of Miniatures: Non-Random Packaging, Cheap Prices, and a Large Range of Figures: Choose two.

If you lost the randomness, either the prices of the overall range would have to go up, or the range of different figures would have to go down.

Lots of people want trolls, ogres, orcs, goblins and suchlike. Fewer people want chokers, destrachans, flumphs and so forth. Part of the beauty of the D&D Minis line is that you can find these exotic miniatures.

If you keep producing the exotic miniatures, then because they don't sell individually, the price of the rest of the figures has to rise to cover the loss from the exotics.

Alternatively, you lose the exotics and you have Just Another Generic Miniature Line.

Most of the time, I think Wizards do a pretty good job of selecting the rare miniatures. Most of the time I think they get it wrong it's because of a cost issue: the figure is too expensive to make as an uncommon.

Consider the rare list from Aberrations:

Alusair Obarskyr
Exorcist of the Silver Flame
Warforged Hero
Adventuring Wizard
Crow Shaman
Frenzied Berserker
Half-Elf Bow Initiate
Valenar Commander
Ryld Argith
Wyvern
Achaierai
Green Dragon
Hook Horror
Mind Flayer Telepath
Skullsplitter (it looks like a human barbarian of some sort)
Flesh Golem
Chuul
Fiendish Giant Praying Mantis
Gibbering Mouther
Ice Troll
Ogre Zombie
Yuan-Ti Abomination

How many of those miniatures shouldn't be rare? Honestly, how often does the average D&D game use those monsters?

For me, I'd rather that the Flesh Golem and Hook Horror were not rare. The Ice Troll would also be nice as an uncommon. I'm not so sure about the rest.

Cheers!

 

[Paragon Kobold]

Warhammer regiments might help you a little. GW is known for their inflated prices, but $25 for 20 plastic multipart zombies/skeletons/goblins/men-at-arms can definitely fill out the "goons" section of your minis collection quickly. I'd stay away from their orcs, however; GW has a very specific and non-DnD envisioning of them.

The Lord of the Rings line is a lot more DnD looking (to my mind at least) and you can get plastic orcs fairly cheap. I mainly use these combined with the old Battlesystem counters.

 

[diaglo]

How many of those miniatures shouldn't be rare? Honestly, how often does the average D&D game use those monsters?

they got rid of the Common, Uncommon, Rare, Very Rare, and Unique... from the 1edADnD Monster Manual 1977.


they should get rid of it in the minis line too.

 

[Pinotage]

Compromise?

One other option is to take the images of the miniatures from the WOTC website, standadize them to a specific size, place them on a grid and press print. Decent quality image, or at least those I've seen, looks like the actual thing (2D only, of course!) and you can get as many as you like.

Pinotage

 

[MerricB]

they got rid of the Common, Uncommon, Rare, Very Rare, and Unique... from the 1edADnD Monster Manual 1977.

they should get rid of it in the minis line too.

Diaglo, can you name a miniature line that hasn't had different levels of rarity for its figures?

I'm not discussing randomness, but how many copies of each miniature were made.

Cheers!

 

[diaglo]

Diaglo, can you name a miniature line that hasn't had different levels of rarity for its figures?

no. commander level minis have always been rare. even in the grognard war games.