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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TerraDave" data-source="post: 7747879" data-attributes="member: 22260">How can this article not mention 3.5? Or painted plastic?Anyways…as anyone who looked at a copy of Dragon or went into a game store in the 80s would know, people still used minis for D&D. But a lot of people played without them.D&D rules where in fact very precise about distance and area in combat, and by 2E you could buy wet and dry erase grids at cons and lots of fantasy minis where available. (Warhammer was huge.) Later 2E supplements began giving more tactical options and mentioned using grids. For 3.0 designers always claimed they where following what gamers where already doing in practice. The 2000 survey is telling. That’s very early in the edition, and in fact, it doesn’t require minis, and makes some concessions to not using them. But minis and grids are mentioned. And then WotC figured out how to make pre-painted minis affordable. These where launched together with 3.5, which in the name of clarity focused primarily on using minis and a grid. In general, the .5 edition tried to specify all sorts of niggling things (e.g. how big is a bugbear rogues shortsword). And conveniently, sales of pre-painted minis boomed, people bought those things by the case.4E followed the logic of 3.5, and booming mini sales, to double down on the focus on tactical mini combat. And shortly thereafter they shut down mini production! It turns out that costs where getting too high and the market was saturated (and the mini game they created to compete with Warhammer never took off.)Enter 2018. Fantasy minis are as available as ever, including a big second-hand market in pre-painted singles and some very high profile kick starters. Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds combine online play with virtual tokens, which is probably very novice friendly. Its easy to play 5e with minis, largely because it is more streamlined. But sure, I do think that 5E lends itself to a more free wheeling style. It does have greater clarity then AD&D and less fiddle faddle then 3 or 4 . But maybe its just a better game overall.</blockquote>

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