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<blockquote data-quote="Olaf the Stout" data-source="post: 5471022" data-attributes="member: 13703">I played a few campaigns in 2E D&amp;D and never used minis.&nbsp; Occasionally we may roughly draw out on graph paper a map of the area where combat was taking place and then mark on the paper where everyone was but we never used minis or even tokens.When 3E came along I started to DM.&nbsp; With more rules like AoO's, flanking and various feats such as Cleave determined by where exactly you were positioned on the map it became more important to have an accurate representation of the battle.&nbsp;&nbsp; I started using different coloured gemstones to represent PC's and monsters, and combats took place on a home-made battle mat I constructed using graph paper and some thin clear plastic.&nbsp; That lasted for all of one (short-lived) campaign.My very basic initial set-up was upgraded for the next campaign I ran.&nbsp; The coloured gemstones were eplaced by Fiery Dragon monster and PC tokens and the home-made battle mat replaced with a Crystal Caste vinyl battle mat.&nbsp; That set-up worked pretty well but the campaign itself imploded after about 3 or 4 months.After a few months I got another campaign together with an almost completely new group.&nbsp; By that point I had upgraded from a vinyl battle mat to a Paizo Flip-mat (dry erase mats are so much better than wet erase IMO!).&nbsp; One of the players had painted up quite a few Warhammer minis and brought them along for me to use for the monsters.&nbsp; I still used flat Fiery Dragon counters to represent some of the monsters, but the 3D minis had a certain &quot;coolness&quot; factor to them that the counters didn't.Soon I was drawn into the pre-painted DDM's line and quickly fell down that slippery slope! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin&nbsp; &nbsp; :D"&nbsp; data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />&nbsp; I now own a couple of thousand DDM's and have enough of them that I can accurately represent most of the monsters and bad guys my PC's come up against.&nbsp; Sometimes I will have to &quot;substitute&quot; minis, but even then the substitute is generally looks similar to what he is actually representing.In addition to the pre-painted DDM's I have also bought a couple of dozen metal minis to use for PC's and NPC's.&nbsp; None of them have been painted yet but they will sooner or later.&nbsp; I'm definitely in this for the long haul now! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin&nbsp; &nbsp; :D"&nbsp; data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />Olaf the Stout</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Olaf the Stout, post: 5471022, member: 13703"] I played a few campaigns in 2E D&D and never used minis. Occasionally we may roughly draw out on graph paper a map of the area where combat was taking place and then mark on the paper where everyone was but we never used minis or even tokens. When 3E came along I started to DM. With more rules like AoO's, flanking and various feats such as Cleave determined by where exactly you were positioned on the map it became more important to have an accurate representation of the battle. I started using different coloured gemstones to represent PC's and monsters, and combats took place on a home-made battle mat I constructed using graph paper and some thin clear plastic. That lasted for all of one (short-lived) campaign. My very basic initial set-up was upgraded for the next campaign I ran. The coloured gemstones were eplaced by Fiery Dragon monster and PC tokens and the home-made battle mat replaced with a Crystal Caste vinyl battle mat. That set-up worked pretty well but the campaign itself imploded after about 3 or 4 months. After a few months I got another campaign together with an almost completely new group. By that point I had upgraded from a vinyl battle mat to a Paizo Flip-mat (dry erase mats are so much better than wet erase IMO!). One of the players had painted up quite a few Warhammer minis and brought them along for me to use for the monsters. I still used flat Fiery Dragon counters to represent some of the monsters, but the 3D minis had a certain "coolness" factor to them that the counters didn't. Soon I was drawn into the pre-painted DDM's line and quickly fell down that slippery slope! :D I now own a couple of thousand DDM's and have enough of them that I can accurately represent most of the monsters and bad guys my PC's come up against. Sometimes I will have to "substitute" minis, but even then the substitute is generally looks similar to what he is actually representing. In addition to the pre-painted DDM's I have also bought a couple of dozen metal minis to use for PC's and NPC's. None of them have been painted yet but they will sooner or later. I'm definitely in this for the long haul now! :D Olaf the Stout [/QUOTE]

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