Future of D&D Miniatures

[Nebulous]

Any word on if the Lord of Madness with support monsters from Dark Sun? I would be very shocked if it did not. But honestly, i can't remember how "weird" Dark Sun monsters are, or if they are just mild twists on existing monsters.

 

[TerraDave]

I am glade to see it I got it right. er, I mean, I am glad the list is correct (in sig), I am actually not that glad with the change.

I have used counters and tokens along with minis for many, many years. Still, while I don't mind getting "official" ones, it does represent a pretty big retreat on their part.

Its funny, DaveMage reminded me that DDM was one thing they were selling that does not depend on edition, and should have the broadest appeal. I even know some of the OSR crowd uses them.

But steel wind is also right, they sure did make a lot. All those posts back in the day, of people buying them by the case, I guess they are paying for that now.

Its too bad. A master set would be fantastic.

 

[Tortoise]

One thing I really hope to see is the remaining 2 Huge Chromatic Dragons. We still need a Huge Blue and a Huge Black

(the one with the rider doesn't count - try using it in your game without your players asking why the Dragon has someone riding them! ).
Olaf the Stout

We're off to negotiate with Ol' Grumblepitch the Tar dragon. Whatever you do, don't stare and don't ask about that thing growing on his back . . .

 

[avin]

Any word on if the Lord of Madness with support monsters from Dark Sun? I would be very shocked if it did not. But honestly, i can't remember how "weird" Dark Sun monsters are, or if they are just mild twists on existing monsters.

If I record correctly Peter Lee said some time ago that the next set won't have much DS support... but things could have changed.

 

[Tortoise]

If I record correctly Peter Lee said some time ago that the next set won't have much DS support... but things could have changed.

I'm hoping that Lords of Madness at least has a fair number of non-rare mind-flayers.

So far I think most if not all of the mind-flayer minis have been rares.

 

[Sammael]

I very much doubt we'll ever see a non-rare mind flayer, because the sculpt needs to be intricate due to tentacles. Plus, I don't really see the point of a non-rare mind flayer, most mind flayer attacks are a single MF + thralls anyway.

 

[Dausuul]

...Thinking about it, I suspect discontinuing the skirmish game may have killed the line.

It's kind of an evolutionary thing. Collections of traditional minis are driven by evolution relative to the environment only--with the "environment," in this case, being the fantasy world modeled by the game. Buyers will continue to "evolve" their collections by purchasing new minis as long as there are places where their collections are inadequate to model the game world. Eventually, though, they reach a point where their collections are so well "evolved" that further adaptation is not worth pursuing.

The skirmish game, however, added a competitive element, allowing miniatures collections to evolve relative to each other. No matter how good your collection is, there's always room to gain a new edge over the next guy's. With a slow but steady drip of power creep, or something like M:tG's non-eternal formats acting as a kind of planned obsolescence, you can drive steady sales more or less forever.

Apparently the skirmish game wasn't popular enough, though, so it got sacked; and now sales are being driven purely by the shrinking pool of collectors who aren't yet content with their sets.

On the plus side, if DDM does die off, there's a good chance 5E will move away from miniature-centric mechanics. A combat system heavily reliant on miniatures is good if you're trying to sell minis, but if you aren't, then miniatures-dependence is just another barrier to entry in a hobby that already has more than its fair share of them.

 

[frankthedm]

Later in 2010, the Lords of Madness miniature set will be released. It won't have a visible miniature in it, instead being fully random, and consisting of 1 Huge miniature plus 5 other miniatures per pack.

Visible figs only work when figs of comparative desirability are shown on each pack. I have a suspicion retailers were unhappy with the number of Grey dapple Unicorn boxes that sat on shelf.

 

[Nebulous]

There's some old Star Wars common and uncommon minis that make excellent mind flayers. I forget what they're called, but they have the squid head. I modded one once with some green stuff and it looked awesome.

 

[Dausuul]

Visible figs only work when figs of comparative desirability are shown on each pack. I have a suspicion retailers were unhappy with the number of Grey dapple Unicorn boxes that sat on shelf.

Amen to that. Heck, even the good figs were kind of specialized. The Cyclops Crusher is an excellent mini, but if you're trying to build a miniatures collection suitable for general-purpose gaming, cyclopes are going to be quite a ways down your priority list.