Future of D&D Miniatures

[avin]

A pack of zombies: men, women, commoners or warriors, I think that would sell very well.

But that would force you guys to abandon the mania of pushing minis into MM's art...

 

[Craith]

<snip>
Just for gathering info and random speculation - what would people feel about a slightly less rare pack once a year? Like an orc pack one year, an undead pack the next, etc. In my mind this would be alongside the yearly randomly packed release. A lot of us have a crap-ton of minis already, but would you be interested in some of these more mundane packs?

I had to stop lurking and answer this question with a loud YES ... I own one or two thousand miniatures, but I'd buy themed packs of orcs, undeads, kobolds, human/dwarven/elven soldiers ...

 

[DaveMage]

One of the greatest powers in virtually any edition of the game has to conform to its printed stats exactly in terms of size or its a no-sale?

At $75? Absolutely.

I don't buy minis just to look at. I buy them to use in game.

 

[Herschel]

The point is 'then use him regardless of printed scale because he's so freakin' cool'. You have talked in many threads about how you love the flexibility 3E gives you yet you're completely inflexible on the scale of the penultimate BBEG?

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

An Essential's line of miniatures that is evergreen and includes a lot of classic monsters wouldn't be really cost effective if we sold it all as one package (like the tile sets will be). But it might be something we could do in theme like packs. The Beholder set is a good example of this I suppose, though it's very specialized and uber rare.

Just for gathering info and random speculation - what would people feel about a slightly less rare pack once a year? Like an orc pack one year, an undead pack the next, etc. In my mind this would be alongside the yearly randomly packed release. A lot of us have a crap-ton of minis already, but would you be interested in some of these more mundane packs?

I'd vote yes with my wallet for Random Essentials line, so long as I had some idea what to expect when opening the box. DDM Essentials: Orcs would be a dream product. I know roughly what I'm getting (orcs! or various undead, or various gobliniods) and the amount.

Also, it's always cool to hear from WotC on the stuff that's concerning gamers. Thanks for taking the time to respond and blue sky solutions with us.

 

[D'karr]

Themed packs would be a good thing if their price, or value remains reasonable. I'm an avid gamer and I purchase quite a bit on a monthly basis. However, over the past few years the price of the packs has gone in a direction where I find it hard to justify their purchase. I don't find value in them.

If a themed pack was 6-8 miniatures with a themed encounter and a few dungeon tiles, the price could be in the mid $20 and I'd find value in them. Right now the price of the packs seems high for their value.

For example an Undead pack might have 8 miniatures, a Vampire, a Lich, a couple of ghouls and the rest as skeletons. If that pack sold for 20+ dollars I would not buy it. Add a short encounter and a couple of dungeon tiles and now that price is not unreasonable in my opinion. Heck they could even make it so that there are different encounters and tiles on each pack.

It is just a matter of perceived value. At the present prices the value seems very low. An exclusive to retailers $75 Orcus is extremely expensive for the value IMO.

 

[Dausuul]

Just for gathering info and random speculation - what would people feel about a slightly less rare pack once a year? Like an orc pack one year, an undead pack the next, etc. In my mind this would be alongside the yearly randomly packed release. A lot of us have a crap-ton of minis already, but would you be interested in some of these more mundane packs?

I would be quite interested in this, although to some extent it would depend on the content. I'm one of those people with a huge collection, so I don't really need a bunch of random orc grunts. On the other hand, there are a lot of niches I could stand to fill out. As someone else mentioned, orc archers would be nice. I don't have much in the way of shamans or other caster-types. Some type of orc cavalry would be cool--right now the only option there is the Banebreak Rider from Night Below, which is awesome but expensive and somewhat specialized. And if the set had wyvern-riders, I would be all over that.

 

[underthumb]

Well, the Beholder pack is going to be pretty rare - on par with the From the Vaults from Magic, so you might be disappointed if you're not on the ball this time around. We running that delicate balance of trying to get it into a lot of people's hands while making it a must have/slightly hard to find item.

Just for gathering info and random speculation - what would people feel about a slightly less rare pack once a year? Like an orc pack one year, an undead pack the next, etc. In my mind this would be alongside the yearly randomly packed release. A lot of us have a crap-ton of minis already, but would you be interested in some of these more mundane packs?

I feel like the D&D lines have had plenty of orcs and undead. So I'm not sure that they would be a good product for me. But more themed packs along the lines of the beholder one sound great. For instance, a pack of demons/devils and a pack of angels/devas or whatever. Call the products Heaven and Hell and promote them with themed adventures in Dragon.

 

[Primal]

Just for gathering info and random speculation - what would people feel about a slightly less rare pack once a year? Like an orc pack one year, an undead pack the next, etc. In my mind this would be alongside the yearly randomly packed release. A lot of us have a crap-ton of minis already, but would you be interested in some of these more mundane packs?

Not all of us have a lot of minis -- we have never relied on them in my group. I have started using and buying them only recently (I saw a bunch of WoTC minis at a friend's house, and it was love at first sight; now I use them on every session in my campaign). Needless to say, there's a huge bunch of minis that I'd need, but it seems I missed out on them by a couple of years. And the only option is to buy them online (often for outrageous prices, mainly due to shipping costs). Having said that, I realize it's not possible for you guys to reproduce old sets, but I don't think I'm the only one who would pay good money for, say, Harbringer or Dragoneye minis.

The same happened to me with Dungeon Tiles -- I saw a thread here concerning them on EnWorld and decided to try them out. Pretty soon I realized that I had missed some really cool sets, for example 'Streets of Shadow' and 'Ruins of the Wild'. In this case, however, you guys *ARE* going to release similar sets this year, which makes me really, REALLY happy!

As for the theme packs -- HELL YEAH! You can never have too many "common" monsters, such as ghouls or zombies. A concrete example: a couple of sessions ago I ran a combat involving 60+ orcs of 6 different types... if I only could have done it, I'd have gladly bought several orc theme packs (enough to get all the needed minis). I ended up using a motley assortment of minis, and it was a pain to remember which minis represented which type. On the next session I'd need 10 zombies, but I only have three. Give us the zombie theme pack, and I'll rather buy it than use a bunch of, for example, goblins or skeletons.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

You can never have too many "common" monsters, such as ghouls or zombies.

Trust me, you can. I currently have at least 80 orcs, of at least 20 different poses, and I've sold a lot of my Common minis, including dozens of orcs. A new collector may not have enough -- or may want more -- but -- again, trust me -- if you've been buying by the case since Harbinger, you can have "too many" common monsters.