Generic travel miniatures set

[Asmor]

I'm trying to come up with a "travel kit" of miniatures and mapping accessories, and I'm curious what other people would do.

So here are the considerations:

1. First, the miniatures are really the key thing I'm interested in here. The accessories are sort of a secondary question. So really this question kind of presumes that you prefer using miniatures (as opposed to tokens and such or playing without a tactical map).

2. You can assume that you're going to be running D&D. I don't think edition matters much, but I've got 4th edition in mind. Ideally, your travel kit should work well for any level of play, but if necessary we'll assume heroic tier (or equivalent in other editions) is the focus.

3. What you consider portable is completely up to you, although obviously the smaller and lighter the better. Let's say that you should be comfortable carrying your travel kit while walking for at least a block.

4. Really, the meat of the question is this: Not knowing what your PCs are playing and not knowing what monsters you'll need to run, what mix of miniatures would you take so as to reasonably represent the greatest variety of situations. Obviously it is impossible to always have the right miniature, but for example you might decide that a large troll can work well as a generic mini for any large humanoid (giants, umber hulks, ogres...)

 

[Asmor]

So here's what I'm thinking.

Mapping accessories: I'm kind of torn. On the one hand, the obvious best thing would be some sort of generic map and markers (flipmat, tactiles, etc). On the other hand, those have the downsides of being a bit involved, having to worry about cleaning supplies and such. Also, tactiles can be rather heavy...

So I think what I'd do here is go for a small assortment of dungeon tiles. I'd go for a couple different themes (dungeon, caves, taverns, city and sewer) and for each theme I'd take a couple of the large 8x8 or 8x10 tiles, a few 4x8s and 4x4, and maybe 5 or 6 of the 2x4s. Sprinkle in a few garnishes for taste, and I should be able to make a good representation of most encounter locations.

Mini wise, I'd want:

PCs and NPCs, all in the same bag
An assortment of two different sword users and one each of hammer, axe, dagger, 2-handed weapon and unarmed for each of medium-sized male and female genders (14 minis total)
5 small characters (mix of races, genders and weapons, including dwarves)

Medium and small monsters, grouped by themed baggies
5 zombies, 5 skeletons, 2 incorporeal undead
5 orcs, 5 gnolls, 5 drow, 5 demons/devils
5 kobolds, 5 goblins
5 "city guard" types, 5 "highway robber" types

Large and huge monsters, loose
3 large humanoid enemies (mixed)
2 large animal miniatures
2 large monstrous miniatures
1 large dragon
1 huge miniature (most likely purple worm)

 

[S'mon]

My regular 'travel kit' I take to the Meetup fills an entire suitcase - one of those wheeled carry-on things designed for business airline travellers. It has hundreds of plastic minis plus a single box with selection of metal minis.

For an actual portable kit I can take on vacation with me, I take a different approach. I'll take a few PC minis with pregen character sheets, a blank Paizo flip-mat & marker pens, a rulebook (for 4e that's the PHB), an adventure, and just the monster minis for that adventure.

 

[Shadowslayer]

I have a couple of single level Plano boxes. One for PC types, and another one for monsters. There's a dozen LOTR goblins and a handful of WOTC kobolds for my "little guys" and a dozen Uruk Hais and a small handful of WOTC humanoids for Orcs, Hobgobs or whatever have you. And there's a couple of compartments full of dollar store chess pieces, tokens, hairbands for condition effects and other handy stuff.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My regular 'travel kit' I take to the Meetup fills an entire suitcase - one of those wheeled carry-on things designed for business airline travellers. It has hundreds of plastic minis plus a single box with selection of metal minis.

That's me too, except I carry more metal than plastic. The metal rides in a variety of those Chessex boxes, while the plastic is contained in a couple of ArtBin 3 tray storage boxes.

I trade stuff out depending on what's going on in the campaign. When things were low-level, I had hordes of mindless undead, goblinoids, and orcs, as well as low-level civilians and warriors- barmaids, bouncers, guys who looked like city watch (IOW, basic armor and weapons).

As things have progressed, the minis mix has become more unusual- elementals, drow, constructs, intelligent undead, giants and extraplanar beings are much more common now.