Homemade counters

[Duncan Haldane]

Hi,

I've been trying different type of counters for a while now, and none of them have really pleased me. I'm not interested in minis - I think that using a non-representative figure is worse than not having one. I've tried counter collection, and that's got the same problem as minis, plus the time to find the right ones.

I used glass beads with printed numbers stuck on them, but the numbers came off.

Now I'm thinking about different ideas. I thought of using some type of clay I can harden in an oven. Another suggesting was bolsa wood, even a mix of bread and PVC. Also lead and moulds was suggested.

I want something which is cheap, can be painted and numbered, can be made in different sizes (ie, for 1", 2", 3"), etc.

I'm currently thinking of using wax. I've been told that mixing wax with cotton makes a strong mixture. It can be cut to size, carved and painted. It's cheap, and can be made to size. I could even use food dyes or paints in the wax when melting it.

I'm thinking of making moulds for the wax out of dough which I can bake.

Anyone got any other advice? Suggestions, or difficulties with my idea.

Thanks

Duncan

 

[Eccles]

You're going to have the devil's own job painting wax!

I'm still using the counters from the introductory game one of my mates bought.

Here's an idea:

We must have enough artistic talent and electronic knowhow on these boards to make a decent selection of counters.

Would anyone else be prepared to pay a donation to the ENWorld of your choice if they were made into a decent download?

(Sorry for the mild hijack).

 

[johnsemlak]

Not really a direct response, but a player in my group downloads images from Claudio Poza's site and other places and makes counters. He prints out the images on paper and glues the paper to the M:TG cards he doesn't need.

As a result, his characters have a magical background.

 

[Staffan]

I make my counters the following way:
Step 1: Find a good picture somewhere. For most D&D monsters, the art galleries on the WOTC site are a good place to start.
Step 2: Crop the picture to a square-ish bit you'd like to use.
Step 3: Start PowerPoint.
Step 4: Create a square (or circle) of the appropriate size in PP. Set the square to use an image fill, specifically using the image you just cropped.
Step 5: Use the "add text" thing and add a number. Use the text-box settings in PP to get the number in the right place (usually a corner) and with the right color (usually white on dark backgrounds or black on light backgrounds). Also make it a good-looking font and size.

Repeat I: Copy/paste the square until you have as many monsters as you need (e.g. 10 goblins). You'll have to add the numbers manually, I don't think PP has an autonumbering feature.

Repeat II: Repeat the whole process until you have all the monster types you need as well.

 

[The Goblin King]

I would suggest building molds and casting the counters with plaster. Its not great (don't drop them) but it might do the job. If you go to a crafts store you might be able to find the materials.

Create the master with a polymer clay such as Sculpey. If you can find a two part silicone RTV it would work great. Hirst Arts has a tutorial here. However, I've never seen this for sale in a retail store. I have seen latex mold making materials for sale. I have never tried it but it might work for what you want to do. There is some information about it here. Plaster has the advantage of being readily available anywhere crafts are sold and its pretty cheap. The downside is that it is brittle. There are many other materials to cast with although some are more expensive then others. Again, Hirst Arts has a wealth of information here.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I've used tiddlywinks, which work well because you can mark on them with as dry-erase. Poker chips also should work. Coins come with automatic numbers, which is nice.

 

[BASHMAN]

Cheap minis

Personally, my favs have always been paper standees. I hate the flat paper minis, but I loved the OD&D paper standees, and Steve Jackson Games makes some really good ones. Just use a color photo copier and heavy cardstock and you have infinatly many of whatever figure you need. Also, SJ Games also sells color coded plastic stands for the figures which you can easily number with a sticker.

 

[adwyn]

One of our players/Dm's simply took appropriate pictures from the web, used Photo Shop to overlay some numbers, sized them to 1" squares, and then printed them out.

He then glued them to foam core bases that had been spray painted black. This made them easy to pick up and move around. One additional suggestion would be to make the bases/pictures 3/4" or 1 1/2" for large creatures. It helps if the counters don't need to touch, much less overlap.

We continue to use this method for mounts even when we use figures as the figure can easily be set atop or next his mount to show whether or not the character is mounted.

 

[MarauderX]

Hey. If you can use a computer to print or draw on paper, use cheap poster board, then put poster tacky (y'know, the gooey stuff that sticks) on the back. It weighs down the counters and they can be either loosely placed or pressed into place depending if you are travelling and don't want to move them after a game - just roll up your battlemat or stack your Tact-tiles and go - they won't move much. It's nice with a good printer, as you can find images from the 'net, resize them to fit your counter, print, cut, and you have instant counters. Plus it's faster than kiln firing your own.

 

[Mystery Man]

Not really a direct response, but a player in my group downloads images from Claudio Poza's site and other places and makes counters. He prints out the images on paper and glues the paper to the M:TG cards he doesn't need.

As a result, his characters have a magical background.

It's amazing what you can do with photophop, a color printer and a paper cutter.

I made an army of slaad of various colors and sizes. A veritable smorgasborg, a slaad salad if you will.