How do you feel about miniatures?

[Filcher]

Off thread, but related --- so how do you use the battlemaps? Pre drawn? Quickly scrawled? Tiles?

I shy way from minis, but it seems that I need them for 4e (which isn't all bad). But I hate interrupting the flow of my game to clear the table a quick draw a map.

Using the big 1" graph tablets from office supply stores seems a good option. (Pre draw, then tear off the sheet when you get there.)

Heh.We need affordable smart maps .... stat!

 

[Tharkun]

We use minis all the time when I DM and the vast majority of the time when the other fella DMs.

 

[Cadfan]

I hated miniatures in 3e for two reasons.

1. They didn't add much. Honestly, they just helped adjudicate fireballs, and the occasional attack of opportunity. The fighting types mostly walked up to one enemy, fought until it died, then walked to the next enemy. The ranged attackers planted their feet and rained bombs on the battlefield. Both of those activities work just fine without a grid.

2. The available products for drawing maps tended to suck. Like those wipe off grid boards that didn't wipe off? Hated those.

In 4e, it looks like knowing the exact location of the characters and the monsters will actually matter. I'm cool with needing a battlemat as long as the battlemat is providing value for the effort put into it, and that looks to be the case.

In the meantime, I need to find a wipe away mat that actually wipes away.

 

[Agamon]

I've been using minis, or proxies for minis, ever since that first time I gamed in '81. I play plenty of games without minis, but I've always used them for D&D, regardless of edition.

 

[Agamon]

Off thread, but related --- so how do you use the battlemaps? Pre drawn? Quickly scrawled? Tiles?

I shy way from minis, but it seems that I need them for 4e (which isn't all bad). But I hate interrupting the flow of my game to clear the table a quick draw a map.

Using the big 1" graph tablets from office supply stores seems a good option. (Pre draw, then tear off the sheet when you get there.)

Heh.We need affordable smart maps .... stat!

I don't mind drawing the map. I don't go all out unless I do pre-draw it, which isn't often. I use Tac-Tiles, they are teh shizzle.

 

[redcard]

Redcard before he got wiped out in a "no-res, restart at half level" game by a GM who thought he was in front of the dragon family while Redcard thought he was behind a pillar in full cover.

"I hate minis. If I wanted to play Warhammer, I'd buy Warhammer. Besides, I have minis with my Battletech addiction"

Redcard after his next of kin was notified and the young adventurer set out from the village to avenge the Hero Redcard's jellification.

"I think Minis and a battle mat can add to the game by taking away from the disagreements that might occur."

 

[Keldryn]

I love miniatures. Always have, since I was 12 years old and playing B/X D&D in 1986. Of course I've also avidly collected Star Wars figures since I was 4, so there is definitely an inherent love of toys going on too. Loved the original Dragon Tiles that came out in the "AC" line of BECMI products.

Never found them a detriment to imagination, and my gaming groups always found them very useful for keeping track of where everybody was in combat. Didn't matter what edition (or game) I was playing; I've always like using minis. And those cardboard buildings. And Dragon Tiles. And I always wanted a Dwarven Forge set but could never justify the cost, so I made do with paper walls or Lego bricks...

 

[drothgery]

I like battle maps. It doesn't matter a lot to me if what's being moved around them is minis, Dungeon Tiles, spare dice, counters, or M&Ms (though I could do without the DM's cats...).

 

[Amphimir Míriel]

I like battle maps. It doesn't matter a lot to me if what's being moved around them is minis, Dungeon Tiles, spare dice, counters, or M&Ms (though I could do without the DM's cats...).

This

Missing poll option: "I use a battlemat and counters, but I don't use miniatures"

Over here in the third world, we do use a battlemat (homemade in vinyl or tabloid-size photocopies of a 1inch grid) and either paper counters or colored glass beads (my favourite) to represent characters and monsters.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Terrible poll.

I loathe miniatures for TT RPGs with a deep and burning passion, yet I've found that 4E and to a lesser extent 3E required me to use something very close to miniatures to actually play properly. Anyone who claims 4E can be played easily without a battlemap and counters of some kind (whether minis or not) is frankly living in an exciting fantasy-land. It's a game very clearly and intentionally designed to force use of minis/counters, moreso than any game that didn't actually come with miniatures that I've ever played, and hell, moreso than some that did!

The funny thing is that I love miniatures for wargames, and have a large collection of WH40K minis (and much smaller WHFB one and a few other small collections).

It's just that I've never seen D&D-oriented fantasy miniatures which didn't trigger every single "FUGLY!" alert in my aesthetically-oriented brain. Maybe there are some out there, but they sure ain't the super-fugly official D&D minis. I've also found that my players dislike minis, and that we game better with wildly inappropriate minis than half-accurate ones (i.e. better to use a robot with machineguns on it to represent the swashbuckling human rogue than a halfling thief mini).

For 4E I'm planning to finally bite the bullet, and instead of working with photocopied/printed grinds and the like, buy a cleanable battlemap of some kind and use some pre-prepared counters (not miniatures!). One thing I read which I liked even more was the idea of using a battlemap program shown on a decent-sized modern TV with a couple of laptops to move the counters around. Sadly I don't have a couple of laptops!