How many mini sets do you need to make them a useful part of your game?

[Li Shenron]

So that's what I meant when I said that "WotC's 'larger' minis fit better". (I'm not particularly articulate today, so I hope I'm explaining myself adequately...)

Ok thanks, for a moment I thought you meant that WotC larger ones fit better than WotC smaller once, hence my doubt... but it's all clear now

 

[johnsemlak]

Last session I was running a combat and moving the flat counters did become a pain. It might have been nice to have standup minis.

I think you've hit on the reason I prefer miniatures to counters, though I often don't use anything but descriptions. I also find it easier to find the proper miniature in a box than a counter. I have a bunch of counters from Dungeon magazine, but I find them too annoying to use often.

Cheers!

I'd prefer description myself, but several players in my group are the types that don't enjoy the game w/o the battlemat and some sort of PC/NPC representation. They'll complain that they can't take advantage of their feats or the rules won't be correctly applied. Myself, I don't know the rules well enough to run combat effectively without the mat.

I'd love to see how you are able to DM a 3.5 game and run the combats w/o miniatures/a battlemat.

 

[the Jester]

The odds are very good that if you buy one booster of the Harbinger set you're going to get some use out of it if you use minis at all, because there will prolly be something that can represent a pc in there somewhere. So I'd say one pack and you start to get use out of it. On the other hand, the more packs you buy the more use you'll get from 'em.

 

[D+1]

When I read about people who've spent hundred's of dollars on some mad obsession to collect an entire set I feel gratified.

People are never quite as happy as when they know someone ELSE is miserable.

So how many miniatures does it really take to make them a useful part of the game, where you have one for each PC, plus enough for most of the NPCs and Monsters?

How many possible PC's do you want to potentially represent? Do you need one for every race/class/gender combination? Even then will using Regdar for EVERY human fighter PC cover the bases?

The question of how many miniatures does it take to make them useful is in truth rhetorical. Only YOU can answer it for yourself. I've made do for years with a "limited" assortment of metal minis. Orcs substituted for hobgoblins, bugbears, bandits... ANYTHING humanoid. Now I've got kobolds so I won't have to substitute goblins. I've got goblins with a variety of weapons. I've got more ORCS than I'll probably ever need again. I've got demons and demon avatars, and wierd things like abysmal maws, and masses of undead of all descriptions, and an army of Drow. Do I NEED them all? No. Have I wanted them? You betcha know it.

For myself it's all money well spent and they have yet to see use in RPG play (another couple weeks before the next campaign can start in earnest though character creation can be done at any time). I still don't have the variety of monsters that I'd like but probably never will, and I suspect most PC figures will still be the older metals rather than new plastics. Do I need the expanded psionics handbook? No, I have the 3.0 psionics handbook, but I bought the EPH anyway. Do I need to buy the Eberron setting? No, my new campaign will be the Judges Guild Wilderlands, but I'm gonna buy it anyway and mine it for all it's worth.

I've never used minis for D&D before. I really like counters in that you can get loads for cheap, and in any case I'll probablty be mixing minis and counters

So for you, that'll work. For me, having used miniatures for 25+ years since the first day I began playing, I couldn't stand to do it any other way. It's just that it hasn't been until now, when I have the money to spend on them, the willingness to buy, and a selection of minis that are perhaps even LESS expensive (and certainly less trouble since they require no painting out of the box), only now have I spent wads of cash on wads of minis.

 

[diaglo]

So for you, that'll work. For me, having used miniatures for 25+ years since the first day I began playing, I couldn't stand to do it any other way. It's just that it hasn't been until now, when I have the money to spend on them, the willingness to buy, and a selection of minis that are perhaps even LESS expensive (and certainly less trouble since they require no painting out of the box), only now have I spent wads of cash on wads of minis.

my percent of income vs. how many minis i purchased over the last 25 years is actual lower.

i came to D&D from the wargaming side of things...so minis were part of the reason i picked it up. minis are a must for me. i even made my own...

however, i can't say it enough...Avoid the WotC minis. the only thing they have going for them is durability. the paint jobs are terrible.

A result that a simple probability exercise would have predicted...

believe me i did this myself before i bought any. heck playing with dice and random purchases....you'd understand more the gambler inside every RPGer. i wanted to see if i could beat the odds.

 

[Barcode]

my percent of income vs. how many minis i purchased over the last 25 years is actual lower.

i came to D&D from the wargaming side of things...so minis were part of the reason i picked it up. minis are a must for me. i even made my own...

however, i can't say it enough...Avoid the WotC minis. the only thing they have going for them is durability. the paint jobs are terrible.



believe me i did this myself before i bought any. heck playing with dice and random purchases....you'd understand more the gambler inside every RPGer. i wanted to see if i could beat the odds.

Mmm. I disagree. You can say it enough.

Some of the Harbinger paint jobs were not so good, but probably about as good as I could do myself with a lot more effort. I really like the Archfiends paint jobs so far. Not works of art, certainly, but those Chinese factory workers are doing way better than I could. And bottom line, they look way better than dice, beads or pieces to children's board games. I might have gone with counters if I knew about them before I went down the mini road.

BTW, my calculations have the 20th unique rare (finally completing the set entirely by buying randomized expansion packs) drawn somewhere around pack 72.

I have seen several people post that WotC told them they could collect an entire set with X (X being relatively small) number of expansion packs. Where was this stated? Either WotC or the persons repeating this misinformation are smoking crack. (Actually, I would tend to classify it as a "wild rumor".) For Harbinger, with 27 rares, you should need a little over a hundred completely random draws to get all of them. You gotta trade, or buy singles. Otherwise you will end up a bitter, bitter person...

 

[Altalazar]

I already had about 180 metal minis, collected over many years, with about 1/3 of them painted. But they don't always have enough of what I need - I end up substituting inevitably.

So I bought a bunch of the packs for the first and second expansions. Now I have a ton of plastic minis - with a good assortment of the types everyone needs - Orcs, Goblins, Kobolds, etc. I was disappointed about the uncommon Gnolls. And I didn't get all the rares, obviously, but I basically got the ones I wanted. I think I didn't get an Ogre and I wanted some of those... and I didn't get a dragon or something. The other rares I really won't miss.

Now I have a very good collection of minis to use for any game. I may buy an occasional expansion or pack if I feel like it, but I should be set - and individual figures I need I will just buy metal and paint - it is kind of silly to pay 3x what a metal mini costs to get a plastic one, though I suppose some of the rares are fairly nice and they are pre-painted. Perhaps it is a toss up there, depending on what is available in metal.

I'll still get metal minis and I'll continue to paint the ones I have, as I get the time. I think it is a good mix.

 

[Drakmar]

I have about 11 booster packs.

In that I have enough "character" minatures to vaguley represent the chars. (but usually custom minis do that)

But the 15 or so orcs or various types I have see a lot of use as random badies. Human Badies, Gnoll Badies..

The Minotaur, Barbed Devil? and Centaur I have tend to pretend to be Giants, or Manticores or whatever.

As long it is vaguely the same size.. and the DM can differentiate then it's all good.

 

[kengar]

Thus far I've resisted the hype, I've not gone down the path of collecting miniatures.

When I read about people who've spent hundred's of dollars on some mad obsession to collect an entire set I feel gratified.

For the most part I've been satisfied with counters, though many of my CCI and CCII counters are sized 3.0.

Last session I was running a combat and moving the flat counters did become a pain. It might have been nice to have standup minis.

So how many miniatures does it really take to make them a useful part of the game, where you have one for each PC, plus enough for most of the NPCs and Monsters? I've never used minis for D&D before. I really like counters in that you can get loads for cheap, and in any case I'll probablty be mixing minis and counters

Me? I like lead. I paint for fun and have a lot of minis. I don't buy the plastic WotC's for several reasons. But my reasons may not be yours. If you aren't into painting lead or collecting the WotCs, use your counters, save your money and just buy a couple bags of these:

http://www.warehouse23.com/item.cgi?SJG5104G

They give you the 3D effect and ease of handling without having to replace what you have.

 

[Speaks With Stone]

Since I convinced a couple of friends to play Warhammer, we now have tons of minis that I use for wargames as well as roleplaying. I greatly enjoy painting the figures (even if I'm not great at it) and I think they add a lot of personality to the table. We also have terrain features that add to the experience as well.

eBay has lots of old mini sets you can buy cheap, which limits the cost if you don't mind getting random assortments.