How "Table-Top" is Your Game?

[cptg1481]

Mini Heavy All the Way

I am the GM for a game and we use mini's extensively, we just like the visual representation of the battles. We even have blood splats and clear cylinders for flying characters. It takes a few minutes to set up each scene bu the payoff is well IMO worth it. It works for us. Take a look and see.....

Anyway we have a miniatures gallery on our campaign site which is at

http://mir.theplothoks.org/ just follow the links for the miniatures gallery once you get there. I'd be curious what you all think of our little game.

Shameless plug, we make most of the terrain ourselves actually, one of my players is the better than me at painting/sculpting. However, his degree in sculpting might be the key there. I love to make new terrian and paint mini's I'm ok at terrain but average at minis. I am going to try and make a scale model of the Castle Maerimyda from the CotSQ for our game. The deminsions are about 52X36" at the base with two towers one about 20" and the other 30" in diameter. The whole thing will be about 30-40" tall too. Wish me luck.

You can make comments for the pictures as well if you'd like.

 

[d4]

i'd have to agree with Umbran that using minis has sped up combat considerably for me.

we don't have to spend a minute or more before every player's action with questions about distance, charging, attacks of opportunity, line of sight, etc.

 

[DaveStebbins]

We rotate fairly randomly through the six houses of the seven group members, so we commonly play at the dining room table.

For a battle mat we have an old chalkboard with a knife-scored one-inch grid and dowels attached under each corner to raise it 6-8 inches off the table (so we can use the space underneath for dice, books, paper, etc.).

For minis, my one buddy always lugs in his big container of figs. I usually use paper/cardboard ones for my PC when I play and selected enemies when I DM, just to tick him off. I plan to use caramels for enemies at least once in the near future so that we can play the you-killed-it-you-get-to-eat-it rule.

The chalkboard makes it very easy to map out every encounter which really helps the more tactically-challenged players, so we use it all the time.

-Dave

 

[MerricB]

Now that is just funny to me since you are putting so much hard work into the new D&D mini stuff.

Why do you think I'm putting so much work into the new D&D minis? It's so I don't have to paint my miniatures, and can carry them around easily!



I have about 100 metal miniatures (mostly unpainted) of which 25 are from Chainmail. I have a further 70 or so MageKnight figures.

I've used glass beads, dice, those counters from Dragon, and occasionally actual miniatures in my games, but I normally don't use them, relying instead on the descriptive skills I've gained over my years of DMing.

Cheers!

 

[pogre]

I have to share a story related to this thread from tonight's game. We're playing a module where there are Hobgoblins mounted on skeletal horses. The hobgoblins astride their undead mounts launch an attack on the party.

I pull out a bunch of GW undead cavalry. I have ten of them to represent all of the raiders.

One of my player points out, "the riders are skeletons and not Hobgoblins"

"I know but..." I start to counter.

"Couldn't you just mount some hobgoblin figs on them?" He was only half-kidding.

Talk about spoiled!

 

[d4]

I plan to use caramels for enemies at least once in the near future so that we can play the you-killed-it-you-get-to-eat-it rule.

now that is an amazingly cool idea!

 

[Harlock]

How much do gridmaps, hexmaps, minis, terrain, and scenery come into play in your games?

Most every session unless it is strictly an RP session with no combats.

What do you use, if anything? Just a gridmap and dry-erase markers?

I use a Chessex Battlemat with wet erase markers.

Does every player have a mini? Just use extra dice? Counters?

All of the above actually. Not every player is overly fond of painting, though a few of us are. I am planning on using the new prepainted minis from WotC for those players who don't enjoy painting as much. We use counters, glass markers, dice and whatever is at hand most times.

Do you use them all the time, or rarely, say only for the big battles?

All battles we use them, not for RP, however.

Is it an added plus or an extra burden to lug all that gear around?

Well, there's no burden since I own almost all of the minis, counters and battlemat and we always game at my place. I usually have the table set up with the mat in place before the players arrive. If I am DMing then I'll have a selection of minis or counters nearby that I intend to use that session. The extra set up time has a grand payoff because we can get through combat more quickly and onto roleplay, plot development and gaming fun. The folks that say minis slow down combat are right. It does... at first. Once you work out the system you find yourself drawing a room quickly, have a player set up the players in marching order, drag out the minis you have at hand already and wham! Combat is a snap and you get none of those, "Where is he?" or, "Can I flank him?" or, "If I cast fireball will I catch Bob the Paladin in it?" questions.

Or do you just hate anything outside of your imagination?

My imagination is great, but with things like reach, AoOs, area spells, charging etc. minis just make it easier and less dependent on arbitrary DM decisions. You know what I mean, "Hey, Paul, can I make a double move and catch him in time?"... "Uhh, sure?"

I wanna know.

So now you know. One last word: As far as terrain goes, I ahve some dungeon dressing tiles but seldom use them. If I need to draw in a tree or table or boulder with the wet erase I'll do so, otherwise it's not worth noting if it won't affect combat.

 

[kengar]

I'm tempted to get some of those fiery dragon counters, but i have no idea what they look like, or what's actually in them, and they arent 3.5 compliant anyway.

How can counters be -or not be- "3.5 compliant"?? They're just pictures of the monsters.

You can see some samples of the artwork at http://www.fierydragon.com/Products/prod-cc1.htm

 

[Harlock]

How can counters be -or not be- "3.5 compliant"?? They're just pictures of the monsters.

You can see some samples of the artwork at http://www.fierydragon.com/Products/prod-cc1.htm

I think he is referring to the facing change from 3.0 to 3.5. A horse in 3.0 had a face of 10'x5' whereas in 3.5 facings are square.

 

[ForceUser]

How can counters be -or not be- "3.5 compliant"?? They're just pictures of the monsters.

You can see some samples of the artwork at http://www.fierydragon.com/Products/prod-cc1.htm

I think he means that the large and up monster counters don't take up the 10x10 or 15x15 squares that they do in 3.5. I would have bought some fiery dragon counters, but I just made some square 3.5 ones myself with downloaded images from the wotc site, cardstock, MSPaint, and my color printer.