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Message: <blockquote data-quote="thewok" data-source="post: 5443049" data-attributes="member: 60907">I think it's funny.  The board games are proving that non-random minis will sell.  By all accounts, the Castle Ravenloft game has sold really well.  It's a great game.  It also has the side effect of providing 40 miniatures for your tabletop game.  Not only that, but you get multiples of 3 for the common monsters, which makes it even more attractive.  (You also get some nifty dungeon tiles you can play with, but that's not germane to the discussion.)  There's also the fact that the plastic used for the Ravenloft minis seems more sturdy and higher quality than the plastic used for the normal minis.I'll be picking up Wrath of Ashardalon next month mostly for the minis.  I'll play the game, sure.  But, the minis are what I really want.There is also the concept of added value.  I think dropping the skirmish game was a mistake.  The skirmish game gave a dual purpose to each mini: it could be used in the skirmish game, and it could be used in the tabletop game.  Once the skirmish game was stopped, the people who bought the minis for the game stopped buying (or just bought older boosters), and those who did both saw their future purchases have less personal value.But then there are people like me, who want bulk amounts of the same mini, but don't want to buy randomized boosters because the chance of getting something usable for the tabletop game is very low.  I need large amounts of kobolds, orcs, goblins, bugbears, elementals, and so on.  I don't need a bunch of aboleths, gith, warforged, and other things that just don't pop up in the games I play.I think a future mini line would have to be in two parts:First, they need to restart the skirmish game.  And they need to treat it with the same love that they show for Magic.  Friday Night Magic?  Why not Tuesday Night DDM or something?  Make it just as competitive as Magic is.  People will play it.  This approach would call for random boosters as before.  The key would be to maintain the support for the game to keep it interesting.Second, there needs to be a line for the RPG game.  These can be unpainted, but they must come in packs containing multiples, and they need to be non-random.  You can have your Beholder Collectors Sets, your Orcus minis, your Legend of Drizzt sets, and so on.  But the main thing is to keep this line inexpensive and non-random.I think that's it.  I think support for the skirmish game is really the key to keeping a future line going.  If WotC can convince the players that they love DDM like the love Magic, then people will drop the money to play it.But they can't simply make one line of minis and expect both camps of mini buyers to keep putting down cash.  There will be some crossover, yes (I'd play the mini game if it was supported well), but for the most part, the two camps are looking for very different things in miniatures.  You can't satisfy both with one line.And I think it's been proven that you really need both camps to make it profitable.</blockquote>

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