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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nail" data-source="post: 2009056" data-attributes="member: 224">Review Edited: Dec 6th, 2002I've now bought three separate packs from Dragon Scale Counters, so I thought I'd edit the first review, on th' off chance someone's doing research on their products.  I've bought one of just about all of the counters they currently have (including, accidentaly, some of their excellent sci-fi counters). I've raised their score from a 3.3 to a 3.7, which, in ENWorld reviews means a move from "3" to "4".Ordering:Each time I ordered many different types of monsters.  That's really the strength of this company: You can order as many or as few of each monster as you like. My last order had 32 different types of monsters, ranging in groups of 1 to 7.  The "shopping cart" feature worked flawlessly, and was intuitive.Confirmation email came in under five minutes, and a shipment confirmation came th' next day.  (I had picked "cheapest shipping possible", as I am a confirmed cheapskate.)  For each of my three orders, I had the silly things in my greedy little paws a mere 3 days after ordering them.  And there was never a missing or over-counted peice.  Not bad; not bad at all.What I got: I've picked up some of the excellent 8" by 10" wet-erase boards, one of practically every monster they've got, and several small hordes of goblins, orcs, zombies, ghouls, etc.The counters are indeed printed on plastic, and my two-year old kid has proved they are durable.  (Though they can be easily slipped into cold-air return ducts....a downside, if I ever saw one.  :^)  The art does not flake off, as I had feared.  It's on there, but good.The Art:Decent, if not spectacular.  A few of the peices are decidedly bad, like the clay golem and the roper.  Some of the coloring is noticably uneven, especially on the large counters, like the gargantuan dragons.  And the "view from above" angle is ...umm...<squints>....unclear, sometimes. All-in-all, I'd rate the art "average", but not "good", and I'd rate the presentation "good" to "average".  (I'd wish for better, but consider that I also think at least half of the art-work in the 3e Monster Manual is in the "poor" to "god-awful" catagory.  In the MM, the terrible depictions of the ghoul or displacer beast comes to mind.  Who hired those guys?)The art is sized to represent the relative sizes of the creatures....a nice touch, as it shows that kobolds are, despite their 5 by 5 base, smaller than trolls (also with a 5 by 5 base).  Minor quibble: this makes the kobolds difficult to make out.A Major Quibble:    Many of the giant counters are cut to the wrong size.  Many are cut as 5 ft by 10 ft peices, when they should be 5 ft by 5 ft peices.  I've emailed the company about this, and they've fixed at least the ogres since my first order.  I'm not yet sure that they've fixed the other giants (like the ogre mage or the stone giant).  Before ordering these peices, you may want to check via email or customer service (they are prompt and friendly, in my experience).Usefulness:   Very.  They are flat after all, and very light weight.  You can draw on them (but only use black erasable marker).  Put 'em in little snack baggies, and you've got yerself a portable encounter.  They seem especially good for those "large masses of bad-guys" type encounters, where it's our heroes against some slobbering horde.  I mean, who wants to carry around that many zombie or orc figurines?  Against a single, large (and hopefully memorable) foe, the counters might be less useful.  A dragon is oh-so-much-less terrifying when she's flat.  Seriously.  :^)Overall:   Over all the product should rate a "4", but only barely.  Some of the artwork is not good (IMHO), and the "wrong size cut" problem is annoying, at best.  However, the ease of use and durability, combined with the rest of the good artwork, raise it out of the "average" ("3")territory-NailTips: review the artwork and cut sizes of the peices you're interested in, and don't pay extra for shipping.</blockquote>

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