Mini Alternatives

[Ashy]

Ok, what I am looking for here is all of the great ideas that DMs have come up with over the years for alternatives to metal miniatures - things like tiny plastic game pieces from "hero-quest" type games to those little multi-colored rubber erasers that you used to buy at the school book fair. What I am not looking for is things like WOTC's plastic mini line, counters, or the like; something that looks and works like a fantasy mini, but is not exactly that...

....am I making any sense?


Alternatively, please provide a link to your favorite mini retailer!

 

[Catavarie]

I've used GI Joes and those little green army men on ocasion

 

[Crothian]

These guys have printible stand up stand ins that I like. If you are interested in more of these types of alternative mini, there are some other companies out there that do it. All of them sale through RPGNow and they work great.

 

[Ashy]

Coolness...keep 'em comin'!

 

[BastionPress_Creech]

Steve Jackson Games makes those cardboard heroes that you fold and stand up. Fairly economical for the price and the number of times they get used.

 

[greywulf]

Jelly Babies!!!

Yes, jelly babies.

No, seriously, hear me out.......

Cheap, colourful and there's enough in one pack to get a half decent battle. It's like an edible booster pack for the Miniatures game

It's also a great way to try out combats and work out just how the rules work too, with absolute minimal outlay. I tend to use the green ones for elves, red for orcs and the (rarer) black ones as evil spellcasters, but that's just me.

Anyone hungry yet?

 

[Silverleaf]

Smurfs.
Legos
and other such toys...
If you have a lot of dice, those can work too.

 

[Aristotle]

Dice were my miniatures for the longest time, and remain my stand-ins for odd encounters now that I've upgraded to plastic D&D minis. I had a ton of d10's from my White Wolf years. 10 different colors, with 10 dice per color, gave me the ability to uniquely identify up to 100 pieces on the table at any given time. I'd just note by a creature in my campaign notes "brown 2" and I'd know that the brown d10 with the 2 facing up was that creature.

For PCs and their companions and cohorts I would use uniquely colored d6's, d8's, or d12's depending on the size of the group and the dice available.

 

[KaosDevice]

We used to use those clear toy bubbles that you get from vending machines to show characters that were invisible. Worked pretty well. Those were the days....

 

[Lasher Dragon]

I do the same as Aristotle. Except for unique enemies like an ogre among 6 dire rats, rather than dig through the thousands of minis our game group has collected over the years looking for rats, I just reach into my chest o' dice.