Minis for TTRPGs

[GraveDev]

Otherworld miniatures from the UK. But I admit it's largely nostalgia for old-school metal minis for me. I was sad when they closed shop last year.

Those look pretty sharp! They do have an old-school look, but that's part of the charm for many sets Shame they've closed down.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Also, for monsters, consider some cheap toys you can find at the dollar store or somewhere else.

Check Arts & Craft/Hobby stores, as well as toy stores.

I’ve found all kinds of resin figures of real animals as well as mythical critters that work with 25-28mm figures.

 

[GraveDev]

I have a good handful of Wizkids minis that I really liked (both painted and not painted) but I got a 3D Printer for Christmas and have printed probably 50-100 minis so far and just got a handful of paints to get some color on them.

I tend to agree with a previous poster that painting the minis is not enjoyable but I'm trying to power through that and get to a point where I enjoy that part of the hobby. I've been painting (poorly) while watching basketball games at night and am slowly liking it more and more.

MZ4250 has made a print for every monster in the Monster Manual so his minis are the printed ones I"ve been enjoying

Sweet! I don't have a 3D printer, but I imagine it really opens the doors for aquiring all sorts of minis. Normally, I'd be hesitant to buy niche minis like undead ogres or something like that, but I'd 3D print one in a heartbeat!

How's the quality of the prints? Any layer lines?

 

[GraveDev]

So I mostly work with paper figs now. Definitely cheaper, but not nearly as pretty.

Edit: Would love to see some solid suggestions for minis/terrain in 15mm scale...

How do you make the paper minis? Do you draw yourself, or do you print images from some site? Using paper and cardboard minis saves a loooooot of space!

No experience with 15mm minis here Are you going for that scale just to save space, or do you prefer them? I think the War of the Ring board game has 15mm minis, but I'd make sure before jumping on that.

 

[Bomberooski]

Sweet! I don't have a 3D printer, but I imagine it really opens the doors for aquiring all sorts of minis. Normally, I'd be hesitant to buy niche minis like undead ogres or something like that, but I'd 3D print one in a heartbeat!

How's the quality of the prints? Any layer lines?

Definitely not nearly as good as the Wizkids minis I own but I think they will be extremely passable at the table. I'm finally starting a home game next month after only DM-ing a handful of online sessions and I was going to use all paper minis/tokens but these 3D prints will be so cool!

For sure you can see some layer lines after I paint them but you really have to be looking on most of them. If you're someone that is really in it to collect minis and display them as art you'd probably be bothered by the lines.

 

[BrokenTwin]

How do you make the paper minis? Do you draw yourself, or do you print images from some site? Using paper and cardboard minis saves a loooooot of space!

No experience with 15mm minis here Are you going for that scale just to save space, or do you prefer them? I think the War of the Ring board game has 15mm minis, but I'd make sure before jumping on that.

Saving space both in storage and at the table is the major one. And yeah, we usually just draw doodles of our characters on little slips of paper, fold and tape. If we're feeling really fancy, we'll tape it to a coin for a base.

I would love to start collecting terrain again, but that's where the smaller scale would really come in handy for me. Especially since I've been looking at moving from grid combat to gridless combat (most of the systems I play that use tactical combat could be adjusted to both the scale difference and going gridless with little issue).

 

[Cergorach]

Have been into Games Workshop/Citadel (Miniatures) for 35+ years, current generation GW minis I wouldn't really use for most TTRPGs (outside of the warhammer fantasy/40k RPGs). Got quite a bit of Grenadier, Ral Partha, HeartBreaker, RAFM, Rackham, etc.

I liked the old WotC prepainted miniatures, due to being able to just chuck a bunch into a bag, into my backpack and it wouldn't be destroyed. I'm less of a fan of the current Wizkids likes, although I have a few...

I got TONs of minis from the Reaper Miniatures PVC kickstarters, still have to paint them. At the time great value, these days it's a lot less so.

I got a TON of minis from board game kickstarters, especially games from CMON. I got a LOT of characters from the fantasy Zombicide lines and the like. Steam Forge Games also has a ton of miniatures heavy games with good figures.

Steam Forge Games also has a line of "Epic Encounters" that has a great range of miniatures for fantasy RPGs. If you wait for a Black Friday sale you can pick up a lot with a huge discount...

Kingdom Death Monster has some impressive quality plastic miniatures, but quite a few of those are either very sexy or sexually laden. And/or extremely disturbing. Not for everyone. But the intricacy is superb!

There are TONs of great minis in the 3D space, that's so overwhelming that finding what you need/want is overwhelming. You're also stuck to either printing it yourself in resin or getting it from a 3D printing shop, but those often don't have everything and not all print in equal quality or material.

I do tend to avoid metal and resin miniatures these days.

 

[Li Shenron]

What are your favourite miniature manufacturers, sets, or shops for TTRPG purposes?

LEGO

Pros:

• they just look awesome, and everybody seems to like them at the table
• you have some freedom to build your own PC minis
• you can change weapons or held objects
• they bring more cheerfulness to the gaming table

Cons:

• they take more space than traditional minis, and feel cramped on official battle maps
• there's a large range of humanoid-like creatures and animals but may be difficult and expensive to get
• non-humanoids and larger creatures, you have to build them yourself!
• some players may say they are not "serious enough"

 

[Arnie_Wan_Kenobi]

The dragonborn fighter was the first one of those prepainted singles I picked up, and served as my dragonborn paladin in my at-work campaign until one of the other players painted me a mini. (I have never had anyone do that before. It was one of the nicest, and coolest, things anyone had done for me.)

Once upon a time, I had a ton of minis from WOTC-- Harbinger through Savage Encounters, plus Star Wars--but sold everything in a major scale-down purge. (It failed).

I tend toward WotC and WizKids products because 1. Prepainted, 2. Available. But after picking up the a full (brick? I forget the term) of Legends of Golarion, a drop box of We Be Goblins, and the Castle Ravenloft board game, my basic needs (or acceptable proxies) pretty much got met.

Otherwise, I'm pretty much motivated by "clearance." I'll still grab a booster if I find them on sale--my local Target had 50th Boosters on clearance a few months ago, and I cleaned them out at less than 50% MSRP. Took advantage of WizKids' clearance last year and picked up most of the Witchlight stuff because I was running the first chapter with my kids. Don't sleep on Barnes and Nobel, either--I got some of the flat mini sets for $7USD, and Pathfinder Skull and Shackles boosters for (IIRC), $5 USD (that find was a long time ago, though).

Online shops: almost exclusively MiniatureMarket, with occasional purchases from NobelKnight sales. Or directly from Paizo and WizKids (as above).

I WISH I had the patience, steady hand, and eyes to paint, but I realized long ago THAT was not happening.

Like so many of us in this thread, I really like the aesthetic of Reaper's stuff. Sadly, they will forever go unpainted.

Right now, I'm focused on slowly picking up Reaper translucent wraiths to fill in a few more undead gaps. And I'm a sucker for the color teal.

 

[Stormonu]

I'll second the Steam Forged Games (SFG) Epic Encounters line. A good mix of minis and an adventure scenario to boot.