Minis in a Starter Set? Preferences?

[Sacrosanct]

Caveat: For small publishers looking at small print runs, plastic minis aren't an option. Unless you're printing thousands, it's just not cost effective for injection molding.

That being said, as a consumer or a publisher, factoring in cost and time spent, which would you prefer of the 3 options?

1. 3d printing. It’s slow, time consuming to print and clean, and costly. Limited to a half dozen characters only, but look the best.
2. Wood engrave and laser cut. Very cheap and fast. Allows minis for characters and monsters.
3. Same as 2, but print out a full color sheet which is then glued to the wood before laser cutting. Increased production time by 25%.

Keep in mind this is for a starter set (new players) who probably don't already have a mini collection.

 

[aco175]

Keep in mind this is for a starter set (new players) who probably don't already have a mini collection.

Out of the three options, the basic wood engrave that is just black and white would be best if I was looking to get into a starter set for a new game. I might not like the game and the cheaper option should mean that the investment is lower to start initially. I might try something for a lower cost over a higher cost, but also wonder if there is something to having a better looking starter set to attract people to look at it in the first place. Kind of like a book cover getting people to at least pick up the book and give it a look.

 

[MNblockhead]

Nothing beats a 3D mini IMHO. But standees are still nice and allow you to put a lot more in the box. Wood standees feels pretty niche and I think you would get more bang for you buck with full color thick cardboard or flat plastic minis (like Arcknight's). I also worry that wooden minis would be easy to break. Cardboard and plastic can take a lot more damage and still be useable. The tabs at the bottom of the wooden minis and slotted wood bases just seem a lot more fragile. Also, if you are targeting younger consumers, I think color would be more attractive than wood, even if made with cheaper material.

As a consumer, I liked how Paizo was able to add so many options with their pawns. Their starter set had over 100 pawns, which just give new players so many more options and make is much more useful in terms of replayability.

 

[payn]

Nothing beats a 3D mini IMHO. But standees are still nice and allow you to put a lot more in the box. Wood standees feels pretty niche and I think you would get more bang for you buck with full color thick cardboard or flat plastic minis (like Arcknight's). I also worry that wooden minis would be easy to break. Cardboard and plastic can take a lot more damage and still be useable. The tabs at the bottom of the wooden minis and slotted wood bases just seem a lot more fragile. Also, if you are targeting younger consumers, I think color would be more attractive than wood, even if made with cheaper material.

As a consumer, I liked how Paizo was able to add so many options with their pawns. Their starter set had over 100 pawns, which just give new players so many more options and make is much more useful in terms of replayability.

Yeap, this. Any choice you make should have a way to add more pawns or minis!

 

[Sacrosanct]

For some additional context:

3d Print minis: $2.25 for each mini (most of this labor costs to remove supports, clean, and cure)
Laser engrave full color: $.45 per mini (since I can do this myself, it's much cheaper)
Laser engrave plain wood: $.25 per mini
Painted acrylic: $1.80 per mini
Cardboard color: $.78 per mini

So bang for your buck, would you rather have just a couple of traditional 3D minis for a starter set, or 2 dozen 2D cutout minis? I lean towards the 2D cut out so you can have ones for monsters too.

Paizo Pawns are probably around $0.05 a pawn because they can do big print runs. I wish I could do that.

I had someone tell me today that they preferred the plain wood ones because then they could color them themselves. I wouldn't do greyscale minis, as you can see above, the details wash out. I would be doing more line-art

 

[Sacrosanct]

Yeap, this. Any choice you make should have a way to add more pawns or minis!

With wooden ones I do myself, it would be super easy to add as many as people want.

 

[payn]

With wooden ones I do myself, it would be super easy to add as many as people want.

If the starter set could be expanded with the same oawns, I’d be back. If the starter had unique not used again I’d likely not get it.

 

[MGibster]

1. 3d printing. It’s slow, time consuming to print and clean, and costly. Limited to a half dozen characters only, but look the best.
2. Wood engrave and laser cut. Very cheap and fast. Allows minis for characters and monsters.
3. Same as 2, but print out a full color sheet which is then glued to the wood before laser cutting. Increased production time by 25%.

I vote for option #2. If your game makes use of miniatures, then it might be nice for new players to have a variety of options, especially since many of them might not have miniatures of their own since they are new players. As a miniature collector, I wouldn't hesitate to use the stands instead of the regular miniatures in any game I ran.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I vote for option #2. If your game makes use of miniatures, then it might be nice for new players to have a variety of options, especially since many of them might not have miniatures of their own since they are new players. As a miniature collector, I wouldn't hesitate to use the stands instead of the regular miniatures in any game I ran.

You mean not like we used to do it in the old days by using marbles, dice (piped regular ones cuz those polyhedrals were rare). And popcorn?

 

[MNblockhead]

So bang for your buck, would you rather have just a couple of traditional 3D minis for a starter set, or 2 dozen 2D cutout minis? I lean towards the 2D cut out so you can have ones for monsters too.

Dozens of 2D minis every time. 3D minis are great when you only need a few for a board game. But for a TTRPG starter set you want a good assortment of PC options and common monsters. If there will be an introductory adventure, I would focus on having enough so every monster in the adventure has a mini.