Minis

[Amphimir Míriel]

Actually, this is the reason that I use tokens (candy) instead of miniatures. I don't like seeing someone else's mental image of what a hobgoblin ought to look like. I'd rather see a token, and imagine the details.

Exactly my thoughts... We don't use candy on our gaming table (now that we are older, we have replaced the cheetos and soda for mixed nuts and tea), but you can find glass beads of different colors and sizes for cheap.

The place I buy them from (a home decor place) sells them by the pound...

 

[TerraDave]

Check out the huge variety of stuff Fiery Dragon offers. Counter Collections umpteen. Print em out (if you buy digital) or cut em out if you get the printed pack.

Counter Collection Digital is the solution, if you have access to a color printer.

But really, you probably have better options then ever before...I still have these monochrome counters from the old Battle System box set I used to use...

However, your premise may not be 100% right. Some of the simplifying steps being talked about may actually reduce "mini dependence". But will have to wait and see.

 

[DonTadow]

Alright, most people (that I've talked to) agree that things are going to be much more mini-centric, especially if Saga is any indication. Which is fine, actually, in my opinion. Minis make battle go much smoother, in my experience, and make things much easier to keep track of. That's not the problem.

The problem is that if you want to play the game with minis, you either have to spend way too much cash on do-it-yourself pewter and plastic minis and paint, or grab a D&D Minis booster and just pray that the minis you're after are in there. Which they won't be.

So, if anybody out there's paying attention, could I ask just one favor? Provide non-randomized minis packs for those of us who want them for D&D. If you're worried about people cherry-picking the perfect warbands for a Minis game, just don't provide the stat-cards, only give the minis themselves. I'd love to get some minis, but I haven't bought a single pack because of this. I just don't want to have to buy 20+ boosters just to find the 4 goblins I need for tonight's adventure.

Really, it's good business. I know I'm not the only one that would buy minis for my games if I could buy a Goblin Raiders or Monstrous Spiders pack instead of a Random Monsters I Don't Need pack.

Just a thought...

I solved my mini, printer, paper money hole by buying a projector and a low setting table. Came out of 800 bucks (laptop, projector, blackout screen). I am no longer buying two ink cartridges a month, I always got the minis ineed a as a dm (digital minis) and I have an infinative amount of maps.

 

[frankthedm]

Most won't be worth painting, but sometimes swelling the ranks of the DM's monster minis means going with the next best thing. This time of year, that gets easier since a good amount of cheap Halloween favors will make decent minis.

Just today a $3 bag at a wallgreens netted me a lot of bugs including multiples of;

Some iffy looking plastic flies
Very good small sized plastic ants
very good small/medium plastic spiders
Decent medium rubber spider, that would have to have it's feet glued onto the base to fit
Very good, if flat, large red tinged rubber roach. It's antenna almost look like horns
Mediocre rubber centipede. Maybe wrapped around a column it could work.
Decent rubber pincer beetle with an extra set of legs
Decent huge rubber spider

Up at a Party City store I found a nice bag of Large bats with enough detail to hold a tabletop level repaint along with a bag of just barely large size rubber rats with noticable mold lines. Still the rats would look kinda nice with skaven riding them.

The huge snail is from wally world's toy isle.

Other recent finds were a bunch of glow in the dark tiny ants and flies at a Ma' & Pa' drug store. The ants will be used in a swarm base, the flies I want to convert into stirges. Also found a bag of cheap sea critters with some possibly salvageable crabs and stingrays. That store also had a boatload of plastic animals too numerous to note, and in the Halloween section they had two versions of huge rat toys that would work on the battlemat.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

The problem is that if you want to play the game with minis, you either have to spend way too much cash on do-it-yourself pewter and plastic minis and paint, or grab a D&D Minis booster and just pray that the minis you're after are in there. Which they won't be.

I, too, despise the random-minis box. I'd be more OK with it if they had randomized boxes for those that like 'em and non-randomized boxes for some of the major types of critters (goblins, skeletons, zombies, etc.) that you might encounter in large numbers.

Like was suggested earlier, yeah, the secondary market is probably the way to go if you're looking for specific minis.