Monster Stand-Ins vs. other products

[InkwellIdeas]

Last Monday, I announced my new Kickstarter: Monster Stand-Ins
Link: Monster Stand-Ins (Plastic Card Miniatures) Kickstarter

There was a lot of planning that went into it, and I commissioned and paid for the logo and over 10 sample images over the past month or two. I also had a plastic card printer print 100 samples of a few of the sample monsters.

Then today I saw the announcement of Paizo's Bestiary Box, which I think was also announced last week.

Here are the differences as best as I can see:
Monster Stand-Ins are over 150 creatures printed on credit card plastic for durability and dry-erasability. (Mark hits taken, conditions, "Kobold #7" whatever, right on the card.) 1 set costs $30 and will include a pdf to print more yourself. The hope is to do another set or two with over 150 more in each set to cover an even larger range of creatures. I am working with a number of very good artists, so I expect the quality to be high end. You can see the samples on the Kickstarter page linked above. There is also an optional organizer box for $10 extra.

Paizo's Bestiary Box has over 300 cardboard minis for $35. They include a pdf to subscribers. They will have the same great art (or maybe/likely some new art or the same quality)

I'm still finalizing the stands I'll include in Monster Stand-Ins, but I expect there will be a combination of a simpler stand mechanism (described on the project's updates page) and some standard board game plastic game piece stands with 2" and 3" (or so) discs for larger creatures.

So given all that, is there a place for two similar products around the same time? Is there enough of a difference? Will people want variety and consider getting both? (Say each set contains 4-6 kobolds... well, often you need 10-12, so getting both lets you get 10-12 that are all different looking.)

Since it is Kickstarter, my questions will be partly answered by the Kickstarter model/process, but I'd like to get opinions. Thanks!

 

[Voadam]

The more the merrier.

There are already a ton of PDF type things like this, Steve Jackson Games made Cardboard Heroes years ago, WotC made plastic minis and then the lay flat card tokens in Monster Vault, etc.

As a consumer having options and variety is a good thing.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

The more the merrier may be right, but right now your product is roughly $30 for 150 pawns and Paizo's is $35 for over 300.

The Paizo pawns are a proven product, in demand based on their appearance in the Beginner Box. They are releasing almost the entirety of their Bestiary in that pawn box probably using the same art from the book.

Honestly I'd focus on doing sets of monsters that appear in large numbers like the aforementioned Kobolds. Having them with different weapons and such. A group of differently posed/armed Orcs, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Kobolds, Gnolls etc.

A set of Dragons of different sizes and ages...

Now THAT sort of thing I could get behind and have no problems purchasing ALONGSIDE something like the Bestiary Pawn box. They would pretty much compliment each other perfectly.

 

[IronWolf]

Honestly I'd focus on doing sets of monsters that appear in large numbers like the aforementioned Kobolds. Having them with different weapons and such. A group of differently posed/armed Orcs, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Kobolds, Gnolls etc.

I tend to agree with this. There is quite likely room for both products, but Paizo has the advantage of very good art and their price very reasonable for the box they are putting out.

Now I do like your idea of making them plastic so I can write on them or mark them with a marker. That could prove useful. Not sure if it is enough though.

Specialize a bit and provide a GM with an easy way to get large numbers of common creatures though is a nice niche as well.

 

[InkwellIdeas]

Thanks for the feedback so far! Keep it coming. I'm looking into ways I can double the number of skeletons, kobolds, orcs, zombies, etc. (I had planned to do 4 different of each, now I'll try for 8) as well as the number of trolls, ogres, gnolls, etc. (I had planned to do 2, now we'll try for 4 each.)

 

[Mark CMG]

The timing of the Paizo announcement does suck for this project. Hopefully you can be agile enough to adjust to their market dominance. I think the ideas above might be on the right path. The plastic rather than cardboard situation helps in some ways, particularly in regard to multiple creature of the same type/kind. The variety of artists is also a strength in many ways. You might contact Paizo and see if they'd work with you to find ways not to overlap on your lists too much.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

I prefer the stability of plastic over cardboard, and think that the stand option #2 is the way to go {X-style bases}, mainly as that stores better flat.


My major concern with miniatures and 'pawns' is the lack of large numbers of similar critters. I am currently running the War of the Burning Sky and in the next major encounter will have... oh, 60ish humans, 60ish nightmares, 1 Elder, and a colossus... I have two sets of D6, one black and one red, that I have used to fill out the battlemap.. I would much rather have a battle set of humans and undead and devils and demons, etc...I have considered getting warhammer sets just for this, but that is too expensive.

As noted on a previous thread somewhere, it might be better to do stereotypes instead of individual critters. After all, a human fighter looks alot like a elvish fighter and a Ogre and Ogre Magi are alot the same. With the ability to put dry-erase a name at the top, the actual picture just has to be close.

Right now I often have to use completely different monsters for what is really there.


and I just thought of this while typing... you could do adventure sets for published campaigns! I would love a set for the War of the Burning Sky that includes Trilliths, Inquisitors, Ragesians, Shahalestians, etc.

I can't speak for them, but [MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION] and [MENTION=63]RangerWickett[/MENTION] might be willing to talk to you about that. After all, I haven't spent enough money on that campaign yet