Players: Do You Buy Your Own Miniatures?

[blargney the second]

I love minis! I have about 1500 DDM figures, so I can cover the vast majority of the mini needs of any of our tables for PCs or monsters. Sometimes I gift players a mini, other times I just loan them. Relatively few have ever bought one for themselves.

Despite all that, last weekend marked my first foray into painting metal figures. My girlfriend and I spent Saturday afternoon learning to paint from a buddy of ours who is heavily into Warhammer and really really good. I had so much fun that I spent the better part of an hour on Thursday going through racks of Reaper minis to find a pair of figures for our Pathfinder Society characters. I can't wait to paint them up.
-blarg

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Absolutely. I'm the one with the minis, so I bring them for everyone whether I'm the DM or a player.

AR

 

[Lord Mhoram]

I've never purchased a mini in my life, as Player or GM.

I use coins, glass beads or whatnot to represent stuff when I run.

For use the bead/coin etc. doesn't represent the character, it represents where the character is on the map - a small distinction, but it means we never lose suspension of disbelief from lacking a mini.

To be honest, when I run, I don't allow minis to be used - I prefer all location representations to be of one type (beads, coins whatnot).

 

[fba827]

I haven't bought my own. But there is one person in the group who enjoys minis so has a good collection that he is gracious enough to share with everyone. So we all use his.

Note: He already had his collection long before our group came around so on one is asking or forcing him to buy minis. It's just an interest/collection of his own that he is kind enough to share.

If he didn't have the minis? we'd probably just use coins unless someone was feeling an itch to get their own mini.

 

[Gilladian]

I have a largish (500+) collection of painted metal minis; I stopped collecting probably 8-10 years ago, when the mini sizes started changing dramatically. Mine are all "true 25mm", mostly ral partha and grenadier, etc...

Anyway, they're all painted. As I'm usually the DM, and we play at my house, I supply the minis for the group. At the beginning of the campaign, they select their mini, and it goes on the shelf with the rest of the in-use minis.

(I forgot; in this game one player has brought his own mini, but it is unpainted, so he usually borrows one of mine "until he gets his painted").

For monsters and NPCs, I tend to use plastic toys, plastic markers, cardboard markers, etc... whatever is handy and close to the right size. Once in a while I make something unique out of clay, just for fun...like a kraken.

 

[Mark]

Players who buy their own prepainted mini for use in my game are assured that the first week they use that mini their character will not die. Those who have a painted mini, get two weeks assurance.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Slight swithc off...

Mega Minis makes true 25mm.

The Lord of the Ring figures are essentially 25mm.

Iron Wind Metals does the old Ral Partha stuff.

Militron does the old Grenadier stuff.

If you're ever looking to expand the old 25mm, there's hope yet.

I have a largish (500+) collection of painted metal minis; I stopped collecting probably 8-10 years ago, when the mini sizes started changing dramatically. Mine are all "true 25mm", mostly ral partha and grenadier, etc...

Anyway, they're all painted. As I'm usually the DM, and we play at my house, I supply the minis for the group. At the beginning of the campaign, they select their mini, and it goes on the shelf with the rest of the in-use minis.

(I forgot; in this game one player has brought his own mini, but it is unpainted, so he usually borrows one of mine "until he gets his painted").

For monsters and NPCs, I tend to use plastic toys, plastic markers, cardboard markers, etc... whatever is handy and close to the right size. Once in a while I make something unique out of clay, just for fun...like a kraken.

 

[Renshai]

I purchase and paint miniatures for my player's characters.

 

[op1983]

I like miniatures but I'm justas happy using colored beads on an erasable board if position on the battlefield is so important.

 

[Drkfathr1]

When I play, I prefer to provide my own mini, and usually do.

As a DM, out of 8 players, only 3 have provided their own mini (and 1 of those was my wife!). I end up buying the rest. My wife and I also end up painting everyone else's figures, which we enjoy doing.

Not sure if its a matter of money or general apathy about what they use for their figure. Considering they could get cheap pre-painted figures for .20 or so, and metal figures for about $4 or less, I hope its not about money.

They love using the minis, and especially enjoy seeing the monster minis, but man, it gets expensive and sure would be nice to have the group pitch-in on some of those expenses.