Rpg's and miniatures

[Decado]

I really love using minis and my players seeme to as well. I do like to have the correct minis for the monsters or NPCs they are facing. The npcs are usually not too hard but the monsters can be tough to come by. What I try to do is have the exact (as possible) minis for the big important encounters and do the best I can with the less important encounters.

Decado

 

[Gunslinger]

Miniatures are great. My DM has about 400 of them. Picking a miniature that perfectly fits your character, then painting it is a rewarding experience. You instantly feel much more attached to it. Also minis of enemies make combat that much cooler. And of course complicated combat would be exteremely difficult without some sort of tokens used to denote PCs and enemies.

 

[Emiricol]

We use minis. Of course, a mini is as often made of paper at our group as it is of lead!

We don't bother with scenery and such though. Just a good battlemap and some washable markers.

 

[Valmyre]

Thanks to all those who responded.

We have never really used minis in our games over the years except for a few occasions. It was proposed to me by someone that the majority of gamers (60% or so) use minis in their games. That seemed kinda high to me, but then I can only draw from our own experience.

I would also think that of those who do use minis or whatever - only a small percentage would use buildings,etc. - that they would draw outlines or use battlemats.

 

[Voobaha]

miniatures loony

Miniatures. Got em, use em, flaunt em.

I've been using miniatures ever since I learned the game (20 yrs now) when the people who taught me used grenadier D&D figs and dominoes to represent dungeon walls.

I've used (and prefer) dry erase battlemats (hex and square) for speed and ease of play. I'm a miniature wargamer so I've got a huge closetfull of unpainted figures too.

I've used old Games Workship and Steve Jackson Games cardboard cut-out dungeon floors, and they're a really nice looking alternative to the battlemats. Oddly shaped rooms or encounters still have to be fudged using these, so a battlemat is more versatile.

I use HeroClix and a battlemat, as well as hundreds of cardboard heroes (by Steve Jackson and made on my inkjet printer) for superhero games.

I had a full set of Master Maze handpainted resin walls. These looked fantastic, but were expensive, harder to customize than the dungeon floors (especially for oddly shaped encounter areas), and time consuming to put together during play. The walls are kind of high and it's hard to get your fingers into crowded corridors without knocking over figures too. Plus, after spending $300, I could only make a small dungeon with them! I mostly used them for GW Mordheim Sewer battle wargames.

Ainsty (sp?) and a couple of other British companies make resin unpainted dungeon & sci-fi floor tiles with low walls so you can pick up your minis easily. They look good too. There's another US company that makes "pour your own" resin kits to mold your own massive numbers of dungeon wall/floor tiles. It's cheap, but you have to be ready to make lots of tiles and paint them up.

But enough of my rambling. Yes, I always use minis. I require players to listen to descriptions carefully to know what's going on in the encounters. I like the visual spectacle, but it's still secondary to the role playing aspect of the game.

I do use scenery, but only get fancy when the PCs are facing a really important foe in a battle that's a major turning point in the campaign. Makes things memorable.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Yep, minis. Love 'em, and the tactical options they provide when coupled with 3E's combat rules. I had never used minis in 1E, and wondered why combat was always so dull.

No terrain yet, except for a sketch on the battlemat in water-soluble marker. As the DM, I provide most of the minis -- I don't have a real extensive collection, though one of my players does -- so goblins often stand in for other beasts. I give extra XP if a player brings (more if painted!) a mini to represent a character, if not I just pull out a mini for that character for the session.

For the budget (or time) conscious, counters are a great option. I'm really impressed with the quality of some of the sets out there, and the prices are reasonable.

If you're one of those people out there who hasn't tried 3E with either minis or counters (and I doubt the 60% number using them; bet it's lower) -- you're missing out on some of the great opportunities inherent in the system.

 

[candidus_cogitens]

We used minis very seldom when we played 1e. Most of the time we used a cork board and some tacks.

Decado

This actually sounds like a pretty good idea. I still like minis though!

 

[candidus_cogitens]

Picking a miniature that perfectly fits your character, then painting it is a rewarding experience. You instantly feel much more attached to it.

Yeah, it definitely bonds you to the character, especially if you paint it yourself. It hurts when your PC dies right when you have finished painting a mini that you love! On the other hand, then you get to paint another mini!!!

 

[aNenuphar]

Yes, but do you really need to use minatures? My group is still experimenting with 3e (we've recently started what we hope will be a long (10+ year campaign - none of us are going anywhere)); we never used minatures under 2e (sorry, not old enough to remember 1e, though I have the books)).

Do you really need minatures? We've been able to get away without them so far, but we haven't had any really complicated battles.

Thanks.

 

[candidus_cogitens]

Yes, but do you really need to use minatures? My group is still experimenting with 3e (we've recently started what we hope will be a long (10+ year campaign - none of us are going anywhere)); we never used minatures under 2e (sorry, not old enough to remember 1e, though I have the books)).

Do you really need minatures? We've been able to get away without them so far, but we haven't had any really complicated battles.

Thanks.

You really need some type of visual aid, because certain things like flanking and attacks of opportunity are practically impossible otherwise.