Sell me on D&D Miniatures

[Mercule]

Okay, I'm finally pondering getting some minis. I've pretty much always used dice to represent things on the board. In fact, minis for PCs is a fairly new thing, even. I don't mind throwing down $20 on a double-handful of minis that'll actually see use, but I'm not sure what the odds of that are -- what with the randomized content and all.

Why should I buy D&D Minis?

What am I likely to find in a pack? We do a lot of humanoids because I run a city/civilization based campaign. There's the occasional ottyugh in the sewers, and gratuitous amounts of undead and fiends (corruption is a major trope). I don't need a bagful of beholders (they don't exist IMC) or anything of the sort. Is the selection skewed against me? For me?

What benefits come from using minis over dice or some such?

Go on, pimp away.

 

[kenobi65]

If you're not hugely fussy about the minis being an exact representation of the critters you're using, getting a few dozen probably isn't a bad idea. (You can probably get a bunch of commons for really cheap on eBay, if you hunt around.)

As far as the assortment...it's in your favor. Most of the common and uncommon minis are humanoid. The bizarro critters tend to be rare, anyway.

MerricB's got a great page, showing 'em all, and the rarities, so you can get a feel for what you might get:
http://www.3rdedition.org/merricb/mini.htm

I dunno that there's any true benefit from using minis vs. dice...but to me, it just feels a little more real when you can more easily visualize what you're up against.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Don't! If you enjoy having money and any self control...don't!

Even when you don't have money...you'll try to buy them...I still swear there's some kind of drug lining the packaging...

 

[maddman75]

- They're cheap. The things come out to something like $1.25 each.
- Decent selection. Yes, the ones I've gotten (not that many) are mostly humanoids. Orcs, elves, humans, dwarves, gnolls, etc. There's a few monsters too, but mostly humanoids.
- Decent looking. They aren't grand works of art, but they give a little more feeling than just using dice.
- Not a bad game. The D&D Mini game isn't a bad way to pass time waiting for folks to show up. I wouldn't ever get 'into' the game myself, but its another game to play. If you're getting them for playing D&D, the minis game is like a bonus.
- Stat cards. Mini game on one side, D&D on the other for every mini in your collection.
- With the starter kits you get some battle mats and terrain tiles, quite usable in D&D.
- If you have kids, nephews/nieces, cousins, or little ones about of some stripe, feel free to let them play with your D&D minis! They aren't going to hurt them a bit.
- While I'm on that subject, you can throw all of these in a box and lug them to your game rather than surrounding them in foam for transport.

 

[freebfrost]

Why should I buy D&D Minis?

The same reason that you use dice - to represent more realistically what actually is happening in the game.

When I started gaming, we didn't use anything to represent the PCs - no figures, no counters, no battlemap. And it was fine, just like your experience. However, now that we've moved on an using a battlemap, metal & plastic minis, and terrain & props - the game simply is at a much higher level.

Like handouts, or the DM using different voices and mannerisms for NPCs, the more detail you can provide your players, the more "realistic" the game becomes. The players will have a much stronger reaction if you put down orcs instead of d6s in front of them. They can *see* what they are up against, and that makes it that much more real in their minds.

Wait until you do the same thing with a giant! Or worse. (You should have seen the reaction I got when one of my groups encountered Demogorgon, and lo and behond, there was his figure!)

What am I likely to find in a pack? We do a lot of humanoids because I run a city/civilization based campaign. There's the occasional ottyugh in the sewers, and gratuitous amounts of undead and fiends (corruption is a major trope). I don't need a bagful of beholders (they don't exist IMC) or anything of the sort. Is the selection skewed against me? For me?

It varies. I like the minis themselves, and like to have complete collections, so my method of buying them is just buying cases. I don't recommend that for you!

However, I can recommend using eBay or other sites for trading like maxminis.com. You can get a good set of commons very cheaply, and only pay for the rares that you really have a need for at the same time.

 

[shaylon]

I like the D&D minis, although I also paint some.

Advantages
-I suck at painting, so they look great compared to what I can do.
-The commons are usually things you will find in most adventures. I have gotten many dwarves, elves, gnolls, kobolds, etc.
-Price. To me they are not too bad, especially if you look to the net. You can find opened package commons cheap on several sites, and boxes from Amazon, Overstock, and even Wal-Mart, are several dollars cheaper than retail.

Disadvantages
-Since you mentioned NPC's, I would mention that there seem to be few good representatives of NPC commoners in the sets. I have several City Guards, but you don't see farmer, or baker, or innkeep, or anything like that, if that is what you are looking for.
-Price. If you wind up wanting a cool rare, like the Half-Elf Bow Initiate, for example, you might buy and buy and buy until you get him, or you may spend 20 bucks on an Ebay auction for him. I was lucky and got him in my second or third pack, but I am still looking for that Dragon!
-Quality. If you are the type that is a really good painter of minis, or at least expects a great paint job, you may be disappointed. I think they are pretty good, definitely as good or better than I can do, but I have seen some skilled painters out there, and they have to look at them much in the same way that they look at mine.

Hope this helps...
-Shay

 

[Kaji]

I started buying several packs, and got plenty of humanoids to represent enemy hordes. They look decent as stated, not incredible. I mostly buy exactly what I want on e-bay these days, although the devils and demons are pretty pricey, and of course, the dragons.

I also ended up with several minis that were not very interesting to me, or duplicates I did not want. These got bundled as Christmas/birthday presents for my friends kids and my neices and nephews, and they were a pretty big hit. You can also sell them pretty readily on e-bay, there is a thriving market there.

 

[Testament]

I love them, loads of undead available, not quite enough evil outsiders, but heaps (and I mean heaps) of Orcs and generic warrior types.

Heck, I'll plug it to, get over to www.maxminis.com and take a look around. Beware CG!

 

[Davelozzi]

For me, D&D minis have definately been worth it, as they've allowed me to build up a large selection of monsters, and now I don't mind buying and painting metal minis for a big encounter, or to fill the holes in my collection. Before D&D Minis, I would go through phases of trying to collect and pain minis when I started a campaign, but I'd quickly give up becaue it was too time consuming to get enough minis to actually play with. So ironically, buying D&D minis has led to me buying more metal minis too.

At any rate, well it's true that overall the distribution is pretty good (as kenobi65 said, the more common ones are humaniods and others you'll probably use more). But you can't expect to just buy a couple packs and have a good selection. I started out buying a pack a week every week or so, and that worked pretty good. Now I've switched to buying a case per release instead, which works out about the same in quantity, but saves me some money. Plus, if internet wisdom can be relied upon, it usually results in a better selection (as there is generally a somewhat even distribution within cases).

You could certainly get away with buying a lot less than I do, but I'd say you probably need to be willing to buy around 20 packs or so if you're looking for a pretty good selection of the usual suspects.

Of course, what kind of game you run will matter too. You're much better off if you like a lot of the classic monsters from the Monster Manual than say if you were running the Shackled City adventure path from Dungeon, which relies heavily upon creatures from the MM2 and Fiend Folio.

 

[Wormwood]

I haven't been in a steady game since my regular group broke up last year. I honestly doubt that I'll ever play D&D again.

But I buy a booster pack every week. I have no idea why, but I think they're just cool.

(okay, I'm not so much seleling as confessing)