Using 3.5 to sell minis, or using minis to sell 3.5?

[John Crichton]

I'm on the boat that says they are trying to help each other. Miniatures will help sell some books and the books with help sell some miniatures. The only thing that is hurt is my wallet.

I was wondering the same thing about the next edition of D&D and miniatures. Eventually, WotC will run out of new miniatures that people are really interested in. There are only so many that people will buy before people either have all they want or simply don't want to spend and more money on the miniatures. I can see them resorting to similar figures with different poses, paint jobs and the such when this happens.

Additionally, the next edition may or may not suffer from the miniature sales. Assuming all the basics of class are still there and the monsters don't change there will be no reason to create new miniatures. I'm sure WotC could continue to sell the same core set for years and hope that holds people's attention but that doesn't seem to the direction they will stay with for, say 10 years down the road. It will be interesting to see if the miniature sales lead to other things like selling dungeon elements like WizKids has done with their Mage Knight Dungeons line or maybe even branching into inexpensive customizable 3D dungeons (a la Mastermaze by Dwarvenforge).

It's all good to me as long as the D&D license is going strong and still fully supported.

 

[the Jester]

Well, I love the new minis- some of you (like arcady) may prefer to paint your own, but I'd rather spend my prep time designing npcs, encounters, etc. for the characters to encounter. One thing the new minis have inspired is a tendency for me to build encounters around the minis I've gotten- thus, yesterday they fought first an ogre and then an ogre zombie (cuz I got an ogre mini), they've battled my collection of orcs, etc.

 

[trancejeremy]

At first I thought the D&D minis were aimed at capturing the Mage Knight market.

But after getting an entry box, I dunno. The rules are really really complicated for a mainstream mini game - they're almost exactly like D&D. The only real simplication seems to be in damage, instead of rolling, it just does a set amount in multiples of 5. (and conversely, there are complications, like morale, command, and rolling initiative every turn)

And there's a ton of record keeping - why didn't they laminate the stat cards so people would write on them with a crayon or something?

So it's definitely got none of the advantages of MK - it's not quick, not easy, and has lots of record keeping. So they must be going after D&D players after all. While I'm not saying the "Skirmish" game is unplayable, it's not beer & pretzels stuff

 

[applenerd]

Personally I'm with the Jester. I just have never been able to get into painting minis. It takes enough time having a job and DMing a weekly (most of the time) game. I love the wotc minis but have decided to wait until I can buy individuals at my flgs. One of my players loves painting however quite a bit. He says he'll pass on the wotc minis and probably stick to the silvers. Whatever happens I hope that he minis are good for dnd and bring in some new players.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I used to play Warhammer, and I'm kinda interested in playing some sort of skirmish game again. That said, the main advantage I can see of the mini's is that they come prepainted! I used to hate painting mini's, and basically my Warhammer forces were never done.

These new D&D mini's are a godsend. Now, if only I had some spare cash to actually spend on them!

 

[megamania]

I figured it to a means to get Magers to look at RPG. This may be in responce to their Dungeon series that steps a bit into Role Players area.

Personally, I'm enjoying both. Everyone wins.

 

[thalmin]

And there's a ton of record keeping - why didn't they laminate the stat cards so people would write on them with a crayon or something?

I don't know the costs of laminating, but at least the cards fit into the card protectors so popular with the ccg players.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Hmmm, the miniatures are definetly selling better at my FLGS than I would have expected. I still haven't bought any, and it's not likely that I will, for the same reason that I don't buy collectable card games - I hate random packaging.

Plus I happen to like painting figures, and do a better job than the mass produced shemes that Harbringer is using. Also the detail is slightly lacking compared to say Reaper.

I don't know how the cross sales are working, I believe most of the sets have been bought for D&D. On the other hand the store sold out of starters, so it is quite possible that I am wrong.

The Auld Grump

 

[applenerd]

Anyone work in a game shop/hang out in one quite a bit and get a chance to talk to anyone who has bought mini's and then decided to buy some core books or have any other sort of evidence that there is some sort of cross pollination going on here?

 

[Glyfair]

I think there is a bigger market among D&D players for potential minis players, just because I think there's more D&Ders than Wargamers.

That may be true. However, it seems that miniature players spend a lot more money, as a group, than roleplayers (http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/2489.html). Indeed, it's about five times as much.

That's a problem WotC has. It doesn't matter how many people play the game, if you aren't making any money or enough money from those players.