What do you use D&D minis for and why do you buy them?

[Li Shenron]

You can answer this poll only if you purchased minis from the D&D line.
Multiple answers allowed. The following questions don't apply to minis from other lines.

What do you use your D&D Miniatures for?
How many of them do you really use, compared to how many you have (%)?
Do you use them for the same reason that you bought them in the first place, or has it changed after buying?
These questions are interesting to me, and they should deserve separate polls; for the moment, I'll post the first question only, but you can answer to all of them in your comment

I would like to know more bout this subject, because I haven't decided yet if I want to purchase some of them or none at all. Overall I think they are nice and cheap, but the only reason why I would like to have some is our tabletop RPG gaming, not the miniature game for example. The collecting aspect is also of no interest to me.

I want to know especially how much of the minis you have you are actually using in RPG, because I cannot sort out why the figures were given their current rarity rates. There are many minis which to me would have absolutely no use IMC but they are common, and I expect to find lots of Human Commoners, Snig the Axe or Crested Felldrakes which I would never use and have never seen in any game (how often do you fight commoners?). I also don't understand why PC figures should be common or uncommon, since there is nothing useful having two PC that look the same. The problem is probably that WotC has to "keep a foot in two shoes" by both supporting the miniature game AND the RPG use, but my current idea is that the RPG use is not supported much effectively by the mini lines.

Probably at the end I will just buy a few from the secondary market, but a pity is that some monsters that are very common in every D&D setting (Ogres, Dragons, Giant Spiders for example) they can be bought only at extorsionate prices because they are "rare and cool"

In any case, let's go to the poll...

 

[MerricB]

Just a note: Ogres are likely to be uncommon in an upcoming set. Their rarity was entirely due to packaging concerns which mean only rare figures could be large. Wizards have now developed the technology to pack large uncommons, and Mike Donais has hinted that there may be a set where one of the uncommons in each booster is guaranteed to be large.

What do you use your D&D Miniatures for?

I use the miniatures both for the D&D RPG and for the Skirmish game; primarily the Skirmish game at this stage, though this may change.

How many of them do you really use, compared to how many you have (%)?

A difficult question. Let's say 10%... at present. However, having certain miniatures makes it more likely that I will use the monsters they represent in future encounters, just like a monsters existence in a monster book you've just bought makes it more likely you'll use it!

Do you use them for the same reason that you bought them in the first place, or has it changed after buying?

Hasn't changed much. I'm disappointed I haven't used them more, but that's largely due to the fact that I haven't been DMing much, and in Ballarat, the skirmish scene is very small indeed.

Li Shenron, I'm about to make a list of the figures I have for you and post it on my site (as you requested in my Guestbook). Almost all the figures I've obtained have been through buying packs. I've got a few singles very cheaply at my FLGS, and I've traded about five or six figures... but that's it. The list should give you a good idea of what the distribution of figures can be like.

The miniature line is definitely weighted towards the evil alignments, so lots of monsters turn up. For a RPG player, "Snig the Axe" is just another goblin.

Cheers!

 

[Li Shenron]

Who else would have been more qualified to be the first poster if not MerricB?

For a RPG player, "Snig the Axe" is just another goblin.

Ok, it looked like a little pig-man at first sight

 

[fnork de sporg]

I would have to agree with the idea that having a number of minatures for monsters you normally never use will go a long way towards getting you to use those monsters in your game. I know I would never have though of making my party fight avatars or aspects of Orcus, Demogorgon, or Loth if I didn't already have the minis for them.

Or a half-orc monk. Or a goblin with a great axe. Or a crested felldrake. Or whatever.

I mean is there really any reason you haven't ever used a Crested Felldrake? Or did it just never come up? Well, now it has.

 

[Silver Moon]

I checked the first box, although the real answer is that collecting miniatures is a bit of an addiction.

Part of it is because I just love to play with toys (yes, I am one of the people who bought the little plastic "200 Revolutionary War Soldiers" and the "300 Roman soldiers" from the ads back in the 1970's comic books).

Part is because I really love large scale miniatures battles, tossing in at least least one 200+ monsters battles as the climax of most modules.

Part is because when I see a mini I want I buy it. I still have over 100 unpainted minis from the GenCon I went to a decade ago and at least 200 unpainted minis that I bought on EBay.

And the last part is because in a way they represent the elusive "free time" that I hope to someday find to just sit down and paint.

Oh well, as long as my wife tolerates this hobby I guess I'll probably continue it.

 

[MerricB]

The first part of my list of miniatures is up - Elementals, Outsiders and Undead.

http://www.3rdedition.org/merricb/musings/

Incidentally, I have used the Human Commoners in the RPG (and a lot of them). How? As Zombies. I didn't have quite enough normal Zombies and the Commoners made fine stand-ins.

Cheers!

 

[Karanov]

I don't buy D&D miniatures because they're awful. They are only marginally better than something you'd find in a Happy Meal or somesuch. They're crap. Besides that I don't really like to push miniatures around in RPGs. I already play Warhammer, which is enough miniature pushing for me. And even if I was using miniatures in a RPG then I'd buy some quality stuff, not this low quality, badly painted randomly packaged plastic stuff.

WotC can put those miniatures where the sun doesn't shine if you ask me.

Don't mind me... I'm not in the best of moods while writing this

 

[diaglo]

my hat for the WotC minis knows no limits lousy paint jobs, stupid random nature of the sales, improper scaling, too expensive for the mold material, etc...


i do, however, love my other minis. lead minis. i have thousands of them.

% i use nowadays... 0.12%

 

[JDJarvis]

I use those new fangled D&D minis with my regular D&D games.
I haven't bought any myself since I already have a huge collection of miniatures but folks have given me some as gifts.
% new D&D figures whem the rest of my lead, pewter and plastic hordes are considered is well under 1%.
I get the most use out of the more unique monsters and the PC-like figures.

 

[Creamsteak]

So far I use them for the RPG purpose, but I'm fairly certain that if I only sold a few more rares I'd be turning a profit off these. (LGS has no idea I bought mine by the case)