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

[3catcircus]

Well - I like the fact that they are relatively cheap and already painted. That having been said - I despise that they are random.

As can be seen in just this small random poll, the majority of us use them for our D&D campaigns. I don't *want* a "Snig the Axe" or a "Half-Orc Monk," dammit - I want a horde of zombies, or a goblin warband, or Riders of Nesme - or... or...

Basically - I don't let the mini's decide what the encounters will be, I decide what encounters will consist of and then use the mini's that are appropriate, making substitutions as necessary (i.e. using zombies to represent neddlemen in a recent encounter.)

I wouldn't even mind the randomization if the monsters had a rarity based upon the MM1/MM2/FF's rarity (i.e. Carrion Crawlers, Vrocks, Ogres and Troglodytes would be common, Ochre Jelly and Trolls would be uncommon, etc.)

 

[Shin Okada]

*What do you use your D&D Miniatures for?

For playing DDM Skirmish game and for playing D&D RPG.

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

Hmm. It is very difficult to estimate. I own about 800-1000 minis I guess. I guess 60%-70% of my minis are in my "maybe usable for constructing warbands" boxes. And most others are in my "not good for skirmish, but maybe usable for D&D RPG" boxes. And 30-40 minis are in my "trading goods" box.

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

Before I bought the first starter, I did not know much about DDM Skirmish Game (of course). So I have been thinking "Yeah, new skirmish game. Maybe not bad. But even if that is bad, I can still use them in my DnD sessions". But after I have opened the set and tried first few games, I have found that DDM is the best skirmish miniature game ever made. So now I am playing DDM Skirmish intensively. And using them for D&D sessions either.

Now my impression on this product line. I have been using metal (and some plastic) miniatures for playing DnD for about 20 years. I like to paint minis. And I do play other miniature games such as Warhammer.

Of course, most metal minis have finer detail. And hand-painted minis look better than pre-painted D&D minis. Still, I found this product line is very useful for playing D&D RPG.

First of all, though I have 500+ hand-painted minis, my collection is still not perfect. I never had that many Kuo-Toas, Drows and such. And by purchasing DDM, I got some monsters which I did not have, such as Carrion Crawler, Shambling Mound, Xill, and such.

Unpainted metal/plastic minis took much time to prepare. So plentiful of already painted minis never too much even for a metal miniature lover.

And, PVC minis are tough! This is very important when you play not in home, especially with the boys and girls you have first met. I have DMed in a hobby store convention last week. It was a very good thing that I did not need to worry about those lads ruining my minis.

And PVC minis are light and easy to carry with. The shop is an hour from my house. I have brought all the PC minis, and 30+ monsters who appears in the adventure, 3 core rulebooks, dice and other tools, all in a single backpack!

I love this product line.

*edit

Oh by the way. I have used Sage as a village old man in the session. Also, I am planning to use Human Commoners as Nerull cultists, under command of Cleric of Nerull.

 

[smetzger]

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"

If you are patient and persistent you can get good deals on ebay. The other tactic is to buy one box for every rare that you want and then trade, this will be more and more viable as the Uncommon and Commons get better and better.

 

[KB9JMQ]

I will use them mostly for regular gaming when I get started again soon.
A game I play in they get used alot ie, orcs, goblins, bugbears various NPCs.

Right now my wife and 5 year old play a modified mini game.
Basically we pick a point value and you can pick any mini's you want up to that value and play a skirmish.
My son loves this, and his favorite so far is the Vrock.

We got into the mini's addiction after demo a couple of games at GenCon last year. My wife and I love them and can't get enough.

IMHO they are very cheap considering I don't have the time nor inclination to paint. I will continue to get these. Anything that helps bring my son over to the gaming side I like.

 

[CaffeineBoy]

--What do you use your D&D Miniatures for?

For D&D RPG exclusively.

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

I have probably used 45-55% of what I own in play. I have the luxury of DMing a group of 10-11 year olds who are just getting into the game, so I can throw at them all sorts of strange monsters I would never use in my "grown-up" D&D game. Random monsters are fun for them. They don't want to think deeply about dungeon ecology. They want to kill and loot, rinse and repeat.

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

Exactly the same. I haven't even read the skirmish game rules.


For a little background, like Shin Okuda, I have been using metal and GW plastic minis for both Warhammer and D&D since I first got into gaming about 25 years ago. I also like to paint minis, and have a fair stock of lovingly finished minis accumulated over the last 5-10 years (previous collection got lost in my last big cross-country move in '91).

Hand-painted minis are infinitely more satisfying and much better looking than the bendy plastic D&D stuff. There's no comparison.

HOWEVER, the amount of time I have to spend painting them (nil), their relative cost effectiveness, and their incredible durability make WotC's minis worth their weight in gold pieces. Like I said, I'm currently DMing for a group of kids who, in their first game, decided quite unconsciously to completely destroy the miniatures I had let them use. Now, admittedly this was more my fault than theirs. What kind of idiot entrusts his brilliantly painted minis to eight-year-olds? Me. Doh! D&D PVC minis have saved my sanity and allowed me to introduce my son and his friends to a game that has given me 25 years of entertainment. There is no higher praise.

And since I started buying them, I have come to actually appreciate some of the sculpts. I wish there were pewter versions of them I could paint to my own satisfaction, but I'm more than happy to use some of these plastic guys. The kids can't destroy them, and I end up with passibly painted versions of monsters I would never even buy, let alone paint. I say WotC, keep 'em comin'.

 

[smetzger]

RPG Only.

I have lots of lead minis from the 80s, but only about 5-10% are painted. The paint jobs and sculpts are getting better, I can let my 5 yr old boy play with them, there easy to transport, and their cost is relatively cheap.

So, do I wish they weren't random? Sure, but I'll trade, and use ebay and other places to get exactly what I want.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Our group uses them for table top d&d...

My husband and I buy minis buy the shoe-full because we just love painting. If I didn't use them for D&D, I would still buy them just for joy of painting...

 

[erian_7]

RPG exclusively, and bought for that purpose. I'd play the skirmish game if anyone were interested (but they're not...).

There's a good chance I'll use just about every mini at some point (I've got full sets for Harbinger, Dragoneye, and Archfiends). Snig the Axe makes a great "boss" monster vs. a low-level party, for instance. The Crested Felldrakes? Baby dragons, of course!'

I haven't found the random aspect to be a problem, as I've been able to sell (eBay) or trade (MaxMinis.com) almost every mini I didn't want. I've built up multiples of the common RPG monsters (8 zombies, 8 kobold warriors, etc.) with fewer of the less common (4 wild elf barbarians, 2 umber hulks, etc.). I've gotten pretty much everything I wanted with little trouble or effort, and at considerably less than I would have paid for metal figs.

The sculpts are definitely improving, although even the first run had really good figs (the ogre, displacer beast, minotaur, and umber hulk, for instance--even some of the smaller ones like the lizard folk and werewolf). The paint jobs are generally fair to good (and better than the color of most of my minis before that--pewter gray).

Great product. Try it, you'll like it.

Eric

 

[Gizzard]

I have maybe four big handfuls of D&D minis. (How else to measure such mass-produced things than by the handful? Like toy soldiers. ;-)

I bought certain ones, such as 10 Kuo-Toa as singles to use as default medium bad guys. The Kuo-Toa have gotten used in every session. Various other guys, such as the Dalelands Archer or the Gray Ranger get used a lot because they have bows. Five of the PCs use the D&D minis as characters, the sixth is a halfling and all the D&D minis halflings are horrible so he uses an old metal mini.

BTW, the things that haven't gotten used a lot are some of my favorite figures, the Bone Devil and the Aspect of Orcus. It think that the grunt D&D minis are more generally useful.

Anyway, this is about how I expected to use the D&D minis. I ended up buying slightly more than I expected, just because I think its fun to open boxes full of toys. ;-)

 

[ForceUser]

What do you use your D&D Miniatures for?

I use the miniatures only to play D&D. I don't play the skirmish game.

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

Some will be used more than others, though I find myself gravitating toward writing scenarios with the minis in mind. I figure that if I continue to play D&D for the next ten years I'll eventually get through all of them. Some minis, of course, are more commonly used than others due to the content of the various campaigns we play in. The most commonly used minis right now, not surprisingly, are the various humanoids and the giants.

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

I bought to use for D&D. So yes.

I own about 750 minis from all three sets right now, and no doubt I'll buy more. I bought roughly 75% of them at my FLGS and the rest through eBay.