WotC Discontinues Minis: How Much Does It Affect You?

[arbados]

Yes, I have over 2000 minis, but it still doesn't mean that I wont miss the DDM line. It was great to always see what new monsters they would throw in a set. About 10 years ago playing without minis was fine. We used homemade pogs and such and all was great. However, once minis were put down on the table there could never be any turning back. While the pewter minis are beautiful they are just to hard to paint and get massive amounts of. Yes painting 1 gorgeous female elf pc is fun, but needing to paint 30 goblins and orcs for a couple of encounters is not as exciting. Buying 30 prepainted common goblins and orcs for about 40 cents each is quite the deal and time saver. I will miss the line, but I wont feel any drastic effect until many, many years have passed. At that time I may feel a need for some new monsters to share in a game after using many of what I have.

The truth is that it eventually was going to end. Many long time collector's were saturated with minis and did not feel the need to purchase in mass as they did before. I am sure sales dropped dramatically and thus the end of the line. I couln't even imagine playing D & D without minis now. And yes I started playing when all we had was our imagination and I as DM decided whether you were in the area of effect of the fireball (not the minis location compared to the fireball template which is now placed down on the table)!! Those were the days my friends, but times change and we must keep pace or fall by the wayside!

 

[Herschel]

There's no methodone for minis.

I'm in trouble.

 

[Khairn]

WotC's mini's had become a key element in my games, and was one of the few products I still bought from WotC on a regular basis. With them gone, the only other WotC product that has any value for my games would be the tiles.

So I guess you could say that the decision has made WotC even less relevant for me and my players.

Of course, YMMV.

 

[Diamond Cross]

I've never really used minis, even with 3.5e.

 

[Stormonu]

It's sad. I also wonder what newer players are going to use for physical representation. I really enjoy the look and feel of the minis.

It looks like counters from the Monster Vault series will be the way forward from here.

 

[Argyle King]

So... I was sitting down with a friend of mine earlier who had purchased the D&D board game. The minis which come with it seem very similar to Descent minis. Not saying that's bad; it's just odd how similar... I found myself curious if perhaps some of the same molds were used. In particular, the dragon mini seems very similar to the Descent dragon, but with a slightly different base.

 

[shadzar]

So... I was sitting down with a friend of mine earlier who had purchased the D&D board game. The minis which come with it seem very similar to Descent minis. Not saying that's bad; it's just odd how similar... I found myself curious if perhaps some of the same molds were used. In particular, the dragon mini seems very similar to the Descent dragon, but with a slightly different base.

Check boardgamegeek.com and look at both games as they should have images of the minis for both if available.

 

[Argyle King]

I was mistaken about the dragon I think. It had been a while since I had a close look at Descent. The style of the pieces seems somewhat similar, but they are not the same.

I apologize ahead of time for the length of the links...


Here's a link which will show one of the Descent dragons: Google Image Result for http://www.majhost.com/gallery/MK-Ultra71/BGG/Alan/descent06.jpg


The Ravenloft Board Game Dragon: Google Image Result for http://castlesandcooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/IMG00069-20101008-1557.jpg

Descent: Google Image Result for http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3538/3673651175_1640559e29.jpg

D&D: Google Image Result for http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic789657_md.jpg


Both are around the same price; I think at one time Descent was more, but it's an older game now. Ravenloft comes with 40 minis and card stock dungeon tiles. Descent has 80, and uses the dungeon parts that can be seen in the pictures of the game. While D&D has less minis, I'm going to hazard a guess that they are a little more diverse (I have only passing experience with the game.) While Descent does have more, a lot of them are the same figures over and over again; also, Descent pieces aren't all perfectly square/round like D&D minis are. For example; without getting it out and looking, I think the Descent dragon has a 2 by 3 base.


The point?

If you're looking for D&D style minis -and don't want to buy minis from other sources- you can find some in the D&D games. If you want minis, and aren't concerned with a lot of variety (let's say you need a lot of one type for minions or whatever,) it might behoove you to pick up a box of Descent. With a little paint, Descent figures (and I imagine the Ravenloft ones as well) can turn out pretty nice.



edit: I'm not sure if the first link is working. It doesn't seem to be for me.

 

[GQuail]

I personally haven't bought D&D figures for a while - partly because the cost went up round about the time of the 4th Ed conversion and I could no longer justify them - but I'm still sad to hear they are gone. I used them from time to time in my D&D game (mainly for the bigger battles, the set pieces and the boss fights) and even if there wasn't an exact match a field of pretty figures did have it's bonuses.

Even as someone with a back catalogue of figures from Games Workshop games and various other boardgames, I really liked being able to buy pre-painted RPG figures and the little stat cards occasionally had some gems in them. They were also just pretty, sometimes: for comparison I still get HeroClix from time to time even though I don't play Heroclix purely because I think the little superhero figures look nice.

The move to non-random was long requested and we finally got player packs, but I can't help but feel that it was poorly handled. Merric's Law applied, of course, to push the cost up; the powers in the player packs, while supposed to be an incentive to buy, were seen by some as another sign of The End Times; core monster packs remained elusive so stocking up on skeletons or kobolds still required trawling ebay; and when they did release a monster pack in the form of the Beholder box (one of the classic D&D monsters whose price on the secondary market was absurd) the cost was still high enough to make ebay seem preferable.

That said, the "one visible miniature" packs were quite cool of late - with the visible miniature often being the kind which were crazy rare and unobtainable before, it was no longer impossible to own a major devil or demon D&D figure. The release of the Beholder monster pack and the giant Orcus did show they were tinkering with the format. And the player packs, while a bit too pricey for me, did let players buy just one thing to get their figure of choice. Add in happy memories about getting my hands on a Beholder Lich, reading the Goblin Picardor stat card and dropping my Aspect of Tiamat or Gargantuan Black Dragon on the table and overall I will miss D&D miniatures.

 

[Zhaleskra]

I like miniatures a little bit. Prepainted takes some of the fun out of them for me. Then again, I haven't purchased a miniature in years. They're a nice visual aid, but not strictly necessary in my opinion.