Your WotC spending: More on Minis or Books?

[Zappo]

I haven't bought any WotC mini, and I most likely never will. I don't feel that any version of D&D requires the use of minis really.

 

[Buttercup]

From what I understand, the miniatures are doing well enough that they pretty much are driving the rpg car over at wizards (i.e., new rules/options that would not work well in conjunction with the miniatures game or with miniatures in general get the boot). I'm not suggesting that's a good thing or a bad thing. Well, OK, it's probably a bad thing for D&D, but not necessarily a bad thing for D&D. It might be a very good thing for WotC, business wise, which is why they'd do it.

Unless all the D20 companies out there start thinking in the same way, I guess I don't much care. Perhaps this is short sighted of me? At any rate, if official D&D morphs into a skirmish game in which I have no interest, then I'll just continue to buy Necromancer and Green Ronin stuff, as well as the several other publishers who put out titles that I find interesting, and go on my merry way. Heck, even if every D20 publisher turned toward the skirmish game, I'd be ok. I've got enough d20 stuff to last a lifetime right now, between all the books I've purchased and my imagination.

 

[DaveMage]

i have thousands of minis.... from the early days til today.

i have hundreds of books

i have even more dice than books and minis combined.

That must be one BIG dicebag....

 

[Monte At Home]

I don't even think you can say the miniatures will be "good" or "bad" for the RPG

Of course you can. If miniatures game-influenced design encouraged designers to put lots of pedantic diagrams in lieu of interesting characters, or useful rules for role playing situations, that would be bad for the game. On the other hand, if all it did was encourage clearer, more concise descriptions of combat abilities, that would be good for the game.

It's possible, perhaps even probable, that the results of such a trend wouldn't be so transparent, but they could be.

When I say "bad for the game" I mean just that--not bad for WotC, or the D&D brand, which might be helped (or hurt) in either case. To be even more specific, when I say "game" I mean the game as we understand it now, tracing it from 1974 to 2004. If 4th edition doesn't have rules for Diplomacy and Gather Information because they have no use for a minis game (to use an extreme, hopefully absurd example), it would be bad for the game in that sense, because it would be closing off an avenue of play of importance. This is one reason that 3rd Edition "brought back" things like random dungeons--because that was one avenue of play that had basically been closed off in 2nd Edition. (An interesting essay could be written about the swinging pendulum of general game design epitomized in the different versions of D&D.)

 

[diaglo]

That must be one BIG dicebag....

i had a 40gal diary canister. after it filled up and started placing them in milk crates.

 

[Turanil]

I voted no minis and rpg books from WotC in the last six months.
It's true that I buy much more books than minis, but lately nothing directly from WotC (only other d20 publishers). Next WotC purchase will be d20 Future, and probably nothing else.

 

[DaveMage]

i had a 40gal diary canister. after it filled up and started placing them in milk crates.

Do you offer tours?

The Diaglo museum would be treat to visit, I'm sure.

(An interesting essay could be written about the swinging pendulum of general game design epitomized in the different versions of D&D.)

Sounds like a Line of Sight column to me...

 

[Umbran]

Those figures are what I've gotten from polls started on ENworld and Dragonsfoot. I think we mostly qualify as "hardcore gamers".

We may mostly qualify as "hardcore gamers", but we probably do not represent hardcore gamers, statistically speaking.

How it relates to the rest of gamerdom, I don't know.

Let us all remember the chant - "Internet Opinion Polls are not Scientific". The results of such polls say nothing about the general populace. Really and truly, they don't. They only speak about the attitudes of those who chose to respond to the poll, and the amount of self-selection involved renders them poor indicators of anything.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

I went with the no to both. I was burned by the CCGs so I have given up on any collectable games, and I haven't bought anything 3.5 period (I use the SRD to facilitate play with my group).

 

[KB9JMQ]

In the last six months I have spent more on the minis. I have about 800ish.
I like the skirmish game and their use in gaming, so I get double use out of them.
But my spending will probably even out between them since collecting D&D books (mostly WOTC) is also my hobby.