Do you like playing with miniatures? How does it contribute to the game? Where do you get them...

Do you like playing with miniatures? How does it contribute to the game? Where do you get them? And why are they so expensive?

>Do you like playing with miniatures?
No.

> How does it contribute to the game?
They are great in systems that require exact distances/facing/spacial records. Typically for more combat focused games, "Damage done in an X by Y square."

>Where do you get them?
Not sure. I've used Lego!

>And why are they so expensive?
Because you'll pay for it.

>Do you like playing with miniatures?
I like them, yeah. I think games can be perfectly fun without them, but it's nice to have a well-made little statue of your character.

>How does it contribute to the game?
When asked "What does he look like" I can just hold up the miniature and say "this". It adds a more personal connection to the character, and incentive to keep them alive.

>Where do you get them?
I convert mine from my warhammer collection.

>And why are they so expensive?
Because Citadel are run by the joos.

Been using pathfinder pawns for my game. They don't look as good as real minis but it does the job good enough for me and my players. I like having a bunch of different monsters and npcs ready to go and easy to pack around.

How much did you invest in your collection and how many miniatures do you have?

I was thinking of making mine, but I'm too lazy.

1-2 thousand, a few hundred. I play mostly orks so it's difficult to add the numbers as most of my stuff is at least partly converted and I have some entire units made of spare parts (1 unit of grot tanks, 1 unit of meganobz). I'm at the stage where when I wanted to make an Orc pirate model I just tore up a nob and cracked open the bitz box. Pic related.

>Do you like playing with miniatures?
I literally never play without them.
>How does it contribute to the game?
You know where shit is in relation to all the other shit.
>Where do you get them?
Local game store/online.
>And why are they so expensive?
Depends on the brand really. You can get some generic fantasy stuff pretty cheaply, especially if you paint them yourself. Also your minis don't even really have to look like what they represent, just a relatively close approximation and matching the creature's size is all you need. It especially helps if you consistently play with friends who also have a small collection of minis so you can borrow as needed. Plus you don't need all that scenery bullshit, just get a reusable battle mat like pic related and you can just draw walls and pits and shit with dry-erase markers.

I literally don't understand how people play d20 games without minis. How the fuck does that even work?

I really hate the official Paizo art for goblins. They look like fucking deep sea creatures.

Yeah i found most of the art really hit or miss

Looks very good, post more if you can.
>I literally don't understand how people play d20 games without minis. How the fuck does that even work?
You imagine things, and that's cool, if the GM is a good storyteller it works perfectly.

>Do you like playing with miniatures?
I do like them, but i don't play with them..

>How does it contribute to the game?
it helps remember where everyone is and adds a little extra personality to your character.

>Where do you get them?
flgs, amazon, and reaper's website

>And why are they so expensive?
Because you'll pay for them

I make my own pawns using art I found online, printing it out, folding and then taping it together.

Does a pretty good job and costs next to nothing.

>I don't have a comic relief villian model to harass the party with and provide in between encounters to break up the difficult ones
Didn't know I needed this till right now.

This is cool, I wish I had a printer.

Also I found some LotR miniatures my friend gave to me, they are 1x1 so would work perfectly, they only need to be painted.

I don't know if I like the sound of that, I have a hard enough time keeping track of everything going on even with the visual aids.

I used to use them but found they just devolved games into a tactical miniature combat game and stopped players using their imagination and the environment. They also artificially extended combat to silly lengths.

Not to mention unless you spend a small fortune in terms of terrain and miniatures your badly drawn battle map of a forest with chess pieces and those old orc models you have representing skeletons and a Wight will actively detract from immersion and imagination. If you want to make tactical combat good it's a huge time and money investment that's better spent designing your actual campaign.

Sure you have to be a little bit more loose in terms of distances and aoe effects with theatre of mind but the added speed, versatility and creativity in combat more than makes up for it.

What brands do you use?

Depends on your edition. 4e was a glorified tactical miniature game designex to sell minis and incredibly difficult to run without a grid due to the numerous shift 1, pull 1 etc effects.

3.5 core was fine if you are a bit loone with things like flanking. Granted splat booksand ube huh levels complicated matters

5e is relatively simple to run theatre of mind style. Rules like flanking are simplifiedby raw, abilities are simple and encounters fast. The only real difficulty would be aoes and similar effects, but these are easily abstracted.

>Do you like playing with miniatures?
Yup. With pictures on a laptop/tablet and minitatures people get more into it.

>How does it contribute to the game?
Makes people get more into character and value their lives. Also, really cool when you pull a big monster or a horde of little monsters. Makes the pc's ansious.

>Where do you get them?

10 + year collection of miniatures. Thousands ranging from warhammer, star wars, d&d, pathfinder, generic fantasy and sci fi games. Mostly ebay/miniature market/ amazon and reaper miniatures site.

>And why are they so expensive?
They are not if you know how to look. You can buy lot's of monsters on ebay, look for trade and buy posts on facebook, or get reaper BONES miniatures. Also, Wizkids just got a line of unpainted plastic minis. Great for starting a monster collection.

>Do you like playing with miniatures?
depends. if minis do not contribute to the experience, then they don't belong.

> How does it contribute to the game?
if i use miniatures and a map it is because i'm trying to represent something very complicated for a combat-puzzle.

>Where do you get them?
Reaper Bones + bulk prepainted. i've bought a lot slowly over the years and actually paint minis as a hobby, so i've got tons of them.

>And why are they so expensive?
because minis can be a hobby on to themselves. they also add an additional collectible element to rpgs.

No. teather of mind, mainly.
I always had 1 talented player good with maps. For combat, the room had more or less detail in base of the campaign, but i found out my players dislike precise positioning more than me (they prefer to imagine).
Is a compromise with tactics, I still have to find the right balance. I should probably try to houserule "engagement levels" or some shit.
BTW, if you have any input, is more than appreciated.

>3.5 core was fine if you are a bit loone with things like flanking. Granted splat booksand ube huh levels complicated matters
Playd 3.X both ways but the system at his full requires paper and squares. We made it work full theatre, 'tough.

How much money would I need to spend for this kind of set, including the furniture and characters?

>why are they so expensive?
You must not own a boat. This entire hobby is cheap.

Whatever looks right.

That looks like the Dwarven Forge painted terrain. That's probably a couple hundred all by itself.

It is worth it? Not sure, but people keep buying it. Your play style might call for needing a full 3D tavern, or you might get away with flat tiles, or a mat.

I've made my own based on a guy on YouTube called dmscotty. All my shit is made for 1$ foam and free cardboard, but as someone with a full-time job, I never really had the time to make a full dungeons worth of props. There cool, but unless you have the time, just stick to dry erase board.

>a couple hundred all by itself
>people keep buying it
Shit
> Your play style might call for needing a full 3D tavern, or you might get away with flat tiles, or a mat.
I usually just draw it topographically on the graph paper, and draw it from the 3D perspective so players know where the hell they actually are.
This works well because you can draw any small detail you like.

Most of the stuff I have is either Reaper or official Paizo stuff. The Paizo stuff is generally more expensive, but also looks better. However it only really looks better because I suck at painting. I also have a few paper pawns I made for next to nothing using bottlecaps for the bases. Lastly, I have a figure of Sulley from Monsters Inc. that a friend got out of a McDonald's happy meal that just happened to be set up on a black plastic base and roughly the right size for a Large creature.

Confirming first post, great post

LEGO minifigs are so fun to customize and I built entire boards/scenery as elements to place during battle sequences

Grabbing minifig parts and bricks off BrickLink is a welcome convenience

I prefer to have miniatures for D&D. It really helps me visualize things better. For strictly social encounters, though, no minis needed.

I have a bunch of old pre-painted Wizards of the Coast D&D minis that I use for monsters and NPCs, but I'm custom painting minis for the players. I feel like having your very own personal mini for your character is a nice touch.

The ones I'm painting really aren't very expensive. $3 for a two-pack of pre-primed minis (like two different options for "Male Elf Sorcerer). The sculpts aren't the greatest, but I'm still pretty happy with them. My FLGS got a shipment of them a couple of months ago after I'd kind of asked about something like that or Reaper Bones a couple of times.

Wait, are you telling me you made those crusader minis with foam, cardboard, and what looks like acrylic paint?

>Do you like playing with miniatures?
Yes

> How does it contribute to the game?
They make larger complex combat scenes easier to manage and keeps the spacial limitations of characters in mind.

>Where do you get them?
Ebay mostly, reaper miniatures has a line of super cheap ones. Reaper Bones I think is what they're called but they work good, just a little hard to paint and need a sealant applied afterwards or the acrylics rub off.

>And why are they so expensive?
Plastic molds man, and GW is run by the jews

Do you have a template for these that you could upload?

I have found that removing the grid from miniature play removes a lot of the "tactical mini game" feel. I spent a good bit of money on textured roll up gaming mats, terrain and forest decorations in order to get that authentic theater of mind feel back to miniature gameplay. It really does work but it's pretty expensive to get set up.

You can get them cheaper if you're not super picky about brands.

You can also go really cheap and do 2.5d cardstock minis (Look up Wyloch on Youtube).

You can get things at a moderate price with a 3d printer. Theres lots of free mini blueprints.

You can also buy a handful of minis and recast them for duplicates. Buy a handful of warhammer minis (or whatever) cast them and make a mould, and churn out the minis you need for tabletop. You'll likely lose a bit of detail, but it'll probably still be cheaper than overpriced wizkids stuff at a much higher quality.

For Terrain, I'd look at Drunkens & Dragons, and some videos on wargaming terrain.

>Dm Scotty
Go forth and craft!

I made this a while ago

>You can get things at a moderate price with a 3d printer.
There's also Hero Forge in that regard. Goodish price for a custom mini, granted their options are somewhat limited and the final product tends to look a little chunky.