Hey Veeky Forums. Sorry if this is a lame question.
I've hit that point where I'm in my late 20s and it's starting to get hard to hold a group together between adult responsibilities, spouses, work schedules, etc. I've managed to nab a group of younger 20s that seems to be enthusiastic, but it's the first time playing for all but one of them. We had our first session last time, but I could tell they were having trouble visualizing the play field. I used to own a dry erase map, but over the course of time I have misplaced it, probably at someone's house who has since lost it or tossed it.
I've repurchased the map, but I need minis/tokens. I don't want to drop a huge amount of money on this because god knows how long I can actually keep this group together (they're all dating eachother so you know how that makes for a volatile group dynamic.)
Do y'all have any suggestions? What's a good entry level map token/mini set? What do y'all use when you don't want to drop huge money on official/name brand minis? I'd suggest the players buy their own, but they're all broke as shit college students/NEETs.
Try going on Amazon and looking for the magic the gathering minis game. They come with a ton of minis and are cheap as hell.
John Mitchell
Oh shit, I didn't even think about that. Thanks. I was looking at like, sorry crap like this. That's a much better idea.
Cameron Smith
Legos? Craft store wood pieces that could possibly be carved
Monopoly pieces? How much in likeness do they need to be? Could your narration improve? I'm in my later 20s and I usually get a similar image across from my brain to others
Austin Carter
Your welcome bro. The stuff in the magic sets is pretty good quality. The only problem I had is trying to make time to paint the unpainted minis.
Aiden Anderson
Chess pieces. Dice. Garbage you have laying around the room.
Easton Rodriguez
This user gets it
Elijah Morales
Look at historical most miniatures, top sculpts for a pittance.
Easton Clark
>Could your narration improve? The issue is that between going back and explaining the rules, what their abilities do, etc, etc, everyone forgets where the monsters are positioned, who is getting flanked, how the flanking is positioned, etc. It is partially my fault because I'm trying to run 5+ monsters and 4 party members with a unfocused/new group.
Also, thanks for the suggestions.
Thought about this. I actually didn't really have many things that worked laying around.
Thanks, I'll look into that too.
Elijah Morgan
I’ve always just used chess pieces
Zachary Parker
I understand, I tried drawing scenery but the positioning was a problem for the party too.
I used to design theatre pieces and I employed my old drafting skills. I try to make a rough top down map and a scenic piece. But you can't design the whole world like that without tons of hours. So quick, efficient, and not as elegant.
Though some buildings and dungeons I will put time into. And make copies so you can write the positions like sports do (x's and o's)
I like Check out craft stores and you might find something to add setting pieces or minis
And I just ordered these
Connor Thompson
Are you more interested in playing the game or in making things look pretty?
I play a shit ton of different historical wargame miniature rules sets and I'm always trying out new ones. I could never buy or store minis and scenery for each. The other guys in my group couldn't do that either.
We use large pieces of felt for scenery. A big neutral color of some sort for a base and other pieces to denote hills, fields, streams, rivers, etc. The "minis" we use are simple cardboard rectangles. Every rules set has basing requirements; Unit A must have a Base of X by Y, etc. We cut out the proper sizes, mark them with ink, and PLAY THE GAME.
Minis are beautiful and scenery can fantastic. Both take a lot of money and time, however. My group would rather play. We're not going to hold off on using a set of rules or fighting a certain battle because someone hasn't finished painting their minis or building the scenery.
If the game is more important to you, felt swatches and cardboard rectangles are all the pieces you need.
Xavier Morris
Link?
John James
Reaper Bones is pretty cheap.
An interesting budget option is Flat Plastic Miniatures. They're two sided bits of character art printed on translucent plastic, with properly sized bases and so on. You can get a big set of them for not that much, and they're actually pretty nice to look at.
Easton Hernandez
I once had a DM who bought the World of Warcraft board game for cheap because it comes with a ton of minis. Maybe try that?
Adding to the felt/cardboard idea, you could take a square of cardboard and print out on paper an small image you cut out. Then paste/ glue that to the cardboard. If you bend the bottom you can fold it to stand up better. Bonus points for doing two sides so that both sides are supported
Bam.
You could even add a little color felt to it's base/cardboard
Alexander Lopez
Not that user but it's sold out on Amazon. I like the orc figures
Henry Barnes
For over a year my group used coins and other junk. If there were more than 4 types of enemies we made a stacks of different combinations for the others.
This led to our most dreaded foe: NickelPenny. I don't even remember what the mini represented anymore, because that is the name that survived into legend.
Christian Edwards
>equipped +5 paperclip
Gabriel Jackson
Nice. I Wonder If You can Paint it
Xavier Price
Print this, cut it out, make a little triangle and use a paperclip as a base, it's the cheapest possible thing ever; you can also make 2d characters in heromaker and use paint.net to paste them over these and print them out and use them.
For slightly better, glue them to coins. I had a box of like 200 of these when I was 18, they were serviceable, even if crude and cheap.
Aaron Robinson
Google paperminis for more.
I'm also gonna get some wood bases with simple colored dimples (like regular d6es have), and use square, hex, triangle and circle for tokens. A soldering iron can draw things on wood, that could be interesting.
Or gonna get some steel-scrap tokens and engrave them (though dad owns a steel shop so it's easy for me). Godspeed cheapskate.
Angel Long
As all these anons wisely point out, you don't need minis & scenery to play.
Sure, they're pretty and they allow you to brag about your painting skills but you don't truly need them to play any game.
Depends on how cheap you're willing to go, there's many very good options already posted. If you actually want miniatures you might paint one day though, I have similar aims for wargaming.
Check out Reaper Bones for all sorts of RPG characters and monsters. I also look at job lots for collectable figure games like Heroclix, for example Dreamblade, Mage Knight, D&D Attack Wing. Then as mentioned, board games can be a great source too, for example M:TG and D&D board games usually come full of 28mm slightly rubbery plastics.
And of course scouring ebay you might ten plastic Orcs going for 99p with no bids, sometimes.
At the moment as a bit of a blog project I'm looking to make a 100-strong Kings of War Dwarf army for less than £20 using em4 Miniatures.
Ian Cox
Chinese knockoffs Always get that shit
Carter Williams
>And of course scouring ebay you might ten plastic Orcs going for 99p with no bids, sometimes. Not OP, but II can never find those good prices ever.
Link?
Zachary Bell
Chess minis, carboard cutouts, go to local garage sales / table markets and see if anybody is selling their old miniatures.
The main problem is that you'll never have a mini for everything (unless you're playing a very limited setting), which I why I prefer stuff like chess minis.
Look at these reddit tumblr guys, amirite, fellow gamer?
Jonathan Evans
You do realise a fair amount of images are hosted on tumblr, and they come up on search engines, right?
Jeremiah Ross
Furthermore this is a legitimately helpful blog with neat resources so thanks for linking it
Jack Martin
At least give me what to google
Nolan Perry
Imagine being this autistic. Shouldn't you be frequenting /tv/ or some other shit board?
Justin Wilson
I think that was sarcasm over the other user
Jason Thompson
Fair, I misread the comment chain.
Grayson Phillips
If you have a 5 below near you, they've got a planeswalkers board game for 5$ also, if you have a dollar general they've got skeletons.
Oh, and reaper's giving away their 25th anaversery mini, 3 paints, and either a rock or another mini this halloween if you spend over 40$
Robert Lopez
It's Lego, not Legos
Michael Hill
No, GW
Aaron Flores
>magic the gathering Office clips work great as paper-mini bases. Just fold the paper over and put it in the clip, then pop off the metal handles on the clip and stand it up.
pic related is from an All Flesh Must Be Eaten game that a friend ran.
Cooper Peterson
You'll definitely also want to look into any minis less than 28mm - they tend to be dirt cheap.
See if there's a 3D printing service in your city, if you're in one - you can pump out some undetailed, low quality minis.
Worst comes to worse, you can set up a roll20 game - everyone can set up art and there's a ton of cheap maps.
