Another New Guy Question [Archive] - Wizards Community

Another New Guy Question [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
JoSar91
03-14-06, 10:01 PM Just wondering how many people use the miniatures when they play, or do you just use your imagination?
WoT Fan
03-14-06, 10:06 PM That's a score one for Miniatures
Stardrake
03-14-06, 10:28 PM We go back and forth. We've been going mini-free more often lately, but we still like them for big or complicated combats. They were a distinct help in getting comfortable with the system, however. (Especially since I had several newer players in my group--they're not so new anymore, though.)
JoSar91
03-14-06, 11:12 PM Interesting... I always thought the minis were an essential element in the game when I started my "research" into the game. Then I got into a chatroom for D&D and discovered that several long-time players used no minis.

Anyone else? Just take the 5 seconds to respond minis or no minis is greatly appreciated. :)
spectralphoenix
03-15-06, 12:56 AM Most of the groups I play with just use spare dice to keep track of where everyone is. Not as expensive as minis, but we can still keep track of position for flanking and spell area purposes.
Mitchell
03-15-06, 01:01 AM Minis for sure.
DanjaNinja
03-15-06, 01:41 AM Our group gets along fine with just our imaginations. Used to be that if a battle is particularly complicated, or we were just having trouble envisioning a scenario, we would use coins and dice and whatnot to figure relative positions.

Now we use minis for those situations, but not very consistently. I actually quite like using them; it really helps for AoOs, and often times it clarifies ambiguities or misunderstandings we didn't even know were there. It's just that we're so used to going without that we forget to use them in the first place.
Dyrwen
03-15-06, 03:23 AM We use minis when in combat or in situations pertinent to placement, but a lot of it just gets rp'd out if its not anything that involves needing to know the environment completely.
Khael
03-15-06, 04:09 AM I personally have never used a D&D miniature (usually blu-tack will do), but in relatively large-scale affairs, or times when the placement of character/monsters is very important, some sort of marker is meeded.
Parker_W
03-15-06, 06:52 AM Its all about the miniatures. However, in my younger days I would sometimes have to scrounge and use pieces of paper and pennies...
Debonaire
03-15-06, 07:44 AM I just bought a 8 inch high, 13 inch long dragon model and am waiting for it to be delivered. I can't wait to paint it up. :D
Neverwrong
03-15-06, 07:48 AM Both. Mainly Warhammer Fantasy minatures.
darkness ninja of light
03-15-06, 08:20 AM We use minis....of course we don't have a lot of minis so we end up using very mis-matched minis to represent the monsters.

DM: Okay roll initiative as I set up the board. *starts placing a wraith mini on the board next to a mindflayer*
Players: :eek:
DM: Oh just relax...they're two kobolds.

We also use spare dice and coins and little pictures.

Ah! I just remembered, back when I first started I used Microsoft Paint to make Final Fantasy IV-type battle sprites for my character. That was so much fun.
Lenarior
03-15-06, 08:30 AM No minis for us. Either the DM (that's me) describes the scene, or, if it's too cimplicated, he draws it up on a piece of paper so everybody understands. From there we use our imagination, and resort to the drawing when our imagination fails us.
lokilowkey
03-15-06, 08:48 AM score another for minis/markers/counters/whatever.

I used to draw on paper as well, and that did work okay, but sometimes got very confusing, leading to a LOT of questions. Minis simplify this a lot.
pangalactic
03-15-06, 11:28 AM No minis here.
Bruunwald
03-15-06, 11:57 AM This topic gets beat to death two or three times a week, it seems.

Anyway, use minis? Yes.

Need minis? No.

Played for nearly two decades without them? Yes.

Always collected them anyway and finally grew to enjoy using them? Yes.

Paint them, flock them, love them, create complicated terrains for them? Yes. I am a total nerdy freak like that.
hmmmm
03-16-06, 02:12 AM yes,we do, but only when we are at somebodys house other wise we just imagin everything or use graph paper, I use them when i play with my parents or uncles.
Warrior4Life
03-17-06, 09:37 PM If you know something about the game, you don't need minis. If you want to spend money that you could use for new books or something more useful, then go for it. All you have to do to keep track of characters or monsters on an adventure is clearly state where you are standing, sitting, walking, running, riding, or flying at the time of an encounter. Minis are just a way of visualizing the story that is being told by the DM, nothing more. I mean it is not like, "look...my mini is more cool than yours, so I must be a better player than you". I have been playing for 21 years and never used them. What is next for you mini fans anyway? Dressing up like your character and saying, "look....this is what my character looks like, so my character is the star of this adventure"!
Dragonteuthis
03-17-06, 10:33 PM I like using Miniatures when I can. I love the tactical Skirmish, game though, so sometimes I almost turn a DnD session into a a small battle rivaling a Warcraft 3 game.

When I am not DMing, Miniatures are rarely used. It's generally done abstractly, which still works out.
zenlike
03-18-06, 01:21 AM Theres nothing like finding the perfect mini for a character you want to play. Even worse though is never getting a chance to use it. That's why I DM.

That's a "yes" for minis. It takes a little longer to run a battle but you eliminate some of the guesswork regarding distances, etc. Mostly Reaper Miniature line. I dislike the D&D miniatures.
a_psh
03-18-06, 01:34 AM If you really care about the tactical aspects of movement, you need some kind of way to keep track of the locations of PCs and NPCs in combat.

My low-cost portable solution:
- one 25x25 mm square grid markable battlemat (I got a large one for about $18 from Chessex, buying it as factory-second)
- some dry erase markers for drawing on your mat
- one or more of any kind of counter tray (or a jar, tacklebox, whatever - one with comparments is better so you can sort the minis)
- lots of printed paper tokens

The grid I use is basically an inch by an inch. A quarter has a diameter of one inch. So a Medium-sized creature ends up being the size of a quarter (an ogre is like a small coaster Colossal dragon is like a small paper plate, but you probably won't need many of those). Anyway, it's pretty easy to make a basic one-inch-diameter circle template in an image program and print out scaled-up and scaled-down versions for larger and smaller creatures, as needed. Then you can just take fantasy art and turn it into your own minis (it's personal, not-for-profit use, and the images you're making are tiny, so I'd say copyright issues don't really apply anyway). If you're good with something like Photoshop or the GIMP, you can make nice borders for them and stuff pretty easily. Then just create a set of mini images on your computer and print out sheets of them when you need them.

You can draw terrain on the mat with markers, of course.

If you or your players are good at sketching, you can just print a bunch of blanks ones of the right sizes and draw on them as needed.

This approach is particularly nice for distinctive-looking NPCs, as it's easier to make a paper mini out of a two-dimensional representation of a person than to amass a large collection of minis that resemble various NPCs. It's also easier to print 30 zombies when you need an undead horde than to actually gather 30 zombie miniatures just to have one fight with them.

Mostly, this stuff is also easier to carry around, since it's not breakable and weighs almost nothing.

As an added perk, if you turn the tokens over to represent dead enemies, you can let your players draw funny dead faces on the back of every monster they splat. =)
Valkaun_Dain
03-18-06, 01:40 AM I bought a conference table at an auction. It seats around 8-10 but there's usually just six of us. I put a sheet of dry erase board (from the shower board section of Lowes, $7.00 for a 4'x8' sheet) on it and glued it down. We use mini's and our DM draws the setting to mini scale and we go to town.
Ranger REG
03-18-06, 03:43 AM Just wondering how many people use the miniatures when they play, or do you just use your imagination?
I'm a cheap SOB, so I use flat tokens.
Etharion
03-18-06, 03:57 AM My group uses minis now. Their a great help when you want to use the tactical advantages of the creatures and players alike.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
JoSar91 03-14-06, 10:01 PM	Just wondering how many people use the miniatures when they play, or do you just use your imagination?
WoT Fan 03-14-06, 10:06 PM	That's a score one for Miniatures
Stardrake 03-14-06, 10:28 PM	We go back and forth. We've been going mini-free more often lately, but we still like them for big or complicated combats. They were a distinct help in getting comfortable with the system, however. (Especially since I had several newer players in my group--they're not so new anymore, though.)
JoSar91 03-14-06, 11:12 PM	Interesting... I always thought the minis were an essential element in the game when I started my "research" into the game. Then I got into a chatroom for D&D and discovered that several long-time players used no minis. Anyone else? Just take the 5 seconds to respond minis or no minis is greatly appreciated. :)
spectralphoenix 03-15-06, 12:56 AM	Most of the groups I play with just use spare dice to keep track of where everyone is. Not as expensive as minis, but we can still keep track of position for flanking and spell area purposes.
Mitchell 03-15-06, 01:01 AM	Minis for sure.
DanjaNinja 03-15-06, 01:41 AM	Our group gets along fine with just our imaginations. Used to be that if a battle is particularly complicated, or we were just having trouble envisioning a scenario, we would use coins and dice and whatnot to figure relative positions. Now we use minis for those situations, but not very consistently. I actually quite like using them; it really helps for AoOs, and often times it clarifies ambiguities or misunderstandings we didn't even know were there. It's just that we're so used to going without that we forget to use them in the first place.
Dyrwen 03-15-06, 03:23 AM	We use minis when in combat or in situations pertinent to placement, but a lot of it just gets rp'd out if its not anything that involves needing to know the environment completely.
Khael 03-15-06, 04:09 AM	I personally have never used a D&D miniature (usually blu-tack will do), but in relatively large-scale affairs, or times when the placement of character/monsters is very important, some sort of marker is meeded.
Parker_W 03-15-06, 06:52 AM	Its all about the miniatures. However, in my younger days I would sometimes have to scrounge and use pieces of paper and pennies...
Debonaire 03-15-06, 07:44 AM	I just bought a 8 inch high, 13 inch long dragon model and am waiting for it to be delivered. I can't wait to paint it up. :D
Neverwrong 03-15-06, 07:48 AM	Both. Mainly Warhammer Fantasy minatures.
darkness ninja of light 03-15-06, 08:20 AM	We use minis....of course we don't have a lot of minis so we end up using very mis-matched minis to represent the monsters. DM: Okay roll initiative as I set up the board. starts placing a wraith mini on the board next to a mindflayer Players: :eek: DM: Oh just relax...they're two kobolds. We also use spare dice and coins and little pictures. Ah! I just remembered, back when I first started I used Microsoft Paint to make Final Fantasy IV-type battle sprites for my character. That was so much fun.
Lenarior 03-15-06, 08:30 AM	No minis for us. Either the DM (that's me) describes the scene, or, if it's too cimplicated, he draws it up on a piece of paper so everybody understands. From there we use our imagination, and resort to the drawing when our imagination fails us.
lokilowkey 03-15-06, 08:48 AM	score another for minis/markers/counters/whatever. I used to draw on paper as well, and that did work okay, but sometimes got very confusing, leading to a LOT of questions. Minis simplify this a lot.
pangalactic 03-15-06, 11:28 AM	No minis here.
Bruunwald 03-15-06, 11:57 AM	This topic gets beat to death two or three times a week, it seems. Anyway, use minis? Yes. Need minis? No. Played for nearly two decades without them? Yes. Always collected them anyway and finally grew to enjoy using them? Yes. Paint them, flock them, love them, create complicated terrains for them? Yes. I am a total nerdy freak like that.
hmmmm 03-16-06, 02:12 AM	yes,we do, but only when we are at somebodys house other wise we just imagin everything or use graph paper, I use them when i play with my parents or uncles.
Warrior4Life 03-17-06, 09:37 PM	If you know something about the game, you don't need minis. If you want to spend money that you could use for new books or something more useful, then go for it. All you have to do to keep track of characters or monsters on an adventure is clearly state where you are standing, sitting, walking, running, riding, or flying at the time of an encounter. Minis are just a way of visualizing the story that is being told by the DM, nothing more. I mean it is not like, "look...my mini is more cool than yours, so I must be a better player than you". I have been playing for 21 years and never used them. What is next for you mini fans anyway? Dressing up like your character and saying, "look....this is what my character looks like, so my character is the star of this adventure"!
Dragonteuthis 03-17-06, 10:33 PM	I like using Miniatures when I can. I love the tactical Skirmish, game though, so sometimes I almost turn a DnD session into a a small battle rivaling a Warcraft 3 game. When I am not DMing, Miniatures are rarely used. It's generally done abstractly, which still works out.
zenlike 03-18-06, 01:21 AM	Theres nothing like finding the perfect mini for a character you want to play. Even worse though is never getting a chance to use it. That's why I DM. That's a "yes" for minis. It takes a little longer to run a battle but you eliminate some of the guesswork regarding distances, etc. Mostly Reaper Miniature line. I dislike the D&D miniatures.
a_psh 03-18-06, 01:34 AM	If you really care about the tactical aspects of movement, you need some kind of way to keep track of the locations of PCs and NPCs in combat. My low-cost portable solution: - one 25x25 mm square grid markable battlemat (I got a large one for about $18 from Chessex, buying it as factory-second) - some dry erase markers for drawing on your mat - one or more of any kind of counter tray (or a jar, tacklebox, whatever - one with comparments is better so you can sort the minis) - lots of printed paper tokens The grid I use is basically an inch by an inch. A quarter has a diameter of one inch. So a Medium-sized creature ends up being the size of a quarter (an ogre is like a small coaster Colossal dragon is like a small paper plate, but you probably won't need many of those). Anyway, it's pretty easy to make a basic one-inch-diameter circle template in an image program and print out scaled-up and scaled-down versions for larger and smaller creatures, as needed. Then you can just take fantasy art and turn it into your own minis (it's personal, not-for-profit use, and the images you're making are tiny, so I'd say copyright issues don't really apply anyway). If you're good with something like Photoshop or the GIMP, you can make nice borders for them and stuff pretty easily. Then just create a set of mini images on your computer and print out sheets of them when you need them. You can draw terrain on the mat with markers, of course. If you or your players are good at sketching, you can just print a bunch of blanks ones of the right sizes and draw on them as needed. This approach is particularly nice for distinctive-looking NPCs, as it's easier to make a paper mini out of a two-dimensional representation of a person than to amass a large collection of minis that resemble various NPCs. It's also easier to print 30 zombies when you need an undead horde than to actually gather 30 zombie miniatures just to have one fight with them. Mostly, this stuff is also easier to carry around, since it's not breakable and weighs almost nothing. As an added perk, if you turn the tokens over to represent dead enemies, you can let your players draw funny dead faces on the back of every monster they splat. =)
Valkaun_Dain 03-18-06, 01:40 AM	I bought a conference table at an auction. It seats around 8-10 but there's usually just six of us. I put a sheet of dry erase board (from the shower board section of Lowes, $7.00 for a 4'x8' sheet) on it and glued it down. We use mini's and our DM draws the setting to mini scale and we go to town.
Ranger REG 03-18-06, 03:43 AM	Just wondering how many people use the miniatures when they play, or do you just use your imagination? I'm a cheap SOB, so I use flat tokens.
Etharion 03-18-06, 03:57 AM	My group uses minis now. Their a great help when you want to use the tactical advantages of the creatures and players alike.