Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 BigPappaSatyr Aug 15, 2015 21:22:59	I'm going to be running a Rise of Tiamat tabletop game, I've run things online before, but never have I run at a table. Does anyone know how many of eac kind of mini I might need for the game? Nd is there anything else I need besides the normal stuff?
#2 Meta4ic Aug 16, 2015 6:35:19	Since you've never played D&D other that online, I'd strongly suggest you begin your table top experience without using miniatures. When I began playing D&D (on the BECMI golden years!), we played with minis, but soon stowed them away and used only our imagination.   Now it's been more than 30 years, and we would never go back to using miniatures, as, for us, it would mean focusing on positionning details (and thus slowing the pace of combats down) rather than fully "live" the action in our Imagination.   If your want to know more about using "Theatre of the mind" in combat, look at this thread : you'll find some very useful tips.
#3 BRJN Aug 16, 2015 10:23:28	As a Tiamat DM, I've been describing to the PCs who they meet &c, then using the same old minis (ours happen to be skeletons) for the enemies.  We use surplus minis from the hosting FLGS. I reserve a few minis for bosses and lieutenants: Minotaur, 2 Ogres, blue Marid(?) that I found in a cupboard.  BBEGs are indicated with an XL Velociraptor (dragons), Purple Worm (all others).  These guys, being rare, ought to be impressive-looking too.   I usually use a map because positioning IS important - as we discovered when the Wizard cast Lightning down a hallway and the Barbarian - who had gone first - objected "Wait - I'm down there too !"  Alas that the objection came as I was rolling the Saving Throws.  (She survived but the enemies did not.)   It's worked pretty well so far.
#4 shintashi Aug 16, 2015 13:17:07	actually, 5e is incredibly dense in terms of tactical battle, and until your players know the rules, a map with miniatures is probably a smart way to go. I've had players who couldn't keep it all straight in their heads how many monsters were left, and only by using a grid map, did anything make sense to them. Of course there are players who can keep it straight without minis and maps. you should check with your players first. Mine became quite irrate until we switched to minis, but unlike the rest of the universe, i live in hell and can't choose who to game with, only whether or not to game.
#5 BigPappaSatyr Aug 16, 2015 14:21:57	I have played tabletop before, I've just never ran a game.Plus, I personally don't like not having minis. It takes away a lot of aspects of the game, like attacks of opprotunity and stuff like that, because there is no definite way of knowing if they're going to move passed someone. I don't plan on having a mini for every single bar patron and what-not. But someone did tell me that I'll need a lot of Kobolds, so I figured I would buy maybe 10 Kobold figures, and use them as most of the enemies. Then I would have the players pick up their own mini for their pc and I have my Tiamat figure that I won in a contest at my game shoppe that I'm gonna use.
(Reply to #5) Ath-kethin	BigPappaSatyr wrote:
#7 WorBlade Aug 17, 2015 15:50:23	You need a few Dragonborn and a number of human cultist like figures. And a giant. Lots of kobolds early on. Some bullywigs and lizardmen. Several warriors, clerics and mages similar to the PC's figures. Depending on your computer image manipulation skills, if you really want figures for all the different creatures to match I would consider making little fold over paper ones. Use a color image on one side and convert it to all black or just an outline to represent the rear facing of the "figure". They look like little sign sandwhich boards, triangles with the short side as base if you have never seen the type of paper figs I am talking about.
#8 Jeggrim Aug 18, 2015 9:29:31	Meta4ic wrote:
(Reply to #2) sirkaikillah11	Meta4ic wrote: