Comments on: Fourth Edition News Recap

By: The Bohemian

The Bohemian — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 22:03:42 +0000

Thanks for the overview, Jonathan. I am a bit reluctant to start with yet another edition of D&D but I probably will.

By: unique_stephen

unique_stephen — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:10:08 +0000

Thanks for the ideas guys.

By: Zaratustra

Zaratustra — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 07:13:11 +0000

Just use play-doh.

By: Jonathan Drain

Jonathan Drain — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 04:42:29 +0000

@Omar: Probably the best method I’ve heard yet – a sort of “combined arms” approach to minis. Use miniatures where available, and cardboard standees where not. It avoids both the relative flatness of flat tokens and the “pretend the orc is a dragon” stand-in problem.

Mind if I steal it for a later post?

By: Stripes

Stripes — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 00:32:34 +0000

I bought the “digital counter collection” from White Wolf publishing. I forget where from, but http://www.warehouse23.com/item.html?id=WWP16020 looks like the same product.

It has had a counter for everything in the SRD, and a whole lot more. The more common monsters (like kobolds) have many different counters (some with spears, some with cross bows, one with a pistol). It is about $20, and I have been very happy with it. I started printing them on magnet stock as I was playing on a magnetic whiteboard. I’m not using the magnetic whiteboard anymore, so next time I do a batch I’ll likely use cheaper cardstock (but I think they definitely need more then just paper).

I supplement it with minis my players bring (mainly my wife’s, she has an extensive set of old war hammer minis)

On occasion I have gone “old school” and supplemented with candy corns and the like.

By: Omar

Omar — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 21:25:38 +0000

I don’t know how widespread this practice is, but I’ve found that the galleries that Wizards has on their site of all of their minis make handy fodder for DIY minis. You can copy the images, scale and copy and flip them into foldable standee templates using Paint or whatever, and print them onto cardstock. They’re obviously not as pretty or convincing as the plastic minis out of the box, but they’re a heck of a lot cheaper.

I’ve been using this method to supplement my collection of minis, and it usually works out pretty well. I certainly prefer it to “okay, I know this looks like a huge fiendish spider, but it’s actually a huge black dragon.”

By: Doug

Doug — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 06:51:45 +0000

When I run crunchy games like D&D, I usually just ask players to help out with things like minis, maps and that kind of thing – usually people who have been playing D&D for a while will have some minis laying around somewhere. I almost never run published modules and scenarios, but if I did on a regular basis, it makes sense that the players would pitch in and split up the cost. Just treat them like drinks and pizza that are usually shared in most groups I’ve been in.

And thanks for the update, I’ve been busy and have fallen behind – I hadn’t heard that they were releasing all three core books at once.

By: Jay

Jay — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 06:07:17 +0000

One suggestion I would make on the miniatures front is to start looking into Reapers new paointed mini’s. Only a few are out so far but I can say the detail is far creater than any mini that came out from Wizards so far. From what I am hearing more painted mini’s from Reaper will be out soon so watch for them if you need specific types.

By: unique_stephen

unique_stephen — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 05:36:27 +0000

We rolled up 1st level characters earlier this year and have started “The Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde”. So we will be playing 3.5 for a while yet. Miniatures are a problem tho’
I don’t know what kind of critters we will be up against, my guess is the usual assortment of kobolds, (hob)goblins, orcs, skeletons, zombies, evil NPCs, animals and a few magic critters. We are 1st lvl after all. When they come in kits such as “Night Below”, “Unhallowed” and “War of the Dragon Queen” how do you go about buying 10 orcs, 10 goblins, etc and figures that match your characters? The selection is a bit limited.

By: ChattyDm

ChattyDm — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 00:55:41 +0000

Thanks for the service Jonathan. Concise and to the point.

I am a big fan of Iron Heroes and have played it for about a year.

I’m still looking forward to 4e.