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Cosworth
Warrior
215 Posts
    
 | | 01/12/2006 6:03 AM |
| Last night was a Miniature climax of our current RPG campaign. We've been building suspense while searching for a fallen angel that had taken shape as a Balor, judging from NPC information. Conflicting information had us guessing for some time though.
Last night we finally meet it, and the game came to a complete halt for 5 minutes because everyone HAD to pick up and look closely at the Balor mini.
Made it all worthwhile for me to carry a large box of mini's to the game each week. Mini's sure do enhance the experience when they look as good as the Balor.
- Just wanted to share that. Anyone else have similar feelings of succes after introducing mini's to the game?
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Sorry Maxminis - find me at Hordelings from sep. 14 2006 | |
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Luisjoey
Underboss
1704 Posts
Caracas Venezuela
| | 01/12/2006 6:55 AM |
| Nice history! Balor is an excellent piece and very detailed
I want a master that gives those nice surprises.
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Link
Warrior
314 Posts
Netherlands
| | 01/12/2006 8:11 AM |
| I know exactly what you mean, Cosworth!
It's a drag sometimes to move my minis from here to there and back again, but my players' reactions make it all worthwhile. My players are not the type that examine&discuss every piece I put on the table, but as you said, it realy enhances the experience and often makes a memorable fight even more memorable.
My players loved the Otyugh (thought it was cute until it grappled), the Boneclaw got a great response (now of course they hate it because of the Combat reflexes [}:)]), and the first time I put a Huge creature on the table (Bulette) there was a lot of gasping (both out of pleasant surprise and anxious anticipation) | |
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madda
Sergeant
714 Posts
| | 01/12/2006 9:16 AM |
| | I simply envy you. My players are hardly supportive at all. Despite using my minis (none of them have any) and the work I put into finding minis for the villians that convey the atmosphere (or building the bad guys to match it), they regard my minis as joke material. Obviously, they can spend time choosing minis for their own characters (and when I forget to bring their minis they are upset) but immediately afterwards they choose to dismiss the whole thing as unimportant. | |
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glumag
Warlord
5968 Posts
| | 01/12/2006 9:32 AM |
| 2 weeks ago I ran a one night adventure where I surprised my players with a very large encounter right from the start...while they were getting the pizza and drinks I setup a large map I printed (made by robbdaman) and I added about 80 miniatures in all different places (it started by them teleporting right smack in the middle of a battlefield). When they got back their jaws dropped as they saw the mayhem they were in for.
After escaping that battle they went to an abandoned temple inside a mountain, plagued by Frost Giants, Ogres and a Cryohydra (I had bought some reaper minis to enhance the ddm line and they are shown in the crafter's corner forum) To say the least, when I brought the Frost Giant Jarl out, the cryohydra and the Jarl's girlfriend there were plenty of "Wows", "Oh S**T!" and "damn, we gonna git killed" comments. [}:)][:D]
Makes lots of preparation and hard work worthwhile when your players appreciate the effort you put to their enjoyment. | |
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Marjorie
Underboss
1141 Posts
| | 01/12/2006 10:01 AM |
| Our group has almost the opposite situation. Pretty much every one of our players, and the DM, has minis. We occasionally get a message from the DM saying something along the lines of 'How many Minotaurs do you have' Can you bring them all?
Then we don't know if we're going to be facing them, or helping the huge pile of minotaurs.....
And did I mention that we have 9 Behirs between us? A fact the DM knows... | |
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Malin Lug
Sergeant
742 Posts
| | 01/12/2006 10:13 AM |
| Our last game... (I am a player but we drag all the minis around) I pulled out the correct mini for the encounter, a Huge Red Dragon. It was actually wasn't quite right, the one we encountered was actually a half fiend red dragon. It was one of the nastiest encounters that we have had and ended up with us running away (teleporting actually) and one person dead. When everyone saw the size of that mini, the reaction was great.
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"Are you not entertained?" 
Champion of the Common Bar Wench
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Cosworth
Warrior
215 Posts
| | 01/12/2006 10:19 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by madda
I simply envy you. My players are hardly supportive at all....
We had one "non-believer" in the group, but after a few highly tactical battles like Glumags mass combat situation, only smaller, he could see the point. Thinking about it, our battles have generally increased in complexity (more critters/encounter) and I give the mini's credit for that.
I guess it's easier to convert a single person rather than a whole group though, so I do feel sorry for you. | |
Sorry Maxminis - find me at Hordelings from sep. 14 2006 | |
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Sir Bozak The Damned
Commander
2854 Posts
Québec
| | 01/12/2006 10:46 AM |
| My friend's also DM sometimes and last sunday we had a great encounter with close to 100 or more minis. She kept screaming: "I want orcs ! More Man-At-Arms ! How many Drows do you have Ruzland ?". It was us ( Minotaur, Troll and Drow Cleric of Lloth-my mistress ), the drows, orcs,mountain orcs,hobgoblins,zhentaims, nentyar hunters as drow archers against humans( man-at-arms,a Cleric, a Paladin, a Wizard, a General I slayed, Swords of Glories and various humans with elf archers and Daelands Militia for ranged attacks. ) and the table was so full that we had no place to put our character sheets and dices.
She had a good system for revolving combat using units ( each unit was 10 to 50 men/women ), each had a BAB, rolled a D20 and the highest score took out a unit. A natural 20 was two for the winning side and a tie was a lost unit on both sides. Archers units had a 50/50 chance to destroy a unit from afar and had a very low melee BAB. Once only us, the drows and most of the Swords of Glory remained, I charged out to kill the mage, the Troll the Priest and then I killed the general while the drows killed the last units and we ended up with maybe 5living units outside of ours. The mountain orc unit lasted the longest and the zhentarim the second. My minotaur held the enemy generals head high and released a beastly shout. It was great and I was one of us had a camera to take a picture of this memorable battle. | |
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IanB
Commander
3112 Posts
| | 01/12/2006 3:28 PM |
| Minis have been a pretty indispensable part of the games I've played since 1st edition.
My current Eberron game is the first one I've done that entirely uses only DDM. The current party:
a half-orc Gatekeeper druid, represented by the orc Wolf Shaman
a cleric of Dol Arrah (NPC), represented by the Cleric of Lathander (not the CoDA, the gear was wrong)
a kalashtar psion, represented by the Healer
a shifter ranger/fighter, represented by the Longtooth Barbarian
a warforged artificer, represented by the Warforged Wizard
Notable recent appearances include the otyugh, ochre jelly, a pack of warforged fighters, a dire bat substituting for a cloaker, and the vampire aristocrat.
It is pretty cool that DDM can provide almost all my needs now. | |
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mordantos
Underboss
1210 Posts
| | 01/12/2006 4:17 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by IanB
Minis have been a pretty indispensable part of the games I've played since 1st edition.
Same here.
We have always had (metal) minis for the PCs. For NPCs, Monsters etc. it really depended on the DM. I have a huge supply of stuff, but if I was a player they didn't want to tip me off to what the encounter might be.
I ended up developing a "goodies" bag that I could lug to wherever we were playing. It consisted of cardboard heroes, tokens, plastic Heroquest figures, toys and later remounted Mage Knight figures. Mostly generic stuff, but I would include more specialized items depending on what I thought we might face. D&D Minis have slowly been replacing other items in that kit.
Of course, when I am DMing I know exactly what figures I need and so my big collection pays off. [:D] | | | |
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kestrel.ca
Underboss
1687 Posts
| | 01/12/2006 6:28 PM |
| | I really enjoy the look on my player's face and the "What the heck is that thing" when I put down an unusual mini on the board. One of the players is only moderately familiar with the Monster Manual and the others less so. So I've caught them completely unawares with chokers, ambush drakes, and tanarukks so far. They really have no idea what their capabilities are and it makes them so much more cautious. And then after the encounter, they have to examine the mini. They konw that when it's placed on the table they don't get to pick it up to look at the bottom first! | |
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yack
Commander
3320 Posts
Gatineau Canada
| | 01/12/2006 7:52 PM |
| | Great stories, I too am a DM and I supply all the monsters mini wise as all the games are played at my place. The otyugh and bulette also made them go wow! One player knew what the were but gasp as he saw them because he never pictured them that size. Its a great feeling too see their faces in shock and panic. I love my minis!!! [:D] | |
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Monsoon28
Underboss
2313 Posts
Toronto
| | 01/12/2006 8:32 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by kestrel.ca
I really enjoy the look on my player's face and the "What the heck is that thing" when I put down an unusual mini on the board. One of the players is only moderately familiar with the Monster Manual and the others less so. So I've caught them completely unawares with chokers, ambush drakes, and tanarukks so far. They really have no idea what their capabilities are and it makes them so much more cautious. And then after the encounter, they have to examine the mini. They konw that when it's placed on the table they don't get to pick it up to look at the bottom first!
Your lucky...hold onto that while you can... things sure change when everyone knows all the beasts.
I had started (silently) deducting exp when I heard the players exclaim on their first encounter with troll, 'get some fire!' I mean at least try to RP and roll a know check before making that announcement! [V] | |
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Malin Lug
Sergeant
742 Posts
| | 01/13/2006 12:38 PM |
| One of our players that has been gone for a while just came back and rejoined the group (she is a cleric and very, very welcome.) She is a fairly new player and doesn't know the monsters very well and when we were trying to explain what we had been fighting she didn't get the full scale of it untill we started pulling out the minis. We put the minis for our group out and then started to put out bands that we had fought against. Half a dozen Ettins, 4 Hill Giants, an uber Fire Giant, a Cloud Giant, A Glab, 5 Vrocks, etc... etc... it was at that point that she really got the scope of what had been happening in her absence.
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"Are you not entertained?"
Champion of the Common Bar Wench
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Snappa
Sneak
77 Posts
| | 01/13/2006 2:22 PM |
| My group didn't start using minis until 3rd edition, when we started using space marines as proxies. Eventually, I got into D&D minis, and $1000+ dollars later, have a pretty enviable collection for both skirmish and rp. None of my players are mini collectors, though they're perfectly willing to play a few games of skirmish building warbands out of my collection.
They do however, love the minis in our rp games. Right now, they're exploring an underground city/dungeon overrun by devils (using a layout based on Everquest's Old Sebilis if anyone's familiar with the zone from that game). When they reached a three way intersection surrounded by water with creaky looking bridges leading into wide, dark tunnels beyond, and I started dropping numerous hellhounds and minotaurs (half-fiendish) on all three sides, the looks on their faces were classic. They won the fight, but the site of all of those things converging from different sides was enough to make them really think through their tactics. Using dice, or chips just would not have had the same visual effect.
I can't wait for tomorrow night's session when I break out my new army of lemure, hell hounds, young minotaurs (representing an evil quarter breed fiendish minotaur/human ranger that the devils are creating, minotaurs, feral minotaurs, bearded devils (EXPENSIVE!) and a bone devil commander thrown in for good measure.
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AesophDarkfable
Warlord
5628 Posts
| | 01/13/2006 3:34 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Marjorie
Our group has almost the opposite situation. Pretty much every one of our players, and the DM, has minis. We occasionally get a message from the DM saying something along the lines of 'How many Minotaurs do you have' Can you bring them all?
Then we don't know if we're going to be facing them, or helping the huge pile of minotaurs.....
And did I mention that we have 9 Behirs between us? A fact the DM knows...
A buddy of mine would ask for minis before the game, but would always throw in crazy stuff that he may or may not use to throw me off the track. He'd be like, do you have 30 zombies, 2 red dragons, a beholder, two evil clerics (one preferably with a hammer), a hezrou, a nalfshenee, two banshees, and 304 orcs. Then hed use the zombies, the two clerics and the hezrou etc. | |
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Zippy
Underboss
1993 Posts
Whitewater, WI
| | 01/13/2006 4:32 PM |
| I ended up the almost-permanent-DM simply because I have tons of minis (well and the most DM-ing experience, too). My players are always trying to poke through my carrying cases when I'm out of the room, to see what they might run into ("He sure does have a lot of skeletons - hey these are ORC skeletons. Crap there are BIG skeletons in here, too!...").
I suppliment with another player's painted metal minis for variety, but I'm the only one with a significant stock. It's nice DM-ing when the players really have no clue what they'll see on play table once you say those anxious words...
"Roll for initiative." | |
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TroglodyteWizard89
349 Posts
USA
| | 01/13/2006 4:53 PM |
| I envy you as well for that experience
At the beginning, I was the only one with minis, and my players would gape at and examine each one. However, eventually one by one they got into DDM and now know some of the minis better than me... | |
Champion of Troglodytes!
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taliesin
Underboss
1113 Posts
| | 01/14/2006 3:26 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by glumag
After escaping that battle they went to an abandoned temple inside a mountain, plagued by Frost Giants, Ogres and a Cryohydra (I had bought some reaper minis to enhance the ddm line and they are shown in the crafter's corner forum) To say the least, when I brought the Frost Giant Jarl out, the cryohydra and the Jarl's girlfriend there were plenty of "Wows", "Oh S**T!" and "damn, we gonna git killed" comments. [}:)][:D]
Makes lots of preparation and hard work worthwhile when your players appreciate the effort you put to their enjoyment.
Out of curiosity, was that the "Crumbling Hall of the Frost Giant Jarl" you ran your pc's through? If so, how'd it go? I've wanted to use that adventure for a while, but haven't had the chance. | |
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Teflon Jeff
Warlord
7908 Posts
Sector 2814
| | 01/15/2006 7:04 PM |
| | My old group had a split between good and evil (3-3) and finally, they played an all evil group. Needless to say, 6 weeks later at the denouement of the campaign, when I plopped out a HUGE GOLD DRAGON they fell over each other, first to look at it, and then to start erasing alignments on their Character sheets. suddenly, I had 6 LG PC's in my group. I call it a "life changing event." They've even stayed good for the past 2 months, because I keep the HGD on the bookcase behind me, and they keep glancing up at him. I think they are scared of him | |
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orcmonk220
Underboss
1608 Posts
| | 01/18/2006 1:51 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by madda
I simply envy you. My players are hardly supportive at all. Despite using my minis (none of them have any) and the work I put into finding minis for the villians that convey the atmosphere (or building the bad guys to match it), they regard my minis as joke material. Obviously, they can spend time choosing minis for their own characters (and when I forget to bring their minis they are upset) but immediately afterwards they choose to dismiss the whole thing as unimportant.
Hmm, I doubt I'll be using minis in my game. My friends show no interest in my minis, and constantly pick holes in them compared to their Warhammer. It really annoys me.
Wish they appreciated them [:(] | |
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Wrackspawn
ChristopherGroves
Warlord
6093 Posts
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