Just a quickie because I'd like to kind of open poll about it . . .
When you procure miniatures for your games (digital or otherwise), do you use Hero Forge, order from 3D Modellers, design them yourself, or purchase them from official mini makers? Does it matter if it's for a playable character or an NPC/mob/BBEG/etc.? What kind of standards do you look for when procuring minis?
Feel free to give an open resonse, since I'm not too familiar with all the available options and frankly, I doubt a proper poll option is gonna be adequate enough.
Personally, I use either WizKids unpainted minis or ones I like on Etsy. WizKids minis have the advantage of having lots of options directly applicable to D&D with solid modelling and being sturdy. Etsy has a lot of options available so you can generally find what you like (and you can ask folks to resize things to your scale, so you stay in 28mm or whichever size you use), though they are often incredibly fragile and need to be handled with respect.
I don’t overly like Hero Forge’s minis. To ensure they are not fragile, they tend to be more bulky - there’s a lack of elegance to their figures, with models ending up more stocky not, even with the most aggressive use of sliders. The quality is good, building your own is fun, and I’ve ordered them for others as gifts (when their character’s body type actually worked for the minis), but, for myself, it isn’t worth it to pay the premium price for something that will never be what I want.
100% fair. Frankly I'd hard agree on the "bulkiness" of Hero Forge minis, while also having thoughts on how . . . inspired, they could be. (Seriously, I want them to add more cultural options that actually evoke the correct elements of cultural clothing. Looking at you, Shadow Sakura. What the **** was that design choice, it looks like a Call of Duty skin.). I just know they are popular given the fact they made $6 million in FY2021, which might not be a lot, but for a sub-50-man company it's kinda impressive.
This is why I wanted to ask, since it's a fun topic to explore.
So it depends on what for. I have a 3D printer (that's currently printing, actually), and so always 3D print things myself.
As a DM, I'm still building up my collection of monsters. The majority come from free STLs released by MZ4250. They're not anything special... but they're often not bad and they're free. When you're having to do a hundred minis for each campaign...it pays to get free ones.
For special monsters, ones where MZ4250 didn't do a great job or ones where I find a particularly nice STL, I usually get them from MyMiniFactory, which is the STL version of Amazon. They're often quite a few nice files there. I've gotten a few dragons from Lord of the Print and some sweet monsters from Archvillain games. There is mixture of other MMF vendors in my collection too.
For PCs, I often go to HeroForge. The ability to have them custom-made makes them consistently reliable to ensure that the PC has has a personally meaningful touch to them. Each one has something symbolic of their personality present in the mini - something that would be unlikely to present in an MMF mini. I have looked at Eldritch Foundry as well, which is cheaper, but they seem to be substantially more limited in variety than HF, so I've never actually bought one from them.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Disclaimer - I haven't bought physical minis since the pandemic started, so I have done no research since then for better options. Back then, I would frequently use a combination of Reaper unpainted minis and the official Wizkids Minis.
I will say this for Hero Forge, it accomplishes things I can't. Sure there are metal paints to get that certain look, and yes I could train to be a better painter. But the truth is I suck and don't really have the time to become a better painter; having a tool that gets my dream character to look exactly how I imagined it is amazing. Could it be cheaper? Sure! But for me personally, nothing has come close to offering what Hero Forge does. The only thing I dislike (apart from the price per mini) is that anything small and thin, such as short sword, can easily snap if made with a non robust material. Even then something has snapped off and I've had to do a makeshift repair job with glue.
Currently I tend to use it for character portraits and making tokens for Roll 20.
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#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
Query: How many people get HeroForge (or similar) physical minis? The ones they print for you? And how often do you do it?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
I have 4 HeroForge custom minis: I agree with both the bulkiness comments and the idea that even with their breadth of options, sometimes there's just nothing that fits for a specific character idea. Their cat person base, for one, looks nothing like what I think a Tabaxi should look like. But I bought one for my Tabaxi PC anyway, because I liked it better than the few generic Tabaxi minis out there. That said, I backed them in their kickstarter when they were developing color printing, and I've never bothered to use my second free mini that I got with my pledge. I haven't started any new in person campaigns that aren't mini campaigns or entirely online, so it's just been sitting until I either start another one or until I hear they're putting a time limit on using them.
Query: How many people get HeroForge (or similar) physical minis? The ones they print for you? And how often do you do it?
I’ve purchased two, both for others. The former was a character with giant’s blood and most of the face obscured by a beard, so their system worked really well for that. The other was an Aarakocra bard which, try as I might, I could not locate a suitable mini for. That character was extremely flamboyant, so having clothing with puffy sleeves also mitigated the bulky issues I have. I think these purchases were probably a year or more apart, and have not purchased for over a year, so not exactly a loyal customer.
Never ordered a mini for myself from them—I might if I exhaust every other option and cannot find something that fits my vision for a character or important NPC, but I doubt their options will be able to fit my vision either. I have no problem paying extra for custom, but only when the custom object is tailored to my exacting specifications—otherwise, what is the point?
That said, it is kind of fun to play around on their website and build minis—even if none of them are going to be something I want to actually own.
I come from a wargaming background so I am all about the minis. I used to use Reaper minis, but the selection, while large, is not comprehensive. I started resin printing a couple of years ago and now I print most things. I find things on Thingiverse for free, mostly MZ4250 stuff, buy sets and singles on MMF, and I subscribe to Titan Forge's fantasy Patreon which gets me lots of heroes, monsters, and whatnot to throw around.
I've had one player buy an STL from Hero Forge, which I then printed for him. I've also played with their creator, but I've never talked myself into actually buying anything from them. If I did, it would definitely just be the digital file.
I typically flip through Etsy and reaper to see if they’ve got what I want for my character, but often they don’t, so I go to heroforge. But only when I need a new PC, so probably once every couple years.
It’s not even really strange stuff, I was looking for. I had a human in heavy armor, shield and battle axe. Could not find it anywhere (maybe it’s there now, I don’t need it anymore). There were dwarves with shield and axe, or human barbarians with a greataxe. But otherwise, if they were human with a shield, they had a sword. It was really the only option. So if you stick with the classic race/class/gear options, there’s a lot of good, non-custom options out there. But if you start to diverge a bit, it can get tough.
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Just a quickie because I'd like to kind of open poll about it . . .
When you procure miniatures for your games (digital or otherwise), do you use Hero Forge, order from 3D Modellers, design them yourself, or purchase them from official mini makers? Does it matter if it's for a playable character or an NPC/mob/BBEG/etc.? What kind of standards do you look for when procuring minis?
Feel free to give an open resonse, since I'm not too familiar with all the available options and frankly, I doubt a proper poll option is gonna be adequate enough.
Personally, I use either WizKids unpainted minis or ones I like on Etsy. WizKids minis have the advantage of having lots of options directly applicable to D&D with solid modelling and being sturdy. Etsy has a lot of options available so you can generally find what you like (and you can ask folks to resize things to your scale, so you stay in 28mm or whichever size you use), though they are often incredibly fragile and need to be handled with respect.
I don’t overly like Hero Forge’s minis. To ensure they are not fragile, they tend to be more bulky - there’s a lack of elegance to their figures, with models ending up more stocky not, even with the most aggressive use of sliders. The quality is good, building your own is fun, and I’ve ordered them for others as gifts (when their character’s body type actually worked for the minis), but, for myself, it isn’t worth it to pay the premium price for something that will never be what I want.
100% fair. Frankly I'd hard agree on the "bulkiness" of Hero Forge minis, while also having thoughts on how . . . inspired, they could be. (Seriously, I want them to add more cultural options that actually evoke the correct elements of cultural clothing.
Looking at you, Shadow Sakura. What the **** was that design choice, it looks like a Call of Duty skin.). I just know they are popular given the fact they made $6 million in FY2021, which might not be a lot, but for a sub-50-man company it's kinda impressive.This is why I wanted to ask, since it's a fun topic to explore.
So it depends on what for. I have a 3D printer (that's currently printing, actually), and so always 3D print things myself.
As a DM, I'm still building up my collection of monsters. The majority come from free STLs released by MZ4250. They're not anything special... but they're often not bad and they're free. When you're having to do a hundred minis for each campaign...it pays to get free ones.
For special monsters, ones where MZ4250 didn't do a great job or ones where I find a particularly nice STL, I usually get them from MyMiniFactory, which is the STL version of Amazon. They're often quite a few nice files there. I've gotten a few dragons from Lord of the Print and some sweet monsters from Archvillain games. There is mixture of other MMF vendors in my collection too.
For PCs, I often go to HeroForge. The ability to have them custom-made makes them consistently reliable to ensure that the PC has has a personally meaningful touch to them. Each one has something symbolic of their personality present in the mini - something that would be unlikely to present in an MMF mini. I have looked at Eldritch Foundry as well, which is cheaper, but they seem to be substantially more limited in variety than HF, so I've never actually bought one from them.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Disclaimer - I haven't bought physical minis since the pandemic started, so I have done no research since then for better options. Back then, I would frequently use a combination of Reaper unpainted minis and the official Wizkids Minis.
I will say this for Hero Forge, it accomplishes things I can't. Sure there are metal paints to get that certain look, and yes I could train to be a better painter. But the truth is I suck and don't really have the time to become a better painter; having a tool that gets my dream character to look exactly how I imagined it is amazing. Could it be cheaper? Sure! But for me personally, nothing has come close to offering what Hero Forge does. The only thing I dislike (apart from the price per mini) is that anything small and thin, such as short sword, can easily snap if made with a non robust material. Even then something has snapped off and I've had to do a makeshift repair job with glue.
Currently I tend to use it for character portraits and making tokens for Roll 20.
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
Query: How many people get HeroForge (or similar) physical minis? The ones they print for you? And how often do you do it?
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
I have 4 HeroForge custom minis: I agree with both the bulkiness comments and the idea that even with their breadth of options, sometimes there's just nothing that fits for a specific character idea. Their cat person base, for one, looks nothing like what I think a Tabaxi should look like. But I bought one for my Tabaxi PC anyway, because I liked it better than the few generic Tabaxi minis out there. That said, I backed them in their kickstarter when they were developing color printing, and I've never bothered to use my second free mini that I got with my pledge. I haven't started any new in person campaigns that aren't mini campaigns or entirely online, so it's just been sitting until I either start another one or until I hear they're putting a time limit on using them.
Birgit | Shifter | Sorcerer | Dragonlords
Shayone | Hobgoblin | Sorcerer | Netherdeep
I’ve purchased two, both for others. The former was a character with giant’s blood and most of the face obscured by a beard, so their system worked really well for that. The other was an Aarakocra bard which, try as I might, I could not locate a suitable mini for. That character was extremely flamboyant, so having clothing with puffy sleeves also mitigated the bulky issues I have. I think these purchases were probably a year or more apart, and have not purchased for over a year, so not exactly a loyal customer.
Never ordered a mini for myself from them—I might if I exhaust every other option and cannot find something that fits my vision for a character or important NPC, but I doubt their options will be able to fit my vision either. I have no problem paying extra for custom, but only when the custom object is tailored to my exacting specifications—otherwise, what is the point?
That said, it is kind of fun to play around on their website and build minis—even if none of them are going to be something I want to actually own.
I come from a wargaming background so I am all about the minis. I used to use Reaper minis, but the selection, while large, is not comprehensive. I started resin printing a couple of years ago and now I print most things. I find things on Thingiverse for free, mostly MZ4250 stuff, buy sets and singles on MMF, and I subscribe to Titan Forge's fantasy Patreon which gets me lots of heroes, monsters, and whatnot to throw around.
I've had one player buy an STL from Hero Forge, which I then printed for him. I've also played with their creator, but I've never talked myself into actually buying anything from them. If I did, it would definitely just be the digital file.
I typically flip through Etsy and reaper to see if they’ve got what I want for my character, but often they don’t, so I go to heroforge. But only when I need a new PC, so probably once every couple years.
It’s not even really strange stuff, I was looking for. I had a human in heavy armor, shield and battle axe. Could not find it anywhere (maybe it’s there now, I don’t need it anymore). There were dwarves with shield and axe, or human barbarians with a greataxe. But otherwise, if they were human with a shield, they had a sword. It was really the only option. So if you stick with the classic race/class/gear options, there’s a lot of good, non-custom options out there. But if you start to diverge a bit, it can get tough.