Only if you want to. If you and your players are good at 'theater of the mind' style play, then there is no real need unless you want to do so. I use game tokens of different colors, like you might find in the game of Sorry or Clue. I also print off sheets of images you can find online with 1 inch square grids. These can be drawn on and taped together to create a map. It helps the players out and makes your job easier. Minis and battlemats can set you back a good bit. If price point is a deal breaker, there is always a less expensive alternative.
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Thank you. ChrisW
Ones are righteous. And one day, we just might believe it.
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Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Minis are incredibly useful and when running for larger parties I'd argue they become essential. That being said they're also incredibly expensive. Most recently I've found a happy medium which is super cheap* and effective! I back a project called PrintableHeroes on Patreon which gives me access to a bunch of these double sided character arts.
After that I print them, cut them, stick them onto card which I then glue to a painted bottle cap. Here's my results.
I have about 100 of these now and using them on a blank battlemap grid has made for some really fun combat encounters and saved me and my friends a lot of remembering positions and barely cost me a penny! Hope this helps!
I have used minis a good number of times with D&D but to be honest I prefer theater of the mind myself. Try both and see what you or your group prefers. You can run a game or two with minis and a few without all with the same party.
So, the quick and dirty solution is to use whatever you have present that can make for a symbolic mini. I used a brick of d6, and still do, to represent monsters. The number on the dice made it easy to differentiate monsters. I have 3 bricks so I can separate if there's different monster types. I have a handful of minis, so I use those when I can, but in the long run, those d6 have done much better, and are a lot cheaper.
You want to have a Skeletal rider and horse, grab a cheap plastic toy from the store, use a white D6 stacked on top of another white d6, use a rock from the side of the road. The idea is that you're presenting a visual aid. 90% of the game is done in the mind, so the type of visual aid is arbitrary. Not all of us have the luxury of buying, or printing, minis as they're needed, so make due with what you have. Your players may crack jokes, but when the Skeletal Rider...rock... moves across the map and does 4d8 damage in one turn, they'll forget about it and worry about saving their skins.
I try to do theater of the mind whenever it's a smaller scale fight or even a smaller room. I have someone in a group that NEEDS a map and minis regardless of the situation. It gets kind of annoying at times.
Try both and see what sticks. Minis can be a costly investment sometimes, but as some have shared there are cost-effective ways to have a mini collection without breaking the bank.
To DMThaco's comment about cheap plastic horse - I used some cheap kids spider rings from halloween as large spiders against my table. Perfect size, and the coloring made it easy to track HP.
To DMThaco's comment about cheap plastic horse - I used some cheap kids spider rings from halloween as large spiders against my table. Perfect size, and the coloring made it easy to track HP.
I love it when you can find stuff like that and re-purpose it for the game. I have a 2in (5cm) anime dragon figurine I got from a con that I used as a wyrmling. I've used my kid's plastic animals and toys as minis, I remember at one point in time I used salt and pepper shakers as minis during a boss fight...
I try to do theater of the mind whenever it's a smaller scale fight or even a smaller room. I have someone in a group that NEEDS a map and minis regardless of the situation. It gets kind of annoying at times.
Try both and see what sticks. Minis can be a costly investment sometimes, but as some have shared there are cost-effective ways to have a mini collection without breaking the bank.
I went from battle mat, to TotM, but I find that abstract maps, and simple game counters, gives you the best of both worlds - everyone is on the same page where everything is in relation to everything else, but is quick to sketch out.
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
I use 1" wood discs that I added a border color for each pc, and distinguished one side to indicate prone. monsters get a black border and a number to help everyone distinguish them from each other. need a large or huge monster? Put the numbered disc on top of a 2 or 3 inch wood disc. easy peasy.
Minis are incredibly useful and when running for larger parties I'd argue they become essential. That being said they're also incredibly expensive. Most recently I've found a happy medium which is super cheap* and effective! I back a project called PrintableHeroes on Patreon which gives me access to a bunch of these double sided character arts.
After that I print them, cut them, stick them onto card which I then glue to a painted bottle cap. Here's my results.
I have about 100 of these now and using them on a blank battlemap grid has made for some really fun combat encounters and saved me and my friends a lot of remembering positions and barely cost me a penny! Hope this helps!
Basically this.
I am also a supporter of PrintableHeroes, but even if you don't have the money to spend on support you can find a lot of free stuff on there.
As far as "need" - there is absolutely no need for minis, D&D can be fully pen-and-papered from session 1 to BBEG finally going down. That being said, minis are visually more atractive, easier to track on the battle filed, and can give players a chance to dive deeper into their character and the game.
Personally, I am sticking to paper minis as 3D minis are way above my pay grade, and hardly accessible in my country.
Some advice on paper minis (I'm writing these as they come to me and am mos def leaving a lot of stuff out):
- use thin cardboard that still sattisfies the stifness requirement
- print color if possible (visually waaaay better), and if anyway possible print on an LED printer - it gives a glossy finish even on standard 80 gram A4 paper
- if cutting close to the border of the mini (I do this for nonliving things, props, tables, walls, crates etc.) make sure to allign front and back before cutting
- if cutting far from the border of the mini cover the exposed cardboard/paper with black marker - a bit more work, but worth it
- keep the base proportional to creature size. If playing an "inch by inch equals 5 feet" grid keep the base of all medium, small (even tiny) creatures no larger than one square. Scale up accordignly for larger creatures
- use doublesided tape for easier pasting of printed paper to cardboard (being mindful of front and back alignment)
For the battle mat/ grid either use premade inch by inch grid paper (something from a flipchart is usually just the right dimensions) or print one out and cover it in some cheap transparent plastic so you can use dra or wet erase markers on it. Needless to say, this is the budget option, you can always shell out more money for sweeter stuff ;)
Honestly, on a house budget - paper minis are da bomb IMHO.
P.S. - paper minis have an added benefit of being easily replaceable. Nothing worse then painting that mini for XYZ days only to get it chipped or wrecked by some mishap.
EDIT: added a picture of a door and a troll to show different bases, different cutting styles etc. Both from PrintableHeroes
well, i get $4 a week, so are there any actual minis in my price range (w/o say bottle caps, or cardstock, i don't normally have access to craft supplies), or should i just wait until Christmas and pray for more dungeon tiles and minis. i've heard unpainted minis are cheap
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I did NOT eat those hikers.
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As just a general question, should I use minis, and if so, what kind of minis and battlemat
I did NOT eat those hikers.
Only if you want to. If you and your players are good at 'theater of the mind' style play, then there is no real need unless you want to do so. I use game tokens of different colors, like you might find in the game of Sorry or Clue. I also print off sheets of images you can find online with 1 inch square grids. These can be drawn on and taped together to create a map. It helps the players out and makes your job easier. Minis and battlemats can set you back a good bit. If price point is a deal breaker, there is always a less expensive alternative.
Thank you.
ChrisW
Ones are righteous. And one day, we just might believe it.
Minis can be awesome - a form of immersive art - and fun, in and of themselves. And they've become the de facto standard for a lot of people.
But you don't need them. As chriswalrath points out, you can do Theater of the Mind approach - here's the D&D Beyond Series about how to do that.
Personally, I use a portable whiteboard, and a bunch of colored game pieces to do abstract maps which is kind of halfway between the two worlds.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
So, my next adventure features a skeleton riding a skeleton horse, and I can’t find a mini for that. What should I do?
I did NOT eat those hikers.
Gummi Bears.
When they are killed, the Player responsible gets to eat them
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Cuts-Unpainted-Minis-Skeleton/dp/B07D5M1KLT
or
https://www.amazon.com/Golgoth-Skeletal-Knight-on-Horse/dp/B002EZS8W6
...cryptographic randomness!
Minis are incredibly useful and when running for larger parties I'd argue they become essential. That being said they're also incredibly expensive. Most recently I've found a happy medium which is super cheap* and effective! I back a project called PrintableHeroes on Patreon which gives me access to a bunch of these double sided character arts.
After that I print them, cut them, stick them onto card which I then glue to a painted bottle cap. Here's my results.
I have about 100 of these now and using them on a blank battlemap grid has made for some really fun combat encounters and saved me and my friends a lot of remembering positions and barely cost me a penny! Hope this helps!
// Myco Gnome // Fungus themed Subrace
I use minis for my heroes and my BBEGs. I print out pennimies on card stock as I build up my collection of monsters.
I have used minis a good number of times with D&D but to be honest I prefer theater of the mind myself. Try both and see what you or your group prefers. You can run a game or two with minis and a few without all with the same party.
now, with experience, i can safely say they cannot grok tactics ToTM, but i dont got money for minis, nor recources for paper dudes.
I did NOT eat those hikers.
Digital Alternetives?
I did NOT eat those hikers.
So, the quick and dirty solution is to use whatever you have present that can make for a symbolic mini. I used a brick of d6, and still do, to represent monsters. The number on the dice made it easy to differentiate monsters. I have 3 bricks so I can separate if there's different monster types. I have a handful of minis, so I use those when I can, but in the long run, those d6 have done much better, and are a lot cheaper.
You want to have a Skeletal rider and horse, grab a cheap plastic toy from the store, use a white D6 stacked on top of another white d6, use a rock from the side of the road. The idea is that you're presenting a visual aid. 90% of the game is done in the mind, so the type of visual aid is arbitrary. Not all of us have the luxury of buying, or printing, minis as they're needed, so make due with what you have. Your players may crack jokes, but when the Skeletal Rider...rock... moves across the map and does 4d8 damage in one turn, they'll forget about it and worry about saving their skins.
actually, they cut the bridge and the rider fell into a chasm in one round.
I did NOT eat those hikers.
I try to do theater of the mind whenever it's a smaller scale fight or even a smaller room. I have someone in a group that NEEDS a map and minis regardless of the situation. It gets kind of annoying at times.
Try both and see what sticks. Minis can be a costly investment sometimes, but as some have shared there are cost-effective ways to have a mini collection without breaking the bank.
To DMThaco's comment about cheap plastic horse - I used some cheap kids spider rings from halloween as large spiders against my table. Perfect size, and the coloring made it easy to track HP.
I love it when you can find stuff like that and re-purpose it for the game. I have a 2in (5cm) anime dragon figurine I got from a con that I used as a wyrmling. I've used my kid's plastic animals and toys as minis, I remember at one point in time I used salt and pepper shakers as minis during a boss fight...
I went from battle mat, to TotM, but I find that abstract maps, and simple game counters, gives you the best of both worlds - everyone is on the same page where everything is in relation to everything else, but is quick to sketch out.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
I use 1" wood discs that I added a border color for each pc, and distinguished one side to indicate prone. monsters get a black border and a number to help everyone distinguish them from each other. need a large or huge monster? Put the numbered disc on top of a 2 or 3 inch wood disc. easy peasy.
Basically this.
I am also a supporter of PrintableHeroes, but even if you don't have the money to spend on support you can find a lot of free stuff on there.
As far as "need" - there is absolutely no need for minis, D&D can be fully pen-and-papered from session 1 to BBEG finally going down. That being said, minis are visually more atractive, easier to track on the battle filed, and can give players a chance to dive deeper into their character and the game.
Personally, I am sticking to paper minis as 3D minis are way above my pay grade, and hardly accessible in my country.
Some advice on paper minis (I'm writing these as they come to me and am mos def leaving a lot of stuff out):
- use thin cardboard that still sattisfies the stifness requirement
- print color if possible (visually waaaay better), and if anyway possible print on an LED printer - it gives a glossy finish even on standard 80 gram A4 paper
- if cutting close to the border of the mini (I do this for nonliving things, props, tables, walls, crates etc.) make sure to allign front and back before cutting
- if cutting far from the border of the mini cover the exposed cardboard/paper with black marker - a bit more work, but worth it
- keep the base proportional to creature size. If playing an "inch by inch equals 5 feet" grid keep the base of all medium, small (even tiny) creatures no larger than one square. Scale up accordignly for larger creatures
- use doublesided tape for easier pasting of printed paper to cardboard (being mindful of front and back alignment)
For the battle mat/ grid either use premade inch by inch grid paper (something from a flipchart is usually just the right dimensions) or print one out and cover it in some cheap transparent plastic so you can use dra or wet erase markers on it. Needless to say, this is the budget option, you can always shell out more money for sweeter stuff ;)
Honestly, on a house budget - paper minis are da bomb IMHO.
P.S. - paper minis have an added benefit of being easily replaceable. Nothing worse then painting that mini for XYZ days only to get it chipped or wrecked by some mishap.
EDIT: added a picture of a door and a troll to show different bases, different cutting styles etc. Both from PrintableHeroes
well, i get $4 a week, so are there any actual minis in my price range (w/o say bottle caps, or cardstock, i don't normally have access to craft supplies), or should i just wait until Christmas and pray for more dungeon tiles and minis. i've heard unpainted minis are cheap
I did NOT eat those hikers.