On Miniatures: How I Spent all of my Money on Plastic

*wink*

That topic title was suggestive content. You're all welcome.

The fourth Kickstarter for Bones Miniatures is currently up, enticing the nerd in all of us to reach deep into our wallets and fork over large sums of paper to acquire molded, shaped plastic in the form of orcs, dragons, lizards, knights, and more dragons.

I couldn't be happier. I was lucky (unlucky?) enough to get in on the third Bones Kickstarter, netting me a box of miniatures that I will most assuredly NEVER get to use all of. I have more kobolds than any reasonable dragon could ever want as a minion hoard. Enough dwarves to repopulate Moria (LotR nerds in the back say "Mellon!").

In the end I have zero regrets. Why? Three years later and you guys still ask such excellent questions. Gold stars for the entire class!

Why don't I regret buying miniatures for Tabletop Gaming? Miniatures help all the players at the table.

Not every person is a creative mastermind, capable of fathoming a complex universe in their mind or even the outfit a wizard might wear. Some players have never played fantasy or science fiction and they need something to help them convert their mental picture into one everyone at the table can share.

Some people need to see a battlefield to understand what is happening. Some people weren't paying attention four seconds ago when you describe the archway of red marble that bisects the room over a nest of crackling black dragon eggs. They need to see it. And that's okay! Some learners are visual! Some learners need descriptions! If my master's degree in education is worth anything, it is helping me be a better dungeon master for my players.

Will you always have perfect miniatures for the dreams of your players? Hell no. To this day I have never been able to provide an adequate Dragonborn miniature for a player who pictured a green dragonborn using a chainwhip while wearing a dashing swashbuckler hat. That miniature doesn't exist. It should. If there were a noble and worship-worthy god that miniature would have been the first one made. But we live in the real world and that world is a green dragonborn swashbuckler free world that needs help.

Last October I ran a game utilizing a local gamestore's Dwarven Forge terrain and my own. I painted and provided 3 gigantic Kaiju style minis (a Tarrasque, a Dragon, and a Cthulu). Players ran from building to build, watching Kaiju's fight in a grand courtyard while throwing monsters left and right, breaking open buildings that they could loot and harass. I could have done the whole thing on paper or dry-erase board but then pieces wouldn't have flown everywhere. A blue dragon head on a wall wouldn't have started talking to hallucinating characters. The Warforge bank wouldn't have had its back wall blown open by the Tarrasque throwing the Cthulu into it. I just wrote that sentence and it made my heart race!

Is it time for a bullet point list? It's been so long. I'm getting misty, here.

1. Use anything you can when you first start playing: My first game of Dungeons and Dragons was run for my brother and my cousins. We had a Stratego Board and the game pieces from Lord of the Rings Monopoly. That was our gaming grid. Those were our minis. Seeing Gimli stand in for a human fighter was fun. Galadriel's flowing white gown worked well for the party's armor-clad cleric. But we had miniatures and my players could see the battlefield and they had fun. We used what we had to help visualize. Here are some helpful examples of things you can use if you're new or unable to buy stuff:
 - Chess or checkers pieces
 - Coins
 - Extra dice
 - Salt-water taffy (you can actually shape it! It's pretty sweet)
 - Colored glass beads from Michaels
 - Frozen tears from former players
 - M&M's (will result in TPK when players eat their own M&Ms)
I regularly used to haul around a set of wooden chess and checkers pieces because it gives you minions (checkers) and unique pieces for each players (chess).

2. Go on a shopping trip with your players: Take your players on an outing to your local gamestore (always support your local gamestore). Look at the racks of plastic Bones miniatures and help your players find ones that suit their character. Host a painting night or ask your gamestore owner if he knows someone that can help. Give your players ownership over their characters because it will make them happy and more interested in what happens. When they are passionate about their player, they'll start being passionate about your game.

3. Invest in monster minis: Goblins, orcs, kobolds, snakes, spiders, dragons, etc. Having minis to represent the enemy feels amazing!!! When your group actually gets to see the ugly mug of a kobold when they move into range it's easier to picture the far more badass version in their brains. Every little piece of description and visceral detail and visual stand-in makes it easier for our complicated brains to see the blood fly out of that little kobold's face as a hammer smashes it in. And for players that don't want to see that, they can see it in chibi, miniature form on the table in front of them and avoid the nightmares.

4. Use miniatures to help you plan: Do you have a lot of orc miniatures you haven't used yet? Use them. Sea monsters? Great, now you have reason to design a Legend of Zelda style water temple and populate it with Merpeople and horrible fish ghosts! Dragons? Airship dragon army battle! I have new Frankenstein style monsters which means there's going to be an upcoming game where my players have to fight their way into a mad scientist's lab, fighting twisted chimeras and sewn together undead along the way. Why? Because I can!

Miniatures are great. I have no regrets. Spend money. Capitalism HO!