DandD minis

[jebob]

As a new DM, what are the best sets for getting your first D and D minis? All the boxes I got so far, (Dungeon Delves and Savage Encounters) contain one of several species of creature: e.g. one minotaur, one gnoll, one snake, and an elemental. While this may boost and round out a DM's collection, it doesn't help when building a set of encounters.

If it matters, I am mainly using human foes, kobolds as cannon fodder, lots of undead with a coupla elves to round it off.

[Tyndmyr]

I use warhammer fantasy minis for a number of things. lizardfolk make excellent kobolds with only minor modification, for instance.

Ebay is also great for minis.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Or you can go The Giant's way and use stick figures on little stands:smallbiggrin:

Well, I usually get my minis from a kind of market which sells geeky stuff (videogames, TCG, comics, and stuff like that).... I am not really sure how to describe it acurately on english.

[Tyndmyr]

Game shop is typical. We've got those around here too, and they sell individual minis and "encounter packs" which have a bunch of similar/same kind of minis. Quite handy, but unfortunately, not everyone has such a place nearby.

[Emmerask]

As a new DM, what are the best sets for getting your first D and D minis? All the boxes I got so far, (Dungeon Delves and Savage Encounters) contain one of several species of creature: e.g. one minotaur, one gnoll, one snake, and an elemental. While this may boost and round out a DM's collection, it doesn't help when building a set of encounters.

If it matters, I am mainly using human foes, kobolds as cannon fodder, lots of undead with a coupla elves to round it off.

We mostly use the minis from other games:
Heroes quest has some okayish stuff, Descent: Journeys in the Dark has a ton of humanoid monsters and we bought the Castle Ravenloft Board Game (which frankly I think sucks, but the minis are very nice^^)

[Cahokia]

Or you can go The Giant's way and use stick figures on little stands:smallbiggrin:

The above is my personal favorite method, but in a hurry, I just use some graph paper with reasonably large squares, a pencil with a good eraser, and symbols to represent the combatants.

[jebob]

This (http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440067a&prodId=prod820859) seems the best for a bunch of kobolds.

I may just get some packs of heros and use those.

[Loren]

The Monster Vault which is coming out next month is advertised as having lots of tokens that can be used in place of minis. If you are playing 4E it also has a monster manuel type book. This kit should (if it is done correctly) provide a good base to use when gaming.
3E also had a Basic Game box that has an ok starting set of minis, but it was/is over priced in my opinion.
I've heard tell that ordering a crate of booster mini's from wizards will give you a good collection, but I've never done this.

Edit
Mega minitures also has some well priced packs
http://www.megaminis.com/

[oxybe]

on my sig there is a "token maker" link. click on it and download the tokentool application.

tokentool is ridiculously easy to use.
-find a picture, either scanned or online (google, an SRD, a database, whatever)
-click and drag it on the large workspace with the token outline on it. move it around, zoom & crop to get a good mugshot.
-save it.

hooray, a token. huh? you want multiple kobolds, not just one?

alright. yet again, go in my sig and grab the "image manipulation tool", GIMP (the Gnu Image Manipulation Program).

-open a fresh 8x11.5 sheet
-do some copy/paste to get multiple tokens
-use your awesome photoshopping (gimping?) skills to add numbers on the tokens (5 kobolds, each with 1-5 numbered on a corner somewhere)
-print.

hooray and huzza! tokens.

oh, you don't want them to fly away?

-go to a craft store
-you should be able to find either double sided tape or a glue stick. i hope.
-what you're really looking for are 1inch (or whatever) disks. these should be pretty cheap and plenty. i know i've seen them at micheals and the dollar store.
-add tape/glue to one side of disk & apply the cut-out token

alright. done.

[Katana_Geldar]

What I have found is that my minis build up slowly and I go for the ones I want appearance-wise for my current campaign as well as ones to match up with my players. And ones I can afford that look cool.

Some places will sell individual minis very cheap, just keep a look out and ask.

[Dust]

Do not buy the new set, Lords of Madness, if you're just starting your collection. While it has a few handy things such as treasure chests and basic skeletons, almost all of the figs are highly specialized.

I built my 4e collection on the figures in the Dungeon Delves and Savage Encounters boxes as you attempted, and while it resulted in a GREAT set of minis for almost anything I might need, it ended up costing me close to $400.

I second TokenTool.

1) Have your players supply you pictures of their characters, find monsters you'll need.
2) Make the tokens via the program, it's extremely easy to drag-n-drop.
3) Save all the tokens on a single page in microsoft word
4) Stick it on a flash drive and take it to your local printing shop, get it printed on thick cardstock in color.
5) Cut the tokens out carefully and get them laminated.

Done. Long-lasting 2-D tokens that are customized for your players, and cost you less than a few bucks.

[jebob]

I think we have a card-capable printer, so downloading token tool now...

[gurban]

I get my players to supply their individual minis. For monsters, i lucked out and found a lot of MageKnight minis, and just bought em all for $28. 300+ minis, all types. Ebay often has some similar sets.

[derfenrirwolv]

Blech. Go reaper, get metal.

[Tyrant]

If you're wanting to stick with the actual prepainted D&D minis and you want lots of one type or another, you should buy them seperately from the boosters. Unless the figure you are after is a common, you won't cheaply get them iin large numbers. Also, if it is a common, it's probably pretty cheap online. If you're in the US, there are a number of (online) options. At this point, since the series has suffered some "setbacks", most of the past figures are relatively cheap (below what they once sold for, anyway). Only buy the boosters if you want most or all of the figures in the set and even then you should buy online by the case for the best bang for your buck.

Also, the Ravenloft boardgame mentioned earlier uses D&D minis in different colors (I think a couple are all new though) so they are available elsewhere fully painted.

Here are some links if you want to see what has come out already:
1.0 sets (http://www.ddmspoilers.com/dod_stats.php)(14 sets of various sizes)
2.0 sets (http://www.ddmspoilers.com/dwb_stats2-0.php)
"Current era" sets (http://www.ddmspoilers.com/mm_05.php)
For those three, use the set names at the top of the page to navigate from one set to another. The stats are for the skirmish game and don't directly translate to the RPG. The 1.0 game was based on 3.5 and the 2.0 game was based on 4.0. The "current" sets do not come with skirmish stat cards (though they are available for download here (http://ddmguild.com/) if you have any interest) but it follows the 2.0 rules.

If you want to buy them online, check any of these and compare prices:
Strike Zone (http://shop.strikezoneonline.com/)
Auggies (http://store02.prostores.com/servlet/auggiesgames/StoreFront) (singles seller)
Cardhaus (http://www.cardhaus.com/cgi-local/shop3.pl/SID=5421413346734910213/page=home.htm)
Miniature Market (http://www.miniaturemarket.com/)
I'm sure there are others, but those are the ones I have used off and on.

Also, places like Ebay have large figure lots that you may be able to use.

[Ravens_cry]

If your feeling cheap or creative or both, you could print out monster pictures on card stock at the right scale and fold them like so:
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/7383/supercheapmini.png
If you feel that flops around too much, add a weight in the centre.

[TheThan]

Warhammer minis are wonderful because you can get a bunch of minis of a certain type for relatively cheep. For example a box of skeletons will probably be all you’ll ever need. Now if you want something specific like a carrion crawler, well there are dnd minis and reaper, which has some of those sorts of things. you should be able to buy them in singles if you look around.

Also I love that there is a token maker, problem is when I click the link I get a blank page.

[dgnslyr]

If you feel stingy, resort to pocket change/erasers/unused dice.

[Leon]

Unless you buy them from a Non GW source that sells them cheaper than retail i'd not call a Box of GW minis realativly cheap.

[oxybe]

fixed my sig, so when you click it should start the download now.

[bokodasu]

I've found Mega Miniatures (linked above) to be a good compromise between quality and price; they're only slightly less nice than Reaper minis, and generally around 1/3 the price. Plus they have female minis that wear clothes/armor, and a nice selection of monstrous female minis, which good luck finding anywhere else.

Also a tip if you're doing paper tokens and have a bit of familiarity with some image editing software - make yourself a 3x5 template and print a few at a time onto photo paper through Costco (cheapest and best quality) or somewhere like CVS (more expensive but probably more convenient). But even if you go for the most expensive option, it's still only like 1 cent per nice stand-up paper mini and it will definitely be cheaper than printing at home unless you make your own ink out of bark and berries or something.