Using non-dnd miniatures in games?

[Bluydee]

Sometimes when I have a monster or NPC with no accompanying minature, I replace them with an action figure I own. This has led to some strange moments, where my players had to share a look when I introduced a paladin with a He-Man figure.

Anyone else do this?

[slaydemons]

Yes, I used to use mini figures of roman soldiers the players painted, I still have them somewhere.

[Jack_Simth]

Sometimes when I have a monster or NPC with no accompanying minature, I replace them with an action figure I own. This has led to some strange moments, where my players had to share a look when I introduced a paladin with a He-Man figure.

Anyone else do this?

I haven't yet, but as long as they're close to the right scale for the board you're using, I don't imagine it matters overly much. From one standpoint, they're really just distinguishable location tokens anyway.

[Elkad]

I've been using the same Matchbox tank for elephants, smallish dragons, and whatever else since about 1978. It doesn't work as well now that we use 5' squares, but it gets the idea across.

http://little-wheels.co.uk/full/11461b.JPG

[Bloodgruve]

Legos work well for figures. And siege weaponry. And floor plans. Kre-O, a hasbro lego knock off, is even producing D&D legos now. I bought Drizzt for some dumb reason.

Blood~

[DragonSinged]

For battlemaps I usually go to the local Staples and buy a big sheet of grid paper. $13 or so gets like 50 sheets with 1" squares, just big enough to not drape over the edge of our gaming table. For figures I usually use a mix of whatever's available, as long as it fits the scale of the 1" squares.. if we don't have our mini's with us for whatever reason, frequently it'll end up being coins on the map, and dice. Usually d4's get collected from each player for their characters, and then pennies for generic mooks, quarters for specifically designed NPC's, things like that.

Used to be, back when 3.5 was still the active system, I'd go to a local game store after work and pick up a pack of the random D&D mini's, the ones that came with a little stat card for the miniatures game, and usually that would provide inspiration for an encounter using monsters I would never normally think to use - it made for some really unique encounters, including one that my players still bring up in conversation years later.

The players had been hunting the BBEG for a few sessions at this point, and they'd tracked him to a cabin, where they discovered underneath which was a large cave, with a stone staircase leading down into it. The floor was made of sand, and at the far end of the cavern was the BBEG at an altar with a mysterious tome and the MacGuffin. In the center of the cave (illustrated on the battlemap) was a small double-spike of rock jutting out of the sand, with mysterious runes circling it. When the BBEG noticed the PC's spotting the rock, he casually said, "You probably shouldn't go near that." To which the young, naive wizard runs right over to it to inspect the runes.

When she says this is what she's doing, I casually walk over to the computer and cue up this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAj2E2dWJcc&feature=share&list=PLD03B3B25752D7456&index=18) song (Super Mario Galaxy has such a great OST), walk over to the battlemap, and plunk down the figure for the Young Blue Dragon (http://www.vesivus.com/eBay/dndminis/ICN_Gargantuan_Blue_Dragon.jpg) that I'd gotten about a week ago in a random pack of mini's, over where the double-spike of rock had been on the map.
Getting that mini had gotten me to read the entry in the Monster Manual, which mentions that Blue Dragons like to hide under sand with only their horns sticking out.
The wizard learned this through a surprise round of lightning breath to the face.
The BBEG quips, "I warned you."

Good times.

Anyways, I guess what I'm getting at is that while substitutes for mini's are fine, there is definitely something to be said for having the real thing. I don't think that encounter would have been nearly as memorable if I hadn't had the actual figure to emphasize the severity of the situation, and I probably wouldn't have come up with the encounter at all if I hadn't gotten that mini in a random booster pack... I wish they still made those. :smallfrown:

However, I'm still plotting the day I get to use my to-scale Colossal Red Dragon (http://www.vesivus.com/eBay/dndminis/ICN_Colossal_Red_Dragon.jpg) that I picked up from that same game store. I have had a game planned around that for years.... :smallamused: