A DM's Plight!

[zeifly]

Okay, so I've only been a DM for about a year or so, and my repertoire of game-improving items (such as minis, maps, DM screens, etc.) is quite low. I've tried searching for some stuff, but it all seems to be relatively expensive. Does anyone know where I could get some decent minis and such for a low price? I already have One Monk for paper minis, but I was looking for something a bit sturdier. Any suggestions?

[Aegis013]

You can always use coins, paper scraps with letters, dice with different numbers displayed up (or for small fights, everybody can be a different die type). You can use graph paper for a battle mat if you want and paper or folders with cheat sheets just written down on the backs as a DM Screen. It's OK to be thrifty, but all of these aren't strictly necessary. I've DM'd for many years and I no longer use the battle mat, the DM screen, or minis at all. I just use a theater of the mind style and enjoy it greatly.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Pazio makes little cardboard guys which seem sturdy enough. You can get a huge box (http://paizo.com/products/btpy8tj5/discuss&page=4?Pathfinder-Pawns-Bestiary-Box)for around $40

[PraxisVetli]

Dude
Dude
You ready?
Dry erase boards and lego minifigs.

[Bullet06320]

Dude
Dude
You ready?
Dry erase boards and lego minifigs.

at least im not the only one that does that

coins, chess pieces, monopoly tokens all work in a pinch too

[JDL]

I print a Google image that fits, then laminate them and bag them in plastic zip lock bags for use later. This has given me a sizeable collection of sturdy mini tokens that don't wear out. If I want to stand them up instead of laying them flat on the table, blue tack with a coin works, or the Pathfinder bases they use for the cardboard minis will do too. I double side the images so they're easier to identify in the bag, and write the name of the group of monsters on them for quick reference (humanoids, goblinoids, animals, elementals etc.)

[goto124]

Use food as minatures. Gummy bears, cookies, chocolates.

When an enemy dies, eat the food!

[Theomniadept]

Not all your characters are going to be using ALL their dice. That barbarian has no use for his d4s - those are now figures.

I personally use the little plastic tokens from Risk 2210 AD, since they have 5 different colors to choose from. Players and DMs can easily tell whose animal companion/summoned monster is whose.

Also legos are really good too, especially for mounted players, since you can tell at a glance whether you're mounted to your 'horse'.

[TinyMushroom]

Chessboards can be great as maps too

[Bronk]

You can always use coins, paper scraps with letters, dice with different numbers displayed up (or for small fights, everybody can be a different die type). You can use graph paper for a battle mat if you want and paper or folders with cheat sheets just written down on the backs as a DM Screen. It's OK to be thrifty, but all of these aren't strictly necessary. I've DM'd for many years and I no longer use the battle mat, the DM screen, or minis at all. I just use a theater of the mind style and enjoy it greatly.

This is what I do too. Using the battle mat things was too restrictive for me.

For a while we were all making our own minis with paper clay, then painting them, but that ended up out of scale with the battle mat anyway, and we switched to a big dry erase board. I made a great beholder with clay, a styrofoam ball, pipe cleaners and googly eyes! I also have a decent troll, spellweaver, and a number of dragons and fey.

The problem with paper clay was that it was hard to make small critters and people with enough detail... even legs were problematic. We tried to switch to making more intricate small figures out of thermoplastic from 'inventables', but that didn't work out so well because when it was hot enough to work with, it was too hot to hold, and hard to dry off too (you had to use really hot water).

There were a number of heroclick style minis that came out a few years ago... they were annoying because they were 'collectible' and you usually couldn't be sure of what you were getting. However, last year my local game store got a hold of a zillion of them out of box, and were selling them for various amounts of money depending on size. You might get lucky like that, if that's what you want.

Oh, plus, craft stores often have little areas for miniature animals and fantasy creatures, although those can get a bit pricey too, and the dragons you find never quite match up with DnD critters.

Edit:

The crayola clay had a lot of the same problems as paper clay, although you could work it for longer before it lost it's clayishness. I never used sculpey because it seemed like to much work to bake it, and I'd heard a lot of complaints about accidentally burning it.

I've heard a lot of good things about sending away for 3D printed minis, but I haven't tried that myself.

I've also been planning on trying to dremel some figures out of stone, but haven't had time yet. I anticipate a big mess.

Oh, that reminds me, walmart and some of the other craft stores sell wee sets of paintable plaster figures that I've used as well, usually cute little dragons, kinda gnomish looking wizards, nifty looking princesses, and a bunch of other stuff like bugs, treasure chests, and ships, all about 2 or 3 inches tall and wide. They have bigger paintable ceramic things too, and a couple of bobble head paintable dogs that I've used.

Double edit:

You could go 1/6 scale too... that's barbie sized, but it turns out there's a whole hobby line of 1/6 characters out there.

[GilesTheCleric]

WotC publishes the images of creatures from (most of) their books online. It's possible to cut them to size and just print them. Printing to heavier-weight paper (30 lb+) or plastic or chipboard if your print shop supports that makes them plenty durable. Plus since they're paper you can track things on the backs of them in pencil.

Luckily for you, I've already done that work, so if you'd like 1622 creature tokens all made into circles at 256x256, let me know and I'll dropbox them for you. Doing the photoshop work to print them to the scale you want is on you, though. (Edit: They should all print to 1"x1" by default)

Getting all three of sturdy + cheap + variety is just like having that problem in engineering/product design (cheap/efficient/effective). You can only have two of three.

Purchasing minis such as Mage Knight figures or Reaper Mini's Bones series will save you on money, as will purchasing children's toys (such as those tubes of critters), or the Bag O' Zombies or Bag O' Dogs for the Zombies! board game.

Variety can be had with purchasing glass half-beads, dice, 1/8 in plastic interlocking cubes, legos (secondhand, holy cow have they gotten expensive), etc.

[kalasulmar]

Some of the best value I have gotten was buying the Wrath of Ashardalon, Legend of Drizzt, and Castle Ravenloft game sets. Good pile of minis and some good tile pieces along with them. Also, having a wife that enjoys painting (and repainting) said minis to desired specs helps. I have also gotten lucky on ebay before and snagged larger lots for decent prices.

[Flickerdart]

Lego minifigs are a good solution (especially since you can kit them out with the equipment you need for your guy) but they are prohibitively expensive unless you already happen to own the right ones. Reaper Miniatures sells relatively cheap plastic minis in their Bones (http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/Bones) series; there was a kickstarter a few years back to get a huge box but individual ones are available on their site for $2-3 a pop.

[Nibbens]

Okay, so I've only been a DM for about a year or so, and my repertoire of game-improving items (such as minis, maps, DM screens, etc.) is quite low. I've tried searching for some stuff, but it all seems to be relatively expensive. Does anyone know where I could get some decent minis and such for a low price? I already have One Monk for paper minis, but I was looking for something a bit sturdier. Any suggestions?

http://www.miniaturemarket.com/

2-3$ per miniature isn't so bad - so buy the "bones" miniatures. Save your nickles and dimes to buy for your PCs first, then start in on commonly used monsters, etc.

As for a battle mat - hobby lobby or office depot should have large 1 in gridded tablets. Draw your scene, move your new minis on it, then throw it away when you're done. They're usually large 3 feet X 4 feet or so, so they'll fit all your needs.

If you want something more "official" I use one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Chessex-Role-Playing-Play-Mat/dp/B0015IQO2O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1430750304&sr=8-1&keywords=battle+mat

They're "cheaper" (about 20 dollars) but "cheap" is a relative word in the world...

If you're really itching for home-made stuff. Take printer paper, and using a ruler draw 1 in X1 in squares, make several of them - go to your nearest office depot and laminate them all. When you're done, tape them all together for larger battlefields. You can draw on the laminated sheets and wet erase them when you're done.

Also, don't be so hung up on miniatures and whatnot. My players still talk about our "glory days" of d&d from highschool in which PCs were quarters with masking tape on them with their characters initials written in marker. Enemies were nickles, trees and rocks were pennies and dimes. For anything large we used hotsauce bottles, and huge we used coffee cups. Even though we now have jobs and painting hobbies, we still talk about our quarters (which are still in their shelf at my home).

[Propagandalf]

If you have printing available and like the OotS style art for your mini's, theres the Iheartprintandplay downloadable pdf's with printable monsters, npc's and stuff. I think they're pretty cool.:smallsmile:

[dascarletm]

For a DM screen, what I did is staple/tape manila folders together. On the side facing players I wrote something ominous, "Abandon hope all ye who enter," or something like that. I then printed out some handy quick-reference tables that I either made or found on the internet.

[ZamielVanWeber]

You can always use coins, paper scraps with letters, dice with different numbers displayed up (or for small fights, everybody can be a different die type). You can use graph paper for a battle mat if you want and paper or folders with cheat sheets just written down on the backs as a DM Screen. It's OK to be thrifty, but all of these aren't strictly necessary. I've DM'd for many years and I no longer use the battle mat, the DM screen, or minis at all. I just use a theater of the mind style and enjoy it greatly.

Although having a grid is nice, if you can get used to doing it mentally is can actually speed up play since there is a lot less manipulation you need to do.

[dascarletm]

Although having a grid is nice, if you can get used to doing it mentally is can actually speed up play since there is a lot less manipulation you need to do.

I've wanted to do that for some time, but I was always worried it would punish players focusing on AoOs, and AOE manipulation.

[JDL]

Some systems can work without a grid, but 3.5e isn't one unless you're removing a lot of the rules. Attacks of opportunity, flanking, range penalties, area of effect spells, cover and concealment, difficult terrain; there's huge chunks of the rules that you'd miss if you don't use a grid. At some point you're better off simply playing a different game instead, such as 5th edition.

[Aegis013]

Although having a grid is nice, if you can get used to doing it mentally is can actually speed up play since there is a lot less manipulation you need to do.

Agreed. It also helps maintain the flow when you don't have stop playing to spend time setting up because there's a combat afoot. It's also my experience that it helps players maintain their characters' personalities rather than losing touch during the combat.


Some systems can work without a grid, but 3.5e isn't one unless you're removing a lot of the rules. Attacks of opportunity, flanking, range penalties, area of effect spells, cover and concealment, difficult terrain; there's huge chunks of the rules that you'd miss if you don't use a grid. At some point you're better off simply playing a different game instead, such as 5th edition.

But I still use every single rule you mentioned. :smallconfused:
When you've got as much practice communicating the details of the combat area without visual aids as I do, all of these things very rarely present any issue, even when a variety of them show up in pretty well every single combat, and generally, when a problem is presented, it's one or two sentences away from being solved.