Models when dming and 1 or two other questions

[Lance Tankmen]

First off sorry if this isn't a place to ask it, but I figured as I DM 5e it's a start and had trouble finding any other place where it's discussed. Also this is about 3 questions as well. 1st off how many of you DMs use models and do you find it better or worse? 2nd I see there isn't model for every thing so is there a decent site to buy blank spaces that are the right size ? 3rd I noticed with the newer sets that some of the dragons are on large bases but should be huge bases would you as a dm or player be bothered by fighting a dragon only 10ft by 10ft ?

[lunaticfringe]

1. Sometimes we use old wargame models most of the time it's just theater of the mind.

2. Lol you can print out paper tokens or models, for missing Stuff. In wargames it's called Counts As. Models get expensive and are really just for tactical stuff.

3. Get some Cardboard, trace a Huge Base. Cut out base, apply tiny dragon. If it bothers you that is

[Laserlight]

I generally use minis for the players. Reaper Bones are reasonably cheap.

For the monsters, I printed out a sheet of numbers -- 11-50 should be plenty. Make some in different colors so you can say "red numbers are goblins, orange are hobgoblins, blue are NPCs", and so forth. And you don't start with 1 because your 6 and 9 look too much alike.
Get a 1" circle punch from the paper crafter section of a hobby store and punch them out. The craft store will also have 1" wood discs...but they're a little smaller than 1", so they don't work. Go to the hardware store and get the circular felt things that you put on chair feet. In addition to a batch of 1" discs, get a few 2" and 3" for larger monsters.
Apply paper discs to the 1" felt discs. If you need more than one of the 2" or 3" size for a fight, just stack a 1" on top of each, so you have them numbered.

This will cost you perhaps $20 for materials and makes a few dozen monster tokens.

[JAL_1138]

Pathfinder Pawns are dirt cheap compared to plastic or metal minis, but have the disadvantage of only being 2D and still meant to stand on bases, so they don't give a really accurate picture of the size of Large or Huge enemies. I've found that gluing bases to squares of card stock of appropriate size for Large and bigger enemies makes it easier to grok the size of the creature on the map. Still, I've found them quite useful.

EDIT: If you can't find bases for them, binder-clips work.

[Mandragola]

My group uses minis on a square grid. I quite like making them for my characters. I trawl the internet for a suitable figure, often convert it to be holding the right stuff, and paint it as well as I can.

We always use something for the monsters, though we don't always worry much about having exactly the right thing. We get stuff from all kinds of sources, so for instance we've got a fair bit of GW stuff, some reaper minis, and some spiders that I think date back to a halloween party.

One member of the group buys loads of the actual dnd minis (for some reason I don't understand - I'm not a fan) and so we have a stock of the generic things you tend to meet. He's also got a lot of actual resin terrain that we occasionally use to create dungeons. Mostly we just use whiteboard pens and a battlemat. The resin stuff costs big money.

[Finback]

First off sorry if this isn't a place to ask it, but I figured as I DM 5e it's a start and had trouble finding any other place where it's discussed. Also this is about 3 questions as well. 1st off how many of you DMs use models and do you find it better or worse? 2nd I see there isn't model for every thing so is there a decent site to buy blank spaces that are the right size ? 3rd I noticed with the newer sets that some of the dragons are on large bases but should be huge bases would you as a dm or player be bothered by fighting a dragon only 10ft by 10ft ?

1. I play with both minis and pawns, as I feel that it covers issues of distance quite well. If you get to a point where your players are trying to work out that if they're 40ft from the goblins, but they move at 20ft per turn, but the fireball spell has a 30ft range, then how many are in range for killination, then minis can be a very useful way to settle it. Most of my minis are not painted, because I lack the skill, but they can also have great visual impact for size, etc. A game I played was heightened when four Huge chain golems were placed on the map. It doesn't have to be the exact *right looking* figure either. That's what imagination is for.

2. Improvise. If a player is complaining that your mini is a warg, and not a hellhound, threaten to start using Kinder egg toys. ;)

3. Again, you have to improvise. Existing minis show a lot of variations, based solely on how the figure is positioned. I mentally explain it away as a giraffe might be far, far taller than an elephant, but it occupies a far smaller groundprint and mass, yet to the eye, can look more impressive. A dragon standing on two legs, arched over to breathe fire, on a Huge base, is imposing either way. Besides, you can always just cut out a 4" base, and stick on the bottom with some double sided tape. Problem resolved! And as a player? It never bothers me, because realistically, we don't have infinite resources at hand.

[Finback]

Also, use a range of sources. It removes some of the issues of cost. I personally use both, and use them in specific ways e.g. I have a couple of frost giant minis, but heaps of the frost giant pawns Paizo did. This allows me to say "this is their lord, this is his sergeant, these guys are his mooks". Plus, the Paizo pawns often colour the reference number for that mini in a different shade, so you can keep track of the mooks' hit points, etc. just as easily.

[mgshamster]

I used to use models in a grid. Drew out every map and placed minis on the board. Took a lot of time.

Now, we only use models if we have trouble envisioning it with our mind. And when we do, we just use dice to represent everything. Don't even use a grid, just the table.

The only exception to that is on PBP games, where we try to use a grid map and tokens on every combat. Mostly because it's more difficult to explain things when you're not in person, and drawing a map doesn't slow down game on PBP games.

[JAL_1138]

If you can't find Pathfinder Pawns or don't want to shell out for them, another thing I've seen people do is find printable pawns, print them on card stock, and cut them out (not fancy, just in squares) with scissors. Binder clips (can buy 50-100 at a time dirt cheap from office supply stores) for bases, glued or otherwise adhered to card stock squares of the right size for the monster. Can get hundreds of minis for a few bucks in materials this way.

[DivisibleByZero]

Theater of the Mind with the (extremely) occasional use of dice as markers, just like the hamster says above.
When that's needed or wanted, players use d12s of different colors, while mobs use d4s (small), d6s (medium), d8s or d10s (large), and anything we think is about right for huge and above. But we don't use that stuff very often at all, usually only for boss fights where terrain is a prominent feature.

[CantigThimble]

A really quick and easy way to do maps is to get a big grid (I've used cardboard with 1" grid paper taped on) and a set of jenga blocks. The wooden blocks are really easy to arrange into walls or trees or whatever with minimal effort and let minis stand out. For minis I've used actual minis, board game pieces, print outs and coins. (I've got random coins from a few different countries that the players use while I used native ones I have plenty of for monsters). Those methods all work fine. As long as players can easily recognize eachother and the monsters it doesn't matter what you use.