Monster Tiles Suggestions?

[Messiah]

Newish DM here. I've decided to use lego minifigures to represent PCs on a battle mat, but buying lego monsters would be cost-prohibitive. I'm thinking of using tiles - simple 2d monster pics on a 1x1 square/circle/hex. Preferably foam, if those exist.

Are there good places to buy them online?

Should I try to do them myself? If so, any tips?

Thanks.

[inexorabletruth]

I have some low cost options for figurines/monster tiles until you get a decent gaming budget:

• Spare Dice: These are actually great monster figures, because each number you face up can represent a different monster in the initiative order. The dice with the 1 facing up goes first. The one with the 6 facing up goes sixth, so on.
• Toy Soldiers: You'll have to use some imagination, but they are cheap and more actiony that dice
• Board Game pieces: The wrench from Clue, the Dog from Monopoly, the Minivan from Life. Fess up; you know you have some of these board games lying around. Grab them pieces and go.
• Spreadsheets: If your monitor is big enough, or if you can plug your computer into your HDTV, battle grids can easily be done on a spreadsheet this days with downloaded images of your monsters and PCs and downloaded terrain from royalty free sites. Everyone can see the action more clearly and can navigate their characters by saying, "I charge from D7 to F12." Click and drag your way to easy mapping with no cleanup afterwards!
• Make You Own Monster Tiles: All you need is some scrap cardboard, scissors, a printer, and this website. I don't use this site anymore, but if I remember correctly, they print out "tile" sized. Just cut the picture out and paste it onto a measured and cut piece of cardboard to give it rigidity. Suddenly, monster tiles! They come together quick. You can create a session's worth of encounters in about 15 minutes if you stay focused.

[Nala]

I have some low cost options for figurines/monster tiles until you get a decent gaming budget:

• Spare Dice: These are actually great monster figures, because each number you face up can represent a different monster in the initiative order. The dice with the 1 facing up goes first. The one with the 6 facing up goes sixth, so on.
• Toy Soldiers: You'll have to use some imagination, but they are cheap and more actiony that dice
• Board Game pieces: The wrench from Clue, the Dog from Monopoly, the Minivan from Life. Fess up; you know you have some of these board games lying around. Grab them pieces and go.
• Spreadsheets: If your monitor is big enough, or if you can plug your computer into your HDTV, battle grids can easily be done on a spreadsheet this days with downloaded images of your monsters and PCs and downloaded terrain from royalty free sites. Everyone can see the action more clearly and can navigate their characters by saying, "I charge from D7 to F12." Click and drag your way to easy mapping with no cleanup afterwards!
• Make You Own Monster Tiles: All you need is some scrap cardboard, scissors, a printer, and this website. I don't use this site anymore, but if I remember correctly, they print out "tile" sized. Just cut the picture out and paste it onto a measured and cut piece of cardboard to give it rigidity. Suddenly, monster tiles! They come together quick. You can create a session's worth of encounters in about 15 minutes if you stay focused.

I've been looking round the forums for same kind of advice (ie. cheap monsters), so thanks!

The only other thing I could add that I've found is the printouts at iheartprintandplay. Only downside is not every type of monster is available, but he does have a "blank" version you could paste online images onto.

Nala x

[randomhero00]

The best/cheapest?

Cut out appropriate sized cardboard, then print out picture of said monster, then paste onto cardboard! Simple, cheap, and everyone gets to see the detailed picture.

[HC Rainbow]

You could just take anything you can find around the house that would represent monsters well and put some playdough on the bottom of it to stick to the lego board.

Personally I bought the Chessex Megamat and stuck it to a piece of sheet metal so its magnetic, and use magnets all the time, Playdough should have the same effect.

Double props for the Lego idea, Never even occurred to me.

[EccentricCircle]

Lego minifigs make the best gaming miniatures. I used to hand draw 2D counters for all the monsters that I didn't have miniatures for or couldn't make out of lego, but I've recently found this: http://www.rptools.net/index.php?page=tokentool which is quite handy for producing tokens really quickly and easily.