Miniatures! | Running the Game

[@Sophaurus]

Monopoly tokens are all we need and probably what we will ever need... now excuse me, but we have to kill some dire hotels.

[@wyndhammer]

WIN.

[@tomwhitcombe7621]

Used these for our first D&D campaign last week!

[@SkyNinja759]

I bet having a monopoly set comes in handy when you're setting up an overworld and/or town. You can set up a crude 3d image of the layout, even going as far as putting hotels (unles you dislike the scale difference) as places of interest. Every token and scrap could be used unironically on the tabletop.

[@davewalker9899]

We don't use figures or maps it's all done by the DM, as long as they're good at describing and setting a scene shouldn't need any figures

[@Femaiden]

who wants to play as a multiclass lvl8 clothes iron/lvl5 shoe ?

[@voltron4212]

"I try to burst out the purple worm at least once each campaign" -- made me snort sparkling water out my nose

[@mcolville]

You know, if you have a giant purple worm, you want to show it to people.

[@insertjokehere212]

@@mcolville Love it!

[@sapphic_sophie]

Blimey!

[@arcadedomination8006]

This time on running the game: Matt talks about his big blue worm and being intimate with a Beholder.

[@Alresu]

Purple. His purple worm.

[@MD-pg1fh]

>I try to bust out the purple worm at least once a campaign Are we not doing phrasing anymore?

[@Bfdidc]

And it ate his friend, Lars!

[@kylelikeskjvbible]

so thats what you call it eh,

[@johnsmith-sp6yl]

if it's purple then ya need to take it out of the vice

[@AcornFox]

@@johnsmith-sp6yl but doesn't that unleash the schmoo?

[@johnsmith-sp6yl]

depends if it's your wife's or your doctor's.

[@AdellRedwinters]

For years, we all played with a Scrabble board, and we used the first letter of our characters name as the scrabble piece we'd use on the board. We were screwed if too many people picked Z or X names haha.

[@mcolville]

That's genius!!

[@jacobkozelichki4883]

I use a chess set. My squad of heroes use one color and the bad guys and minions use the other. And if you need more than 32 then the fight is too big.

[@theramendutchman]

You don't know my fights! But yeah, good tip!

[@SkiT8700]

Nice i found a multicolor pawn set of 80 for bad guys and 10 diffrent shaped pawn set for my good guys whole cost like 10 bucks tops.

[@alalalala57]

Jacob Kozelichki Same. The hero/villain characters use the unique pieces while common soldiers/commoners use the pawn.

[@Asasnol21]

Ι did this as well, but it gets weird when a pawn has to represent a goblin, an elf ranger and a spider on the same session

[@kylegreene1356]

Well that certainly sounds gay

[@fallenchise596]

I love how surprised he sounded when he said "Some people have bought them, some people have bought them AND read them! And left nice reviews!!" it was cute.

[@Pluveus]

Not gonna lie, using candy as enemy minis and devouring the corpses of your fallen enemies is freaking metal and hella fun.

[@angelalewis3645]

This.

[@dreamingnight13]

I used to collect gems when I was younger, so when I started DM'ing and didn't have miniatures or terrain, I just draw the map with the grid myself with a ruler and used various gems to represent the characters positions. My players loved it, and I was able to surprise them when near the end of the battle when the big bad guy showed up and pulled out a gigantic rock and everyone was like: "Oh. No.😶" It was a great experiment!😁

[@eclectic_eel]

This is actually a really fun idea! I'm going to DM for the first time with my family of beginners, and I don't want to invest in minis, but I collected a lot of buttons as a little kid and I'm realizing I could totally use those in place of minis! Thankyousomuch!!!

[@kickit246]

I'm binge watching you like a netflix show right now haha. You have me completely hooked and I want to play some DnD really bad, but my friends that live around me aren't the kind of people that would go for that kind of thing. My gaming buddies would go for it, but I'm waiting for one of them to finish a campaign, then apparently a spot will open up for me. That's still like a month or two away though. What do I do?! I don't want to lose interest in the time that I'm waiting. Anyway, I absolutely love your channel, thank you for making it. Once I feel like I've caught up on your videos, I'll take a look at your books. I'm completely captivated when you talk in your videos, whether it's just on game guidelines or an adventure you just recently embarked on. I'm hooked. Please keep up the great work!

[@SaboTaly]

Have you looked into roll20.net? It is an online tabletop environment that supports games from D&D to Shadowrun. There is also a handy groupfinder to get you started. The community is open to beginners and everyone is there to have a good time. I enjoy it a lot. roll20 also allows me to play games with friends across the country.

[@kickit246]

Hey, thanks Michael! I've heard of roll20 but never checked it out yet. Good news, though. I talked my gaming friends into D&D last night, but we won't be starting for quite some time. We're still working on who is going to DM. After watching so many of these videos, I figure I'll eventually be the one, but having never played it before, I'd like to see someone else do it first. Thanks again for the reply! :)

[@SaboTaly]

All it takes is that first step. Good luck and have fun!

[@GengarOP]

Andrew Hampshire I started DMing for 6 inexperience players, me being inexperienced as well, about 4 months ago,and we had a blast. Just buy the Starter Set and you are good to go. After a few games, you will need more things. Then buy the Players Handbook and DM handbook (each 50$, starter set being 20). That's the path I took and we are all planning to pitch money in for figures soon. There's a map (if you think you need one, which you will) from Chessex, it's a dry erase mat perfect for maps and things.(20$) For figures on the map just use monopoly figures or even bottle caps. If you want to join a DnD session with me, let me know I can add you to our Skype and we usually do one shot campaigns (a one session game, usually resulting in 4 hours until it's over). Really straight forward when you are a player and learning, but starting out as a DM with no past experience can be really hard.

[@kickit246]

Hey! Wow, what a blast from the past! I'm currently in that group I was waiting on. We're having a blast getting into all kinds of shenanigans together, been playing since around November. Thank you so much for the invitation! I'm pretty happy with my current campaign but if anything happens, I'll check in with you :) Take care!

[@HJ_Extravaganza]

I just use legos, and order specific parts to fit lots of characters. Then, when a game is over, I can disassemble a lego figure and use its parts for a different character.

[@theramendutchman]

Damn, that's genius! Might start doing that too!

[@AnubidIsAwful]

Hjernespreng That’s a smart idea

[@StarlessSupernova]

I thought about that. I hadn’t considered all the different sets and accessories you can use. That’s a good customizable option. Cheap too

[@hambinger]

I do this too. I will buy my son lego minis as a treat, just cuz I know I can repurpose them. Hehehehe... there are a lot of fantasy lego minis... harry potter & ninjago are great.

[@WolfmanXD]

"don't be afraid to think outside the box." I use old common and uncommon magic cards, cut them out and glue them onto 1 inch washers.

[@TheBuefurd]

13:21 Aww yeah, awesome! Wait...wat?

[@DTux5249]

TheBuefurd XD

[@pyropirategaming6154]

Bards in a nutshell

[@jennaruiter7358]

Well beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So i can understand matts atratcion 😉

[@UnbeGnomest4381]

@@jennaruiter7358 oh, you

[@peral9728]

*I W A N N A H A V E S E X W I T H ' E M*

[@PossiblyNic]

You know those bags of little green army men? If you look online you can find the same kind of thing, but knights/archers/zombies. They be stupid cheap and you get like 50+ at once. The main downside is that the scale is wrong to normal minis, but if you have no money they work fine. We referred to the sack we kept them in as the Bag of Assorted Bad Guys.

[@angelalewis3645]

“The Bag of Assorted Bad Guys” is such a great name. The first image that came to my mind was Mary Poppins’ carpet bag full of little green dudes. 😂 Awesome!

[@brettcardon4552]

I got so into miniatures that I bought a 3D printer and now I print and paint my own. It's a lot of fun and soothing for me.

[@danielhughes3758]

Yep, it's a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. I haven't gotten into painting them yet, but I really like having printed minis that actually look like what they're supposed to represent

[@xWhiteNova44x]

I didn't think Matt had a thing for beholders,but I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[@dungeonmaster9499]

I have PTSD, Depression, and Anxiety disorder. I find painting minis to be a fun form of therapy. I mostly painted Warhammer 40k figurines. I'm by no means professional grade yet, warhammer allows you to get away with a bit of sloppiness because each individual figure blends in with the rest in the unit, but I think painting large units of similar figures is great practice. I'd love to paint your minis for cheap, but i'm sure you'll get lots of offers here. Keep up the good work Sir, you are very inspiring

[@NeoMaddy]

I realize I'm digging up a six month old comment, but would you still be interested in painting minis for people? I'd love to have some painted Warhammer minis! Assuming you're not in Antarctica and you're reasonable about price, I'd consider commissioning you.

[@robertnett9793]

My salutes to you :D I started off with Warhammer Fantasy back then - but I never got the hang for large units. I do love painting singular models - but regiments is rather strainous for me.

[@harrylane4]

Oh hey this is why I knit

[@Yourantsally]

One of my favorite things about Matt's channel, is how he always has good things to say about everyone, and how positive he tried to be. It's refreshing, and infectious

[@blungus]

Being a 17 year old kid with a minimum wage job I can vouch for using your imagination with minis and terrain. Me and my buddies started playing three years ago and we used the cardboard chips that came with the 4th edition starter pack for any character or enemy, and empty cigarette packs that were gifted to us (long story) for any prop (caravans, tavern counters, fire pits, tents etc.). We still use some of that stuff to this day, and whenever an old ciggy pack, worn chip, or broken d4 comes out to signify something we don't have enough materials for, we all smile a bit and remember when those were the only things we had.

[@coleschubert9868]

Go grab a dnd board game.

[@rednaxelA11]

MC - 'I think this is fine by the way... i thought it was worth my money and I was happy with the results' - another lesson on how to be happy in the world we live in. IF ITS GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU THEN ITS GOOD ENOUGH

[@PH_Dungeon]

When I was running a game for school kids that have never played D&D, using minis was how I introduced the game and got them to create characters. I laid out a bunch of my coolest PC type minis and asked each player to pick one. Then they made a character based on what seemed appropriate to the mini. It worked really well.

[@Soitisisit]

This is the most nerdy of your videos, not just because of the subject matter but because of the consistent high level of energy and glee. Thanks for sharing!

[@StrayOkami]

I just started DND and ran my first session 2 days ago. I love that you can take the minis and put them in different locations and set up an ambush and I think it helps your players and yourself keep track of who's where and what not.

[@thebluesmurfdude]

We had this awesome experience the other day with a group that I'm apart of. We were tracking a large army of gnolls, and we finally came up to their camp. But when we did all we found was a lone figure sitting at the fire talking to himself. We started to approach the guy when he started floating up into the air, arms outstretched and started screaming. At this point, our dm stopped talking, drained his beer, and proceeded to set the empty beer in the middle of the map, stating that we were to roll initiate and fight the aspect of the gnoll god. It was a glorious thing

[@spacesandshark2418]

Printable Heroes is a good, free one. Furthermore, if you can draw or even just edit, you can create your own minis or modify the existing ones. Cool shit.

[@ross.metcalf]

Wow, no mention of using LEGOs! My friends and I use Legos which are great because you can swap out what they're holding or wearing between sessions if you want. There are a bunch of medieval Lego settings, and alien and star wars ones too. Doesn't work too well for some enemies, but like Matt said, the enemies only last for 4 rounds then they're gone. If you're doing a sci-fi setting, then Legos also works well for making spaceship minis. You can make them really small with only a few pieces and they look good.

[@BrunoSantosTDL]

I loved this episode, I have been devouring all your videos but this episode was special because I'm an enormous miniature fan. Hell, I was painting a Boba Fett from Star Wars Imperial Assault while listening to this episode, and I'm always painting something while listening to you. Keep going my friend, you channel is a blessing for the internet :D

[@cjimmortalify]

Matt, both you and WebDM are the main reason that I have gained a passion for roleplaying games. You are an inspiration and seem like a super great guy in general.

[@nc1651]

I am one of the people who bought your books to support you and have loved reading them. I literally went straight from Priest into Thief and read it in two sittings. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

[@mcolville]

Me too! :D

[@danielwarren6698]

I'm halfway through Priest and wanted to echo my sentiment, the book is deliciously written, like eating a roast dinner with my eyes. Very happy to have found your videos via reddit Matthew, I wish you every success!!

[@SykoLiu]

We actually use wooden meeples for all our miniatures. They work great for it! They come in different colours and sizes and can be bought in bulk for quite cheap.

[@tahunuva4254]

I use Lego minifigs: customizable, reusable, and very cute. [:P]

[@keechpeach2863]

I started out with a bunch of old plastic farm and zoo animals from my childhood that my mum had kept tucked away in case little kids came over to play. Everyone had thir own animal that represented their character best, plus we fought a lot of cows (bugbears) and giraffes (skeletons) and so on. Then i started drawing and oclouring little cartoon figures on heavy card and pushing them into cardboard holders stuck to coins for weight. They are great but at times a bit too adorable. :D

[@C4ManMike]

Matt, I wish I knew you in real life. Your videos have been very helpful for inspiring me to keep being creative and make new things. DnD, I decided, a little while ago to help my son with school; hes 6. Thank you for these videos, and I appreciate all of it.

[@Abelhawk]

I use the miniatures from the board game Talisman for the players, and a handful of different colored pawns I found on Amazon for the enemies. It makes it easy to just assign each color to a different enemy on the initiative order list. And you're right, imagination is all that matters!

[@art17dude]

10:12 I want MY game to be different. That slight hint of attitude was funny. We love you, Matt.

[@killerklavvenn]

Wow. Love to see the excitement that naturally pours out. Love the content.

[@dalemadison1750]

in case you didn't know, heroforge now has a more durable plastic that is still quite detailed. I ordered one recently and I am so happy with it

[@Nupuflupu]

As far as diving into the world of painting minis, the Reaper Learn to Paint kit is fantastic for dipping your toes into the wider painting world for a decent price. For ~34 dollars US, you get a guide with pictures illustrating each step, 11 paints along with a hardcase that can store up to 36 total paint bottles, 3 miniatures that are fairly easy to paint, and two brushes that are versatile enough to let you work on your skills and are still useful after you get better. They also have "expansion kits" for around the same price that function as more intermediate versions or advanced versions.

[@ShermSpinner]

Suddenly i wanna do a Players vs. Bug-Infestation campaign to have an excuse to take my old Tyranid army out again...

[@danmoore4688]

Deathguard would supply some nice "Orcs", could even crack open the D20 Modern core rules to explain those guns

[@adamhanson5565]

I bought a dryad army for pretty cheap with the intention of running a game with them. Then covid hit, so I've been running that game for my friends online, theater of the mind style.

[@vaultdweller64]

Starship Troopers started with Mormons going across a clearly divided territory and being slaughtered by the indigenous ‘bug’ species who lives there. That’s literally the beginning of the film, blink and you’ll miss it. That’s the entire provocation for the film’s conflict. ----borrowing that queue-- It’d be super easy to have a kingdom share a border with an unknown or very xenophobic culture/species of your bug miniatures. Maybe it’s a forbidden forest but the treaty is so ancient the townspeople forgot the lore as to why and don’t understand the kingdom’s stance of non-interference. Maybe some religious order decided for (insert motivation for not establishing in the town/kingdom/city), and decided to find refuge to worship where others wouldn’t pursue them or interfere in their worship. Lots of conflict options there!^ Maybe some forbidden romance between two angsty teens from rival/at odds families run into that forest or cave or mountain range beyond the “established borders” and the officials are unwilling to pursue the missing kids from fear of breaking the peace they’ve had for more than a (insert set time frame). The kids didn’t know because part of the agreement with this mysterious bug peoples was of non-disclosure to the public (their culture is a private one) about their existence, and in keeping the borders, the kingdom not only prospered but had one less boundary to protect. -- Afterall, what enters the forest (insert terrain), belongs to the forest and no mortal living in the township/kingdom (populated center), has right to trespass for any reason

[@Jessie_Helms]

I really like Hero Forge. I run online and my players make minis in Hero Forge for their tokens. After the end of my first campaign I bought a copy of each of the PCs + the BBEG. I keep them all on my desk as a reminder

[@thatshistoricallyinaccurat9560]

Bones minis are like $2.75 and for a kid with like a couple friends that is like amazing. I buy and paint them, I recommend them for young players and DMs

[@seanfellows672]

My Mrs is a hobby artist and has discovered she loves painting minis... And I love buying minis. She's currently done: The Witch King of Angmar on the fell beast The Balrog A blue Dragon. She has coming up: A beholder A red, green, black and white dragon.

[@Chocomint_Queen]

My three big suggestions for getting a cache of minis, in order of cost-per-mini: Pathfinder Pawns! They're thick cardboard, 2D, with art directly from the Pathfinder bestiaries, they slot into little plastic bases. I personally own the Bestiary Box (300 fantasy staple monsters like goblins, orcs, dragons, elementals, etc., as well as some more niche ones) and the Iron Gods box (Iron Gods being the Barrier Peaks of the Pathfinder setting), which contains about 100 minis, scatterings of robots and aliens and even an AI! The price varies, since each set has a different number of creatures in it, but it usually comes out to about 10-20 cents for each cardboard "mini". I'd recommend buying a bestiary box of this, just so whenever you need something, you have a huge stack to improvise with. D&D Adventure System! Comes with about 50 official D&D minis, but unpainted versions, and also a pretty solid board game too! I have the Temple of Elemental Evil board game, which has 49 unpainted minis (cultists, goblinoids, gnolls, elementals, and a few other assorted enemies). Not much variety, as every game has a pretty tight theme, but if they're minis you need, it's a pretty decent price for official unpainted plastics; about $1.30 per unpainted plastic mini. I wouldn't recommend buying this just for the minis unless you're running a game with the same theme (Legend of Drizzt is great for Underdark minis, etc), but if you enjoy D&D, the board game's probably worth owning My personal favourite, D&D Dungeon Command! Wizards discontinued this game series, but since it wasn't actually super popular, you can still find it at some game stores or on ebay for its original $40, often even less! Each box contains 12 painted official D&D minis, usually 8 unique and 2 pairs of duplicates, and of course, a game, which is something like a cross between D&D's tactical combat and Magic: The Gathering. Personally, I really enjoy the game! PLUS, each set comes with the necessary cards to add the included monsters into the D&D Adventure System games, so if you have that, it's a pretty appreciable value! Dungeon Command has boxes for Goblins, Orcs, Undead, Drow, and "Heroes of Cormyr". Works out to $3.30 per painted plastic mini. Honestly, all five sets cover pretty common fantasy staples; I'd be surprised if I've ever run a game that couldn't've used at least one of those (I've been especially partial to the four-armed skeleton and the dracolich out of the Undead box). I've personally been buying them all as I find them at decent prices, and so far I've picked up Undead, Goblins, and Orcs. They look great! No regrets! Buying one of each Dungeon Command box is probably a great way to lay in a stock of minis!

[@willsave5416]

Awesome video as usual Matt. So excited to see this when I woke up. +1 for the D&D adventure system games. Wrath of ashardalon comes with two kinds of orcs, kobalds, heroes, duegar, bears, snakes, orc and kobalds leaders, a beholder, and...a Dragon. Great deal.

[@NoahTopper]

I love the Pathfinder Pawns! I got the Bestiary Box and the Monster Codex Box, and I seriously feel like that's 80-90% of what I'll need for life. Hero Forge is great for player's minis. Oh, and Matt, they have a new material, grey plastic, which is both high detail and more durable. I don't know if it's currently in stock, but that's the material my group uses and it's pretty great (slight pun).

[@BalooSJ]

I second the Pathfinder Pawns recommendation. They also have two sets of PC/NPC pawns: NPC Codex Pawn Box and Inner Sea Pawn Box (the latter is somewhat more Pathfinder/Golarion-specific and dedicates some of its space to filling out needs for the earlier adventure paths, but it's still good). Since Pathfinder is a close cousin of D&D, you'll be able to find plenty of monsters that are D&D-based (e.g. kobolds, derro, ankhegs, etc.), but when releasing the official SRD back in 2001, some of the more iconic monsters (beholders, mind flayers, gith, umber hulks, etc.) were held back, so those aren't included in Pathfinder. The same for monsters that weren't included in the 3e Monster Manual - for example, dao (earth genies) aren't included in the SRD, so Paizo made up their own earth genies and called them shaitan. But as a low-cost alternative, it will suffice for like 95% of the monsters you need.

[@DanTalksGames]

Third-ing Pathfinder pawns. It's become my big tabletop splurge, I have pretty much all the sets except for Rise of the Runelords and Skulls and Shackles. If you're not an obsessive with money to burn like me, I recommend just getting the NPC Codex and Bestiary box. For expanded collections, the Inner Sea Pawn Box and Pathfinder Society are great for player characters. For monsters, the Summon Monster collection has a good mix of monsters you can use both as enemies and - as the name suggests - if your players are big on Summon Monster spells. Even if you don't play the adventure paths, many of the associated pawn sets have a great collection of monsters depending on the type of game your playing; Wrath of the Righteous has lots of demons, for example, Mummy's Tomb has lots of egyptian-themed enemies, hell there's even Iron Gods if you want robots, androids and aliens!

[@torlight]

I don't think it's necessary but I'm fourth-ing this suggestion. The Adventure Path boxes, the bestiary boxes, the NPC codex boxes, all have been really really helpful in our games. I'll note, however, that we use the pawns for enemies and NPCs almost exclusively. We have the bones and reaper minis for our players, and it's an easy distinction between enemy and player when the board gets hectic!

[@alecmurphy305]

For new players and DMs watching this, a couple of weeks ago they released Hero Forge 2.0 which now gives you the option to have your minis shipped to you prepainted. It does cost an additonal $15, which makes the whole mini $45 for their high detail plastic, but you can get a one of a kind mini that no one else has, and I think that's worth it.

[@rileymcleran2895]

The best minis I've ever used are Lego people. You can put weapons in their hands, they're cheap, and there's tons of variations in faces and torsos.

[@Ranxior55]

Super happy the streaming is over. It was fun at first but I soon realized I don't have enough time to watch the full videos, however, I did like them, and have been slowly working through them.

[@FrumpybutSuperSmart]

I made a bunch of little cardboard tokens that I glued a picture of the enemy to. Then someone spilled water all over them and now they look like water colors.

[@Raggaliamous]

Caer Ibormeith My mother was a school teacher. At home she had a little laminating machine, that could do a whole A4 sheet. That might solve similar problems. Or put it down to some kind of acidic trap.

[@blackraptor311]

5:02 Reaper minis does have their equivalent of the Grick here, www.reapermini.com/search/chthon/latest/03603 While it does not have a beaks mouth it will serve as one. They also have a plastic version of one here, www.reapermini.com/search/chthon/latest/77228

[@ChristophBrinkmann]

I've used Hero Forge myself. Doesn't have as much variation as I'd like, but they're simple and fast to build.

[@TheTricksyPixie]

I used to think that myself with HeroForge! When was the last time you checked back on their website? They actually do add new parts, frequently enough that it's worth a look. It's still not perfect, but I'm really liking the additions they're making. :)

[@ChristophBrinkmann]

It's probably been ~ 2 months. I'll probably head back on before too long

[@joshuareynolds23]

God it's expensive though

[@TheTricksyPixie]

It is very expensive for a miniature, but if you're going to be in a long-term campaign (and, admittedly, if you have the money to spare!), it's kinda cool to be able to have the mini that is as close as possible to the idea you have in your head. ;) Plus, if I remember correctly, I just saw that they've brought back their new material which was the same price as the older but easily-broken material. I'd love to try it some time, but right now, the waiting period for the new material is something like 4 months!

[@joshuareynolds23]

I like using it to get ideas for npcs te generator is awesome but I just can't see me paying for the minis except for very special monsters or reacuring villians

[@TFredrickson]

I love the fact that you brought up Oathsworn! I backed their first sensible shoes kickstarter and got all of the minis for like $55 with shipping and they look amazing. Gave them to Mercer at MomoCon which I hope make it onto Critical Role soonish.

[@kingknotts]

The question is though... where do we get a Matt Colville mini?

[@A.Elbereth.Gilthoniel]

We can use a Bugbear miniature for full resemblance.

[@nstiles42]

Sychophant

[@teatrooper]

I'm learning to DM for my friends and these videos have been unendingly helpful, so I just wanted to say thank you Matt for doing these.

[@damagedcortex1415]

I use binder clips with paper with drawn monsters / characters. Makes it easy to mass produce and to get unique ones too

[@minutemansmonitor]

HeroForge is great for hero minis! True, you may spend upwards of $30, but the total customization is worth it!

[@karlmeszaros4323]

I think it would have been interesting to hear you talk about the value of miniatures. I've never used them. when I started playing in the 80's everyone I knew played theater of the mind. Not that anybody called it that back in the day. That was just what we did. Someday, I would like to watch someone play with them to see what it's like.

[@SuouEtsumi]

This video is still fun to watch years later. For anyone finding it now as I found it a while back, wishing there was a bones kickstarter going on now to get a lot of mini's cheaply, like I did, here's a tip: Right now, dungeons and lasers is having a kickstarter for hundreds of mini's on sprues (like games workshop). Monsters, dragons, aventurers, centaurs etc. and stretch goals like the Kraken and an airship! It's a really good deal.

[@mirthfulArtist]

For the longest time I used a Patamon toy as a mini for my Magus before I made my own out of clay. ^^' I would have loves a "Sensible Shoes" one for her!

[@ThaetusZain]

16:21 This is another good point that brings up a bigger thing. A lot of war games (gripping beast, Frostgrave) have boxes of cheapish armies. While you won't get any exotic monsters you could get lots of people and even sometimes lots of goblins or skeletons (Frostgrave has a box of Gnolls) that can be hirelings or warbands. A box of like 20 minis for 1 hero forge mini and some glueing. And then there's always 15mm miniature armies where you can get metal minis for around 50-75 cents a piece and they are way easier to paint than they look. They are made for Army painter's dips. But you can't use them with 28mms.

[@XanothAvaeth]

What's weird is I've never used mini's for D&D, yet all of my friends as kids played wargames and had multiple armies of both fantasy and sci-fi prior to getting into D&D. We had the models, we could all paint well, it never came up. We rarely even used maps, it was almost always theatre of the mind, we'd maybe sketch out rogue layouts, but nothing to scale or anything. Even now I see cool minis and want them and want to paint them, but probably not so interested in using them when playing D&D, I prefer to imagine it and I think fewer visual queues makes for a more vivid imagination of what's going on. I can see why people want minis and if my players want to use them, that's fine, but we recently started supplementing with Roll20 a bit and I've been wondering if it doesn't detract from the imagination of what's going on, even with good quality HD maps that I find and use, I find it makes me lazy as a DM in describing things and players take the maps to literally for what's shown. Might consider a few one-off games either way, both using nothing, and with using even more/mini's and get feedback from my players.

[@DimT670]

People who use minis and stop have exactly the same reaction you have, but in opposite. They find it detracts from the imagination and that players stop imagining combat in any coherent way It's a matter of habit, how you learned to play

[@Zom13y]

Anyone starting out collecting minis for dnd in 2021 should check out the 2011 dnd board games for 4th edition on Amazon (Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of Ashardalon, and The Legend of Drizzt) each game comes with 5 player characters and 35 to 37 enemy miniatures, most of which are encounter size groups. The games are currently retailing on Amazon for 40-50 bucks and you get some good puzzle tiles for making dungeons.

[@kellyjones7832]

Thanks!

[@colin8321]

Audio be damned, I'm here for the content. And that handsome smile.

[@charlessandusky7270]

Hey Matt, love your running the game series. I recently started DMing for a new group and your advice has really helped. I also watched your stream of evolve stage 2 and am now hooked on this game!

[@ppdrro]

glad you're back from the stream world

[@romisknight]

I agree on the painting minis being very meditative. I spent hours doing so when I was young, and it was very relaxing. I painted most of the minis for our group, and even did some specifically for characters. I still have them, though they're not in the best condition. Great memories forged there.

[@theDMsCraft]

i love minis

[@mcolville]

Hey! Lots of folks recommend your channel for more terrain options, I'll give it a plug in the next video!

[@theDMsCraft]

Thanks man, really loving your channel.

[@mikegould6590]

You might also want to check out DMG Info. He not only makes great (and super cheap) terrain, but shows how to make your own minis out of inexpensive materials. Between DM Scotty and DMG, one could potentially make a tone of things out of everyday items. Just by applying hot glue to the outside of a spare Chessex cube, I made a Gelationous Cube mini that's been used in two different campaigns. Pardon the pun, but thinking outside the box can create great crafting ideas on the cheap.

[@filmheim1140]

Yeah agreeded, watch that guy all the time.

[@RollforDamageRFD]

Not trying to plug but I showed people how to make a custom cardstock mini using Heroforge.

[@robhubbard1]

My route into the hobby was actually from mini painting and so the approach you mention half way through of starting with the mini and thinking of the character has always been my approach! When painting, you're making decisions about characterisation just in terms of your colour choice and art style so that flows nicely into making a character. As a painter first, it's really hard to think of going for anything other than GW just because of the quality of the sculpts but this video is great inspo for other manufacturers!

[@shadowpunch23]

Personally I use Hasbro's Horoscope Mini's for my campaigns, they actually look really good and I have 100's of them from over the years. They have Lizardfolk, Elves, Soldiers, Aliens, Zombies, Ghosts, Robots, Samurai, pretty much whatever you can think of.

[@Adrian_Lee6113]

This has got to be the best mini video I've ever seen. Thank you!!!!!

[@benjamingeiger]

Suggestion for a future video: How would you do combat theater-of-the-mind style, when so much in the combat system depends on specific positioning?

[@djohnson2499]

I bought the Pathfinder starter set. It comes with a bunch of tokens and a dry erase map that I think works great starting out.

[@the_avidpc_gamer1946]

"I try to bust out my purple worm at least once in every campaign." -Matthew Colville.

[@MrRatatouille89]

One day I was in a Free Comic Book day fair and I found the D&D Castle Ravenloft Board Game. I fell in love with it, since it came with 42 unpainted miniatures. Then, I found out there was an expansion (Wrath of Ashardalon) and then other expansions (Drizzt and Elemental Evil) came out too and I found out about "the real" D&D, I played 3.5 for a while and still do and bought the 5e manuals, painted my minis, bought more minis, and started DMing... And all this happened within two years - I'm 27 y.o. now - and DMing is a lot of fun. I love playing D&D and I think I'll keep playing for a really long time and thanks to your advice and other DMs I feel grateful cuz you guys are amazing and I wouldn't be doing all I do if it weren't for your tips and tutorials and everything. So, thanks Matt. Thank you very much.

[@dantower8268]

I also started in the 80s. Back when the lead figures were made with real lead.

[@arkealunas4043]

Thanks for a great video! As someone who’s been painting for over 15 years, art is subjective. If you love your mini, that’s all that matters. I try to suggest people to paint their own minis, but life happens. Thanks for all the great recommendations!

[@Metalrasputian]

"You need minis painted, after all this time?" "Always"

[@WazcallyWabbit]

You are so charming and I found this video to be very informative and you got me excited for minis in my game all over again. Subscribed, thank you!

[@LordAlexanderXVI]

we use paper cut outs, mostly because getting mini's cheap in New Zealand is quite hard.

[@wizard1399]

Where do you find your cut outs? If one were to get them painted or printed on plastic, this might be a cheap, easily storeable way to do minis.

[@LordAlexanderXVI]

I'll need to talk to my DM, but he has bags of them. they aren't that pretty but they work.

[@SeanPulrang]

+wizard1399 I'll second the idea of paper minis. Iheartprintandplay has a lot, with an admittedly cartoon/sketch style, but it's great being able to field a dozen goblins at a time without having to recycle the same three or four minis in and out. For better style, but smaller selection, check out PrintableHeroes, it's some nice artwork. As a third option, my local comic shop has a bin of old heroclix figures that I like to dig through. They're 0.95 each, and if you pry off the base, they fit really well on a grid.

[@ThePopeSquad]

I started painting in college for my dnd group and 40k, and it's an amazing hobby. Sitting here painting and watching your videos, now!

[@cathnbabs]

Love your video, can you please talk faster, I kinda phase out with your long pauses? Just kidding, please continue your good work.

[@julianbeltz7642]

Nocturne I usually put all my educational videos on 2x playback speed, it works only as long as you are actually paying attention, if you get a distracted, you'll miss some stuff maybe. But yeah, try speeding it up and paying attention, it really helps to crunch how many educational videos you can watch in a set time

[@edwardqueen5791]

Btw at our table we play with a projector facing down at the table. Instead of a playmat to draw on, we have hi-res terrain photos and drawings from the internet under a grid layer, and the characters' square, profile-like pictures go over it. The DM has all the maps from the adventures we've played, and by working with layer visibility and an eraser tool we have a dungeon fog set up where only the rooms already explored appear. Also he shows us any image, not only top-view maps and profile pics as minis. We see more detailed characters, like full-body shots, as well as landscapes and buildings as seen from outside etc.

[@DragonKing987]

Hero Forge for totally customized minis...

[@MystDragon3k]

I love Hero Forge. They update all the time, they have a stupid amount of options across several genre's for you to make exactly what you want 99% of the time. The downside...its expensive...I have the disposable income to use their service regularly, but for alot of people, this is a big investment that should only be used for PC minis. Their cheapest options start at $15, and depending on the size and material you get (its 3D printed so they can do whatever) they can get over $200 for the really nice ones. If you've got a solid group to play with or you have some important NPCs, its wonderful, but only if you've got the extra money for it. Also they don't make monsters, just humanoids, and I'm lucky enough to have a Reaper store 15 minutes from my apartment, so I can often get exactly what I need and get it painted days (even hours) before a gaming session. Not everyone is going to have the luxury I have, but as someone who has dived head first into the hobby, Hero Forge and Reaper are my go-to places for minis. And I do hand paint all of them. My desk is a mess.

[@Xenibalt]

they are full color now

[@dragonzord6615]

Good to have you back making normal videos matt :D

[@nosamnosam123]

M&Ms for minis? Genius!

[@SkiT8700]

kill a foe and eat his remains!

[@smashkeys]

Another great video, you're one of the few channels I actually check KZbin for updates for every day. Definitely not as distracting as you were warning. You've definitely been encouraging me to run a game

[@janmulders]

Matt, my wallet hates you! (but thanks!)

[@phillhoward9536]

Matt, I'm definitely enjoying the show - I just found out about your series through the D&D Beyond forums, and I'm really digging the different perspectives on how to be a better DM. In this video, you were asking about mini painting services - my friend Octave and I paint lots of models for a variety of games, so if you're looking around, you can find us as Play It Painted on Facebook. Anyway, thanks again for the videos, and keep doing what you do!

[@TrueJunebug]

I started with using toy soldiers and my little sisters littlest pet shops. honestly I probably played with her littlest pet shops more than my sister did.

[@AlphaOmegaCreations]

My little brother was always the one in charge of the minis and tokens at our table; he made them out of clay and sometimes incorporated Lego pieces and other random things we had lying around. My favorite thing about his process was that whenever we had someone new play with us and he made them a mini he would charge them a penny, make the mini, and stick the mini on the penny

[@terryfan15]

"Painted by kids in China" Thanks Matt, I really feel comfortable about buying them now.

[@jackal1115]

Informed consent.

[@DimT670]

Hey now you don't have the excuse of now knowing what's up.

[@greegeree]

over the years ive come to realize that the reason i was always so obsessed with using minis and not just minis but the proper mini for what it represented was because i cared more about minis than the game. since i no longer play d&d (larping has replaced that roleplaying fix) i found that i love building huge dioramas and i still collect them but now its a create scene and photograph hobby.

[@RoraighPrice]

we get it matt , everything is great ! haha

[@mcolville]

The stuff I've tried that was crappy I tend not to recommend. :D

[@RoraighPrice]

HAHA fair enough, Did u see Mercer was actually looking for a painter for minis on twitter the other day

[@TylerC02]

I realize this video is almost 7 years old now, but for those who do see this: Middle Earth Battle Strategy Game, great source for minis. It is made by Games Workshop who primarily produces Warhammer armies, but is themed around Middle Earth and Tolkeins legendarium. It has a slew of fantasy / medieval figures of every kind, and they're relatively affordable, especially compared to buying singles and they're cheaper than Warhammer figures. I would HIGHLY recommend their "Starter Sets", they have the Battle of the Pelenor fields, which I own and comes with 50 or so figures plus a cave troll and Nazgul with rider. And more recently The Battle of Osgiliat, which comes with 50+ figures and some broken building terrain. If you get both (which would be about $400 +/-) You'd have over 100 minis of human, orcs, and some larger ones like trolls and Nazgul, as well as terrain. Not to mention, each set comes with a core rulebook and each armies respective rules packet, so you get two decent sized aremies to a very fun tabletop strategy game.

[@Calebgoblin]

I love your minis too But please don't have sex with them xD

[@DanteTorn]

If one is going to do that then they should be Reaper's Bones minis. They are already white when you buy them. :')

[@dustingonzales2566]

Select your miniature first. I always preach this!. A lot of players don't do it... but i ALWAYS recommend it.

[@chris3327]

So first off breathe. Love the episode. Haven't watched you before. Agree with most of everything. Could have mentioned pre-primered mini"s. But follow up question. Do your 4 hour gaming session only take 2.5 hours? Or as this recorded at 1.4x speed. :) you still get the thumbs up.

[@handlesarestupid154]

He naturally talks fast, slow down the video if you can't keep up

[@jgn1977]

Glad these are back. These videos are my favorite. Oh and dont forget about the recap videos. Even though I can't spend 5 hours watching the stream doesn't mean I don't want to know what happens to your people in the underdark. :)

[@Xenoman14]

Woah, you look...really great. Really HD.

[@mcolville]

I love this camera, very happy with the image. Just need to fix the recording problem. >.

[@Xenoman14]

I don't notice dropped frames so much as I notice the odd tick/odd sound to the mic. You'll figure it out soon though!

[@MonkeyJedi99]

Okay, I just watched the dip method videos, and it is essentially a wash, without using a brush. And since 2009, more effective and widely colored washes have been made, as well as hand-mix directions from crafters online, so you can just brush on your wash(es) and get the same effect, without the risk of flinging your minis against the ground. The best tip from the videos is to not over-worry about your painting, as washes add depth and dimension and help hide minor mistakes.

[@catfeldman3614]

unfortunately reaper minis doesn't have many tiefling charcters

[@JabbatheBen]

I love that this whole video is you just talking quickly and basically saying, “DUDE! Check out what I got!!!”