After writing the last article about miniatures I decided to include another article discussing some things that go with that subject. Specifically I am talking about:
- Pathfinder Pawns – Minis are expensive. And you can never quite have enough of them to cover every possible encounter. There are just so many monsters out there and so few dollars to spend on buying minis for them all. Fortunately there is a solution. This one is not perfect as it often does not include enough of specific types of monsters to cover battles with large groups of humanoids. But it does cover a wide variety of creatures that could be out there for Dungeons and Dragons or other fantasy games. The link here shows just one of the sets. There are many different types of sets including ones for characters.
- Pathfinder Flip Mats – These maps provide awesome looking terrain to play games on with miniatures. There are just so many different types of maps out there. These are made by Paizo but others make them as well. Some come in very large map sizes and some come as cards that you can build on the table as the players move through the dungeon. The link shows just one of these products but you might want to explore. All kinds of terrains are provided including: cities, ruins, temples, dungeons, hills, forests, deserts and many more Prices vary as there are some packs with multiple maps and there are many different sizes.
- Hirst Art Terrain – I confess I bought and built many of these but have used none yet in games. The molds allow you to produce dungeon terrain from city dwellings to dungeons and castles. There are many different molds out there and they are pretty awesome. Unfortunately they are not cheap. And you must also buy material to pour into them. This is a time intensive hobby so be advised it is not for the casual gamer.
- Dwarven Forge – I will admit that I do not own any of these. They are a bit out of my price range. I have, however, met the maker of these (Stefan Pokorny) a few times at the NTRPG. He is a pretty cool fellow and runs a great AD&D game at his table. I include these here in case they might be in your price range and interest. He used these terrains in his games and has built some amazing stuff with them. Another DM built the entire moathouse from village of homlet and we played through that at NTRPG the last time I went. Stefan played at the table with us as a player.
You may have noticed links in this article. I am getting no affiliate income from Amazon or Hirst. I just provide the links for your convenience.
There are many products out there that are really cool. It would be nice to buy all of them but it is just too expensive to do so. The header picture in this article is a Dwarven Forge Example. The other pictures below are examples from Hirst Arts Molds.
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Great article! I have used Dwarven Forge, Wizkids, and others. The Dwarven Forge are great for epic encounters and homebrew.
For the cost Wizkids is the best for pre-painted. However, they are limited. They really don’t have caverns like Dwarvern Forge and Wizkids caverns are something left to be desired for the price. I have found them on sale for about 60.00 and to me that is about right. Ender Toys isn’t bad, but may come in a little rough at times. But, with some primer and paint they are sufficient and very cost effective.
I have spent way too much money on terrain and miniatures. I think the big thing is for people to realize that the odds of needing more than a few sets for each type of terrain is very unlikely. Then you have to have enough time to set it up. Which many times maps are used anyway. BTW the Books of Battle Maps by Loke Battle Mats are pretty good for that too.
On a different note, I think you should provide affiliate links to Amazon. You are providing a service, that if I am going to buy it, then you should get something out of it. It is only fair.
I probably should do the amazon affliate thing but I think I recall them having some kind of limiting factors that made it impractical for this site. Specifically I think I had to have a min visitor daily visitor average or something that I would not meet with a fan site like this one.
I actually have played a couple of times with the guy who runs Dwarven Forge at NTRPG. He is a really cool guy and he has an extensive set up that he uses as the DM. I also played at NTRPG last year with a different DM who had an extensive set that he built the Moathouse from Hommlet with. Stefan played with us as a player in that game which lasted for several hours beyond the scheduled time for the event. As it turned out my flight out of Dallas was delayed about eight hours so it worked out well for me.
I actually do have a few affiliate links on this site. Those are for things sold from Drive Thru RPG. I have considered signing up for Amazon affiliates and may still. But they have little of the old school DnD stuff on their site for sale while DRTPG has quite a bit of it. Thanks for the suggestion though and I may still end up following it.