My belated introduction to D&D Miniatures…

2008 April 6
by Dante


Over the weekend, SR and I hosted a houseguest in one of my old college buddies, Boyle. He brought with him this magnificent trio that you see (parts of) above, along with the rest of his collection of D&D Miniatures to show me.

Wow, you’re late to the party, Dante.

Why yes, yes I am. I had originally purchased a starter set of miniatures when they first came out because I wanted them to augment my D&D campaigns with. Unfortunately, money was tight and I didn’t end up getting too many that were directly applicable to my setting so I threw them quickly back into the starter box where they resided for many years.

Luckily, when Boyle produced his miniatures it was exactly two days after I had recognized that starter box in the top of my closet and made note of it, so down it came and before long we were creating our parties and having some fun.

It was better than I anticipated!

I’m not going to lie… when I first got the miniatures a few people tried to convince me to play the game that goes along with it and I rejected that idea on the premise that I knew the D&D combat rules and anything based on that was probably far too complicated for me to actually ENJOY. Could I play it? Probably, but rules lawyering is a pursuit best left for SR as she enjoys the ancient art of being right.

Boyle is one of my dearest friends, and I could never tell him that I wouldn’t at least try it… besides… there were adult beverages involved so it couldn’t be that bad, right?

Right! I have to say the simplified rules, coupled with some familiar D&D characteristics made the experience immediately recognizable and fun. It also helps that my starter set happened to include a Medusa, which I understand is somewhat sought after. I’m sure there are a few of you that are kind of sick reading that, sorry!

Regardless, we played several rounds but I stopped short of playing any scenario involving the dragons pictured above, since I was barely having any luck at all with my meager starter set.

From what I can tell, much of the stat blocks that I have seen related to the D&D 4th edition seems to approximate the simplicity of the miniature rules, so I have hopes that all combat will take place in similar fashion as the new edition hits. The only thing that bothered me a little was the rules for routing and running… it seems to me that shouldn’t be so much determined by a die roll but I understand that miniature games are based more solidly in concrete rules so I can tolerate that minor annoyance.

It was a really fun evening, special thanks go out to Boyle for bringing his stuff over so we could give miniatures a try!

3 Responses leave one →
  1. Yax permalink
    April 6, 2008

    I did the same thing when minis came out. I ended up never playing by lack of time and hobby budget rather than lack of interest.

    I recently considered investing and playing but I live in the middle of nowhere. I’ll have to settle for surfing.

  2. Anonymous permalink
    April 7, 2008

    The best part is when you get enough minis to start creating your own warbands. Groups like The Panty Raiders, a chaotic evil band of orcs with an ogre war hulk for the muscle, or Benny Blevin and the Granola Seven, a chaotic good group of foresty types led by an Skyfire ranger and a bronze dragon. As with D&D, gotta have fun with it!

  3. M D Boyle permalink
    August 31, 2008

    I was just searching for some D&D backgrounds, and I saw a rust monster, and then I read your post and I thought, "Hmm… people referring to him with last name only, a bunch of brand new dragon minis…" That sounds like my younger brother… So I called him and he confirmed what I suspected. What are the chances, right? Anyway, Nice site, man. And nice going with the Gygax signatures… Too bad about that dude. He'll be missed.

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