funded Reaper Bones 5: Enthusiasm and Commentary thread

[Evilhalfling]

32 minutes ago, gloranphile said:

My 4 year old daughter wants to know if there will ever be a unicorn mini. :D

 

My 4 yr old wanted Dinosaur minis. - at the time there just happened to be a Reaper Kickstater going on and I bought a large number of dinos.

Now she is 6 she wants a unicorn... and mostly plays with the dragons.  but the next figure she paints will be the Carnitosaurus.  it will likely be purple. 

 

strike while the iron is hot. the unicorns mentioned above are good choices. 

 

 

 

Edited November 4, 2019 by Evilhalfling

[YronimosW]

1 minute ago, NebulousMissy said:

There might also have been enough of an expansion of the hobby that new people want to find their mini as they expect it to look. They don't want to have to go through the gatekeeping of learning how to mod their minis. They want to find their actual mini, even and especially when their mini isn't the same Guy With Sword demanded by unimaginative purists who never researched polearms [grumble grumble].

 

Those new people who want to find their mini but are slow on picking up the tin snips might drive the expansion into non-generic minis. When/if they do learn the Ways of the X-Acto they might keep that demand for non-standard stuff.

 

For those of us who enjoy the custom mini sub-hobby, one fun new development from the hard-plastic wargaming miniatures kit hobby pioneered by Games Workshop has been that GW and its imitators over the years have been providing some excellent variety in these miniatures, to the point where these kits are almost build-your-own hero kits!  The manufacturer of the hard plastic Frostgrave miniatures in particular has been - whether they meant to or not - making this more of a reality than ever by releasing some recent plastic mini kits for male soldiers, female soldiers, male wizards, and just within the last couple weeks female wizards.  The soldier kits come with all sorts of weapons (including pole-arms), the wizard kits even include little familiars in addition to all sorts of wands, scrolls, spellbooks, crystal balls, staves, etc.  It's really exciting where these kits seem to be going now!  (For what it's worth, these plastic kits are quite compatible with "Bonesium" - the usual Wacky Gloo will stick the two plastics together quite firmly in seconds!)

 

At the other end of the spectrum, HeroForge has really been transforming itself into a great tool for designing your own mini, using an online 3D modeling software program to choose faces, haircuts, clothes, gear, mounts and familiars, etc., and then either buying the 3D model to run through your 3D printer, or just having the mini made for you... it's still a pricey technology, but no doubt worth it to many gamers who don't want to customize minis the old-fashioned way....

 

[gloranphile]

Many thanks, Xiwo Xerase and YronimosW; I know what I'm getting her for Christmas now!

[DMAgamus]

All told, it looks like I'll be coming out at a little over $300 for this KS, which is about what I usually spend on Reaper's kickstarters. Only difference this time is I didn't get a core set, but that beautiful pirate ship makes up for that. 

Kid Heroes

Armory x2

Halloween Knight

Dark Depths

Brinewind+Extension

Dragonfolk

All the siege equipment

The Boat

 

Still eyeing the Kobolds because I like lots of little mooks, and the dice for posterity, but probably not.

[klarg1]

My first pass want list is well over $500, which is also well over my actual pledge amount.

 

I figure I'll lock in a decent baseline order shortly after the pledge manager opens, and then see where my whim takes me.

[Cygnwulf]

On 11/2/2019 at 12:13 AM, Sylverthorne said:

... Well, NOW I want a giant mechanical chicken!

Ideally, that can be used as a mount. 

Not sure if this was covered, but we don't have a Mr Bones yet for this KS either, so we need Mr Bones as the Phantom on his giant robo-chicken.

 

 

[Last Knight]

My pledge was definitely low-ball - just the core @ $120 - while my "wish list" is over $800 right now. I'll make it up a bit at a time while the manager is open, spreading out the hobby money to keep it affordable.

[Doug Sundseth]

1 hour ago, kristof65 said:

I thought it was awesome that Reaper was able to pull the figure directly from their existing line.  (3345 Ridley Darkedge, Male Rogue)

 

Yeah, that definitely made it easier to add. That's a figure I have really liked for quite a while, long enough in fact that it's been prepped, primed, and on a painting stand on my desk for several months. 

[TGP]

5 minutes ago, Last Knight said:

My pledge was definitely low-ball - just the core @ $120 - while my "wish list" is over $800 right now. I'll make it up a bit at a time while the manager is open, spreading out the hobby money to keep it affordable.

 

Ahoy!!  Been awhile since you've surfaced...

[dwarvenranger]

1 hour ago, NebulousMissy said:

There might also have been enough of an expansion of the hobby that new people want to find their mini as they expect it to look. They don't want to have to go through the gatekeeping of learning how to mod their minis. They want to find their actual mini, even and especially when their mini isn't the same Guy With Sword demanded by unimaginative purists who never researched polearms [grumble grumble].

 

Those new people who want to find their mini but are slow on picking up the tin snips might drive the expansion into non-generic minis. When/if they do learn the Ways of the X-Acto they might keep that demand for non-standard stuff.

This is why every player at our table (between 4-12 depending on the night) has a hero forge mini for their character. Heck, one of them even got the gold one.

[Jeronimus]

59 minutes ago, YronimosW said:

At the other end of the spectrum, HeroForge has really been transforming itself into a great tool for designing your own mini, using an online 3D modeling software program to choose faces, haircuts, clothes, gear, mounts and familiars, etc., and then either buying the 3D model to run through your 3D printer, or just having the mini made for you... it's still a pricey technology, but no doubt worth it to many gamers who don't want to customize minis the old-fashioned way....

I've been hearing plenty of stories of DM's buying a whole bunch of figures to build their monster and NPC database, while players buy their own character off HeroForge. And that's that. Not quite an equal investment, but hey, any player that makes any investment is a good egg, right?

 

I did buy two characters off HeroForge last year to represent a set of characters my girlfriend and I want to play together at some point in the future, a gnome and a firbolg. I love the figures, they're delightful. Of course, that was right before they pushed another update that included specific firbolg customization options, and the update that allowed for taller minis and the one that allowed for custom posing... so now I have this suboptimal figure and I know I can make it even better.

 

Either way, it's a really great service for making that model you can't quite find, and they keep making it better, but there's something satisfying about finding an ACTUAL sculpted figure that matches your fantasy. I have some other characters I've wanted a figure for, but mysteriously haven't found a match for even though the concept isn't that eccentric (a clean-shaven, fresh-faced nobleman's son, a sword-wielding bard, probably one who wears a fencing vest type outfit - that's something I could definitely piece together if I chopped up different mini's, but buying different figures to frankenstein might end up setting me back as much money and give me... well, a frankenstein of sorts.)

[kristof65]

One of the things that I've found having tons of Bones PC models has allowed me to give players a huge pile of minis to look at BEFORE they draw up their character. 

They don't have to, of course, but with variety of Bones models I have, most of my players lately have gone "Ooh, I like this one!" or "This one would be cool if she had a sword!". 

 

This was especially helpful running the D&D group at the high school - new players would show up and I would let them look through a selection of minis I had basically prematched to pregenerated characters. 

[YronimosW]

That's basically what I've been doing with the Bones PC characters from each of the Kickstarters:  I put them in a shoebox for players to pick out characters from.  Unless it's someone that really looks like a good NPC - there's a few of those "player character" type minis that make much better baddies, for example; those get chucked in with either the  monsters or the townies, depending on which they fit in with the best to make finding the character easier when I need him.

 

Oh, and I should emphasize that as much as I like the unique characters, sometimes the "boring", "generic" ones are the best ones for the job - that set of Elf Rangers in this Kickstarter, for example, is great for anonymous face-in-the-crowd elves.  Just this weekend I got about 95% finished painting up about a half-dozen of the existing archer in that style, an elf wizard in a similar outfit, the two hooded cultists, and the not-Mindflayer in matching black and dark-green robes for use as anonymous elves, drow, or cultists - they make great multi-purpose characters that way!  I mean, sure, the drow elves are albino rather than pitch-black - I used the "vampiric flesh tones" for all these guys' weird, pasty, unhealthy, maggoty-white complexions and gave them all white hair wherever their lank, tangled hair is visible outside their hoods, but it works for my purposes (they look just sinister enough to be convincing Underdark villains and Mythos Cultists, but still pass for random, anonymous Elf NPCs like village/caravan guards, hunting parties, bounty hunters, or whatever), and my players are no more picky about that sort of thing than I am.

 

So, keep on bringing us those "unexciting" mooks in matching uniforms - I rarely see any that aren't useful as NPCs, allies, or villains!

Edited November 4, 2019 by YronimosW

[NebulousMissy]

The giant piles of Bones are useful for me as a GM. It's useful to have a monster that's about the right size or look even if it's not exact. In the same reasoning it's useful to have enough minis to be NPCs even if they're not wielding the exact weapons or wearing the exact clothing. And it's much cheaper than a 3D printer or a 3D printing service.

 

And when a goofy-looking giant monster is 100% the monster I'm looking for (giant catfish! okay it's too small but still! giant catfish!) then I will jump all over that broccoli and paint the elves out of it.

[dschumm]

4 minutes ago, kristof65 said:

One of the things that I've found having tons of Bones PC models has allowed me to give players a huge pile of minis to look at BEFORE they draw up their character. 

They don't have to, of course, but with variety of Bones models I have, most of my players lately have gone "Ooh, I like this one!" or "This one would be cool if she had a sword!". 

 

This was especially helpful running the D&D group at the high school - new players would show up and I would let them look through a selection of minis I had basically prematched to pregenerated characters. 

This....

 

My Bones 3 purchase was such a boon to the group I play with. No I haven't painted much of the set but the hours people have spent sifting through coming up with player ideas. Probably my favorite character inspired by the set was the main dude from the Ogre Command. The backstory to turn that into a player character was a half giant- NPC won over by some amazing natural 20s on diplomacy was sent to guard a town. When the bard died I asked the DM if I could be that giant, he said sure if I could makea backstory.  I said that he was almost killed defending that town but in the towns' church the light of a deity shown on him and he picked up the church door and effigy from the the altar and smashed the goblins to save the townsfolk. Boom I got a lawful good half giant paladin carrying a tower shield door. 

 

Sorry for the ramble but mini are so inspirational for me. Each Kickstarter is a storybook waiting to be open.