Kid Adventurers

[Rainbow Sculptor]

Hello friends!!

 

I'm wanting to do a little market research and I'm hoping I can get your help. 

 

For Bones V I sculpted a bunch of kids heroes and their pet companions. These were some of my favorite figures to work on and I'd like to do more. To be very very clear I have NO indication that Reaper will be producing any more of those types of figures and I'm in no way promising to create anything we discuss here. I have no shortage of ideas when it comes to new kid heroes but I'm wanting to see what types of figures people would want if hypothetically I decided to create more. 

 

I really like the idea of doing brother/sister sets, offering male and female options for particular races or themes. Simply from a design perspective it allows me to explore an idea more fully. Again, this is purely for my personal side projects and fun, not related to any official releases. That said, it's nice to know what the thoughts were about the ones I've already made and what holes people may want filled within that genre. 

 

My questions are:

•What did you like/love/hate/ignore about the kid heroes from Bones V?

•What themes or types of kid heroes would you be interested in? 

•What purpose would they serve for you? Just fun to paint? Have kids who want to play but struggle to find a figure that represents them? Using them as stand ins for hobbits/halflings/gnomes or other vertically challenged races? 

•What themes would you like to see explore in this context? Steampunk, modern, arthurian, more "random fun" types, traditional villager or starting hero types? Dragonkin, Genasi or other less popular fantasy races? 

[KruleBear]

I am playing Hero Kids with my son. It would be awesome to have a base set of minis that match up with their art work for the basic characters. I was glad to see these new Bones mins, been using halflings and gnomes as proxies. My son plays a basic magic user. Hard to find a bald child sized magic user....i.e. Ang from The Last Airbender.

 

Best of luck.

[Kuroneko]

I love your work on these minis! I particularly like the animal companions and how their expressions match with the kids, with the toucan/pick wielder being my absolute favorite 

 

I'm planning a game where the PCs get de-aged into kid versions of themselves, so these fit perfectly! I would love more variant races too, but I'd buy more of them even if I didn't have an in game use for them. Thank you so much for sculpting them!

[Thoramel]

I really enjoyed seeing these in the kickstarter. I'm a big fan of unique miniatures for gaming and these are definitely that. It gets a bit old painting "guy with sword and shield" for the umpteenth time. As for using them, I imagine I'll have quite a few uses including gifts to gaming friends with little ones of their own, NPC's, and possibly PC's if someone decides to play a kid. Although using them as halflings would work too, hadn't thought of that. I would also love to see some Kid Villains. I can easily imagine some mean looking kid with as a necromancer with a wolf skeleton, or some child warlock with a short devil companion. I also would love to see a few kids with animals much larger than they are, like a kid with an ox or similar. Some dwarf or drow kids would be pretty fun too. I can just imagine a drow kid with a pet giant spider. Fun stuff, looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[ksbsnowowl]

13 hours ago, Rainbow Sculptor said:

 

•What did you like/love/hate/ignore about the kid heroes from Bones V?

•What themes or types of kid heroes would you be interested in? 

What I didn’t like: They are too large, too cartoony, and not in scale for D&D.  They will rot in the bottom of my box of shame, or likely just be given to my kid to play with. 
 

That said, I know not every miniature, produced by Reaper or otherwise, needs to be targeted at D&D players.  But it seems every take on kid mini’s (see also WizKids’ Wardlings line) goes for the oversized, out of scale ridiculousness.
 

I want kid-sized mini’s for D&D. That are actually kid-sized. Adult-sized with chibi heads is of no use to me, and it seems most mini companies don’t want to fill that need. 
 

Themes I would be interested in: Foremost I’d like some appropriately-sized (in-scale) kids that would be useful for D&D, both in and out of a village.
 

• Shepherd boys the party has to help protect from roving wolves. 
• Street rat pick-pockets to cut purses from the party’s belts for the local gang. 
• Young farm hands. 
 

Traditional villager and starting hero types, in correct 28mm scale, would also be great. There were maybe two in the Bones 5 Townsfolk set? But they both looked almost identical (same bowl haircut, etc.)

 

• A kid rolling a hoop with a stick, that the party can save from a run-away wagon would be interesting.

• A pair of girls, with arms stretched out away from their sides, whose hands are appropriately positioned so they can hold hands (either one on either side), looking like they are running or dancing. Two of them could look like best friends running toward their secret hiding place. Because they’d be sculpted so they could hold hands on either side, getting, say... 4 pairs of these figures, would let you make a ring of girls, holding hands and dancing in a circle (ring around the rosie...)  It could be good for dioramas. 

Edited January 11, 2021 by ksbsnowowl
Fixing 3 AM grammar...

[gmvader]

15 hours ago, Rainbow Sculptor said:

My questions are:

•What did you like/love/hate/ignore about the kid heroes from Bones V?

•What themes or types of kid heroes would you be interested in? 

•What purpose would they serve for you? Just fun to paint? Have kids who want to play but struggle to find a figure that represents them? Using them as stand ins for hobbits/halflings/gnomes or other vertically challenged races? 

•What themes would you like to see explore in this context? Steampunk, modern, arthurian, more "random fun" types, traditional villager or starting hero types? Dragonkin, Genasi or other less popular fantasy races? 

I loved the kid hero's in the Bones V and they are one of the things I am most looking forward to. I especially like the expressiveness of the features, and the animal companions. I also like the 'cartooniness' of them. That said, I rarely use my minis for games, they are solely what I think will be fun to paint. These look like a lot of fun.

 

I'd be interested in seeing some other fantasy races represented. Dragonborn, tiefling, orc, half-orc, dwarf, etc.

 

Since I don't use them for games I don't have a lengthy wishlist -- I'm really interested in seeing what you come up with.

 

As far as themes? All of the above sound awesome.

[TaleSpinner]

I'd like to see a kid who's equipment is very ramshackle. Essentially the farm boy who dreams of being a knight and makes his own armor and gear from stuff he finds around the farm.  A cooking pot for a helm, broken scythe blade tied to a pole for a weapon, that sort of thing.  He'd definitely be a good one to pair with the bull.

[Dilvish the Deliverer]

So, I'm not really planning on using mine for anything at the moment.  My games tend not to have child adventurers (just personal preference), but I do find them quite whimsical and they look like they will be a blast to paint.  As I don't have a specific use for them, I don't have any particular requests.

 

Maybe piggybacking off of @TaleSpinner's farmboy, you could try some other professions as inspiration.  Two that come to mind would be fisherman and cabin boy

[Glitterwolf]

How about the evil ones?

 

A kid goblin, Vampire child, troll kid, gnoll pup, teenage werewolf etc

[ksbsnowowl]

2 hours ago, Glitterwolf said:

How about the evil ones?

 

A kid goblin, Vampire child, troll kid, gnoll pup, teenage werewolf etc

What about Giant children? I don’t know about 5e, but 3e D&D had rules for juvenile and adolescent giants, and such creatures have featured in classic D&D adventures of decades past (Against the Giants series), usually described as having actual weapons.  Here is the description of area 3 from The Steading of the Hill Giant Chief:

 

DORMITORY: Here 12 young giants (H.P.: 26, 24, 3x21, 18x 17, 2 x 16, 14, 13) are rollicking, and beefy smacks, shouts, laughter, etc. are easily heard. All these creatures have weapons and will fight as ogres. (Note that noise from here will
be regarded as the "kids" having fun ...) There is no treasure, but by wearing the young giants garb, with suitable padding, the party could pass as the youngsters if not seen closer than 20'.

 

Here’s a snippet about juveniles and adolescents from the 3.5 Monster Manual:

 

When a group of giants includes children, roll d% for each child to determine maturity: 01–25% infant (no combat ability); 26–50% juvenile (two sizes smaller than an adult, 8 fewer HD, –8 Strength, –8 Constitution, and 1 rank in each skill that an adult has); and 51–100% adolescent (one size smaller than an adult, 4 fewer HD, –4 Strength, –4 Constitution, and 2, 3, or 4 ranks in each skill that an adult has). 

Granted, there are size differences between editions for some Giant species, but shooting for the look of about a 10 or 11 year old, and Medium size (basically human size), would allow them to be used as either juveniles of a Huge Giant species, or adolescents of Large Giant species. 
 

A beardless, toga-wearing Storm Giant about to hurl a lightning bolt would be a fun addition. Basically the Bones 5 Storm Giant, but shrunk down and de-aged. The old Bones Cloud Giant actually works well as an adolescent as is, but a Medium-sized one could be fun for a juvenile. 

[Baugi]

I love these, and I eagerly await their arrival.  I also play Hero Kids with my boys, and we have occasional drop-ins with their cousins and friends (or we did pre-covid, anyway).  We'll move up to 5e when they're a little older, and will likely keep using kid minis for a good while, so a variety would be fantastic.  Beginner heroes are a great idea, and I LOVE the brother sister pair concept.  The paired sex idea is one of the few things I really like about the wizkids minis actually, and I think that's something worth pursuing.  I like the idea of dragonborn/tabaxi/etc, but I would likely never use them myself.  Humanoid children with a variety of equipment or obvious classes, with some fun elements like animals or (as mentioned above) ramshackle or "borrowed" items like rolling pins, dad's helmet (is that what's happening with the little fellow with the war pick?), pot lid shields and so on would be great.  Would be easy enough for them to serve as young humans, dwarves, half-elves, genasi with the right paint job, halflings or whatever else.  I love this idea and would happily buy more.

[SotF]

I'd love to see some that are more of an apprentice or squire look, perhaps instead of with pets, having them paired up with someone who would work as a master for the apprentice, a glimpse at what they might be, or a parent/relative that would be an example of an adult one

[Pochi]

I adored these in the kickstarter!

 

•What did you like/love/hate/ignore about the kid heroes from Bones V? They are adorable! They would work for children or short races I think.

 

•What themes or types of kid heroes would you be interested in? Kids to fit different fantasy class types, villager kids, any!

 

•What purpose would they serve for you? Just fun to paint? Have kids who want to play but struggle to find a figure that represents them? Using them as stand ins for hobbits/halflings/gnomes or other vertically challenged races? All of the above!

 

•What themes would you like to see explore in this context? Steampunk, modern, arthurian, more "random fun" types, traditional villager or starting hero types? Dragonkin, Genasi or other less popular fantasy races? A couple "space opera" theme would be cute. Tieflings, fauns, goblins, orcs, and then more common fantasy races as well.

[Rigel]

These are awfully cute, and would work for gnomes in a pinch in my opinion. 
 

On 1/11/2021 at 12:12 AM, Rainbow Sculptor said:

•What themes would you like to see explore in this context?

I like the idea of steampunk/victorian urchins! A wunderkind with spectacles and ray gun, some tatterdemalion guttersnipes and gamins, maybe a wretched Mud Lark. An Artful Dodger. 

[Sanael]

On 1/11/2021 at 1:12 AM, Rainbow Sculptor said:

My questions are:

•What did you like/love/hate/ignore about the kid heroes from Bones V?

•What themes or types of kid heroes would you be interested in? 

•What purpose would they serve for you? Just fun to paint? Have kids who want to play but struggle to find a figure that represents them? Using them as stand ins for hobbits/halflings/gnomes or other vertically challenged races? 

•What themes would you like to see explore in this context? Steampunk, modern, arthurian, more "random fun" types, traditional villager or starting hero types? Dragonkin, Genasi or other less popular fantasy races? 

I’m a bit late to this party, but here’s my tuppence anyway.

 

What did you like/love/hate/ignore about the kid heroes from Bones V?

 

One of my favorite things about Bones V was the fact that so many parts of it could easily translate to coherent adventures, and these are no different. They have a different aesthetic than most of Reaper’s offerings, but they are consistent with each other and I could absolutely build a short adventure around them as pregen characters.

 

I also love that they are full of expression and detail, without being overladen by gribblies. They look like an absolute blast to paint, and they also (because of their exaggerated proportions) are less intimidating to paint. They don’t feel “chibi,” but they aren’t the tiny “realistic” proportions of a Garrity. This makes them excellent for teaching new or young painters.

 

I do agree these don’t look like the children of the typical adventurers in Reaper’s catalog, and that does mean they won’t see a lot of use in my regular games. But that’s also not why I would buy them, so I’m not too worried by it. It is worth noting though, this does mean I’m less likely to buy many of them. I’m getting all the ones offered in BV, but that’s mostly because they’re a package deal. If I saw them hanging on a wall in my FLGS, I’d buy a couple that I really wanted to paint (of the eight, this would likely be the Viking, the Inuit and the one with the lantern, in that order, as they look most fun to me to paint).

 

(why those three?

viking: her hair? Obviously? And she’s Just. So. Fierce. Plus shield freehand. Also the goat looks super fun.

Inuit: freehand patterns on those large swathes of clothing, and that expression. Worth noting that the bear doesn’t do much for me: I’d rather have seen a small orca, although I also know aquatic animal companions are difficult in gameplay.

Lantern: OSL with that big broad blade and both figures’ eyes sounds like a good time as a painter.)

 

•What themes or types of kid heroes would you be interested in? 

Something you’ve already done a bit with this pile of eight is representing multiple cultures. You’ve clearly done a good bit of research into traditional and practical dress to put these kids together; continuing this would be really excellent. A series of traditional/aboriginal/multicultural adventure kids, from Bedouin to Mongolian to Maori, would be very good to see.

And obviously it’d be great to see your take on other D&D races: dragonkin, tieflings, tortles, etc.

 

•What purpose would they serve for you? Just fun to paint? Have kids who want to play but struggle to find a figure that represents them? Using them as stand ins for hobbits/halflings/gnomes or other vertically challenged races? 
 

See above, re: fun to paint, good teaching tools for painting, possible self-contained adventures.

 

•What themes would you like to see explore in this context? Steampunk, modern, arthurian, more "random fun" types, traditional villager or starting hero types? Dragonkin, Genasi or other less popular fantasy races? 
 

I think there’s room for you to just sculpt whatever strikes your fancy in this style. The multiethnic/cultural concept I mentioned is really what I’d be most interested in seeing. 
 

something that wouldn’t interest me much is most NPC types. If I want village children for my regular D&D games, I don’t really want something so stylistically different than the adult adventurers.