Bones 6 Enthusiasm and Commentary

[AlonTey]

31 minutes ago, Sirithiliel said:

Indeed. My husband and I have backed bones 2, 3, 4, and 5. We got the coreset on 2,3, and 4. In 5 i got expansions and add ons.

Due to Covid and moving away, we haven't been able to in-person game for 2 years, so those minis have been sitting idle. I lost a lot of my drive to paint, mostly because i don't see a reason to anymore. We don't play DND in person now…

This is my exact experience of the last two years.  I feel that.  I started posting my minis here to give me a reason to keep my hobby going during the bad webcam times.  For what it’s worth your dragons are inspiring!

[Cyradis]

1 hour ago, GoldenPiggy said:

Absolutely, and I fully understand this sentiment.  The more miniatures you get, the more selective you want to be in what you add.  I am honestly a little skeptical about all of this, because I generally prefer painting metal miniatures, but I decided to go all in to get a lot more miniatures for gaming without spending an absolute fortune.  It turns out this Bones Kickstarter is exactly what I want in terms of miniatures at this point, but that is not true for everyone, and especially not for people who have been buying massive quantities of miniatures from the other Bones Kickstarters.

 

Indeed. I like metal more, but I dub Bones figures "flingables" because they are more durable at a table and cheaper. It also makes big monsters more affordable than metal or resin would be. Even if my needs have changed, due to a surplus of my basic flingables and new painting styles, Bones is still the best for the goals: affordable/figure minis that are durable and fun at a tabletop.

 

I wonder why Reaper went with existing paints in the first paint set. Seems odd to me. They do have entirely too many paint colors in their line, but I enjoy trying new colors periodically and I like the consistency of their paint. If I'm doing a Reaper order a few bottles tend to be the "top it off for free shipping" item. If I dislike a color or find it too similar to one I have, I can give a spare bottle to a friend. But.... I don't need a paint set for which I have half of the bottles in it already, and in a Kickstarter, not going to wait 2 years for that bottle of Succubus Kiss, because it'll probably end up as a top-off item before that.

[Cyradis]

Also going to put this out there - the Male/Female ratio on this kickstarter is atrocious.

 

Trying to avoid counting skeletons and ambiguous ghosts and undefined monsters, this is a rough count.

 

Core: 15 female, 24 male

GG: 6 female, 8 male

SoS: 3(?) female, 7(?) male

BWV: 11 female, 4 male (only one over-representing female figures)

Men at Arms: 0 female, 6 male

Chibis: 6 female, 6 male (only balanced set)

Orcs: 0 female, 6 male

Chibi goblins: 0 female, 6 male.

 

That is REALLY disappointing. The Men at Arms could have easily been Arm Yourselves! with 3 and 3 for female and male body options. Reaper's exaggerated style is such that some burly armed women would be fine for that. And y'know what? As a small female who has worked REALLY HARD to not be weak, it legitimately is part of my fantasy to just Be Strong. Give us strong women. For that matter, give us soft men too - Briarwood Vale would be a great place for some fauns, some gentle druid fellows, male fairies!

 

I do like the sculpts presented. Nothing wrong there imo. Just... get some better balance, yeah?

[Lidless Eye]

7 minutes ago, Cyradis said:

Also going to put this out there - the Male/Female ratio on this kickstarter is atrocious.

 

Trying to avoid counting skeletons and ambiguous ghosts and undefined monsters, this is a rough count.

 

Core: 15 female, 24 male

GG: 6 female, 8 male

SoS: 3(?) female, 7(?) male

BWV: 11 female, 4 male (only one over-representing female figures)

Men at Arms: 0 female, 6 male

Chibis: 6 female, 6 male (only balanced set)

Orcs: 0 female, 6 male

Chibi goblins: 0 female, 6 male.

 

That is REALLY disappointing. The Men at Arms could have easily been Arm Yourselves! with 3 and 3 for female and male body options. Reaper's exaggerated style is such that some burly armed women would be fine for that. And y'know what? As a small female who has worked REALLY HARD to not be weak, it legitimately is part of my fantasy to just Be Strong. Give us strong women. For that matter, give us soft men too - Briarwood Vale would be a great place for some fauns, some gentle druid fellows, male fairies!

 

I do like the sculpts presented. Nothing wrong there imo. Just... get some better balance, yeah?

I don't want to overanalyze, but some of your counts seem a bit off there.  The Core set has 23 female humanoids by my count, and the Goblins only have 4 total (and PF female Goblins look near-identical to the males)

[kristof65]

1 hour ago, WhiteWulfe said:

 but I wasn't willing to risk frozen paint because a frozen bottle still really hurts) 

Perhaps you shouldn't be throwing them at each other? 

[TenThousandKobolds]

I am anxiously waiting for those encounters to show up. I've been in a painting rut since my D&D group went virtual for 2 years. We might get back to in-person soon and themed sets are a nice way to push myself back into painting. I've got some of them from Bones 5 I'll probably start painting soon. But I'm also getting married this summer, looking at moving in the next year or so, and I've got a lot of other life things going on, so it's been tough to keep up with painting.

 

Like many others here, I've got several bins of unpainted minis, so I've got most of the basics covered. However, I'm still planning to get the Core Set this time around. I like to have a ridiculous stash of adventurers for players to sift through when they make a character, so that fills my adventurer bin nicely. Bog shambler, mudmen, and nightmare all look fun. Familiars and wolves are always useful. My fiancée hates bugs, so the ants are excellent for an encounter guaranteed to make her squirm. And anything I'm not super excited about goes into the "mystery box" for my friends who want to try painting but don't have any supplies of their own. I also have a box of extra paint to gift to new hobbyists.

 

I'll likely add the Briarwood expansion. I don't run a ton of faerie stuff, but I could see myself using a good number of these minis, especially the plant/fungus ones. And who knows what the future might hold.

 

I'm looking forward to the Denizens of the Dungeon too, even though I've got a lot of basics. In 2 years, I'll probably have a new campaign going, so the low-level stuff might be exactly what I need.

 

Lost Tombs is a maybe. I don't run much Egyptian themed stuff, and I don't use tons of terrain since I travel to run games most of the time, but I do like that barbarian. We'll see.

 

I expect my pledge for this round will be a decent amount lower than the past couple (got a wedding and probably a new house to pay for), but I've still got some room in the budget to add on a few more things!

[cycnet]

2 hours ago, Sirithiliel said:

In that spirit, i'm going in for any expansions / Add ons that catch my fancy. So far...that's not really anything. I am going to get the Fae expansion because i like the fairy dragon and it'll be over half the price of the expansion at retail if estimates are to be believed.

 

i'm considering the chonky dragon but it doesn't quite do it for me, design wise. It's a good sculpt but not quite what i look for in a dragon

yeah fae set, mongrelfolk and ants are the only thing I am excited about this time and I am feeling pretty salty that the ant queen isn’t going to be available to buy separately. 
 

I really don’t know how they managed to make the core set so meh this time around. I know different folks have different feelings but there is very little in it that I am tempted by. I think probably a bunch of male humanoid figures is not helping here. 
 

the fae set is really ace. Unless one of the other expansions is as good, I don’t see myself spending much this round, which is just as well.

[kristof65]

4 minutes ago, cycnet said:

I really don’t know how they managed to make the core set so meh this time around.

I just went back and looked at the first 86 figures in Bones 5, and compared to Bones 6, they're about the same level of "meh" to me. 

[cawatrooper]

4 hours ago, kristof65 said:

BURN THE HERETIC!  

Fair enough 😅

 

I'm sure me two years ago would've been right with ya, pitchfork in hand and a torch in the other.

[Cyradis]

50 minutes ago, Lidless Eye said:

I don't want to overanalyze, but some of your counts seem a bit off there.  The Core set has 23 female humanoids by my count, and the Goblins only have 4 total (and PF female Goblins look near-identical to the males)

 

I can check again. It was an estimate and I am admittedly not that good at counting. I was also trying to avoid ambiguous figures (I didn't include any of the zombies although perhaps I could).

 

Let's see....

 

17 on revised count, 21 if adding in fem zombies, for Core.

 

The chibi goblins are only 4. May be worth dropping them from the count if they are always ambiguous though.

[cycnet]

On 4/11/2022 at 3:34 PM, GoldenPiggy said:

Maybe next time they should leave adventurers out of the core set (or maybe keep a few, mostly unusual races/classes), but have an expansion of, say 40 adventurers for $50?  That way anyone building a collection can get a nice value, and anyone with plenty of adventurers can skip them.

This is my view. I don’t want more adventurers unless they are unusual and underrepresented figures. Or at least female. Like, I just don’t need another bare chested male human barbarian. 
 

I think having a core set that has more monsters and weird things and then an adventurers set would fill out both needs. Or maybe it is time to retire the core and lean harder into the expansions. Have the “core” pledge be two expansions of your choice or 1 expansion and 2 encounters. Then can split things up thematically a bit more. Can still do a “fan favourites” or whatever that is a mixed bag. 

[MoonglowMinis]

1 minute ago, cycnet said:

This is my view. I don’t want more adventurers unless they are unusual and underrepresented figures. Or at least female. Like, I just don’t need another bare chested male human barbarian. 

I also feel this way.  It's why I'm more excited by the expansions with thematic variations.  The Hakir barbarian we saw teased is a great example.  I don't need anymore barbarians, but one that feels unique and from a culture that's not European inspired is WAY more enticing.

[cycnet]

21 minutes ago, kristof65 said:

I just went back and looked at the first 86 figures in Bones 5, and compared to Bones 6, they're about the same level of "meh" to me. 

different strokes I guess. For me the elk, the giant weasel, the snakefolk, the dragon, the basilisk, the fat imp, the cloaker, the twigfolk, the undead zombie are all ace. And kobolds beat zombies by a long mile. Then we got boulderkin, wolves, spell effects, cat folk … heck even the kid heroes are at least *different* and they come with familiars so that is a nice bonus.

Edited April 13, 2022 by cycnet

[snitchythedog]

At this point I am still looking for encounters.  I know that character models sell better than encounters but that is what I am looking for so my pledge is sat at $10.00 and waiting to see the expansions.  The male vs female discussion to me it is a bit of a non issue.  The mods are tetchy about the debate because it tends to devolve a bit so I will be brief.  Counting models in the set based on appearance/gender it is a bit of a pointless exercise as that is what is in the set.  Either a model is useful to you or not.  Hobby budgets are tight right now so spend accordingly.   

Edited April 13, 2022 by snitchythedog

[TenThousandKobolds]

19 minutes ago, cycnet said:

heck even the kid heroes are at least *different* and they come with familiars so that is a nice bonus.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot the kid heroes were in Bones 5 Core! I loved those! I got extras of them. A little niche, but perfect for introducing kids to D&D. And one time I ran a Halloween one-shot where everyone played as kids who were dressed up as adventurers for trick-or-treating, then turned into their Halloween costumes and had to solve a mystery. That was before Bones 5, though, so I had to make my own Overgourd (the Great Pumpkin was the final boss).