When we, the staff of ekajsmash get together to play D&D, we love to use miniatures. They add a visual representation of what's going on in the game. And since a different part of the brain is used to process visual information than auditory information, more of your brain is used to absorb the game information. Hence, it's easier for you to get into the game. Plus, when combined with a battle mat, movement, attacks of opportunity, ranged attacks and the infamous "5 foot step" all become much easier.

However, one thing I never really liked about the minis is that they're unpainted. So unless you're playing a sylvan elf with all metalic gear, then the figure just isn't you. Also, a good figure from Reaper Miniatures can cost anywhere from $3 to $9, with dragons around $15. Sure, they look awesome but they're still unpainted. Of course you could always go to the store, buy several different containers of paint, buy a paintbrush, buy primer, prime your figures, paint them, paint them some more, add a few more colors, drybrush it a little, paint some details, mess up a few times and start over from scratch. But who wants to do all of that?

Now, Wizards of the Coast has decided to produce their own line of miniatures. And they're pre-painted! Wizards is envious of the money that MageKnight has made and now they want their fair share. The figures come in starter packs of 16 for $20 or boosters of 8 for $10. That's right, the figures are random. That's good and bad. Bad because you never know what you're gonna get, but good because the price of the figure is around $1.25 each plus you get to build up a pretty good army fairly quickly.

Editor's Note (added 6/23/03): You can now pre-order these miniatures from our good friends, amazon.com. They are still $9.99 for the boosters, but the starter is only $13.99. Again, you can get free shipping with orders over $25, an extra 10% off through the Share The Love program and $30 off if you sign up for their Visa card.

The starter has 1 rare, 5 uncommons, 10 commons, stat cards for each, rules for head-to-head games, a color playing map, terrain cards and a d20. That's right, rules for head-to-head gaming a la MageKnight and HeroClix. The boosters have 1 rare, 3 uncommons and 4 commons. In total there are 80 figures; 27 rare, 33 uncommon and 20 commons. Don't you find it odd that there are more rares than commons? Oh well, I'm hoping that the commons are things like zombies, skeletons, bugbears and other creatures that usually attack in groups. That way I don't end up with a shitload of Redgar's. Anyway, check out the following pics!

Sweetarse pics from gamingreport.com that can be enlarged. Check out that frickin' owlbear!

More pics from gamingreport.com

WotC's pics

Official press release:

Inexpensive, durable plastic, prepainted miniatures for Dungeons & Dragons? Welcome to the Golden Age of Fantasy Gaming!

When the first D&D miniatures hit store shelves in September, one of the first things everyone will want to know is, what's in the boxes?

For starters, the initial set, Harbinger, consists of 80 miniatures. Of those, 27 are rare, 33 are uncommon, and 20 are common. Harbinger will be followed by Dragoneye this Christmas (watch for it!), and then three sets will be released each year after. All the follow-on sets will consist of 60 figures.

Dungeons & Dragons miniatures will be available in two types of packages: Entry Packs and Expansion Packs. The mixing of figures in the packs will be truly random. In other words, there won't be some fixed number of prepacked mixes. Each box will be as unique as random sorting of 80 figures can make it.

Entry Packs contain 16 figures -- 1 rare, 5 uncommon, and 10 common. There will also be a corresponding stat card for each figure plus rules for head-to-head games, a full-color playing map, terrain cards, and one d20. The price will be $19.99.

Expansion Packs contain 8 figures -- 1 rare, 3 uncommon, and 4 common, each with a corresponding stat card. The price will be $9.99.

Random packaging of trading cards has been popular for 10 years (much, much longer if you count bubblegum cards). It is, however, relatively new for miniatures, so we'd like to lay out some of our reasons for random packaging. It has real benefits from the gamer's perspective.

First and foremost is simplicity. If you're a long-time role-player, "simplicity" might sound suspiciously like "dumbing down," but it's not. If you're new to the world of D&D and/or miniatures, having only two buying choices rather than a catalog of 80 is a tremendous boon. Buying the right thing on your first try will be pretty automatic. Going home from the store empty-handed because the item you wanted was out of stock will be unlikely.

Actual game-play can also benefit from random packaging. Wizards is aiming with the D&D miniatures not only to boost miniatures use in role-playing but also to build up competitive tabletop play within the D&D universe. Sealed box tournaments, even sealed-box dungeons or encounters are instant possibilities.

Cost is another benefit. Random packaging reduces the cost-per-figure by requiring less packaging, less shipping, and less handling.

Cost enters into the equation in other, less visible ways, too. For example, some figures are highly valued but no one needs very many of them. When individually packed, these rare figures are much more expensive to manufacture in limited quantities than the common figures. That additional cost has to be passed on to the customer, either by increasing figure prices across the board (nobody wants that) or by charging more (in some cases, a lot more) for those special figures, which in turn cuts down demand even more. By making those figures rare and packing them randomly, they become no more expensive to produce or buy than anything else in the set. It's easy to assume that Wizards wants everyone to buy 20 packs of figures just to get one mind flayer. While we certainly hope everyone will buy 20 packs (and once you see the figures, we think everyone will want 20 packs), if a mind flayer is the only thing you're after -- well, that's what trading is for.

There are numerous business reasons as well -- vastly simplified stock-keeping and reordering for retailers and distributors are two of the biggest. We consider those benefits, however, rather than driving reasons.


staff out...

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