In the “Golden Age of Roleplaying
Games” of the early 1980s miniatures seemed an integral part of
roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons, not surprising
considering the hobby’s origins in miniature wargaming. Well before
game stores stocked walls of Warhammer or Reaper miniatures for every
conceivable fantasy race and monster – and before the rise of
popular, tournament-driven fantasy battle games – hobby stores
often settled for whatever they could get from distributors at the
time, usually from one of the two pillars of the miniatures
producers, Grenadier Models and Ral Partha.
I still have some of the earliest
miniatures I bought and painted, though I have since re-painted them
after much practice and gaining a slightly better ability (though
nothing I’d brag about). The Christmas after I discovered D&D
I’d received boxed set 2009, “Wizard’s Room,” as a gift but
found no practical use for it in my games. Later I bought Grenadier
Models boxed set 2005, “Fighting Men,” and a single model of a
dwarf holding a spear (possibly Ral Partha but maybe RAFM). The
latter I bought specifically to use as a test piece for painting with
the TSR Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Basic Paint Set
(also received as a holiday gift). I wasn’t too discouraged by my
paint job (until years later when I realized it looked simply
terrible), and collected a few more Grenadier miniatures to add to my
collection, most notably some orcs, skeletons, dwarves, a giant, and
some dragons.
Instead I used my growing collection of
painted fantasy miniatures to stage battles between orcs, men,
skeletons, and dwarves using fairly simple home-brew rules, some
painted foam hills, HO-scale railroad trees, some cardboard
buildings, and a few other props. The system was extremely simple
compared to the numerous miniature wargames available on the market
or for free today. Each unit had a single stat, the number on a
six-sided die each soldier had to roll equal to or higher to hit
opponents or save if hit themselves. Over time I developed different
systems for movement (usually either completely variable or a base
move with a bonus from a single die roll) and special units. (The
rules completely lacked any morale mechanics; I assumed forces would
attack each other until nobody was left or players withdrew them.) I
still have several iterations of the rules, hastily scrawled in
pencil on some lined sheets of paper and a host of note cards, some
of which have actual scenarios jotted on them.
Miniatures in
Roleplaying Games
In my early gaming days I rarely used
miniatures in roleplaying games. They seemed an additional
distraction when players were gathered around a large dining room
gaming table and reaching over character sheets, dice, snack foods,
and cups of soda to shuffle their heroes’ miniatures into the
proper marching order or attack formation. I quickly came to
associate minis more as pieces in miniature wargames than as
roleplaying game accessories.
Many years later in my adult gaming
days a friend ran a regular fantasy roleplaying game campaign using
home-brew rules and relying heavily on miniatures for visualizing
tactical situations. I even bought, modified, and painted miniatures
for my grumpy dwarf character and my wife’s cat-kind,
fireball-slinging magic user. Someone had a slew of pre-painted
plastic D&D miniatures, so we always had something
approximating our foes to scatter around the table. Most everyone
seemed to enjoy the visual enhancement minis brought to the game
table; yet from this player’s perspective it felt a lot like acting
out a top-down video game. I tend to prefer fairly fast-and-loose
play when it comes to combat (both as a player and gamemaster), so it
came as no surprise that I found these tactically exacting skirmishes
more frustrating than usual; the large number of players involved,
limitations imposed by range and line of sight to target, and the
technicalities of moving around the encounter space all exponentially
increased the time we took to resolve combat and hence wore away at
my personal level of engagement.
Miniatures for
Promotion
That isn’t to say I’ve never found
an effective and engaging use for miniatures in roleplaying games.
Although in my gaming youth I bought and painted minis yet didn’t
use them much at the gaming table, in later years I found them
effective tools when running roleplaying game demos at conventions
and in stores. Even a small set-up with some diorama pieces and
figures can draw potential players and spectators to the table, help
engage them in the game, and, theoretically, get them to make a
related game purchase.
Of all the senses, sight remains the
primary one on which most humans rely. Setting a roleplaying game
scene visually – something usually reserved for players’
imaginations – shares it clearly with others and immediately
attracts them to the table to discover more. Part of the appeal of
miniature wargaming – even to newcomers – remains the wonderful
visual spectacle of a table strewn with terrain and troops; the fact
that these aren’t static displays but actual “boards” with
“pieces” players control increases the appeal. Presenting
roleplaying games in this manner seems more personal since
participants play single heroes and have greater capacity to explore
the entire scene.
During my time with West End Games I
sometimes used miniatures and wargaming-style dioramas for demo
games. I theorized that the set-up’s visual appeal would attract
prospective players, and the figures and diorama would approximate
“pieces” and a “board” to help those who’d played
traditional games transition into roleplaying games. Wherever I used
this approach it worked effectively to draw people to our demo space,
sales booth, or game table; at the very least they spent a few moment
to examine the set-up, but many joined in quick demo games or even
full adventures.
Over the years I’ve acquired,
crafted, used, and sold a number of miniatures diorama pieces for use
with roleplaying games, both with West End Games and with my Griffon
Publishing Studio endeavors. Among the most versatile materials I
acquired was a set of modular mountain pieces (three inches high
each) the fine folks at GeoHex produced in the late 1990s. This
enabled me to build wonderfully high scenery simulating rough or
mountainous terrain I used in both Star Wars and Hercules &
Xena roleplaying game demos. These worked well with other pieces
– an Imperial scout camp with bunker, barracks, and a vehicle
hangar, medieval buildings, forest trees, and monster lairs – for
several short demos and even a full scenario. I designed an entire
Star Wars adventure (The Lambda Heist, later
published in Wizards of the Coast’s Star Wars Gamer
magazine)
incorporating the mountains and scout camp, Mos Eisley (more on that
below), and a starship junkyard I built. Years later I built a
modular ancient Egyptian tomb diorama for running an introductory
scenario to promote Griffon Publishing Studio’s Pulp Egypt setting.
 |
| A crowd gathers around the Mos Eisley starport diorama at a con in the mid-1990s. |
But perhaps my most ambitious project
was the downtown Mos Eisley diorama, built in a custom-made traveling
box my brother designed. I based the diorama on the wonderful map
included in Tatooine Manhunt and populated it with Star
Wars miniatures, crowds of Galoob MicroMachines Jawas, and a few
vehicles, including a landspeeder, AT-PT, speeder truck, and a
modified YT-1300 freighter for the docking bay. My brother also
crafted a model of the cantina interior (also to scale with the
Tatooine Manhunt color map) so action could naturally start in
the cantina, then transition to a chase through back alleys, and
ultimately lead to a confrontation with Imperial forces cordoning off
the docking bay with the heroes’ starship. The mere presence of the
diorama drew people to our table, and I recall running both quick
pick-up games on it as well as incorporating it into more extended
scenarios like The Lambda Heist.
Some of the terrain – the pre-fab
mountain pieces, the Imperial scout camp, and the starship junkyard –
I sold years ago, but much of it, and the painted miniatures, I keep
for my current and future use. Although I’ve been tempted many
times over the years, I’ve not sold my portable downtown Mos Eisley
starport diorama...it needs some repair work anyway.
A Return to Minis
I expect I’ll use miniatures again
when I start introducing roleplaying to my now five year-old son;
those and some basic map props can help him transition from board
game concepts, especially when he might have difficulty visualizing
situations in his head. He’s already interested in various
miniature wargaming elements, particularly plastic toy soldiers and
monsters. I have a small stash of pre-painted plastic miniatures to
augment my painted metal minis and can fill out the ranks of
adversaries with print-and-play paper minis, too. Aside from drawing
my own dungeon maps to scale, I’ve thought about using Billiam Babble’s fantastic Inked Adventures print-and play products,
hand-drawn, top-down modular dungeon sections (I’ve already
printed, mounted, and trimmed several of the free sets and had fun
playing around with them). But I’ll pursue all this at some future
point when I’m a bit more prepared to explore roleplaying with
kids...and miniatures.
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