roseembolism | (no subject)

So there's been people complaining about the need for miniatures in D&D 4E. I don't think they're all that necessary (even if movement needs to be tracked, game tokens can be used), but hell, miniatures have always been more or less a part of gaming.

I admit this has always been a problem...at times. Especially when you can't for the life of you find a figure that even remotely resembles your character image, most especially when its a not-elvin bishonen boy-toy mage. Or pretty much any female character not designed to have breasts larger than her head. And of course there's the fun of going shopping for exactly the right figure ("Ewww, not that one- has the artist ever seen a woman in real life?") while the neckbeard running the game store starts making harrumping noises at your comments and criticisms. And D&D and fantasy games have it easy. Bear in mind that for the longest time superhero games like Champions had an even worse selection of miniatures. Even now, supers are so variable it's hard to find a figure that matches the character one carries around in one's head.

But now I have to wonder if technology may come to the rescue. Given that we have 3-D character generators (with sometimes amazing degrees of customization, like those for City of Heroes), and rapid prototyping and 3-D printing, it occurs to me that it should be possible, sometime not to far in the future to design your character on an online 3-D generator, then "print" it out as a miniature. We might even be able to make them pre-colored.

So, does anybody think there'd be a market for pre-colored, custom miniatures that match a player's character concept? How much would you be willing to pay for such a game aid?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

do a web search for "figure-print" and you can see how much they are currently going for ($150?). I think WoW figure prints are a fair bit larger than gamers would want, but the detail requirements should get to what we need pretty soon.

I could see simple minis being available now for $5 each, where you can specify a couple of color options for superhero outfits, and have a large-ish spot to paint/decal an emblem on the chest. Heck, I could see a large plastic sprue in each major color, and you assemble heads, chests, hands, arms, legs & feet in those colors, attach a cloak & you're good to go. Supers are fortunately non-creative in basic body-type.

If we want a full 3-D modeller where it would build it up layer by layer, that would probably still cost an exorbitant sum for gamers.

Oh, they're down to 129.00 now, which is something like 9 months worth of WoW membership. So if you're really obsessed with WoW, it might be worth it.

And I agree that at this point 3-D printers will be expensive. On the other hand, as they become more common the price for 3-D modeling systems is bound to come down, as will the cost of making the models. I don't think figurines are going to be a major factor in driving the price down, but they should benefit from the economies of scale.

I'd probably pay $20 or $30 for a custom figure. Although I wouldn't want it pre-coloured, or at least I'd like the material to take well to painting.

I suspect that the tipping point will be once the prices come down to that level.

I'll just keep using token, glass beads and other game markers like I always have. I never got into miniatures.

Neither am I, come to think of it. Though having models of some of my favorite characters- gaming or written- is tempting.

I can actually see a broad base for this technique outside of making gaming miniatures. Imagine a masquerade contest where the prize is a figurine of the winner's costume, for a start.

Absolutely. That would be cool - I know I'd love figures of my various rpg characters.