roseembolism (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
roseembolism) wrote2008-10-06 03:36 pm
roseembolism) wrote2008-10-06 03:36 pm
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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?
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?
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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.