Miniature (model!) Painting

[iago]

I've been getting back into miniature painting, since it's a fun hobby and now that University is over, I have free time and can resume the hobbies I gave up 5 years ago. 

I took a bunch of pictures of all the models I've painted:
http://www.javaop.com/~ron/ospap/show_category.php?category_id=30

Except where noted in the comments, they're all painted by me. 

The only ones I've painted recently, before the pictures, are the Flamers of Tzeech, a Bat, and half of a wizard.  Since then, I've finished the wizard, done a couple more skeletons, and have been working on a Warhammer 40k group (I don't play 40k, but I got them because they look cool).  More on that later, when they're closer to being done. 

[rabbit]

At first I though you were making really small paintings, not painting your character pieces.  Boy did that confuse me.

[iago]

Haha, the little models are called "miniatures"

[CrAz3D]

At first I though you were making really small paintings, not painting your character pieces.  Boy did that confuse me.

same,lol

[Blaze]

Where did you get the snake?

[iago]

Where did you get the snake?

Well, at least you read my comments and all

I'm really not sure.  It probably came in a pack with something weird my friend had, and never got used, and I probably found it in a corner of the "broken stuff" box, or something. 

[Sidoh]

At first I though you were making really small paintings, not painting your character pieces.  Boy did that confuse me.

I knew what he was talking aobut right away, but that's because I've heard the term from my boss countless times.  We roleplay on a semi-frequent basis

Cool, iago

[CrAz3D]

...I've heard the term from my boss countless times.  We roleplay on a semi-frequent basis

dirty sounding...

[Sidoh]

dirty sounding...

Only to the unfortuante mind who hasn't encountered a RPG.

[leet_muffin]

RON! Me and Newby need minis, bad!

Awesome job, by the way.

[Towelie]

That is a neat hobby Great job on all of those

[iago]

RON! Me and Newby need minis, bad!

Awesome job, by the way.

No you don't, because you play D&D, and minis should never ever be used for D&D.  RPGs are much more fun with a good DM/GM and no minis. 

[Sidoh]

No you don't, because you play D&D, and minis should never ever be used for D&D.  RPGs are much more fun with a good DM/GM and no minis. 

Minis as in miniatures?  I certainly don't think so.  I think it would suck to play without miniatures.  There are several advantages to using them.  You show the entire group where your character is without having to tell everyone.  You can't cheat and say "Oh no no I was behind the giant trap door!" and the GM can base events on where the characters are located.

[rabbit]

"Painting Miniatures" would have been a lot clearer, at least in my mind.  Anyway, one GM I knew used miniatures sometimes, though he was a bit excessive (he cast one of his characters himself in our school's metalsmithing class...).  Anyway, whenever I played GURPS we used grid maps and glass blobs to to specify location like Sidoh said, but that was about it.

[iago]

When I play RPGs, we try not to focus on combat.  Instead of knowing where every rock is, we can ask the GM "is there a rock somewhere that I can hide behind?" and if he says yes we hide there.

I find that games flow a lot better when we don't have to worry about drawing out maps and preparing encounters.  Just do everything on the fly. 

Generally, when we play, we are sitting on recliners and a couch or whatever, with a clipboard and some dice.  The GM describes stuff, I write down notes as applicable, and we tell him what we're doing.  I've tried playing with minis before, and I find that the game ends up focussed way too strongly on the minis than on the game itself. 

I think that a lot of D&D games are combat-heavy, though, from what I've seen.  I personally don't like that, but eh?

[Explicit]

The miniatures look awesome.

[Newby]

They are combat heavy. Being a D&D player and a DM, I can safely say all my campaigns were heavily aimed towards logic and such, but every campaign I have played has served to the lowest common denominator, and were very combat oriented. Basic hack and slash campaigns if you will.

[iago]

Yeah, and I think that miniatures tend to encourage the hack-and-slash aspects too much, which is why I've decided not to allow miniatures in any game I run. 

[iago]

The miniatures look awesome.

Thanks! :-)

[Sidoh]

When I play RPGs, we try not to focus on combat.  Instead of knowing where every rock is, we can ask the GM "is there a rock somewhere that I can hide behind?" and if he says yes we hide there.

I find that games flow a lot better when we don't have to worry about drawing out maps and preparing encounters.  Just do everything on the fly. 

Generally, when we play, we are sitting on recliners and a couch or whatever, with a clipboard and some dice.  The GM describes stuff, I write down notes as applicable, and we tell him what we're doing.  I've tried playing with minis before, and I find that the game ends up focussed way too strongly on the minis than on the game itself. 

I think that a lot of D&D games are combat-heavy, though, from what I've seen.  I personally don't like that, but eh?

The miniatures constitute the game... if you're focusing on them, you're focusing on the game.

I like combat.  It's almost always brings about the most interesting stories when we RP.  For example, a few days ago, someone killed a guy with a candle obra when we'd been trying to kill it with some bio missles.

[Newby]

When the entire story is revolving around straight up killing, it gets old fast.

i.e. my friend Mike did a quest (aimed at the attention span of the mass of the group of course) where we had to enter 4 buildings, climb to the top of each one (killing), and kill the bosses in each one. I only got to clear two buildings, but they were basically the same, and if there was any story after IIRC I missed it.

[Sidoh]

When the entire story is revolving around straight up killing, it gets old fast.

That is never the case.  My boss worked for TSR (the company who originally owned/created D&D) as a game developer.  He also GM'd the British open D&D tournament... he's very good at making the game fun.

[iago]

Hmm, my experiences have been the other way.  I find that having a lot of fighting tends to make the game tedious and boring.  Part of that is because we play Shadowrun where combat can be a little slow. 

But even so, in games with quick combat, I still have more fun when I avoid combat.  We'll spend hours planning a mission, scoping it out, and getting prepared, which usually means that any combat is quick and usually pretty one-sided, since that's how we planned it

[rabbit]

I've always wanted to paly SR, but nobody close to me plays
Anyway, I'm a fan of "you're going to die now because I planned it out last week that way!  MUAHAH!!!! *slits throat easily*" more than "ofuckanenemy*rolls dice*shitidied".  Hm.

[iago]

I'm more of a fan of the, "What do you do?" strategy.  The GM has a vague idea of here he wants to go, and a decent idea of what the world is like, and everything else looks after itself.

[Sidoh]

Hmm, my experiences have been the other way.  I find that having a lot of fighting tends to make the game tedious and boring.  Part of that is because we play Shadowrun where combat can be a little slow. 

But even so, in games with quick combat, I still have more fun when I avoid combat.  We'll spend hours planning a mission, scoping it out, and getting prepared, which usually means that any combat is quick and usually pretty one-sided, since that's how we planned it

I never said that the RP sessions had excessive fighting or at all revolved around it.  They always revolve around the story.  Combats may be spawns of the story (ie a battle where you're supposed to lose) or they may be totally arbitrary.

I asked my boss about playing with miniatures and what he thought about doing them without.  He said he loves using miniatures because it gives the players an elaborate picture of where the party is positioned and what resources they have to expend without questions that annoyingly and persistently eat up game time.  It constantly reminds them of places they can go when time is of the essence and gives them a much better mental image of where they are allowed to go depending on the physical state of the room.  I realize that these questions will exist with nearly any model of role playing, but this abolishes simple questions about the general structure of the room and leaves more time for actual gameplay.

[Blaze]

Where did you get the snake?

Well, at least you read my comments and all

Well, it's the least I could do after you took the time to take the photos, upload them, and then write out the descriptions.  One of my friends James paints them and plays Warhammer.  I have an elderly friend named Dave who has several thousand early war models fully painted and displayed nicely.

Oh, and very nice job painting. 

[iago]

I asked my boss about playing with miniatures and what he thought about doing them without.  He said he loves using miniatures because it gives the players an elaborate picture of where the party is positioned and what resources they have to expend without questions that annoyingly and persistently eat up game time.  It constantly reminds them of places they can go when time is of the essence and gives them a much better mental image of where they are allowed to go depending on the physical state of the room.  I realize that these questions will exist with nearly any model of role playing, but this abolishes simple questions about the general structure of the room and leaves more time for actual gameplay.

Hah, I'd say almost the identical thing about playing without miniatures. 

I find it more annoying and repetitive to prepare/draw a map for every encounter.  I find that maps start looking the same.  I'd rather let players ask me questions about their surroundings and tell me what they want.  At the very most, I'll sketch out a little map on paper, but that's very rare. 

I find that players get a better mental idea from asking questions than from looking at a map. 

I really find that overusing maps makes RPGs too much like computer games, but like I said, that's my opinion. 

I don't like using miniatures.  I prefer a GM who's good at not using miniatures to a GM that's good at using miniatures.  You should try it

[Sidoh]

Like I said, my boss is very good at doing it both ways, but he perfers using miniatures.

I already said this here, but he worked for TSR and GM'd the open british D&D tournament.  He's a very competent GM.

[iago]

Yeah, I'm afraid that I don't have a whole lot of respect for T$R

[Sidoh]

Yeah, I'm afraid that I don't have a whole lot of respect for T$R

... they created D&D.  It doesn't matter if what the company did was good or not.  They had some phenomenal employees, including my boss.

Plus, the company had three separate owners before Wizards of the Coast bought them.

[iago]

Yeah, I'm afraid that I don't have a whole lot of respect for T$R

... they created D&D.  It doesn't matter if what the company did was good or not.  They had some phenomenal employees, including my boss.

Plus, the company had three separate owners before Wizards of the Coast bought them.

I'm sure they had some good employees, but I don't like the company itself, so when you keep saying "my boss worked for T$R!" that doesn't make him seem good, to me -- rather, I feel sorry for him

And I know they created D&D, and they created the 276 required sourcebooks too

[Sidoh]

I'm sure they had some good employees, but I don't like the company itself, so when you keep saying "my boss worked for T$R!" that doesn't make him seem good, to me -- rather, I feel sorry for him

And I know they created D&D, and they created the 276 required sourcebooks too

He said it is the best job he's ever had.  I don't you are so quick to judge the working environment.

Also, what do you have against TSR?