The NEXT STEP: Maps & Minis

[ninthcouncil]

So those of us with jobs and familys and only limited gameing time are all "To lazy".

Some of us can and and do pace ourselves.

Perhaps you might use your advanced time management skills to schedule an hour lying down in a dark room with some calming music. It's all getting abit overheated here, to the detriment of a potentially useful thread....

Personally, I use cardboard counters and stand-ups.

(Toned down a bit from the original)

 

[Emryys]

Wow... :shock:
There goes the internet again...

Shall we fight about scale, as I'd like 25-28mm for RPGing, but I know Traveller purists will want 15mm... :wink:

*I still think they should have a game to back the mini's... one for the ship's and one for the figures... 8)

 

[ninthcouncil]

As far as the cardboard solution is concened, I've made use both of the "Cardboard Heroes" standups from SJG's deckplan products, and of Claudio Pozas's excellent counter designs from Fiery Dragon's "Modern" series (intended mainly for d20). The latter are mostly good for mid-tech stuff, obviously, and the former are bundled with printed deckplans so if you're not intersted in those, aren't cost effective. But cardboard is lighter, cheaper and easier to transport even than collectible plastic miniatures, and you don't have to worry about randomisation.

 

[Imperator58]

Wow... :shock:
There goes the internet again...

Shall we fight about scale, as I'd like 25-28mm for RPGing, but I know Traveller purists will want 15mm... :wink:

*I still think they should have a game to back the mini's... one for the ship's and one for the figures... 8)

Actually, the thread DID start off including scale - but the metal vs. plastic completely took over.
I'd actually think scale would be a much bigger bone of contention!

 

[Mark A. Siefert]

After some time to sleep and to cool off, I given this matter some more thought.

I concede that this is a essentially a Coke Vs. Pepsi argument; a pure matter of taste with no real "right" or "wrong" party.

Sturn and others like their collectible, pre-painted figures... fine.

I and some others like traditional metal/hard plastic figures and all the painting and modeling that goes along with them.

But if someone makes official Traveller figures, chances are that only ONE variety is going to be made.

Depending on what, if any decision is made. some one is really going to be happy while the otherside is going to be disappointed.

To be honest, I'd rather not be on the latter side.

 

[GhostWolf69]

Completely Agree. This is a taste-argument.

I like pre-painted, cause I don't have the time nor option of having a painting table up and ready. (Two small kids running around would destory it all in seconds).

I don't like collectibles. I want to know what I spend my dollar on. BattleField Evolution was ideal to me. And come to think of it, some of those minis will probably be used in Traveller Games ahead.

/wolf

 

[ninthcouncil]

Continuing with the cardboard tokens tangent, I wonder what the possibilites would be of a Traveller specific counter line, with OTU races and everything?

As far as artists go, it needs someone who uses a strong, clear line. Claudio Pozas, who I've already mentioned, does really good work in this regard (I've already used his gunslinging gnoll as a Vargr), or there's someone like Ed Northcott who, we know from GURPS Traveller, can do a mean Hiver.

This would be a great deal easier to do in-house than metal miniatures, and the costs would be less. It's also open to being made available as a download, unlike conventional miniatures.

 

[Infojunky]

This would be a great deal easier to do in-house than metal miniatures, and the costs would be less. It's also open to being made available as a download, unlike conventional miniatures.

Yes, it would ad the visual element with much less rancor than the Metal vs. Plastic argument. (in which I have already stated my preference for 15mm figures in metal)

 

[zozotroll]

My choices in order.

1. 15mm plastic prepaint.
2. 15mm metal
3. 25mm plastic prepaint
4. 25mm metal
5. GZG and Old crow metals in 15 and 25 mm, or what I am useing now.

So, no, I am not gping to be disapointed if Mongoose makes trav specific minis, I will just buy more if they are plastic as they are so much cheaper that way. The only real disapointment is if thery dont make any at all, or they are so ecpensive I can only justify getting a very few.

And it is not like I am going to quite MTrav if I dont get my way.

 

[AKAramis]

Continuing with the cardboard tokens tangent, I wonder what the possibilites would be of a Traveller specific counter line, with OTU races and everything?

As far as artists go, it needs someone who uses a strong, clear line. Claudio Pozas, who I've already mentioned, does really good work in this regard (I've already used his gunslinging gnoll as a Vargr), or there's someone like Ed Northcott who, we know from GURPS Traveller, can do a mean Hiver.

This would be a great deal easier to do in-house than metal miniatures, and the costs would be less. It's also open to being made available as a download, unlike conventional miniatures.

Personally, I think the font-based paper minis are the best electronic version.

Here's why:
1) scale changes do not result in wasted space on paper (Scaling down most from 25/28/30 down to 15mm results in massive whitespace)
2) ability to easily customize the figure mixture as needed
3) Due to outline process, scaled figures don't rasterize; most paper minis in PDF do, when scaled up. (Yes, I do scale up to 52mm sometimes!)
4) FontForge is free, and allows customization of figure fonts... I've tweaked a few figs from the sparks fonts for my own use. I'm not good enough to make my own.
5) End Users need only a TTF enabled word processing program; this means Word for Windows 4 or later on win 3.1 or later, or MS Works, or Word Perfect; or MacOS 7 and later, or most linux flavors.

I'd buy $10 font sets of Excellent (Cumberland Games') quality at 26 figs per set. I'd buy less detailed sets for $5.

 

[BenTOGS]

I can't believe what I am reading here...

Believe it, man. We are the Future. You will Resist, until your last breathe, but in the End, We will melt the your lead into the Shape of Things To Come, for We are the Many, and you are Few! n All Hail the Plastic! We bend, You Break!

:evil: :twisted: :idea:

 

[Jame Rowe]

My choices in order.
*Snip*

I agree with you except to say it this way:

1. 25mm plastic prepaint.
2. 25mm metal
3. 15mm plastic prepaint
4. 15mm metal
5. What I am using now.

But I want it to be either Traveller-specific or at least generic enough sci-fi that it is usable. As for packaging, well, how's this: theme packs, like they used to do. A set would be "Adventurers," another would be "Imperial Marines In Armor," "Imperial Marines Out Of Armor," "Scouts," "Vargr" and etcetera. It wouldn't be seethrough material, but it wouldn't be randomized or collectible like the SW minis - you could have a set called "Strephon, Family and Entourage" too.

 

[Duroon]

For me it's

1. 25mm metal (I love to paint mini's)
2. 25mm pre-painted plastics
3. What I am using now (Reaper's Chronoscape line mostly)

15mm, while a classical choice for Traveller, just doesn't do it for me. I wouldn't buy them even if that was the only option I had available. Of course that's just me.


As to what subject matter for the sculpt's....Hiver's, Aslan, K'kree, all those sorts of Aliens that are specific to Traveller.

 

[Infojunky]

15mm, while a classical choice for Traveller, just doesn't do it for me. I wouldn't buy them even if that was the only option I had available. Of course that's just me.

See, I'm just the opposite, I won't touch anything larger than 15mm, though I would consider 6mm.

Yah that's it, I want character figures in 6mm, that way I can play right on quad scaled deckplans..... Any takers?

 

[GhostWolf69]

Yah that's it, I want character figures in 6mm, that way I can play right on quad scaled deckplans..... Any takers?

Can I have them Pre-Painted?

/wolf

 

[Imperator58]

After some time to sleep and to cool off, I given this matter some more thought.

I concede that this is a essentially a Coke Vs. Pepsi argument; a pure matter of taste with no real "right" or "wrong" party.

Sturn and others like their collectible, pre-painted figures... fine.

I and some others like traditional metal/hard plastic figures and all the painting and modeling that goes along with them.

But if someone makes official Traveller figures, chances are that only ONE variety is going to be made.

Depending on what, if any decision is made. some one is really going to be happy while the otherside is going to be disappointed.

To be honest, I'd rather not be on the latter side.

There we go.
Yes, amazing at the array of opions/preferences here; I guess if I had ONE solid "want," it would be that if they went large they do 28mm rather than 25mm, so as to match what's out there now.

 

[Infojunky]

Yah that's it, I want character figures in 6mm, that way I can play right on quad scaled deckplans..... Any takers?

Can I have them Pre-Painted?

Sure, what's your favorite colour?

 

[Mark A. Siefert]

OK, if you want pre-paints, can we at least have them made with a higher quality plastic that holds the detail of the original mold better than the softer rubberized plastics and can take a coat of primer in case I do want to modify the paint job?

But whatever happens, no collectible miniatures... PLEASE.

 

[Mark A. Siefert]

Hmmmm... Paper minis?

Well, to be honest, I rather liked the Cardboard Heroes sheets that came with Steve Jackson Games deck plans and I rather wished that they had published more of them. (They do wear out after a while.). Given the glut of actual, official Traveller minis, they were and still are better than nothing.

For a model, there is Arion Games makes a series of print-out paper miniatures using CGI images. They can be made as two sided or three-sided figures, depending on your taste. There is also Precis Intermedia that makes their "Disposable Heroes" line of printable playing pieces.

Now, if we could get a good Traveller character artist (cough Bryan Gibson cough) you could come up with a pretty good product.

 

[EDG]

OK, if you want pre-paints, can we at least have them made with a higher quality plastic that holds the detail of the original mold better than the softer rubberized plastics and can take a coat of primer in case I do want to modify the paint job?

I think you miss the point here. The point of the collectible plastic minis is that you use them as they are, and that's why they're not made out of material that's made to be modded or painted over (presumably it keeps the cost down too).

If you want to mod/paintover them then by all means get "proper" minis for that, because that's what those are designed for.