DnD 3.5 Basic Game

[ramza]

I have been thinking of improving my p&p sessions through the use of miniatures. I have always thought it would be better (and maybe more entertaining) to illustrate what is happening in a room or a dungeon (or even in combat) by using a gaming board with tiles, character miniatures and furniture miniatures.

 

The problem with dnd is that miniatures come randomly in the boxes you purchase. That is how the Dnd basic Game attracted my attention since the miniatures offered are non-random (and pretty cool btw). There are two editions of the basic game as you can see below, and I have decided to buy them both, and this should cost me approximately 40 euros (60 dollars/ 30 pounds).

 

Click here to see more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_&amp...gons_Basic_Game

 

By combining the DnD basic game contents with the ones found in the game Hero quest, i have been thinking of creating the ultimate p&p experience. Hero quest is an old board game made by MB that included an impressive set of monsters, trap tiles, door tiles, furniture miniatures, etc. I don't own the game yet but I could buy it from ebay for approximately 20 euros (30 dollars/ 15 pounds).

 

Click here to see more:

http://www.heroquestofficial.com/

 

I do think it would be cool to play p&p with all those items but my main question is "do I need any of this?" Is this a complete waste of my money or is it worth the investment? I have played p&p before and we used none of these but I always felt that the game lacked a bit of flavor. I really want to think about this carefully before spending all this money all at once. What do you guys think?

 

PS: I also keep in mind that with 4th edition coming soon, the Dnd basic sets will be removed from the market, and that its price will progressively increase just as with other board games. Moreover, the Dnd basic sets are the only boxes out there to provide a substantive number of miniatures that can be used in several different campaigns (they contain universal monsters, in other words... monsters that I may not find that easily if I buy the WotC's random miniature boxes).

 

Thanks in advance! Cheers!

[Joseph Bulock]

I use miniatures in any of the games I run, simply because I like to run tactics oriented games, and a clear view of the battlefield is necessary for getting that right. What I did was get the starter set for the star wars d20 game, and then laminate the blank side of the map.

 

As far as minis, there are a lot of options. You can go the route you are thinking and have official minis, or go with any number of 3rd party figures. Hobby stores (at least the ones around here) carry a few different brands of miniatures made by companies other than WotC built to the same scale as the D&D minis. Some look ok, some don't. I tend to run campaigns in my homebrew worlds and have to proxy pretty much everything, so I just use some Star Wars D&D figures.

 

So basically, I love having figures and maps, especially ones I can use dry erase markers on, but I'm not too picky with the figures.

[BobbyN]

I have the D&D Basic game. The minis and dungeon material in it are great, if not somewhat limited. I have quite a bit of WotC 3.5 material. I think the basic set is one of the better products they have released for the non-hardcore gamer, but I guarantee you will be wanting more of the dungeon tiles and miniatures after using it. (Which I am sure is intended by WotC)

 

Good luck

[ramza]

Thanks a lot for your replies (and welcome to these boards, BobbyN) !

 

I have made a lot of search on the internet and have decided to buy both basic games (black dragon and blue dragon versions) and all the dungeon tiles sets. I have yet to buy any DnD product even though I have been playing it for years. I play in a group of 3-4 people and we all use the books one of my friends owns. I have been thinking of buying the core books but I have changed my mind after finding the SRD and some very useful consolidated lists for spells, feats, monsters, etc in PDF format. I have thus decided to regroup all the needed info and print them out by myself. No need to spend lots of bucks for books that are very difficult to use (I prefer to have a book that groups all the useful information together - the core books tend to have too many unnecessary details which make page shuffling a chore). Last but not least, I can edit the rules I don't agree with, which is definite plus for me.

 

The basic sets are worth their price since they offer some good minis and tiles. I might also manage to get my gf into DnD... lol

Dungeon tiles are really great for people who need visual aid when roleplaying. Moreover, you can quickly solve issues that may arise in combat.

 

Dungeons and Dragons Minis are not worth their money on the other hand. There's too many of them and there's no way you can get every type of creature without spending a fortune. I found some very interesting thread on the internet where someone suggested printing out the NWN portrait after reducing their format to 1x1 (inches). That's a neat way to "populate" your tiles with all kinds of npcs and monsters with very little cost.

 

I have been thinking of buying adventure/module books but I highly dislike WotC's new encounter format that requires a lot of page shuffling. That leaves me with the old 3E adventure books (forge of fury, sunless citadel, etc), the red hand of doom and the city of the spider queen (which all seem ok to me).

 

Playing DnD can be quite costy if you aren't selective... New ideas are welcome though. One can never have too many of them... ;-p

[Skunkeen]

reading the dnd 3.5 books open the game greatly but not needed since anyone is free to create their own system and youll find many rules youll want to adjust anyways (and that is OK as long as the game is still fun) only few diehards of D&D fret but if they are experience it will be nothing new to them on a big or small scale. buy the D&D Players kit insted of the Players handbook hardcover, youll save more and youll get some bonus stuff that will help you and your players to quickly build player characters better.

 

I have both HeroQuest and DragonStrike both are awesome to combine together with minis. can be found on ebay $30

Painting them yourself is a fun experience to kill time (more fun while on a bumpy road while driving)

 

 

I have found a good amount of great deals on minis for less then $1 each (that I believe they are worth since some are painted just the same manner as a Quarter Machines kids nag their parents about as they exit a store to buy them a plastic capsole containing a toy inside)

 

IconUSA has good deals but they do not update their website database often and only tell you this when there is over 20 items listed on their site as avialable and you recieve a e-mail from them that its not after you paid for them and get your order canceled! they will likely waste your time as they did mine.

 

Battleworks.net has a vast amount of minis at a good price had a good experience with them as well as ebay that has alot of cool merchants devoted to mini's.

 

 

just having a plain battlegrid made with a ruler and a ink pen over a blank peice of paper I bet you will be gamed more then any of the well designed map tiles. and even with the coloring skills of a 5 year old the players will have a good time making fun of you ... just joking. many adventures youll do few tilesets can provide the perfect location visual.

 

there was a free app program somehwere that let you make your own printed game tokens from images off the web. (usen this with images from video games the possabilities are endless, look good and cheap like from NWN2) and youll have a massive amount for your printer ink & paper value alot more compared to mini's. editing images with programs like MS paint I believe is already with Vista and XP and Mac has some free image app too. to make tokens more durable you can take the cardboard from ceral boxes and get a spray can of glue from a crafts store for about $3 and glue your paper to the cardboard. (open a window or do this outside in low wind) my players dont mind me usen a combination of both minis and tokens, it saves me alot of money when I want a army

 

4th edition from what I understand even with its PC tools are designed for online and offline play to use your PC as a quick rules aid while your running your game so the suggestions ive made above should still work with this new edition.