Wizards fucks up the Miniatures...

[Ritterin Sophia]

For those who don't know, I play the SW RPG and the SW Miniatures Game, the miniatures are compatable between both however, if someone would like to look at this peice of stupidity, compare this and this, now I want you to take a guess at which one came first. Anyone? If you guest the first one, sadly you're mistaken, and it's the second one. Yes that's right folks, the newest set of miniatures is going to look worse than the first set released three years ago... and the people on the SW RPG board wonder why I hate Sarli...

[MKSheppard]

HAHAHAH

That's nothing

Wizards of the coast took a Bf-109 and repainted it in british colors for their Spitfire for Axis and Allies.

The good stuff was the first couple of packs. THey've gone down in quality since.

[Vendetta]

Those are fucking hideous. Whoever sculpted them, and the person who signed off on them, should be shot.

[White Haven]

Wizkids is in the industry of producing the worst drek they can get away with making money off of. Case in point: Mechwarrior: Dark Age.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Hopefully they keep track of which expansions sell and which don't, because I'll collect up to them but I'm not going any farther until they show me some better quality. So far I've finished up to the RotS set, and I'm looking to get this next:

[Tanasinn]

Case in point: Mechwarrior: Dark Age.

Signed.

Then, of course, came the abominations that were the Mechassault games, but that's another story...

[Hotfoot]

Wizkids is in the industry of producing the worst drek they can get away with making money off of. Case in point: Mechwarrior: Dark Age.

WizKids isn't Wizards of the Coast, so I'm left to wonder if this is a statement concerning the state of the pre-painted random mini market, or if you honestly thought that the two companies were one and the same.

[VF5SS]

What exactly do you expect from a bunch of wage slaves in China who are not being paid by Bandai?

[Ritterin Sophia]

What exactly do you expect from a bunch of wage slaves in China who are not being paid by Bandai?

If you've seen the older miniatures, what the fuck happen to THEIR makers, I want those wage slaves back!

[VF5SS]

They were costing too much. Honestly I never bought into the whole idea of miniatures for D&D. Colored dice and shit worked way better for my group. Plus dice is cheaper by the pound.

[Old Plympto]

Those look terrible. More and more it looks like WOTC is shafting RPGers in lieu of the more expensive minatures hobby. I have a feeling the upcoming Saga Edition core rule book will reflect those business trends.

But what will make me put my "JUMP THE SHARK" stamp on the book is if they have even one photos of the actual miniatures (like in their website) instead of pictures of characters / vehicles / creatures from the movie anywhere on their stats write-ups.

I wonder if anyone remembers drawing your characters' positions on a piece of paper to play instead of forking out cash to buy battlemats and miniatures.

[andrewgpaul]

Bah. We play D&D combats without maps of any sort. Slackers

And yes, those new SWM are awful. Sadly, they'll sell by the slack handful.

[Vendetta]

Those look terrible. More and more it looks like WOTC is shafting RPGers in lieu of the more expensive minatures hobby. I have a feeling the upcoming Saga Edition core rule book will reflect those business trends.

If they were looking at joining the miniatures market you'd expect them to produce some minis that weren't absolute ass, so that people might, y'know, want to buy them.

[White Haven]

Wizkids is in the industry of producing the worst drek they can get away with making money off of. Case in point: Mechwarrior: Dark Age.

WizKids isn't Wizards of the Coast, so I'm left to wonder if this is a statement concerning the state of the pre-painted random mini market, or if you honestly thought that the two companies were one and the same.

I should have been more clear; I'm posting from work, and I was zombie-like this morning. I was more referring ot the quality of plastech-style minis in general.

[VF5SS]

I should have been more clear; I'm posting from work, and I was zombie-like this morning. I was more referring ot the quality of plastech-style minis in general.

The old pewter and lead miniatures were pretty crappy too.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

I have a bad feeling about the Starship miniatures, though the Executor looked constipated from the start.

[Edward Yee]

and the people on the SW RPG board wonder why I hate Sarli...

I'd wonder too -- is it for the typos, or something else going beyond the minimalism or board controlling? (As I don't see what Sarli would have to do with the minis themselves.)

More and more it looks like WOTC is shafting RPGers in lieu of the more expensive minatures hobby. I have a feeling the upcoming Saga Edition core rule book will reflect those business trends.

I've heard this minis-trend on the board and it's noted that apparently the minis make more sense in terms of being apparently less prone/vulnerable to pirating than RPGs (since third party publishers aren't the only ones who've had materials rendered PDF), and the use of squares for speeds prompted one guy to go at length about it on three different threads...

As long as the rules both stay workable for no-physical-counterparts play, and the stuff in the previews (of SE) stay so in the actual print, I'll give some leeway.

[Ritterin Sophia]

I'd wonder too -- is it for the typos, or something else going beyond the minimalism or board controlling? (As I don't see what Sarli would have to do with the minis themselves.)

Gary Sarli is the de facto boss of the Star Wars materials at WotC.

[Hotfoot]

More and more it looks like WOTC is shafting RPGers in lieu of the more expensive minatures hobby. I have a feeling the upcoming Saga Edition core rule book will reflect those business trends.

I've heard this minis-trend on the board and it's noted that apparently the minis make more sense in terms of being apparently less prone/vulnerable to pirating than RPGs (since third party publishers aren't the only ones who've had materials rendered PDF), and the use of squares for speeds prompted one guy to go at length about it on three different threads...

As long as the rules both stay workable for no-physical-counterparts play, and the stuff in the previews (of SE) stay so in the actual print, I'll give some leeway.

Yeah, a lot of RPG companies are realizing that the RPG market is actually really hard to stay in these days. It's more than just simple piracy, too. They're marketing to a group that doesn't always have a large amount of disposable income, so often for 3-8 people they may sell two copies of any given book.

I mean let's face it, there is a serious glut on the RPG market, and even Wizards is starting to feel the burden of selling product to a tepid market. I mean, let's face it, most RPG groups don't need 5,000 books to run a game. In fact sometimes the fewer books there are, the better. Canned adventures sometimes sell, but most GMs want to do their own stuff instead. Hell, there's even a trend now to just sell the mechanics seperate from the setting so that GMs who have their own mechanics or their own setting can just adapt one to fit the other.

The move to minis makes sense. People who play the RPG can use them to represent the action (some that usually does add to the game), and those that are interested in the wargame use them for that. Add to that the fact that the minis are reasonably priced for being prebuilt and pre-painted (compared to your normal pewter minis), and you can see why they would sell well. Add to that the fact that the lesser-liked minis are sold along with the more desirable ones, and you have a way to sell the product that not everyone would want to everyone.

That said, I have to wonder how well the RPG market is going to do for itself over the next several years. Given that playing a game requires 3-8 people to find 4-8 hours to spend together in one room, most people with jobs and families will find it difficult to organize such things. Of course, there always are those special few that can actually play with their family, but that's another point altogether.

[Slacker]

The SW spaceship minis are actually of pretty good quality. Completely out of any sort of scale, even with each other, but I can understand not wanting an ISD model the size of a living room.

As for RPGs the old fashioned way...My groups generally use a battlemat for clarity, but we generally stick with stick figures and squiggles unless someone has something they painted they want to use. We're all wargamers too, though, so I can see where it comes from.