Dungeon and Dragons Miniature Scale…

[slayerofworldsParticipant 3449xp 1]

So I DM a lot of DnD.

My library of 28mm miniatures is vast, as is my 28mm scale terrain pieces.   I love using lots of terrain elements to really add depth to my combat scenarios.  However, there has always been the problem of line of sight.   As in the player being able to have line of sight to be able to see whats going.

28mm terrain pieces are just to sight blocking.  Trees, bushes, buildings…  all look really good on the table.  However they always end up being removed, because someone cant see whats going.

However, over the last several sessions I switched out my miniature scales for certain encounters/combats/situations.   I backed “legends: Joan of Arc”, so I had all these roughly 15mm scale miniatures.   Having lots of encounters in towns, farms, various wooded areas with large groups has been so so much easier going to a smaller scale miniature.   The village expansion is the really awesome bang for your buck.   Trees are much much smaller, obviously.  As are the buildings.  So players can see everything.  The models are detailed enough and paint up really well.   Moving them around does take some getting use, but its not really that bad.

Ive run chase scenes with combat on horseback.  The smaller scale allowed for an easier time keeping all the miniatures from instantly “racing of the board”.   Ive done a handful of “raiding” and “town invasion” encounters now.  The buildings work really well, although some of them look a little small.  There are walls, tents, bushes, animals, and peasents.  Which helped to add interesting combat “obsticles”.

I still use my 28mm stuff for most encounters.  But Im always looking for excuses to use the smaller scale now.  Its just such a table space saver, and stops complaints about “I cant see”, and still allows the players to know all the information they need to know about position and range (I use a small scale paper hex map).  The only down side is all my orcs or trolls are humans… lol.

I know Mythic guys do a lot with beast of war.  So wanted to drop  this here and get some attention…. cause I want fantasy races in this scale.  Its just been such a great addition to my games.    Could be a new bigger market.

 

[torros 23816xp 1]

There is a lot of fantasy stuff out there in 15mm

 

Personally over the last 35 years we’ve been happy with wipe clean cardboard sheets with grids marked on them. Means the DM can draw terrain on the board as its revealed and also makes ranges for movement, combat and spell effects to be more easily worked out

[chaoshead87 2443xp 0]

I have about 40 years worth of 25mm-28mm minis and terrain and have been considering a switch to 15mm recently.  I have found a few companies that make fantasy stuff in that scale but not many.  Not really sure what I would do with all of the larger minis and terrain but I’m sure I’ll figure that out if the time ever comes.

[daegren 2521xp 1]

30+ of 28mm miniatures I use a mix of terrain and grid sheets I can edit with my RPG games.

I’ve debated with D&D and Weird War 2 using 15mm since I have Joan of Arc and Flames of War.    It would make it very easy to add longer ranges and fit more on the table in certain situations.    With that in mind, I have a few questions:

1.  Does anyone know what a good conversion would be for spells and ranges.  Just divide by two from the game system you are using to make it simple and quick?

2.  I have 3d printers, but are there any places to find ‘monsters’ for fantasy and scifi in 15mm?

3.  How about scifi 15mm figures?

I might seriously think about doing for D&D and my Savage Rifts games.  We do Weird War 2 one shots and I’m sold as to this being the better way to run it.

[bvandewalkerParticipant 2077xp 0]

Of the many producers of 15mm scifi minis I am tempted to try the Ion Age range by Alternative Armies for 15mm scifi, its a great selection for both serious and lighthearted space adventures.

[totsuzenheniParticipant 5651xp 0]

When i get around to it i’m thinking of using multiple scales. If necessary, something very zoomed out for exploring large areas like cities. This will essentially be maps and little pins. Then 10mm or 15mm for exploring ‘dungeons’ and the like. And finally 28mm for close up scenes. So the PCs might wander into a room and i would have that in 10/15mm and also in 28mm.

 

I like the idea of 15mm because i can still just about do things to scale.

[commodorerob 11076xp 0]

I have been considering this very thing recently, the main reason is through acquiring Joan of Arc I have a shed load of interesting mini’s that can be used for DnD. But many are 15mm.

However my group has already painted up the 25mm figures for their characters. and I have a lot of 25mm mini’s

However I love the idea of using different  scales for different views.

 

[blinky465 17028xp 0]

I too discovered 15mm a few years ago and loved it. Painting minis is relatively quick (the trade off being fewer tiny details but that does mean less time on the painting table!). A larger playing area with smaller terrain is great. I thought I was going to make the jump but a couple of things stopped me:

the first being 3d printing wasn’t anywhere near as prevelant – minis were still being scuplted by hand and many, despite the vendors best offers – looked a little blobby.

I actually missed the detail on the pieces – they’re great for gaming; but then again, chess pieces are the perfect tokens for playing a game. What attracted me to tabletop gaming was creating the world in miniature. And I felt 15mm was just that bit *too* small to get the level of detail I wanted in my tabletop world.

TL/DR: 15mm is great for gaming – especially at an abstract level.

 

(ps. I did try re-scaling some of my .stl files to print minis at 15mm instead of 28/32mm – it doesn’t really work: each model needs to be sculpted to the scale it’s going to be printed/painted. Is there’s anyone out there scuplting 15mm miniatures, I’d be quite happy to try printing a few to have my head turned again….)

 

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