One thing that is not necessarily required,
but often fun even if they aren’t used on the table is minis(or miniatures if
you prefer)! They help you and other players get an idea of what your
character, monster, or any other permeable set piece looks like. Minis can also help clear up rule arguments in
regards to distance (if they are to scale with everything else), location, and
what exactly is a viable target in combat.
The only downside to minis that I
have found around the table is Metagaming.
One Players character spots an inbound motorcycle coming down the road
so I place the motorcycle on the game map showing where it is. Another Players turn comes up and they say. “I scan the motorcycle
for military markings.” I then have to
remind the 2nd player that their character is currently engaged in a
fire fight with enemy troops and that the 1st Player did not let
anyone else know what they saw. This is
just one example of a situation that arises in most games where minis are used.
.
Let’s face it, when people think of
table top RPG’s it’s always the fantasy games people think of first which seems
to be true of companies that make minis as well. Sure, if you want to play Warhammer or a Star
Wars you’ll have plenty of choices at your local game store, but what about
older or more fringe games?
Toy Store!!
The awesome thing about Sci-Fi
games is that you can find tons of cool space ships, robots, cars, trucks, and
anything else you can think of at a toy store. Need cars? Matchbox and Hotwheels have got
you covered. For both real world,
concept, and crazy off the wall things.
The only real issue I’ve had with these little cars for gaming is
finding people sized minis to go along next to them. So, I’ll often used flat
tokens or coins to show where a character is in relation to the vehicles.
How big is big?
Trying to figure out the scale from
one toy to the next is a bit of a hassle when not all of them give a scale
ratio. What I tend to do, especially
when trying to keep robots and other strange craft to scale with one another,
is look at the cockpits. Typically a
cockpit is meant to hold a 5 to 7 foot pilot with a little bit of wiggle room. Comparing cockpits and cabins for scale will
work with most anything that you can see inside of.
You can also ignore this. Say you find a robot that is meant to be 50
feet tall, but want to use it for a characters personal power armor. It’s easy to do as long as you determine how
tall it should be. After all, you’re
playing a game of imagination so tap into your inner child and figure out how
big it “really” is. You’ll be surprised at just how many things
you can find that are “in scale” with one another once you start looking
outside of the hobby shop.
Not on the Table
Maybe a
player finds something that is “exactly” what they are supposed to be
using. Cool, but it’s way to big or
small to be in scale with the rest of the figures on the table. They can still use it but you, or they, will
need to find a place holder for the table.
Then use the mini that you or another player might have to help show
where damage has occurred and to get a better since of what people will be
aiming at.
Place Holders
Can’t find
a proper mini for the table? Place
Holders.
Cardboard boxes: They are great for
vehicles. You can then put character minis, equipment lists, and even stats
sheets in them to help keep track of what they carry. If you’re feeling really crafty you can always
carve those same card board boxes up to make a better representation of what
ever craft you’re looking at.
Clay and
Putty are awesome, malleable, and easily resized to fit your needs in regards to
shape and scale.
Game pieces
are great for any setting. Chess pieces, checkers, dominos. You can often find bags of these loose pieces
at thrifts stores.
Rocks: Bags
of rocks and stones from a craft store, or even a nifty one out of the
garden. Just be careful the game doesn’t
become too heated and people start throwing them.
And as
always, use you’re imagination!
I know a lot of this might be common sense to the more seasoned
gamers out there. Though, keep in mind, what we veterans take for granted as
common sense might be a revelation for you to pass on to new players.
