using minis in Shadowrun, do you? Options

[Abstruse]

I just went out and bought a few of the old Shadowrun minis from a dusty back room of the local game store for $1.50 a pop. Personally, I think minis and a wet-erase vinyl map are essentials for gaming as it quickly can become impossible to keep track of character positions and ranges effectively without it. Otherwise, you're spending a lot of combat time triangulating ranges ("So you were fifteen meters from Sec Guard 1, and 10 meters from Bob, so that means you're...ummm...anyone have a protractor?")

BTW, 2m = 1" seems to work best for me unless combat's in a cramped room or something that necessitates 1" = 1m detail. And if you get one of those vinyl maps, make sure to use WET ERASE markers. Dry erase markers WILL stain them.

The Abstruse One

[the_dunner]

Red markers are the absolute worst for staining. But, I've found that a citrus based window cleaner can clean up just about anything. And leaves the gaming table smelling nicely orange-y. :D

[Firewall]

I remember being at school when we had just switched to white-boards (something to do with an asthmatic pupil trying to sue; this in the UK!) and someone got dared to write an obscenity on the board while the teacher went to get coffee. Being the sadistic ****-hole that I am, I threw him a 'wet' marker.

Then I told him the teacher was coming back...

That moment of realisation, when he saw that it was not wiping off... That was priceless. We learned something from that experience; that there was only one other person in that lesson (apart from me) who had stayed awake during chemistry. We threw him a can of Lynx (I think they call it Axe in the rest of the world) and let him save himself...

But back on topic... I use white-boards and miniatures (big WH40K collection, though most of it is Blood Angels, and a few Necromunda Delaques - best gang for runners; long coats, goggles, style...)

[Abstruse]

If you're cheap or you can't find the Shadowrun minis in the quantities you want, the DMZ boxed set can be found for usually about $20-30 on ebay or less in your local game store's used bin and it has somewhere around a hundred color cardboard fold-up minis for Shadowrun and a few maps. Don't bother with the actual game though, it's like mixing Warhammer with Shadowrun...you play in 6 hours what would have only taken you 2 hours using the regular rules and there's no roleplaying involved with the only advantage being that you had twice the number of characters on the board. Plus the DMZ rules bear little relation to the Shadowrun rules, even moreso with 3rd Ed.

The Abstruse One

[the_dunner]

There's a couple of companies on RPGNow that sell PDF's of fold over standups that could work nicely for Shadowrun, similar to the ones in DMZ. I've bought the 21st century heroes set from Microtactix, and it's pretty slick. Their stuff is at:

http://www.rpgnow.com/default.php?manufacturers_id=368


Also, S.John Ross has a line of fonts that work in the same way available at http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/sparks.htm .

I've used these products from several manufacturers and find them very convenient. There's no painting, and the minis are disposable. Plus, you end up with as many as you want to print for under $10.

[bitrunner]

oh

my

god!


these are awesome!!!

thanks dunner!! :D

[Plastic Rat]

[the_dunner]

Glad ya like 'em bitrunner! :)

[FrostyNSO]

Anybody use a pack of plain ol' army men? Works great.

[the_dunner]

The army men idea reminded me of these:

http://www.fairplaygames.com/gamedisplay.a...asp?gameid=1439

How can you not love 100 25mm glow in the dark zombies for $10?

[RedmondLarry]

Our team uses glow-in-the-dark (translucent) zombies for astral magicians. When going astral, a player magician lays his lead-figure down and picks up a translucent zombie to represent his astral form.

[mintcar]

bitrunner: There are Shadowrun clicks. Shadowrun Duels. Or did that flop so bad you can´t get them anymore? WizKids makes good as all the other click games so I´d be surprised if there weren´t any Shadowrun variant. Check their homepage

[Bigity]

:D Shadowrun Duels figures are in no way suitable for use as "minis" in a tabletop game.

[Abstruse]

Unless your tabletop is 20 feet long...

The Abstruse One

[Namer18]

Bigger then that for the shadowrun clicks game. The figures are huge. I've managed to find a bunch on the cheap though by looking around. Oddly enough the different figures were originally priced differently so that even when I can find the dwarf for like $2.00 the troll is still like $15.00. Go figure. You can look through the figure sculpts at http://www.wizkidsgames.com/shadowrun/figu...guregallery.asp

[Caine Hazen]

Heroclix minis popped of the bases and reset to 25mm bases. Plus copplestone minis + a few from the Street Violence line of Foundry minis. Plus I got some resin cast vehicles for effect. Oh and the bikes from the VASA army from VOID work well too.

Plus we get buildings from armorcast and flying tricycle to use for terrain, man it makes the sessions rawk

[Paco]

My group uses micro machines and army men :)
We were using dry erase but we have since upgraded to a large piece of plexi glass with the grid in permanent marker on one side, we have to flip the glass over and use the other side for the map. Something about
non-permanent makes permanent non-permanent when you write over it (not quite sure if that senctence makes sense :wobble: ).
I really can't imagine playing SR without maps and minis of some sort. Everytime someone thinks there isn't going to be a need for a map or reference points, someone always manages to do something to warrant them.

[bitrunner]

don't get me started on a SR Duels rant...suffice to say, as others have - they are too big for gaming...

[mintcar]

Never seen them, sorry.

[Just Jonny]

My group really doesn't use minis, but I usually make maps of any place where I expect the players might get in any sort of firefight involving more than 5 or so opponents. It just makes cover and the like a hell of a lot easier to figure out, as well as clearing up issues of how long it takes to close to melee range or whatever.

[DocMortand]

I am a huge WarHamster 40K player (I own 5 armies) so I use those on a grid wet-erase map. Works great for tactical...I just need more dwarfs. Got plenty of humans and orks and trolls...but no dwarfs.

It's always funny to use necron destroyers for bug spirits...*grin* Since I own 6 of them I just get 'em ready and the group just looks at 'em with dread, wondering where they are.

[Mercer]

We use 1/72 scale army men. We picked up a few bags at a local dollar store, plus there are higher quality ones available for large scale wargames. It usually about 8 bucks for a box of fifty, but they make them for all eras, from Vikings to Present day Special forces. We also use Micro Machines for vehicles, HO scale railroad pieces, and anything else we can get our paws on.

I find dry erase boards to be the best for table top play, and chalkboards to be a close second. I don't like using gridded boards for anything, because I think it makes it too technical and too board gamey. I like players to eyeball their spell effects and grenade throws, without the benefit of knowing "exactly" who its going to hit.

[CountZero]

My old GM used minis in his game.

He had a good chunk of the SR minis, and he had some minis from Mordheim which he used for gangers. It worked out pretty well.

[Mercer]

I had a lot of spare time last summer, and not a lot of money, so I was looking for an inexpensive way to soak up some time. I found on a wargaming site instructions for making really cheap terrain. For about twenty bucks, I was able to fill up a 4'x4' games table for a World War II Alternate Shadowrun scenario.

Basically, make building ruins out of cardboard (which is free). Coat it with a little spackling compound (which I had a bunch of from redoing a bedroom, so that was free). Spray paint it black (a buck for the paint), drybrush with a few shades of grey (my old mini paints that I haven't used in years). The idea was to run an Enemy at the Gates style scenario using SR rules. The metahumans of the greatest generation.

[Erebus]

We tend to use Cardboard Heroes, and their equivelent from the old DMZ boxed set. Way easer on the wallet, no painting required, plus you can carry over 400 of them in a zip-locked freezer bag. =)