...just a note to say I like your signature. Been a big fan of Tom Lerher for some time & even have both of his 10" LPs (the ones you had to order directly from him). I still find many of his songs timely today and some, like the one where he scoffed at the notion of Ronald Reagan in the white house (mind you this was the late 50s - early 60s), to be prophetic.

...first you get down on your knees, fiddle with your rosary...

"bow your head with great respect and genuflect, genuflect, genuflect!"

Bored at work, and also interested in miniatures, I did some searching on the Internet. I found a miniatures game called Battlefield Evolution put out by Mongoose publishing.

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/ser...php?qsSeries=47

Pre-painted miniatures, but mostly all military looking. And nothing troll or dwarf sized either, but there are some tanks and jeeps that look cool.

Some pre-painted minis here: http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/Pre-...Miniatures.html from a site in the UK. The Sci-Fi, Old West Heroes, and Dunwich Detective lines have some good looking stuff. Also the Oriental Blades if you need your katana fix.

Hmm well I was going to start a separate thread about this but this will do fine. Our group uses minis quite extensively. I'll link some pics later. Seeing as I'm a mini and wargaming freak I'll share my experience.

For prepainted minis you're looking at Rackham's AT-43 wargame line. They're quite nice but they're imported so tend to be a little expensive. My metal gear thingie mini cost me $30 alone. Individuals run from $10-$15 which is expensive for plastic. Also the online discounts generally are only about 10% off cost. This is so low I generally just go to the local store and skip the huge shipping costs.

AT-43

Also prepainted for paranormal animals and such I would recommend the D&D line. Now don't go buying random boosters off the shelf or you'll end up with a bunch of stuff you'll never use. Find a gallery list online and pick up commons and uncommons on Ebay. Try and buy from a single vendor to save on shipping, this should be rather easy. Rares aren't worth it unless you really need that mini's look. They're overpriced because they're for a mini wargame obviously and have utility in that game. Me, I could care less about their powerz.

For Unpainted metal goodness you're looking at the Infinity line. It's also imported from Europe so they're very expensive as well. Still they're anime themed which is cool and the drones are excellent. I've gotten all their drones and a couple individuals for PCs and major NPCs. Once again $10+ for a single dude and you're generally looking at no online discount whatsoever.

Infinity

Also in the unpainted cyberpunk realm you have Rezolution. They're generally cheaper at about $5.50 a dude but you get what you pay for. Their early minis look like a monkey's butt. Sculpt quality is slowly improving though. I recommend their mercenary bot pack for some nice drones also they have a couple of terminator ripoff killbot drones called stompers which are kinda cool. I need to pick those up myself. Also they have Deckard and Rachel ripoffs from Bladerunner that are worth picking up.

Rezolution

Then there's the Urban War / Metropolis wargame. These guys are a steal. Check out Viridian for shadowrunners and corpsec, look at Syntha for yet more drones. Excellent prices and fantastic sculpts. They retail at $8 for a single dude but if you're paying more than $6.39 you're not trying hard enough.

Urban War/Metropolis

That's pretty much it. I mean there's the Dark Age mini wargame line but those guys are generally too odd to be much use beyond toxics or weird spirits. The elementals are kinda cool but it's all expensive.

I have all the old shadowrun minis myself. I bought em when they where out and was lucky enough to pick up a boatload of them from a store going out of business last year. They're cool but they definitely seem dated compared to modern minis.

Ugh, that's all the world needs is another pre-painted mini wargame line. The market isn't oversaturated like CCG games at all oh no there's room for 20 or 30 more games at least. Bleh.

I wish people would stop being lazy and paint and mod their own metal minis. Catalyst metal minis would be cool but unless subcontracted to an existing line the costs would be prohibitive I'm betting.

Next we'll be back to those cardboard foldover people in those tab bases.

The chinese jeep and the infantry vehicle are cool. Tell me that doesn't look like a Citymaster. Still besides that it's a little too military for my taste, unless of course you're running a Merc game or such.

GW? Sorry don't need a second mortgage.

Not everyone wants to spend their free time painting and modding miniatures. I'd rather be reading the source material, creating NPCs, or planning missions... or doing something else entirely.

I really hope Catalyst pursues the pre-painted minis market for Shadowrun and cyberpunk in general.

Pre-painted minis don't *have* to be collectible: http://www.reapermini.com/LegendaryEncount...paintedPlastics

...to add to this, there are those of us who, for other reasons than being "slackers" (such as myself who suffers from severe arthritis) are unable to to paint such small detailed items.

...and don't poo-poo Jackson's Cardboard Heroes. They are inexpensive, take up little storage space and come in very handy for NPCs, grunts, police, and bystanders. Not everyone has the budget to afford hordes of diecast figures. I find them much better than using dice (which are often needed for rolling tests) or pennies for at least they are a bit more 'representative" of people and have facings.

No need to buy cardboard figures, they can be found in your old SR1 GM Screen, DMZ and all ower the web for free, for example here http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/fonts.htm.

Lars

Until there are surface table display/monitors available on the market that are reasonably priced, I don't think the VTT software is particularly useful. Unless you play in the same room that has a 40+" TV that you've connected to your computer.

...agreed. It's nice as a GM's aid, ("hidden" NPCs stay hidden from the players eyes & all) but the players still need a battlemat of sorts so they can place and move their characters.

Even a 40" display wouldn't really work well unless everyone has a a notebook computer with the same utility that all linked to the local node. That is asking a lot of your players, many of whom usually still prefer the hardcopy character sheets and books over a PDF/digital version.

Wait, all of us don't have 42" plasma screens that are built in tables?

What kind o' GMs are you people

I like my stuff in 3d, so I stick with minis. And good terrain

...well that's at the other places I play...

Now at my super secret hardened underground base which is protected by, Laaaaaasers and has a hidden escape rocket (should the players become unruly) there not only is a 42" 3d holographic plasma display table but every seat at the table also has a personal plasma screen monitor, drink cooler, Pizza warmer, and the entire shebang is linked to my personal MegaBigBlue™ supercomputer.