I don't intend this to be a daily column. Knowing my habits, it's likely to be quite irregular in when it turns up. However, I've just had an entry to my Guestbook by Chris Kay, and this was the best way of answering his question: No, Chris, unfortunately I'm not quite sure when the 5th set (Fell Menace?) is coming out. If I were a betting man, I'd probably expect late September - about the same time that the first set, Harbinger was released.The rate of miniature releases has been quite fast so far - as promised by Mike and Rob. After this year, things will apparently settle down into a slower schedule: 3 sets per year, similar to how Magic does things. That's a relief!
I sometimes think I'm WotC's dream customer: I play the Dungeons and Dragons RPG, the Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures game, and Magic: the Gathering. I will say that my Magic purchases have gone way down in recent years as I've become more active in the RPG, and in the Miniatures game.
Since 3rd Edition D&D came out back in 2000 - I didn't quite manage to get it the day it came out, but I was close - I've been playing it at least weekly. Last year, I was running two campaigns, both set in Greyhawk: once every Friday, and once every two Sundays. Due to Real LifeTM;, the Friday campaign has folded, but Sunday has been going strong. However, later today, I'm not going to be running a session. I'm going to be playing in one.
This is only going to be my fifth session of the new D&D game. One of my players - we call him Gofa - has been talking about running a game for the past year. It's not going to be quite standard D&D. Low magic, high action and adventure. The word Gofa's been using to describe it is "Swashbuckling". I'm going to be playing a Swashbuckler called Enrei. (That's the Swashbuckler class out of the Complete Warrior), by the way). My friends will be playing a bard, urban ranger and a favoured soul. (The last is from the Miniatures Handbook, so it's not like this column has no miniatures references in it. ;-)
Anyway, the last session of the regular Sunday campaign, I did something unusual: I used miniatures. I'm in a rare 15% of the D&D world: I regularly do not use miniatures, tokens or anything else during combat. I just let my imagination and the imagination of my players determine what is going on. However, given that this was a combat with the 4 PCs and their two cohorts pitted against over 40 evil dastards, I felt that my normal principles could go hang for the time being.
We had fun. Three hours for one combat? It was good. I didn't quite have enough Skeleton and Zombie miniatures, so I was using Ghoul proxies for the Skeletons, and Human Commoners for the Zombies I was missing. Since the Zombies had once been Human Commoners, it actually was a good match. In the end, the PCs screwed up and got banished to another plane. Oh well, these things happen.
So, Gofa's going to be running the next session while I frantically try to come up with some inspiration as to what happens next. Swashbuckling adventures, ahoy!
I've been doing my part in preparing for Gofa's game. I've been reading the Three Musketeers. That's swashbuckling, right? Actually, I prefer Steven Brust's version: The Phoenix Guards, but I really should know the original.
I was talking to Gofa last night, trying to confirm that everything was fine for today. And he asked me if I had any pirate miniatures. Pirates? What are you talking about, Gofa? "Well, it is a swashbuckling campaign. What's a swashbuckling campaign without pirates?"
Hmm. There aren't actually that many pirate miniatures in the D&D Miniature line. I think Kerwyn, Human Rogue is the most pirate-y of the minis currently made. And Gofa can't have that one! I'm using that for Enrei!
So, Rob and Mike, if you're reading this column - could you steer a few more pirate miniatures in my direction? You'd make Gofa a lot happier.
Cheers!