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Everything you want to know about the Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures game produced by Wizards of the Coast!If you have any news about the game, please e-mail me at merricb@yahoo.co.uk. A good place to gain further information - especially from Rob Heinsoo and Mike Donais, two of the designers of the game - is the D&D Miniatures Forum on the WotC boards. Merric's Law of Miniatures: Non-Random Packaging, Cheap Prices, and a Large Range of Figures: Choose two. What are D&D Miniatures? | Recent News: |
News Even more Giants of Legend updates Lord Soth - #36/72; LE, 98 pts
Displacer Serpent - CE, 11 pts
Standard Bearer - #3/72, LG, 10 pts
Blue - #29/72, LE, 5 pts
Eberk, Adventurer - #10/72, LG/CG, 16 pts
Gnoll Sergeant - #50/72, CE, 33 pts
Hobgoblin Sergeant - LE, 23 pts
Werewolf - #60/72, CE, 14 pts
Bronze Wyrmling, LG, 24 pts
A "Blue" is a psionic goblin.
I've updated the Giants of Legend page with this information and a few pictures.
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Highlights of Giants of Legend Freakin Canadian posted the following on the Wizards boards:So I got a preview of the set from a retailer early this week. She read the set list to me - and I've seen a few pictures of some of the minis.
Here are my highlights of GoL, without revealing too many details and annoying the mother ship:
1. It's a good set. The quality of the sculpts and painting are the best we've seen so far.
2. It's a good set. There was attention paid to some very classic foes and monsters in this set - and each one was given tender loving care in how they were portrayed and sculpted.
3. It's a good set. There are monsters/foes we've seen before. Iconics we've seen before, humanoids/undead we've seen before etc. That might detract some people, until you see them up close. You'll realize WOTC took a step "up" in the quality of their painting and sculpts and decided to reapply to it to some of the classics, personally I am glad they did.
4. It's a good set. There is plenty of new content too, in fact the vast majority is new content. But the new content is still very much classic D&D. As it has already been revealed the set features a Manticore, that's just one example of a D&D classic beastie that is making its debut.
5. It's a good set. It has quite a few larges. I am not sure the exact count, but there are a lot of large minis in this set, all of them rare and for the most part, they are all really great. There are one or two rares that will dissapoint people greatly, but for the most part, all the non-huge rares are real winners.
6. It's a good set. We see the debut of the first tiny (the Quasit), we see another baby dragon, we see uncommons that look as good as rares in previous sets.
7. It's a good set. The Huge Gold and Red Dragon are the kind of pieces you want the whole world to see. I know if get a Gold Dragon it's going right on top of my monitor at work, it looks that good.
8. The set has flaws. Some of the Huges, are for me, very dissapointing. My summary of thoughts on this is that this is WOTC's first attempt at Huges and just like its first attempt at plastic minis as a whole (Harbinger), there were some deficiencies.
9. The set has flaws. Some of the rare minis that I thought would be spectacular when I heard their name, wound up being very dissapointing. Some of the choices of Huges, are for me personally, questionable - and I believe, some were quick replacements when the more ambitious Huges simply did not work out in manufacturing.
10. It's a good set. Overall, I must concede and offer praise. In fact, I think one reason this particular retailer "let me in", was to convert me. She knew I had purchased a lot before and wanted me to see what WOTC was asking me to pay extra for in this set.
I have to say, I think I'm converted. Last night, I hung out with a gaming group, that included someone who works at this store. I was converted enough from the little I saw (which I guess came as a random sample from someone within WOTC to encourage THEM to preorder more).
I was converted enough to buy a case (12 packs, preorder), on top of the 4 I had already pre-ordered. I got a deal, paying basically 13.00 per pack - and at that price it's a worthy investment.
The set isn't perfect - and I'll continue to gripe about some of the detail and minutia, I thought could have been improved. But as I held a particular common in my hand, one that is iconic in my campaign for a particular character, I realized...
WOTC has done a great job, D&D has never looked so good...
So yeah, I'll gripe about the dinosaur (which looks terrible up close), I'll gripe about winding up with 4 Nightwalkers that look like they were painted in 10 seconds, but like I say, overall...
...D&D has never looked so good.
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Even more GoL Amurayi has updated his preview page with some more information. Of note...
Large: **** ***** King (r) (Unique) -> fire giant king?
Medium: *** Sergeant (c)
Medium: *** Sergeant (u)
Medium: Fire Genasi Derwish (r)
Medium Unique: *** the *** (r) -> Lareth the Beautiful?
He also has new pictures of Regdar, Adventurer and the Fire Genasi Dervish. ()
Three new Giants of Legend miniatures revealed! Thanks to Darthrau on the Wizards boards, we now know three further miniatures in the set: Lemure, Human Bard and Manticore!
Lemure is common, Manticore is rare, and I've no idea what rarity the Bard is yet. ()
Expansion Pack generator Kiddoc has created a Expansion Pack generator - what it does is randomly generates the contents of a virtual expansion pack. The idea is to allow you to have the ability to test the sealed and draft formats without spending a huge amount of money on new packs each time. ()
Terrain Tiles Miniaturizer has two skirmish tiles on his site for download, and he will be releasing one or two more today. - miniaturizer.spymac.net/TileDownloads.html ()
More Giants of Legends updates We must be getting closer to the set's release!
- Amurayi has found a new picture of Lidda, Adventurer
- There will be a Bugbear Footpad
- A few collector numbers have surfaced: #11: Protectar, #25: Dire Wolf, #42 Bugbear Footpad, #68 Fiendish T-Rex. As a result it seems very likely that the normal figures will be numbered 1-60, and the huge figures will be numbered 61-72.
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Aberrations Rulebook to be put online? From Mike Donais: "We are looking into posting the new Aberrations rulebook on-line even before it is released so that people can see the cleaned up rules. It includes most or all of the errata and FAQ questions by using clearer language and so on.
"It still won't be for a while because we are not even at Giants of Legend yet but it is the rulebook we have been playing with for some time now in the office." ()
Wizards page: Got Goblins? The latest update on the Wizards site: Got Goblins? looks at using Snig the Axe and his goblin friends as recurring foes in the D&D RPG. ()
Latest Giants of Legend Preview up on Wizards site This preview is called A Bit of Chaos and looks at the Tanarukk and the Deepshadow Elf. ()
Rob Heinsoo on Chase Figures Rob Heinsoo in this thread:
For what it's worth, it would never have occurred to me that someone would consider anything in Giants of Legend a chase mini.
So far as most of us involved with minis use the term here at WotC, a chase mini is something that's rarer than a rare. All our rares are equally rare. The Huge rares are approximately (not precisely) as rare as our smaller rares. You're likely to get one of each rare in 23-24 boxes. ()
No Grey Glutton Rob Heinsoo has confirmed there is no Grey Glutton figure in GoL, and that there is a Fiendish Tyrannosaurus. ()
Point costs, new figure SpikeGif has posted on the maxminis boards this unconfirmed information: there is an Orc Brute in GoL costing 8 points, and Mordenkainen costs 69 points.
Guy Fullerton has said this about Mordy: "He's certainly not a wuss. I was lucky enough to see his stats recently. I think it's safe for me to say that he's the most uber spellcaster in the game. Puts all of the others to shame, IMO. He's quite resilient too.
"Let's see what I can get away with in terms of details: He can send an entire swarm of Orc Champions fleeing in a single action." And from Des Hanley, one of the artists: "Intriguing!
If it is another Orc then I'll be interested in seeing it, as it will be the first Orc done that I didn't do!
I look forward to seeing another Artist's take on them.
(unless they brought another orc from another set - an unproduced one? Who knows?- though I doubt it)" ()
Fiendish Tyrannosaurus in Giants of Legend Well, this is an odd way of finding out about another figure in GoL: someone is selling a Fiendish Tyrannosaurus on E-bay. You can see the auction here. Thanks to all who e-mailed me about it; your help was appreciated. ()
News? Do you know anything about the D&D Miniatures game that I haven't reported?
Any new tiles? Scenarios? Tournaments? Figures? Spoilers?
Please e-mail me if you do. There's a bunch of material out there that I don't know about, but I see referred to on messageboards and the like. I try to gather it when I can, but I'm not omniscient (alas!), so a little help wouldn't hurt. :-) ()
Frost Giant in Giants of Legend It's looking likely that the Frost Giant will also be in Giants of Legend - that Giants title is getting rather accurate.
From Sulaco on the Wizard boards:
"There was a bit on the history of D&D on Daily Planet, a science news program here in the Great White North, and in it Ed Stark was DMing for some folks.
Behind his screen, Ed had a number of minis (including Big Big Red...sweet). He also had a Frost Giant tucked away back there!
So I think it is safe to add the Frost Giant to the list of confirmed minis for GOL." You can find the program online on the dailyplanet site. ()
Dungeon Maps yggdrasil has posted a bunch of dungeon maps in miniature scale (1 inch=5 foot) based on maps in the Pool of Radiance: Realms of Myth Drannor adventure; The address is www.denestor.com; the maps are in the "Behind the Screen" section. ()
Musings - Sunday Gaming My latest musings are up, if you're interested in that sort of thing. This time, Miniatures, my Greyhawk game and Settlers of Catan. ()
Lemonbutter's Giants of Legend Gallery Amurayi has put up a nice preview of Giants of Legend on his lemonbutter.com site; it includes pictures of figures in the upcoming set as well as the names of figures that have been confirmed to not be in the set!
I'm not sure if it's 100% correct, but it's definitely worth taking a look at. ()
Dinosaurs, Kings? (More GoL information) From Mike Donais:
When I said [there would be a] King [in Giants of Legend], I did not mean [Tyrannosaurus] Rex.
I don't think I ever stated that there would be no dinosaurs in Giants of Legend. I am not sure what post this refers to. Perhaps the one where I said Eberron is not about dinosaurs.
Anyways, I will let people know the king is a large rare and not a cave T-Rex.
The guy in dwarven armor ended up in set 5 so you will not see him in Giants of Legend. Also the clue I gave for him is pretty subtle so you may never guess who I mean. ()
Quasit - Uncommon; no Ettin Rob Heinsoo has confirmed that the Quasit is an Uncommon miniature in Giants of Legend. He's also revealed that there is no Ettin miniature in GoL.
He's made a few other posts recently - check the Collected Designer Posts page. ()
Rob Heinsoo on the Giants of Legend poster From Rob Heinsoo on the Wizards boards:
I believe the posters are going to go out right around the time the set releases.
That way we get to tease you with promo articles that actually show things you haven't seen.
And you get to hunt down weird leaks we didn't expect that let you learn about minis we hadn't planned on revealing. Ahem.
We want to show off a lot of the set, to let people know the stuff that is coming. But we also prefer to keep some of the set secret, so that even die-hard information hunters such as yourselves get to be surprised when you open a box and find something you had no idea was in the set.
Yeah, we do realize that many people would like to see everything right away, but we prefer the fun of revealing about half the set and making half of the set a surprise.
Given some of the stuff that is not yet revealed, GoL is an interesting test of our ability to keep a secret. ()
Luck versus Skill There's an interesting thread on the Wizards boards discussing the relationship between Luck and Skill in the D&D Miniatures skirmish game and how it compares to other games like Magic. ()
Miniaturizer version 1.0 I've received the following e-mail from Miniaturizer:
I am pleased to announce Miniaturizer: the Mini Manager. Miniaturizer 1.0 has just been released!
Miniaturizer is a utility for managing your RPG miniature collections.
From the website:
• Intuitive easy to use interface.
• Made for MAC OS X and WINDOWS!
• Organize Miniature Records into Inventories.
• Create Warbands from your inventories or the Main Database.
• Quickly open any warband or inventory file from the "Warband" and "Inventory" menus.
• Keep track of spells and special abilities used during combat, by simply checking them off as they are used.
• Keep notes on each miniature.
• Create new Miniature Records, Spell Slots, Special Ability Slots etc. on the fly.
• Change the stats and all information of miniature records.
(Miniaturizer is a fully functional stat editor.)
• Check off characters in the character list after they have taken their turn.
• Quickly apply damage or healing to characters during combat.
• Hit point text changes colors when a character's hit points fall below 1/2 of the total, and when it drops to zero hit points. (Colors fully customizable)
• Data files fully compatible between MAC OS, and WINDOWS. (XML files)"
There are also Skirmish Tiles available for download on the site, with more coming on a regular basis!
http://Miniaturizer.spymac.net
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Wizards site update: What are D&D Miniatures? The second update of the Wizards site for today: What are D&D Miniatures? by Jonathan Tweet.
This article also displays the Tiny miniature in Giants of Legend - the Quasit! ()
Giants of Legend preview posted! The fourth Giants of Legend preview has been posted: From Concept to Commander. It discusses the Young Master, Gnoll Sergeant and Rakshasa figures. ()
D&D Miniatures Metagame for the Qualifiers Ehlonnia has posted a fascinating discussion of the current popular warbands and the metagame leading up to the Qualifiers. ()
Warforged promotional miniature Gaming stores have started to receive copies of a promotional miniature to give away to customers - a Warforged miniature from the Giants of Legend set. The miniature does not come with a stat card, however. ()
No price for Giants of Legend? The Wizards Product Pages have been updated... and the price information for Giants of Legend has been removed. (So it's not $0.00 a booster any more). But wait, so have the prices of the other D&D Miniatures sets! Hmm. ()
Miniature of the Day  Today's Miniature of the Day is Ialdabobby, Human Psion, from the Archfiends set.
With psychic flame in one hand and a staff in the other, Ialdaskippy is ready to take on any threat your opponent might throw against him. Well, as long as that threat isn't very tough.
The greatest drawback Ialdadobby has is that his psychic attacks of Daze and Mind Thrust each allow saving throws to negate their effects. Against any significant opponent, he will prove quite ineffective.
Ialdaharry works best in 50 point warbands, such as those used in Campaign play. Ialdapotter is actually quite a significant figure in such play. In 100 point play, there are likely to be better figures than Ialdadeja.
The other option is to use him with Drizzt. Unfortunately, this means he has to be in a 200 point army and, even with Drizzt's boost to attack and damage, his special abilities are too insignificant to matter.
Ialdavu is one of the weaker miniatures in the game. I'm sure there will be warbands that use him, but I can't see him as a viable figure. Even though he belongs to a faction that has traditionally been underpowered, Ialdabode is still not very good. ()
WizKids "Pirates of the Spanish Main" price increase From the WizKids site:
"Due to increasing manufacturing and material costs, such as the record price of oil, the MSRP for Pirates of the Spanish Main will go from $3.49 to $3.99. WizKids still feels that this price offers a superior product at an excellent price point for this fast-playing, fun collectable game. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you, and wish you happy voyages on the seas this summer!"
We hope that the high price of oil doesn't affect the pricing on the D&D Miniatures! ()
Picture of four adventurers: Aramil, Regdar, Lidda and Eberk? On the playdnd.com site there is a flash animation about the new D&D Basic game. It includes this picture:
Those miniatures looks like Lidda, Regdar, Eberk and Aramil to me.
However, I don't know those poses for Lidda and Regdar... might it be that they have new sculpts in the D&D Basic game? Their titles are "Regdar, Adventurer", "Lidda, Adventurer" and so forth in the previews we've received so far, so it seems likely that these are new versions of those two iconics.
Eberk and Aramil are new, of course. ()
Andy Collins joins the D&D Miniatures team Andy Collins says, "I'm splitting my time between RPG Development and Minis Development, [so] it's not just lunchtime that sees skirmishes break out at my desk--it's part of my *job* to test out weird warbands, new scenario formats, and the like."
"As much as I'd like to take credit for what's going on in the realm of minis right now, I've only just started on minis development and thus you won't see the effects of my involvement until probably Set 6."
Andy Collins has worked on many D&D RPG products, as designer, developer and editor. ()
Collected Designer Posts I've just added the blogger technology to the Collected Designer Posts page. Hopefully, this will make your navigation of the posts a bit easier. (I know it's going to make my editing of the page much easier!) ()
New Wizards Preview reveals more Giants of Legend figures Mat Smith's Previews column has been posted for this month; it includes discussion and pictures of Mordenkainen the Mage, the Rakshasa, the Zombie, the Otyugh, the Behir and the Warforged Titan.
He also reveals that the first Tiny miniature is in Giants of Legend! ()
My Giants of Legend page has been updated I finally got around to updating the Giants of Legend page with the previews from the past week. I've also added an explanation of the rarity system for GoL and otherwise fixed some layout issues. ()
Keith Strohm: An Open Letter to Dragon and Dungeon Readers Keith Strohm has posted an open letter on ENworld (and possibly other places) with information about the redesign of the Dragon and Dungeon magazines.
Keith's Letter about Dragon and Dungeon magazines
Matthew Sernett's clarifications (Matthew is the Editor-in-Chief of Dragon).
Of note to miniature fans, "In the average issue, ... two articles will be devoted to miniatures and computer games." in Matthew's clarifications. ()
No Large Uncommon miniatures in Giants of Legend Just in case it wasn't clear, Rob Heinsoo has said that there are no Large Uncommon miniatures in Giants of Legend:
"I don't like talking about things before they've become real. Even when they've become 'real,' there are lots of things that can go wrong.
"So like I said... when sets that have large uncommons are coming up, I think I'll actually tell you people beforehand to spare you from guessing. And even give you the number.
"Giants of Legend: no large uncommons." ()
Rob Heinsoo on Large Uncommon miniatures In a previous post, the Wizards designers said that they'd solved the technical problem that stopped them making Large Uncommon figures. Rob Heinsoo recently clarified this on the Wizards boards:
"When we say that we have solved a particular problem, that doesn't mean that the problem is solved in the expansion or expansions you are about to buy; we have to work so far in advance that anything we say about things we're currently solving has no relation to sets you're buying any time soon.
"To be clear, this Dire Wolf mini is a rare mini. I would have been happy to do an uncommon Dire Wolf mini, but we couldn't get that worked out.
"When we have a set coming out that seriously offers the large uncommons perk, I'll definitely let you folks know beforehand, instead of forcing you to guess." ()
What do you use from the Miniatures Handbook? John Semlak has started a thread on the ENworld forums asking what RPG material people are using from the Miniatures Handbook. ()
Latest Giants of Legend Preview posted at Wizards Mordenkainen, Protectar, Dire Wolf and Behir are the miniatures previewed in the latest article on the Wizards website.
Interestingly, Mordenkainen is "Any" faction, the Protectar is "LG/CG", and the Behir is "CG/CE". ()
Chainmail Equivalency cards posted for Dragoneye Wizards have posted the stat cards for Chainmail miniatures that have equivalents in the Dragoneye set, making the Chainmail figures legal in sanctioned tournaments.
The list of Dragoneye figures with Chainmail equivalents is: Abyssal Maw, Bugbear, Drow Warrior, Drow Wizard, Cleric of Moradin, Dwarf Barbarian, Goblin Warrior, Elf Spearguard, Grimlock, Silver Sorcerer, Half-Elf Sorcerer, Cleric of Nerull, Orc Druid, Salamander, Stonechild, Brass Dragon, Large Red Dragon. ()
Huge Gold Dragon and Rakshasa confirmed - with picture! Well, we've got a picture of the Huge Red, Huge Gold and the Rakshasa together. Click on the thumbnail for a bigger picture (though not of the highest quality).
Thanks to Bifur and levalet.com! ()
Giants of Legends: New Miniatures revealed? There's an animated discussion on the Wizards boards over some Giants of Legend miniatures that may be revealed in the French game magazine, Codex Arcanum. We're unsure if these rumours are true or not, but they're worth passing on.
The miniatures are: Huge Gold Dragon, Solar, Nightwalker (huge), and the Cloud Giant - in addition to the Storm Giant we already know about. ()
Greyhawk Miniatures in Giants of Legend From Erik Mona: "I note the inclusion of a lot more Greyhawk material in Complete Divine, and the Giants of Legend miniatures set, so it appears as though some folks in R&D have warmed to more 'core world' references in the core rulebooks." (See his original post). ()
Andy Collins on the future of Huge miniatures Andy Collins recently said, "I'd say it's reasonable to think that the future of Huges depends largely (no pun intended) on the sales of Giants of Legend.
"That isn't the only factor, of course--we have game play to think about, as well as our Organized Play programs for D&D minis--but the overall sales of the product is certainly a big factor that we won't fully be able to see until well into the summer, and possibly not even until fall." (Here's the original thread). ()
Aberrations will be the last set of 2004 Rob Heinsoo has confirmed that Aberrations will be the last set of 2004, with Death Knell appearing in early 2005 (probably in late February or early March). (posted in this thread) ()
RSS/Atom Newsfeeds for Merric's D&D Miniatures News G'day! There have been a couple of requests for RSS feeds. Hopefully, they're now working.
For ATOM: http://www.3rdedition.org/merricb/atom.xml
For RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DnDMiniaturesNews
If you could e-mail me at merricb@3rdedition.org if they work or if there's a problem. I really don't know much about RSS, so I may have made a mistake in the settings. ()
Rob Heinsoo confirms there are Skirmish cards in the D&D Basic set Rob Heinsoo: "We don't normally discuss upcoming products, but since this is a question rising from the Dragon article, I think it's safe to tell you all, and Merric, that the Basic set we're discussing contains useable double-sided cards for the minis.
"So if you like, you'll be able to use the minis for skirmish play with a card that comes in the box." (Original post in this thread) ()
I'm moving towards a new technology for the news page - Blogger! ;) It saves me a ton of coding, and hopefully should automatically archive the news as it goes out of date (but allows people to still search for it).
Otherwise, it should be business as usual. Enjoy! () 11th May
- What do you use your miniatures for? Li Shenron wants to know and has started this poll and thread on ENworld to discuss it. Visit there and let us know!
- Giants of Legend: In addition to all the other news about GoL from Dragon 320, it seems that the Protectar will appear as a miniature in this set. (It's a good-aligned outsider from the Miniatures Handbook.)
- D&D Basic: Issue 320 of Dragon has information on the contents of the D&D Basic set, including the miniatures included in it:
16 minis:
- 1x Regdar, Adventurer (from Dragoneye?)
- 1x Lidda, Adventurer (from Harbinger?)
- 1x Aramil, Adventurer (from Giants of Legend?)
- 1x Eberk, Adventurer (from Giants of Legend?)
- 1x Medium Black Dragon (from Dragoneye)
- 1x Troglodyte (from Dragoneye)
- 1x Dire Rat (from Giants of Legend)
- 1x Wolf Skeleton (from Harbinger)
- 2x Warrior Skeleton (from Harbinger)
- 2x Orc Warrior (from Harbinger)
- 2x Kobold Warrior (from Harbinger)
- 2x Kobold Skirmisher (from Dragoneye)
Other contents: - 4 double-sided map tiles
- 4 character cards
- 7 dice
- Quick-start Rulebook
- Adventure Book
- Expanded Rulebook
- Dragon Magazine #320: The Miniatures article in this issue is "Forms of Legend", with previews of the Bulette and Warforged Titan. It also includes new shape-changing spells you can use to change. Spells include: Aspect of the Earth Hunter (Drd 6); Aspect of the Wolf (Drd 1, Sor/Wiz 1); Body of War (Sor/Wiz 6); Displacer Form (Sor/Wiz 4); Holy Tranformation (Clr 7); Holy transormation, Lesser (Clr 4); Infernal Transformation (Clr 7); Infernal Transformation, Lesser (Clr 4); Primal Form (Drd 3, Sor/Wiz 3); Wild Runner (Drd 4).
- Review: My review of Dragoneye has been posted.
- Merric's Musings: A list of the D&D Miniatures I own.
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