Discussions from the Convention: You Don’t Need 100 Miniatures to Start Using Minis

One conversation came up several times during our first convention.

People would stop at our booth, look over the miniatures, and tell us they loved the idea of using minis in their games—but they would have no idea where to start.

There are so many monsters, player characters, sizes, styles, and possible encounters that building a useful collection can feel overwhelming before you ever place a miniature on the table.

My response was usually some version of this:

You do not need 100 miniatures to run a game.

At our table, we probably use the same 15 or so models more than anything else, and that includes both the player characters and the enemies.

You certainly can have the exact miniature for every creature that appears in your campaign. Some Game Masters love building a large collection and finding the perfect model for every encounter.

And, as a miniature company, we certainly appreciate those GMs.

But having the exact model is only important if it is important to you.

Miniatures Are Tools for the Story

A miniature does not have to be a perfect match to be useful.

Its main job is to help everyone at the table understand what is happening.

Which creature is the largest threat?

Where is the enemy standing?

Who is blocking the hallway?

How far away is the monster from the wizard?

Which creature just grabbed the fighter?

A miniature can answer all of those questions without perfectly matching the creature’s official artwork.

One of the best examples from our own games is our large ice elemental.

That miniature has probably represented nine different creatures over the years. Only two of them were creatures the model actually fit.

The rest of the time, it was simply a large, imposing monster that worked for the encounter.

At one point, I even used it when we owned a more accurate miniature. The correct model was already being used somewhere else on the board, so the ice elemental became the next creature.

The game continued.

Everyone understood what it represented.

The story did not suffer.

That is what matters.

Your Players Will Understand

Most players are perfectly capable of separating the miniature from the creature it represents.

You can place a goblin on the table and say, “This is a bandit.”

A zombie can become a cultist.

A skeleton can become an ancient guard.

An elemental can become a magical construct, summoned creature, demon, or giant.

The same models can appear multiple times during a campaign with completely different abilities, personalities, and roles.

The miniature establishes the creature’s position, size, and general presence.

Your description does the rest.

If you describe a towering creature made from frozen bone and glowing blue energy, your players are not going to stop imagining it simply because the model on the table is technically an ice elemental.

The miniature supports the story.

It does not replace it.

Start With Versatility

For someone beginning a collection, the most useful miniature is not always the one that perfectly matches a single monster.

It is often the one that can represent ten different things.

A few small humanoid enemies can become goblins, kobolds, bandits, cultists, guards, or raiders.

A group of skeletons or zombies can cover a wide range of undead encounters.

An ooze can represent slime, living magic, toxic waste, corrupted water, or almost any strange hazard that needs a place on the board.

A large elemental can become a summoned creature, golem, demon, giant, magical guardian, or boss monster.

Distinct sizes and silhouettes often matter more than exact accuracy. Players need to be able to tell the creatures apart and understand what is happening around them.

Beyond that, imagination can do a lot of the work.

A Small Collection Can Run a Lot of Games

A starter collection does not need to fill an entire room.

A few player-sized models, several small enemies, a handful of medium creatures, and one or two large monsters can support a surprising number of encounters.

You can add terrain later.

You can add specialized monsters when you find ones you really love.

You can replace stand-ins with more accurate models when a particular creature or encounter feels important enough to deserve one.

There is no requirement to finish your collection before you begin using it.

In reality, a miniature collection is probably never truly finished. There will always be another monster, character, pet, summon, or strange encounter that could use its own model.

That does not mean you are unprepared.

It means your collection grows alongside the stories you tell.

Do Not Let the Options Stop You

Miniatures should make your game more enjoyable, not create another barrier to running it.

You do not need every creature in the monster manual.

You do not need perfectly matching player characters.

You do not need to spend hundreds of dollars before your first session.

Start with a few models you like.

Use them creatively.

Let one miniature represent several different creatures.

Add new pieces when they excite you, fill a useful role, or make an important encounter feel more memorable.

The goal is not to build the perfect collection.

The goal is to tell memorable stories around the table.

Sometimes that means placing the exact monster on the battle map.

Sometimes it means using the same large ice elemental for the ninth time and showing a picture of the monster to the players that the Ice elemental now represents.