"15mm Figure Ranges Closely Tied To A Single Gaming System?" Topic

Just wondering …

When looked at long term, do 15mm miniature ranges benefit or suffer when they are very closely tied to a single SF gaming system?

With their extremely specialized naming practices, basing, unique web shop title listings and marketing, do they miss out on a potentially larger pool of customers who would have welcomed new figures to use with gaming systems they won't abandon?

Dan

First give an example of what you are talking about.
Really, got no clue.

Of course my wife sez that, about me, alla time…

Don't know but at 15 mm they can all be used for Striker!

What?! Heresy!! Only Traveler(TM)-approved 15mm figures may be used for Striker.

The whole history of science fiction and fantasy miniatures play has been incredibly warped by GW. What they don't distort themselves, they distort by example. Everybody who can sculpt a figure and make an RTV mold is convinced he's someday going to have wargamers all over the world buying his figures to play his game.

But some is inevitable. You have to make some assumptions about the nature of future combat. You have to have a style of vehicle.

And may I never again wind up with a few figures or vehicles from an orphan range.

I have always thought figures are figures. I look for quality, price and applicability, no necessarily in that order.

I play what I like, with figures I like. To be honest I am unlikely to find a game AND a range that I would be locked to, particularly in the manufacturer says I "Have to" play with their stuff and "only" their stuff.

I've bought some GW stuff second hand because I liked the miniatures or the info in the book, but never bothered to get invested in their system. The same with Flames of War, some great historical miniatures, and I've picked up a lot of their stuff but never any of their printed material.

I hope that gamers who do their own thing aren't a dying breed.

15 mm and 6 mm …. both lend themselves to cross compatibility amongst the different manufactures. I just do not see many uses for gw products in other games…save necromunda.

I see the cross compatibility as a major strength … rules either fit for other manufactures by design or can be tweaked.

They were 10mm, but got 4 Warmaster Chaos Dire Wolves with a lot of other minis second hand.

Previous owner was going to use them for HOTT in 15mm as zombie wolves.

Twould be nice to get a few more but as GW has dropped the line, ebay or other resale sources.

As to the OP 15mm, I have RPE orcs and skellies that will be used for HOTT as well. If miniature is the right scale the fact that it was intended by a manufacturer to be used with their rules is on no moment. I have AD&D Battlesystem minis that I am using for HOTT as well.

The only problem may be finding more of the figures in the future if wishing to expand the army.

Possibly swings both ways – though I reckon its more of a plus if you can drop an army on the table that is entirely your brain child and constructed from halve a dozen separate sources/ranges and no one blinks. Though you can of course buy an army off the shelf (and I think some companies even offer a painting service).

Downside is perhaps the plethora of systems I've got a couple but its probably no guarantee of turning up at new gaming group and finding they play 15mm sci-fi, but none of the rules sets I've got/played! It also means we lack that single killer rules set that has widespread recognition and pulls people in. Of course such a system can itself be a downside…

I don't think they miss out on potential customers because people would buy the miniatures for whatever rules they use regardless if they like them enough.

They would miss out on potential sales of their rules system if they market the figures as non-game-specific (generic) miniatures suitable for any game system though.

I tell you what, the question I get asked most about DSG miniatures is "what rules are they for?" Seems an aweful lot of people will not buy minis unless they are backed by a dedicated set of rules in which to utilize them. I have also noted that many of these same people also require/want pre-generated scenarios/scenario books, and won't use "random" scenario/battle generators. So, a lot of "use the miniatures to play this game".

Most of my fun in 15mm was finding lines to mix together.

Overall, I would say any miniatures line suffers without direct association with a rules set.

Rules provide context as well as the opportunity to share in a specific community and find others who play the same game.

Free-form, system agnostic figures will find customers but they often lose customers due to the DIY nature of their use. Also, free-form players will always mine other rules-specific ranges where as a rules-specific player is not likely to touch other ranges outside of the games they play.

This second point, I believe, is a major contributor to the still mostly niche status of 15mm scifi.

My two cents,

-Eli

P.S. Take a look at Kickstarter projects that offer minis alone and those that offer minis backed by a game system.