"When a Figure Vanishes..." Topic

I've put on around thirty public demonstration wargames over the years. The audience has ranged from experienced gamers to complete newcomers, with plenty of children stopping to watch.

Looking back, the record has been surprisingly good. I've never had a game deliberately damaged and only once have I noticed a figure go missing.

It was several years ago during a medieval game. As we were packing up, I realised that a single Tumbling Dice medieval infantryman was no longer on the table. I never found it.

Was it stolen? Perhaps…but I've never been certain. It could just as easily have been picked up by an inquisitive child who forgot they were holding him, swept into someone else's scenery box or simply vanished into that mysterious place where lone figures seem to disappear!

What made it memorable was that it wasn't easy to replace. I had no spare Tumbling Dice figures of that type and wasn't planning another order.

Even so, after thirty shows, one missing figure is a record I'm quite happy with. The pleasure of introducing the public—especially youngsters—to miniature wargaming has far outweighed the tiny risk of the odd loss.

It made me wonder…

Have you ever had a figure genuinely stolen at a public show or did it later turn up somewhere unexpected? More generally, has exhibiting games changed the way you think about letting the public get close to your miniatures?

Two 30mm sappers disappeared from a CLS game at the Host, many years ago. More awkward in that they were borrowed figures. We conducted a pretty good search. Never heard of them turning up again, but borrowed stuff returned to its owners makes it theoretically possible I wouldn't have heard.

I never used borrowed figures or terrain at a convention again--but I wouldn't normally have done so then. The game was a special case. I would agree that to my knowledge such things are quite rare.

I put on a big Boxer Rebellion game here at my house a couple of years ago. Picking up, I found a Russian infantryman had deserted. I looked hard for him, but assumed he had either rolled far under my work bench/game table or had been carried off by the cat.
A long time later, I was sitting by the table and spotted the Russian on a 2nd shelf of a low cabinet standing there looking at me. I think I dropped him as I was putting casualties on a small table and he "bounced" off my pant leg and onto the shelf.

Only a single 28mm fantasy figure, running a frostgrave game at the Host for HMGS. I spent a while thinking about if I had even brought it, since its never happened before, but I never found it. Not in my figure boxes, not on the floor around the game, not at home. It just vanished.

Had a Black Brunswick infantryman disappear from the table years ago. Grand search…never found by all players around the table. For weeks afterwards we had "black hole for miniatures" jokes in the group. Time forward… I was cleaning the floor after a game…standard broom sweeping. There standing upright and in parade order the BB Miniature stood with a sunlit "halo" reflection from a piece of nearby furniture. Since then his unit hasn't lost a battle.

I've never lost a single thing that I didn't misplace myself. Even the most disagreeable of my co-hobbyists are magnanimous with time and effort donated to caring for the game, figures, terrain, and gear.

- Ix

Some 35 years ago I bought a pack of 15mm SYW Russian grenadiers. They went into the pile of shame. Several attempts to find them left me wondering if I'd actually bought the damned things after all.
They resurfaced in the least logical place and now literally sit on top of my c18th painting pile to be done as a quick project between Ancients and WW2.

I very much appreciate the effort game masters do at conventions. Horrified if I even break a part off a figure.
Just at home miss place figures but there they show up eventually.

One thing these replies have reinforced for me is that putting on demonstration games is well worth the tiny risk. If one missing figure is the price of introducing hundreds of people—especially youngsters—to the hobby, I'd happily pay it again.

These replies have also convinced me that miniature wargaming has its own version of the Bermuda Triangle!

Perhaps someone should write a fantasy army list with an Invisible Man unit. The downside, of course, is that if you misplaced the figure, you'd never know whether it was on the table or not…

No figures lost, but I've had dice get legs. The regular d6's never walk off but the other sizes of dice have. Simple mistakes on players' part.

I've lost figures or parts of figures a few times, in my own basement!

I blame the dog- Am right about half of the time.

No figures lost, but I've had dice get legs.

Funny: I have one dice block of red d6s which is determined to be one die short. Every time I refill the hole from a spare dice block, it's empty again after the next time I play. This has happened at least twice. I just stopped refilling it. The white and blue dice blocks that live in that same game have never lost a single die.

I had some vintage Hong Kong-made rubber monsters disappear after a Pulp Alley game held at a local game store some years back. It took a long time and no little expense on eBay to find some replacements for a few of them; and some have yet to find matches. And that was not even a convention game, just another gaming weekend with players both new and veteran at my table.

At conventions, I often ask a friend or my spouse to sort of keep an eye out for wandering figures or lurkers univolved in the game directly. I've known too many fellows who have had entire units go MIA at conventions or even a game store event. Oh yes, it does happen.

I had several elder models go missing when the after school chess club was left un supervised and decided to come and annoy the wargames club I was running. They were pirated figures I'd been given by a friend who was trying to dispose of the evidence so no great loss

Robert

In a Civil War game several years ago at Barrage, one of my companies of infantry was missing a figure. I looked and looked and finally substituted a dismounted cavalry figure. Weeks later, I found him AWOL near my painting table/workbench.

Not disappearance but accident: While I was running an Eastern Front game at a fellow-gamer's house, his teenage daughter brushed by the table and knocked a German motorcycle combination to the floor. It wasn't very robust, and it fell apart. My host was mortified. His daughter didn't appear to be, but maybe she was too embarrassed to say anything.

Not too many mishandlings resulting in breakage. In general, though, I take a tube of Walther's Goo to conventions.

Never had any thing permanently lost after what must be a couple of hundred convention games since mid-1970's. Those that seemed to be lost later turned up a a terrain or gaming impedimenta box. I was especially happy that I lost none in the two big "Little Wars" games I did at Historicon in 2003 and 2013. Anniversary celebrations. I used original Britains figures. Each worth about $10 USD+ today. One box of nicely painted 28mm ancients was once dropped by a helper :(

Only ran a few historical games at conventions – never lost a figure. At friends homes the misplaced figures always eventually turned up. Now dice on the other hand…they seem to wander off into other dimensions.