Solo RPGs, Minis and Models
(Oh my!) - Hobby your Solo RPGs | The Lone Toad
Folks, aren’t solo RPGs the best? I mean, that is why you are here reading this post,I assume. Or maybe you're just super lost and confused. I get it, the internet is a weird place.
Solo RPGs are a great hobby, but why stop at one hobby? We can add so many hobbies to our solo RPGs, in ways that will enrich our play and fulfil our creativity.
Hobby your Solo RPGs will be a mini-series of posts where I’ll speak to some creative people about how they use other aspects of their creativity to improve and add to their Solo RPG play.
First up is… Minis, modelling and scratch building. And I’m interviewing…. Me!
Look, this is my newsletter, so it’s all legal. I really can’t be stopped, not at this point.
Miniatures and RPGs, A tale as old as… the 1970s.
Miniature war gaming and RPGs go back to the very start of the hobby. Dungeons and Dragons was born out of the Midwest wargaming scene, and the original games were heavily mini-based.
Although Gygax himself said they moved away from mini’s early in the development of D&D:
I don’t usually employ miniatures in my RPG play. We ceased that when we moved from CHAINMAIL Fantasy to D&D.
I have nothing against the use of miniatures, but they are generally impractical for long and free-wheeling campaign play where the scene and opponents can vary wildly in the course of but an hour.
The GW folks use them a lot, but they are fighting set-piece battles as is usual with miniatures gaming.
I don’t believe that fantasy miniatures are good or bad for FRPGs in general. If the GM sets up gaming sessions based on their use, the resulting play is great from my standpoint. It is mainly a matter of having the painted figures and a big tabletop to play on. - Gary Gygax, 2003
Solo RPGs Don’t Need Minis
That is the truth of the matter. Most solo RPGs don’t require minis, and one of the biggest strengths of Solo RPGs is the accessibility and ease of picking them up. So why am I writing a whole post about how minis can add to your solo RPG play?
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I don’t always feel like playing
Sometimes I get a bit tired after a long day and I don’t feel like picking up and playing an RPGs. Working on minis, models or scratch building allows me to engage with my games by also living in the world of my games.
I think building minis or terrain fits well with solo RPGs because it is solo, equal to solo RPGs. I’ve come to the belief that you should have a healthy ecosystem of hobby and play, consisting of group play, solo play and other hobbies, if you can manage it.
Plus the tempo of building and painting fits well with solo play. Slap some paint on and play a bit of Ironsworn while it dries. Glue a bit and play a bit while you wait.
Add a ton of realism to your games
Your imagination is a powerful tool that outpaces any computer but sometimes it can be aided with the help of some physical items. There is a certain realism that can be achieved by acting out scenes with minis and terrain that you may struggle without it.
I also find it helpful to ‘save’ my place in a game. If I’m just imagining a scene of play and I have to stop midway, I may lose my place and struggle to remember exactly where I left off.
But if my minis are set up, I can come back to it and be like ‘Oh yeah, my hero was just about to stab that alien dude in the face. Let’s roll some dice!’
A way of showing off your play
I know not everyone is keen on showing off their play online. I find it hard to share my play-through drawing because I draw like a 7-year-old. I used to post written actual plays, but that is a lot of work. If I just want to share a snap of what I’m doing with friends or the wider internet, I can just take a quick snap of my minis going through a scene.
If you really want to get stuck into content creation, some people have created excellent YouTube channels based on minis and solo RPGs. The best example of that being Me, Myself and Die!
Not everyone is ready to throw themselves into the maw of content creation, but if you ever did, playing with minis is pretty fun looking, espeically if you have no talent for drawing like me.
Different types of solo games!
There are a ton of solo experiences out there that use minis and lie outside of the solo RPG world that you can dip your toes into. Solo and cooperative wargames are a big deal, and you can properly get stuck into them with a set of minis and terrain. Five Parsecs from Home is a great starting place, but there are so many!
Get your family and friends involved
While your family and friends may not always understand why you go into your room alone, blast dungeon synth, and make ‘pew pew’ sounds for hours, they may understand making and painting minis.
It’s a great opportunity to get them involved in the hobby you love. They can help paint or craft and then see their creations be used in your games. Over the school holidays I helped the tadpoles paint a mini each. They loved it and did a great job.
Now they can’t wait to see their minis make it into a solo battle.
How awesome!
Not all rainbows and sunshine
There are some downsides for sure to adding minis and terrain to your solo RPGs. These aren’t insurmountable, and I think the payout is worth it, but still worth mentioning.
The Time
Not exactly the time it takes to build and paint models and terrain, although that does take time. It’s more the time it takes to gather a collection that allows you freedom to play creatively. A lot of wargamers have been collecting for decades, and it’s not unusual to have collections passed from parent to child, or sibling to sibling.
I’ve been collecting and building for about a year, and while I have a decent sci-fi collection, I don’t have many fantasy things yet. Alas, back to the work bench.
Why is it useful to have a large, varied collection? A lot of solo RPGs and wargames have random tables that create the bad guys you will face. If you roll up “Under City Gangers” but don’t have any models for that, you could be discouraged or have to pause the campaign while you get some.
Barrier to Entry
Solo RPGs should always be something you can easily pick up and play. There are a ton of free games on itch.io (including mine! Wow, I’m bad at self-promotion. Check out the Lone Toad Itch page today!).
Adding a whole other hobby to your hobby could be considered a huge barrier. Collecting minis takes money. Building and storing terrain takes space. Not everyone has those. When I recently moved house, I had to say goodbye to a few work-in-progress terrain pieces because I didn't have the space to move them, and packing half-painted syrofoam seemed a bit silly.
How to get started with Minis and Solo RPGs?
The best advice I’ve gotten about getting into minis is to find one that looks really cool and inspires you. If you're playing a low-fantasy Ironsworn game, get some Viking minis. If you're playing a space frolicking Sci-Fi game, grab some cool Sci-Fi minis.
And buy a cheap paint starter set. One with a brush and some simple paints (I did the Army Speed Painter Starter set). Just see how you like it!
Other RPG News
I just started up a Five Parsecs from Home Campaign set in the 40k Universe. You can check out the first post here:
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Wyrd Science Vol1, Issue 7 is out now. It’s a great Zine series and I really recommend you support them. Great art. Great articles. Well worth the cost.
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Next Month, we are diving into Morkin, the Solo RPG! I’m really excited about this one. Be sure to stay tuned.
Thanks for the heads-up! Role-playing, even solo, is truly one of the most well-rounded hobbies, both as a creator and as a player. Incidentally, we have a kitbasher on our team who loves to build scenery using old toys and scrap material.
While obviously (I hope!), this hobby / these hobbies are quintessentially 'do it any way you wish', I do think that when games are designed they should have a view as to whether minis are to be used or not. And when players are choosing a game, they should consider whether they really want want minis can offer (and the trade-offs that come with their use).
To repeat, people should play any way they want, and should use and adapt material and tools however they wish. Personally, when I play a game with miniatures, the spectacle and the miniatures are a, if not the, top priority. I want story too... But I want the spectacle of minis telling a story.
When I want the roleplaying to be the priority, while it is sometimes useful to use miniatures to show character positions, I do feel that games benefit from the assumption that you're NOT using miniatures. Rules can be more abstract, players can have more choice. Miniatures in certain situations are a constraint.