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DDM is dead, and nobody is looting the body!
So, the D&D Miniatures line is being revamped. The minis themselves are becoming solely an RPG accessory, and the skirmish game is no longer going to be supported.
Personally, I have no problem with this. I never really cared for the skirmish game. (Though I had some fun a few weeks back with the star wars minis. Lost twice, and had Vader and a diplomat attempt a suicide melee rush.) I’ve always just used them for D&D anyways.
But I just noticed that nobody was looting the body.
Allow me to explain.
With DDM (and Dreamblade before it) defunct, there is now a community of minis gamers with no home. It’s not a huge community, but they need a place to go.
Why is one of the competing minis game producers (WoW minis, for instance), not offering something? Produce stats for the DDM minis that these people already own that are compatible with your own game! Or even just list equivalencies (DDM Orc Berserker may be used with WoW minis Orc Thrasher, for instance).
Heck, even WotC did this when they introduced D&D Minis (well, two years later, in 2004). They brought out a big table of equivalencies for old Chainmail players to update their sets with.
Why is nobody doing that for the crumbling DDM fanbase?
Even a statement of intent would be good enough for now.
Seems like a missed opportunity to me.
(There are, of course, some legal issues with copyrighted names, but you can still do 90% of the minis, leaving out Elminster and the copyrighted monsters like Beholders. Hell, you never even have to list the DDM names anyways, since every mini is numbered! Tordek (from Harbinger) could just be “DDM Set 1 #13”. The Eye of Flame (Dungeons of Dread) could be “DDM Set 15 #14”.)
5 Comments
Graham on October 28th, 2008
Definitely true, PatrickWR. I think the crowd that will be looking for a home, though, is the crowd that thrived on sanctioned play.
But even for the others, it won’t be an immediate thing, but saying “hey, when you do get tired of not having new releases, you’re welcome to come play in our yard” could be a very good business move.
Hell, even if they don’t do much, a small gesture could build a huge feeling of good will towards the offering company.
I think of it as similar to what Paizo did with Pathfinder. A certain crowd was left feeling abandoned, and Paizo offered them a home. White Wolf tried to do that with a “trade in your books for Exalted” offer, but Paizo let them use their old toys in the new playground.
Daniel on October 29th, 2008
There is a group of people trying to start up a community supported organization to continue supporting the Skirmish game.
I myself collect primarily for the RPG and won’t miss the skirmish game that much. It was fun while it lasted but the nice thing about D&D minis is that their still useful for the RPG.
Graham on October 29th, 2008
That was another side of things I was expecting to happen. I’m glad to see it did. Thanks for the news.
Wyatt on October 29th, 2008
I myself expected a grassroots skirmish movement as well. Hell, look at all the old games still being played. No reason to give up on Skirmish. I didn’t collect for skirmish, though I did play once or twice, and it was fun. I’m almost sort of sad to see it go, in a strange way.
PatrickWR on October 28th, 2008
I dunno, I’m not convinced the DDM masses are wailing and gnashing their teeth just yet. The game had several solid years of support and releases…and it ain’t like all those miniatures suddenly got invalidated just because WOTC won’t let us buy more of them. I imagine most DDM players will continue to have a lot of fun with their minis for some time to come.