I have a massive collection of plastic and lead figures and they take up a huge amount of space in my game room. Regularly this has me thinking about better ways to use the space that I have. Now I have a considerably large game room and if I am thinking about it. I know some of you must think about it from time to time as well. Recently I have been pondering ways that I could incorporate figure flats into my games. I love my collection of figures way too much to make the move from Figures to Flats entirely space saving factors be damned. Yet there is no denying that the space saving potential alone is a good motivator to add Figure Flats to your collection.
So I began the process of trying to find ways and reasons that I might use figure flats that would benefit my games in addition to saving space. There were a few things that I did not want from flats that would make one of the easy go to options not right for me.
- I did not want paper token monsters. NOT going to do it!
- I needed to be able to have several of the same style figures.
- I wanted to focus on NPC types that players might encounter in towns.
- I did not want to use silhouettes
This ruled out the easy option of “Pathfinder Pawns” as they do not do me any good for several reasons. If I am going to incorporate Flats at the table I would first prefer it not to be Monsters. Second I do not use the Pathfinder system. So I turned to DriveThruRPG and set to searching out some options. I had already been pointed in the direction of Kev’s Lounge for paper mini’s since they were on GM’s DAY Sale I picked up a few of his sets.
The sets that I picked up were
Kev’s Lounge Paper Minis: A Day at the Market (Deluxe Edition)
Kev’s Lounge Paper Minis: A Night At The Tavern (Deluxe Edition)
I have settled on the intent that if I am going to use Flats I want to use them to represent NPC’s and “background extras” as well as standard city and town folk. This has several benefits at the table that I foresee. First, it will be so nice that my NPC box will shrink to a binder of figure flats.
Secondly, at the table, it has the added and much-desired effect of drawing your eye to the key figures on the table. I really liked this effect as it felt like it will make crowded scenes pop when laid out. Also, I like the idea of using flats in other ways at the table as well. I can see laying out a room or a market with several figures all as flats. If a player rolls a high enough perception I can reveal NPC’s token replacing it with Mini. Thus moving the NPC from the background of the story and into the story itself now as an active character.
Another Idea I had would be for use with thieves, assassins or anyone attempting to go unnoticed in a crowd. Leaving these NPC’s literally now hidden in plain sight until the moment they attack or are perceived by the players on the table as Flats. Needless to say, I have come to the decision that there are many interesting and worthwhile options.
Kev’s Lounge Paper mins give me just about everything I need to round out the town atmosphere. Additionally, every figure has several layer options that you may set before you print them. Each color on the models has if I recall as many as options in some cases. This gives you a tremendous amount of options if you desire them.
The thing that impressed me most was his cool basing system. With a fold here and a cut there you are left with a reusable slotted base for your Figure Flats. Allowing you to swap any of the Figures into only just a handful of Bases if you don’t want to make a base for each mini. Additionally, the bases come in Stone or Wood. I just did not print any wood ones out at the time of my taking the photos.NOTE: you might notice pennies on the picture there. I wanted to add a touch of weight to the bases to keep them from blowing around the table. They are well designed and do not knock over easy. But in my game room, I have two ceiling fans that run at a good clip most games. This would help them stick where I put them. As it turns out it worked perfectly.
So I am glad that I have decided to move forward with bringing this option of added atmosphere to my table. What do you think? Would you use Flats at your table? Do you mix Figure Flats with your Minis already? Or do you use Flats or Figures exclusively?
Runkle Plays Games 
Thanks for this! This was quite a fun read too.
With regards to the monsters topic, I have a massive collection of metal and plastic minis too, and if I do happen to have a metal or plastic version of the monster I need, I’ll use it. The problem I find is that a lot of monster types only show up at certain levels and once you’ve passed that level, you never really see them again, and it’s not always worth going and tracking down a metal or plastic figure to use if they’re only going to be there for one or two games, so you either don’t ever use that monster in games, or you do use it, but put a proxy mini down instead. The third option is to use a paper mini that is exactly what you need for that session, but doesn’t cost a fortune, doesn’t require hours of painting and stores away easily once you longer need it.
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I also think a Plastic mini looks a lil more dramatic when it comes to combat. I like what you have done so far and I will be cutting out figures happily for awhile.
Glad you liked the blog!
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Nice Ogre Den! 😉 Painting scenery and miniatures is a big part of the bobby that I enjoy, but I do understand concerns about space requirements. The flats look much better than I expected, and if I were to do a different genre (like 1920s) I would strongly consider using them.
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I was surprised how well they turned out. I have way to many minis to leave my fantasy figs for paper. But sci Fi, Supers or modern I can see doing it with! As I do not have a large collection of thoes.
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