I'm trying to come up with ideas for how to represent a group of characters in a board game that travel together. Miniatures are great, but space and money are limited. So, I need to come up with a way to represent a group of characters (say, for example, a human, dwarf, elf, and wizard) as they travel, fight, etc. throughout the game.
I can think of two ways: 1) a stack of tiles, chits, cubes, etc. and 2) a small tile or board with peg holes and pegs. These will work, but neither are thematic, in my opinion.
Does anyone know of a different way to represent this (or any) group of characters/heroes? Are there other games out there that do this in a good manner? I'm really trying to keep theme intact here.
If a stack of plastic chits or something else is used, how much do you think that takes away from the theme of the game? I'm hoping to have a very nice board with terrain and other features on it.
Thank you!
Ruben
Comments
How about paper characters?
How about paper (cardstock for retail) characters?
Using CARD STANDS?
Check out these babies:
https://www.thegamecrafter.com/parts/card-stand-blue
It's similar to JewellGames idea - but you can just use regular cards with these stand - no special process or production required.
You can also use "Micro" Deck cards for the card stands:
https://www.thegamecrafter.com/publish/product/MicroDeck
This shows you how the cards look on STANDS (also)...
Thank you
Thank you both for your suggestions. I should've made my question more clear. I'm not looking for suggestions for components to replace miniatures (such as a card for each character), but rather looking for a way to replicate group movement without having a unique card or miniature for each character in the group since they take up too much space. So, if I have a group consisting of a human, dwarf, elf, and wizard, I'm looking for a method to model their movement using one component (like a peg board or stack of tiles where each peg or tile represents one character in the group). This would allow for the wizard to go do his own thing while the other 3 do theirs, and the wizard can rejoin them later or something. I realize I kind of have answered my own question, but I'm wondering if there's something more thematic than a stack of tiles or a pegboard or something to do this.
OK. How about a GAME MAT?
What you could do is use like 1" x 1" chitz to represent each "unit" and have a GAME MAT with something like 5 slots and three (3) different formations.
So IF your party has 3 chitz, it means that the players are all together. If one decides to go on his OWN, well then one row would have 2 chitz and the second row would have 1 chitz.
Is this more in-line with what you are thinking???
Update: you could use winks or ice cubes (by color) to represent each "character".
https://www.thegamecrafter.com/parts/wink-blue
or
https://www.thegamecrafter.com/parts/ice-cube-8mm-purple
Update: It also allows you to "upgrade" your game to things like "minis" (Miniatures). All you need is to give a specific color to the base of your mini and have a Wink or cube of the same color... This way you know "mini" Red = Red Wink (and is part of formation #1, as an example)...
closer
Yes, this is closer. Since the location of the characters on the main board is very important, I don't know if a separate game mat would work, but I like the general idea.
Meeples?
Meeples?
meeples?
Maybe. They're cheaper than miniatures, but still take up room.
Army/Group?
Have an army/group token on the map indicating the location. Have a small assembly area off map having all the minis right next to an identical army/group token indicating what are in that army/group.
When new mini joins a group, you simply take the mini off map and place it in the corresponding assembly area. If someone decides to leave, you remove the mini from assembly area and place it on the map or another group's assembly area.
This is a suggestion in case if you have different types of units/characters in the same group. If only identical units can form a group, I think chits will do the trick.
Hope it helps,
fayinsky
How about these bad boys:
How about these bad boys: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/parts/stacker-black
I actually have a metric crapload of these stored away in the bags from the manufacturer. I had plans for them fifteen years ago, but now . . . I think I have six different colors, and I'll sell however many for $6 per 100 (6 cents each), plus actual S&H. Drop me a line if you are interested.
Hundreds or thousands of
Hundreds or thousands of games do this using stacks of cardboard counters. I can't think of anything wrong about that.
For a limited number of stacks you can use numbered chits and then off-board boxes to hold the units in each, but usually that is not worth the extra level of indirection unless you are going for fog of war.
Thank you for all the
Thank you for all the comments. It sounds like I need to do some playtesting with the different methods suggested here.