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Stickered Stand-ups or monochrome pawns?

8 replies [Last post]
Sat, 07/09/2016 - 21:23
mcobb83
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Joined: 06/07/2016

So, I have a working prototype for my first game (Viking Invasion is the working title), with a professional artist set to start making all the pretty pictures early next week. I have a publishing plan in place, and the cardboard prototype is getting put through its paces with a different group of players just about every weekend.

In addition to all that, I also have a question. Its really about preference here.

Currently the game design calls for a monochrome wooden pawn to indicate the position of the players characters on a map. For a few dollars more, plastic stand ups with stickers can be put in place. The sticker route is nicer to look at, but do you think its worth the extra cost (the extra cost would be around $0.30 per. The monochrome option is $0.14) Really the extra cost amounts to less than $3, which means its a question of taste.

So what do you like?

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Sat, 07/09/2016 - 22:11
#1
Olson185
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Joined: 06/30/2016
For some reason, I would

For some reason, I would prefer a wooden pawn over plastic. There's something about wood that says "classy" and plastic that says "cheap". But we have an all wood house (no vinyl siding or windows nor PVC porch/fencing on the property)...go figure!

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Sat, 07/09/2016 - 23:53
#2
czarcastic
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Joined: 06/06/2016
Generally, like the above

Generally, like the above reply, I'd prefer wooden pawns to a stickered plastic standee.
If you feel the illustrated standees are necessary for the feel of the game, printed cardboard standees may be preferable, in my opinion.
Something about having to apply stickers to game bits just screams low-class to me.

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Sun, 07/10/2016 - 00:05
#3
questccg
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Joined: 04/16/2011
Hmm...

Then you can't use these babies:

https://www.thegamecrafter.com/parts/sticker-pawn-blue

Those are pretty awesome PAWNS if you ask me... Add the stickers and it really makes for an awesome game.

Look at this example:

https://www.thegamecrafter.com/publish/product/PawnSticker

Now what do you have to say about stickers and pawns, eh?!?! Just kidding but I think they look pretty cool!

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Sun, 07/10/2016 - 01:28
#4
czarcastic
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Joined: 06/06/2016
Oh, I agree those perfectly

Oh, I agree those perfectly placed pixellations are powerfully pretty. Perhaps a platoon of pixies could ply the pernicious pictures in place with the presented precision...a personal power I don't possess.
Pass on pasted pawns.

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Sun, 07/10/2016 - 01:49
#5
I Will Never Gr...
I Will Never Grow Up Gaming's picture
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As mentioned by others already..

I much prefer "plain" wood pawns and meeples over anything plastic that requires applying stickers. I also prefer them over printed cardboard standees, though even those are better than stickered plastic.

Stickers applied to plastic screams 80's Hasbro/Milton Bradley era, roll and move games and feels cheap these days.

If you are doing plastic you almost need to consider full on 3d miniatures, and that's going to set you back a good bit more than 30cents each.

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Sun, 07/10/2016 - 09:05
#6
mcobb83
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Great replies, great

Great replies, great feedback. In the absence of being able to go full 3D mini, I was leaning toward the wooden pawn aesthetic more myself too. I think it will fit better with the look of the game, which is going to have a very '80s classical fantasy artwork theme to it.

Does anyone know a game publisher that can do 3D minis? I was looking for one, but I can't find one that satisfies me.

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Sun, 07/10/2016 - 16:33
#7
keirion
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Would chipboard standees a la

Would chipboard standees a la Legends of Andor be an option as opposed to stickered standees? Frankly, whether wooden pawns or chipboard standees would be better really depends on the style of the rest of the game. A wooden pawn can feel very out of place and weird in a strongly Ameritrash feel game, for example.

As far as 3d minis go the largest costs tend to be the once per production run cost of setting up the mold. The larger the production order is the less cost prohibitive it is. That's why a lot of kickstarters will put them as a stretch goal. I haven't done enough research yet to get into specific costs but I know PandaGM won't do minis at all until you hit production runs of at least 2500.

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Mon, 07/11/2016 - 18:07
#8
ruy343
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Joined: 07/03/2013
ehhhh...

I have found that an accurate predictor of my hatred towards a game is whether they use standees. As a player, I hate how they're always falling over, and can take forever to set up (you put a pawn down, and it's in place; you use a standee, and everyone feels that they need to turn it the right way, causing everyone else's to fall over like dominoes, and then people lose track of their places, bla bla bla...

Yes, this post is more negative than most things I post on here, but for some reason, standees are incredibly frustrating to me, and I never seem to like games that take that route (Including highly-praised games like Dead of Winter).

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