Word of Wizards - D&D Podcast: Episode 28

The topic of this episode's podcast is about the recent changes that Wizards has decided to put for their miniature line.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, here a couple of links that will put you up to speed.

D&D Miniature Changes Anncouned
D&D Miniature Changes Explained

Now in this podcast, Mike Mearls asks a few questions to Scott Rouse (Senior Brand Manager of D&D), Andy Collins (Manager of Development and Editing) and Peter Lee (Miniatures Designer) about these changes.

The reason give on why the changes is nothing new and was reitereated again by Scott (the second link) but there are a few interesting things noted in this podcast.

• The Miniatures were supposed to satisfy both roleplayers and skirmish players but failed to do so


• After doing some research, Wizards found out that majority of the people who bought the miniatures were using it for their roleplaying game


• For players, there will be the hero packs that contains 2 male and 1 female miniature for each class from each power source.


• For DMs, the monster packs will have 5 miniatures (one large visible and four random). The large miniature will have rare quality paintsteps and another rare quality miniature in the random bunch


• There will also be a Huge pack with a huge miniature replacing the visible large and possibly another rare in the random bunch


• There are no plans of putting out a non-random set at the moment


• Wizards are in the middle of talking someone that could keep the skirmish game alive


• The quality of the miniatures are generally improving by one step.


• The sets will be reduced to one-third the size of current sets.


• A case now has 8 boosters in them


• The Monster packs will be focusing on monster miniatures and less on lawful good creatures


• There will still be evil iterations of miniatures for villains and bandit-type miniatures

There were probably a few points I missed out but it still quite an interesting listen. They are some really insightful comments made by Scott Rouse which explains the reasons behind Wizard's decision and about the miniature business. He also would like to say that this decision was not made lightly and it had some emotional impact on the staff.

So download it and have a listen for yourself.