#criticcalrole3

With Andrew Harshman

An archive and analysis of the minis used on CR.

Wowie, that deluxe edish of Tal'dorei Reborn has some fine accessories. Plenty of maps with which to place miniatures upon. However, there are no miniatures to be found this episode, so I’ll be answering some questions instead.

Anonymous submitted: Hi! I have a thing I've always wondered, do you work with minis, or are they just a hobby?

Firstly, thanks for your questions. Appreciate your interest. I am not a member of the miniature manufacturing industry. Minis are a big hobby of mine and this post series is a way for me to exercise my enthusiasm and an enjoyable way to contribute to the CR fandom.

How in the world can you recognize such small pieces that are usually turned away and in shadow? Do you look at it on an 100 inch screen playing the stream at full hd? 

A 100 inch dedicated mini view screen sounds great, I should look into that. Even at full HD, some miniatures are too far away or too obscured to get a proper look at. And in those instances, I have to record them as unknown. Other times, when there’s a clear shot of a model that I do not recognize (or cannot find through research), I take to FB or Reddit to ask for assistance from the community. 

Most of the time, I have a pretty solid sense of which miniatures are which. This is due in large part to the types of miniatures used on Critical Role. The majority of them are prepainted minis from three product lines: the discontinued Hasbro Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures Game (DDM), active Wizkids D&D Icons of the Realms, and active Wizkids Pathfinders Battles. 

I have spent years collecting and gaming with these prepaints, so these sculpts are pretty well imbedded in my memory and I recognize most of them at a glance. I do not always recall the miniature’s exactly title. But I recognize the miniature visually and then confirm the name using miniature sites such as MinisGallery.com

That curiosity aside, when do you think they'll tell us who made this campaign minis? 

Any day now. I imagine they have a bunch of glamour shots of the assembled campaign player character minis. I would guess they have been waiting for the introduction of all the PCs before the grand photo and source reveal. That being said, it’s taking a little longer than I expected. So perhaps there are bigger campaign mini related plans in the works? Or they simply don’t realize there’s a fair bit of public interest?

And do you think they will get a custom nightmare king? Sometimes I think the don't have reason to fight him again and other times I think he will be the first arc's boss. 

I think we will definitely see the Nightmare King again and he will definitely get a custom mini. Given his knowledge of Fearne and his involvement in various plots, I think he’s too embedded in the fabric of the campaign to not reappear. The only way I see the Nightmare King not getting a custom miniature, is if the party makes finding him their main priority and they kill him before Matt can commission a mini.

And lastly, would you maybe consider opening the askbox for anonymous questions to make my life easier?

Done and done. Cheers!

See ya next sesh!