Lego Miniature Bases for Tabletop Gaming

[Kintobor]

Anyone who builds with Lego and also plays tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder has probably gotten the urge to try and use Lego minifigures in place of miniatures. It makes perfect sense when you think about: there is a large variety of pieces allowing for different races, including dwarves, elves, halflings, etc., and Lego allows players to create their miniature representing their character and personalize it to their taste. Instead of having to go out and find a miniature that looks a little bit like what your players wanted, Lego allows them to build it at the table and use it as their character.

However, I never really liked just taking the mini and putting it down on the table, especially next to other miniatures. The lack of a base in particular really irked me, and even photos I did see that did attempt a base just put a random plate underneath, some of which didn't seem to fit within the 1 inch square on the grid, as was the case of using the collectible minifigure stands. I looked into seeing if a Lego base was compatible with my Chessex mat which is designed for tabletop miniatures. Can Lego be used in place of standard tabletop minis, and can it look good?

Well, lo and behold, it can be done, and I think my attempt looks pretty looks good, and it's pretty easy to build.



Turns out that a three studs in both width and length is just enough to fit into a a typical Chessex mat's square, or 1 inch. Presented above is a brave adventurer, a human fighter, and a larger monster, an ogre, on a six stud by six stud base. In terms of tabletop lingo, the human fighter, a medium sized, creature takes up a 1x1 space on the grid, and the ogre, a large creature, takes up a 2x2 space. 

The other thing that needed to happen was to ensure the minifigure was relatively centred, and that's done by putting a plate with a stud in the middle of it on the miniature's base, as shown in the above photo. That way the miniature stays relatively centred, and looks close to an actual product put out by Wizkids or Reaper. I also wanted to ensure the base was all purpose, so that one base could suit most minifigures. I can think of a few that might have issues with the current format, namely the genie tail leg piece, but that can resolved by putting the stud dead centre in the middle using a 1x1 tile on the base instead of using a 1x2 tile with a stud in the middle of it.

Our stand-in ogre stands in place using a similar technique, as putting him on standard studded plates would have him farther back on the base. I was running out of dark grey plates, as can be seen with the ogre's base, but I think one could easily pass it off as shoddy or deteriorating flagstone: a common sight in most dungeons.

So, with all that said, what are your thoughts? I'd love to hear some feedback. I'll look into building a few more miniatures and seeing how they look on the Chessex mat. Thank you for taking a look! 

[KotZ]

I like it! Much more elegant than using the CMF plates.

[Erynion]

Totally agree about getting the urge to use LEGO for D&D and other tabletop stuff. I have a lot of appropriate LEGO parts for that and I only recently got into tabletop RPGs, and I'd love to be able to use my own minifig instead of buying and possibly painting miniatures.

I too have noted that the 3x4 CMF plate doesn't quite fit and had thought about doing something similar to the 3x3 base that you have there. One prohibiting factor in that for myself and I would guess others is that building a lot of those, particularly in the same colour scheme, could get difficult in terms of pieces.

Another problem I have with this is that the LEGO minifigures aren't really compatible with the standard tabletop miniatures. The LEGO ones are are substantially taller and much broader. Even a minifig with short legs on a one-plate-high stand is taller than a full-height miniature. This makes it rather difficult to just bring your own minifig to someone else's campaign. If you're the DM on the other hand, or have some arrangement with them to bring all of the pieces and/or pre-assembled minifigs, then yes, I could see this working. It's worth noting, however, that the taller profile of the LEGO minifigs means that they are easier to accidently knock over, which is further compounded by the fact that even with a baseplate, minifigs tend to be more top-heavy than miniatures.

One last thing I'm going to comment on - over the last several years of army building and playing games like BrikWars and BrickQuest, I've noted that it takes quite a bit of TIME pre-game to assemble all of the minifigs (and disassemble post-game, if you organize them like I do). While this can be fun for some, for me the enjoyment of it has been wearing off (as much as I love the LEGO minifig appearance), and I'm starting to see why a lot of people might prefer to grab a box of wargame or RPG minis and use whatever they have ready even if it's not quite perfect.

[MAB]

Your design could be improved using the newish 1x3 double jumper.

along with two 1x3 tiles.

It will give perfect centred alignment for the minifigure on a 3x3 base. Plus, as two feet will be attached, they are less likely to come off when moved.