Idraluna Archives

A Case for 15mm Miniatures in OSR Games

My impression is that minis aren't a big part of OSR culture, except for an incidental affinity as nerd hobbies. Indeed, in the rare cases when theater of the mind isn't adequate, bottle caps, coins, meeples, paper standees, chess pieces, wargaming chits, dice, Lego minifigs, & toy soldiers will all do, and are more in-line with the DIY mindset. But (imo) collecting & painting minis is quite fun, and it does have deep roots in D&D -- Chainmail was a miniature wargame, and OD&D's wordy byline identifies it as a game for paper & pencil & miniature figures.

Most D&D miniatures are sized according to what's known as "28mm", "30mm", "32mm", or "Heroic" scale, in which humanoid figures have 1" bases that represent around 5'. If you have any Warhammer miniatures, minis from a D&D starter set, or Heroscape sets, you have 28-32mm miniatures. But in this post, I'd like to argue that those interested in both OSR games & collecting miniatures should consider the 15mm scale.

Miniature Scales

Wargaming miniatures are measured by the approximate eye level of a humanoid figurine. (Apparently, eye level was used instead of head height to accommodate Napoleonic miniatures with tall grenadier hats).

(Infographic by Ill Gotten Games)

15mm minis are (as you'd expect) about half the size of a 28mm figure, though I find they run a little smaller due to the aforementioned scale inflation.

Also notable is 6mm scale, which usually bundles miniatures into formations and is suitable for mass combat (sometimes called "epic scale").

Skirmish scale

The primary (& most obvious) advantage to 15mm minis is that they're well-sized for the 1"=10' scale used by most editions of TSR D&D (at least for dungeon-scale combat). Though the figures themselves are usually a bit too large for this to be perfect, they cover about the right "combat footprint". So if you want to avoid movement rate conversions & easily translate a dungeon map gridded at 10' to a typical battle map, they're ideal.

Pikes vs. skeletons & a dragon on a 1" battle grid. The human figures would be ~7 feet tall at this scale, but (imo) it's good enough. (Apologies for bad pic quality & unfinished paint job).

Furthermore, OSR combat encounters tend to be larger skirmishes with PC parties that incorporate mercenaries & hirelings. Running combat at 15mm scale requires 1/4th the table space, and (as I'll touch on below) it's much cheaper & easier to acquire (and paint!) enough figures for a large encounter.

There's a vague play culture affinity, too. 28mm minis are great for painting your cherished OC in glorious detail, whereas 15mm 'zooms out' the focus, still affording figures some individuality while being more expendable. And 15mm product lines often focus on historical armies, which work nicely with low-fantasy OSR aesthetics (ymmv of course).1

Cost & Convenience

Consider the square cube law: detail is proportional to surface area, whereas cost & storage space are related to volume. At roughly half the height of a 28mm mini, 15mm minis have around 1/4th the surface detail but only 1/8th the material and storage space requirements.

If you have a 3d printer, the difference becomes readily apparent -- multiple 15mm minis can be churned out in the time it takes to print one 28mm figurine. This seems to be borne out in terms of cost as well - I've so far found that packs of 6-12 15mm humanoid minis cost a few bucks, more if they're 3d printed on demand, whereas 28mm figures can run over $1.50 per mini.

Finally, it's worth noting that many 28mm minis can be repurposed as larger versions of themselves at the 15mm scale. A 28mm orc makes a good 15mm ogre, 28mm goblins become 15mm hobgoblins, animals become dire animals, etc. And since OSR games aren't usually picky about monster size, there's wiggle room for the dragons, giants, trolls, demons, slimes, etc. So if you're one of the many people with a handful of 28mm minis from a 3-5th edition starter set, there's a good chance they can still be useful. (Also, the size ratio between 28 and 15 mm nicely matches the Dark Souls "little guy fighting towering monsters" look, if you're into that.)

The skeleton & easterling in front are 15mm, everyone else in the image was originally intended to be 28mm scale.

Caveats & Drawbacks

Lest you think me a shill for Big Centimeter-and-a-half, I acknowledge that they're not ideal for every table. They're substantially smaller and less detailed than 28mm, so if you really like intricate paint jobs they may not be as satisfying. They're small & fiddly, so easy to lose & break. Most problematic, while it's easy to amass armies of orcs, bandits & knights, it's tough to find good non-fighter player characters, especially mages, and also relatively challenging (but not impossible!) to acquire miniatures that depict women.

None of these are deal-breakers for me, given the advantages detailed above. I prefer a quick paint job over a detailed one, and don't have pets or small children. For the last issue, I've been able to find some sets with female adventurers and am otherwise content with the fact that any figure at this scale looks ambiguously gendered, especially in armor.

Wow Mr. Idraluna-archives, I'm sold! Where can I acquire some 15mm miniatures?

Note: I am not affiliated with any of these links.

I have experience ordering from the following sellers (I'll update as I acquire more):

  1. If you're in the OSR subset that's into 17th century settings (LoTFP, 17th C. Minimalist, WFRP offshoots), pike & shot 15mm minis are plentiful.↩

#musings