Yesterday the RPG world has been stunned into silence (for like a second, before the cheering started) by the announcement that on 26/06 20:00GMT launches the Kickstarter for Critical Role Miniatures. And so it did.
There was a fair amount of speculation whether this will happen ever since in January 2018 Russ Charles, an incredibly talented miniatures sculptor (well know known for his previous work for Privateer Press, Warlord Games and other wargaming companies) started posting on Twitter 3D renders of his renditions of the Mighty Nine, player characters from the Critical Role’s second campaign. As everybody might have guessed, that was met with applause and ‘Shut up and take my money’ gifs.
So, when yesterday folks at Critical Role have announced that they will launch a Kickstarter with the minis (produced by UK-based Steamforged Games), I wasn’t particularly surprised but ecstatic nonetheless.
The Kickstarter was fully funded in about 4 minutes. True, the goal wasn’t too high (only £20.000), but nobody can say that it didn’t deserve the attention. The minis are beautifully rendered, detailed, characterful, with believable proportions and great design. And they’re dirt cheap.
This Kickstarter is rather unique: there is only one pledge level (take all), no stretch goals, and the set of 22 minis costs only £45. They’re plastic, which vastly reduces the price when the production reaches a certain scale, and come pre-assembled and ready to be painted or just played with. As six of the minis are marked ‘Kickstarter exclusive’, I suppose the rest will be available later via Critical Role / Steamforged Games website.
Even if you’re not a fan of the series (after all, it is a considerable time commitment to watch it all), the models are still worth buying: scaled for standard RPG purposes (28mm), with a good mix of genders, races and classes, and with an armoured bear. And for £2 per mini, so no reason not to get those.
The Kickstarter only lasts until 6 July, though, so get them ASAP!