It’s day 1! And wow, what a day it is! Thank you so much for the outpouring of support and enthusiasm for The Vault of Mini Things. This project has been a labor of love three years in the making, and everyone over here–Mike, Lane, Chris, and Marshall–are overjoyed at the response to the launch. 

The Vault and its contents are complex feats of engineering, and we aim to showcase these wondrous features in detail over future updates. In addition to those deep-dives, each update will also include a snapshot of the campaign-in-progress, including surpassed and upcoming community achievements. And each update will end by highlighting especially noteworthy questions and comments from the community.. 

Check out the schedule below:

Update 1 - Today (May 30th): Feature: Standees Stand-up

Update 2 - (May 31): Feature: What’s in the box? (compartments, Dice Tray, Terrain Tray) Community Achievements 1-4

Update 3 - (June 2): Feature: Creature Catalog, Community Achievement 5

Update 4 - (June 5): Feature: Terrain pieces, Community Achievement 6

Update 5 - (June 7): Feature: Hardwood Dice Tray add-on, Community Achievements 7-9

Update 6 - (June 9): Feature: Map Tiles, Community Achievements 10 

Update 7 - (June 12): Feature: Marshall Artist, Community Achievements 11-12, Final week!

Update 8 - (June 14): Feature: Premium Bag pledge level, End is Nigh

Update 9 - (June 15): Feature: Campaign summary 

The original inspiration for this project was recognizing that tabletop RPG gamers, and players of the growing number of “miniature-agnostic” wargames, face a significant hurdle in fielding enough minis to have a complete and varied experience. Storage, transport, and usability are also significant obstacles: one of Tinkerhouse’s founders has a 25 gallon plastic tub full of pre-painted plastics in sandwich bags, and hauling that out of the garage and sifting it for the handful of specific minis he needs for an encounter is a daunting chore. Faced with the problem of wanting quick access to hundreds of different minis, we came up with the idea of partnering with Printable Heroes and presenting that vast library of art as high-quality, good-looking standees.

We originally thought to package the standees in a wide assortment of Decks of Mini Things, but ultimately decided to instead offer the Vault as a single comprehensive solution. We think of it as the difference between offering a Socket Wrench and Drill Bit set in a dedicated case vs. offering a piecemeal assortment of bits and sockets of various sizes that will end up stored loose in a utility drawer. The Vault is meant to be reliably useful. A system, not a substitute.

We’re proud of the design and engineering of the Vault itself, but the core of this product is the standees. Standees are a perfect pair for tabletop RPGs and tactical games because they’re individually inexpensive, they’re full-color, and they allow for representation of creatures that are difficult or impossible to produce in 3-D. Creatures with delicate or thin appendages and weapons. Floating creatures. Fiery or ghostly creatures. While painting 3-D minis is a joyful hobby for many, not everyone has that sort of time, skill, or money.

Standees are the perfect solution for gamers who want to have great-looking minis without having to spend a great amount of time. And our standees are more than simple paper printouts. They’re precision die-cut from casino-quality cardstock, with hand-drawn art specifically crafted to look their best at tabletop distances. That’s crucial; art that looks great full-size on a computer screen can look like a muddled, inscrutable mess when it’s printed and on a table. Not so our art: it’s made for RPGs and tactical minis games, with countless hours of image post-processing balancing and surface treatment enhancements on the cardstock itself to ensure colors and details pop. 

An equal level of consideration and care went into the design of the standee bases. Our bases are custom-engineered for solid grip, ease of use, and reduction of wear-and-tear. They’ve got substantial heft for tabletop presence, and each has a socket design for easy install and removal of two-sided terrain pogs that match the surface texture of our terrain tiles: wood floor, dungeon floor, wilderness, and cobblestone street. 

That’s why we chose full-color standees as the core component of the Vault. They look great, they’re durable, they store compactly–and the only time they require from you is popping them out of their die-cut sheets. Finally, a solution for hundreds upon hundreds of great-looking minis that doesn’t require hours upon hours of your precious time. 

This space is for sharing comments from the community, and post relevant topics from the Discussion.

We'll start with some questions and answers from Day One: 

Jim asked:
Q: "Heya, just wanted to quickly check: what material are the standees printed on?"
A: We are printing the standees on playing card stock.

We also saw some questions wondering if we'll release Pouches of Mini Things for Fey, Mallards, Wolfkin, sci-fi, or modern. The answer to that is: it depends on the success of this campaign! Certainly, if enough people embrace the Vault of Mini Things platform we'd be thrilled to explore additional expansions.

There were multiple queries about ordering multiple quantities of Vaults. This is a great idea, and we've added the ability to add additional Vaults as an add-on to your pledge.

Anonymous Toucan #430444 asked about a $1 "no reward" level for those interested in an add-on or two. The reason this isn't a pledge level option is because we're very interested in finding out if the tabletop community is interested in the core Vault as a comprehensive solution for their tables. While we believe our quality hand-drawn standees can stand proudly alongside hand-painted 3-D minis, the best experience is when everything on the table is the same form-factor and style. That said, if the campaign is as successful as we think it will be, you'll be able to dip your toe into standees by looking for Pouches of Mini Things at your local game store.

Finally, we'll close with this message from Printable Heroes patron Rina that truly warmed our hearts:






Again, thank you for the support. Everyone over here believes the Vault will be a true boon to game masters new and old, and with your help we can bring it forth!

Sincerely,

Mike, Lane, Chris, and Marshall.