One thing that is guaranteed to show up in your Dungeons & Dragons games (or most Tabletop Games!), is NPCs. NPCs are anything from the lady sweeping the floor, to the hulking monstrosity stalking your party. When I realised my collection across both ends of this spectrum was a little lacking, I sought to bolster it. That’s when I looked to the Dungeons & Lasers sets.
Dungeons & Lasers is a company I’ve come to appreciate for its quality plastic, clean sculpts and wide variety, with minimal issues. Both sets offer a wide array, with a slightly different focus from each other.
But which one is better? Which will you get more use out of in your games? And what are the pros and cons?
Townsfolk Miniature Pack
The Townsfolk Miniature Pack leaves you with enough miniatures to create an entire town scene (or two!) on a whim. It features the bread and butter of any D&D town; nobles, the all important blacksmith, the merchant and the true highlight of this pack – the guards.
Not only does this cluster of miniatures sort you for the bread and butter of the town, but also an entire town militia, enough to show your pesky players actions do have consequences.
This set is perfect for urban campaigns especially, with the guards acting as your main combatants. However, the townsfolk are best used in what I can only describe as “terrain”. They add an extra layer of complication. Combat is always more interesting with innocents in the mix, the commoners add an extra layer of interest to your scenes.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Contains most of the NPCs your players will want to visit in any given town.
- A wide variety of town guards, so your players aren’t fighting Town Guard A and B every time.
- Two of each type of guard, so you always have enough (I have taken to painting each one with different colours, to show different “House” loyalties, and it keeps them different even with the same sculpt.)
- Comes with a large construct for when your parties really mess up.
Cons
- Less miniatures than its NPC counterpart (although still 62 models).
- Many of the guards are quite lazy looking, you may find yourself wanting for more action-ready guards.
- Some of these lazy guards could be replaced with a couple more townsfolk.
You can find the Townsfolk miniature pack here on the Archon Studios website. (£0.87/miniature!)
NPC Miniature Pack
The NPC Miniature Pack takes a different approach to its focus. Where the Townsfolk Miniature Pack focuses on dressing out the scene of a town to make it feel more lived-in, the NPC pack mostly has the focuses of the scene. The executioner, the rogue an… interesting mayor all can serve as the centre of your scenes.
The best part about this set is the diversity, it has staples like goblins and undead. However, it also contains miniatures you might never find a use for, like Gary the Peacebreaker, who is a fun little bird. This set comes with three large miniatures, the Sewers Mermaid, the Jinn and the Iron Golem, all of which can serve as centre pieces of an encounter.
This set also comes with the “terrain-like” commoners we talked about in the Townsfolk section, such as the miner, herbalist and gardener. These serve well as bones for the meat that is the centre-pieces that come in this box.
I think this box is especially good for beginners, who do not already have some of the staples, like goblins and muggers, which a lot of us already have many of.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- More miniatures than the Townsfolk miniature pack (68 models) and a wider variety of sculpts.
- Contains many staple D&D monsters (especially good for low levels).
- Still has a nice amount of Townsfolk.
- Three large creatures.
Cons
- Some of the miniatures will see much less use than others, due to niche use.
- If you already have a lot of goblins, undead and random muggers, those miniatures might be of less use (but can you ever have enough goblins?)
You can find the NPC Miniature Pack here on the Archon Studios Website. (£0.79/miniature!)
Conclusion
If your collection of miniatures is still on the smaller side, the NPC miniature pack is for you. It has all the staples of a classic D&D game, like goblins, bandits and undead. It also gives you a lot of centre piece miniatures which can serve as bosses or other interesting encounters, while providing some commoners.
If you have pesky players who like to upset the town guard, but are pulling out the same three guard miniatures, the Townsfolk miniature pack is for you. It has a wide variety that show the players that there are guards around, along with other background NPCs.
I personally bought both, they compliment each other well, combining them gives you a town full of people, and really makes your town scenes feel lived in when you have such diverse groups. But if you can only get one, I hope my comparison helped you make a decision.
This was my first blog post, I hope I could be of help! Please subscribe to my mailing list below for more from me. Just about finished my cup of tea now…
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