I’ve been playing RPGs since 2012, but long before I rolled my first d20 I had something else to fanatic about: Lego. I was obsessed with the stuff. I had buckets full of pieces, boxes full of complete sets, magazines and catalogues delivered to my door… At one point I even had a nightmare about the Lego company closing down. It was that important to me.

So naturally when I discovered the wonderful world of roleplaying games, I found a way to combine my two passions. I used lego people (called minifigures) instead of miniatures, I built scenery from bricks, and adapted some of my larger sets to fit the game’s tone.

A horrifically poor quality image of the first major battle I played on Tirkosu,

the Tsethem vs. the princes of elemental evil.

Eventually I had to give the elaborate set pieces behind, due to my on-the-go living situation. But a remnant of those days stuck with me, and is now part of my RPG tradition: Minifigs.

There are a few reasons for that.

Adaptability. With metal or plastic minis your character starts out looking one way, and that’s what they’ll look like forever. You (usually) can’t update their style, add or remove weapons, stick on any magical items they might have acquired in-game, or modify their physical look in any way. Lego minifigs are free of that limitation.

Top: Flamer’s original minifig, and his final look after

donning Adamantine Armour and a Luck Blade.

Bottom: Vanella Thane Liadon, in her original and current look.

Versatility. Ever bought a mini for your new character, only to have them die within the first session? True, it’s kind of your fault for investing money into a squishy level 1, but sometimes we just get carried away with a character concept. Minifigures aren’t prone to that kind of save-or-suck gambit though. You can Frankenstein pieces of your dearly departed minifig into becoming your next character.

Affordability. I’m going to be totally honest: I’m not an expert when it comes to the pricing of miniatures. The only ones I ever bought were second hand Star Wars starfighters. But a glance around the web tells me that the average mini is about 3-4$, and much, much more if you’re going for custom ones. Lego minifigures are at least on a par in terms of price.

Adorability. Look at them, they’re just so cute.

The only downside to using Lego minifigures is their scale, because they’re somewhat bigger than your average mini. But even that doesn’t matter if everyone at your table is using them… [;)]