Interrogation Droid: Bryan Stiltz of Reaper Miniatures

Sure. We’re one of the world’s largest miniature companies. We make plastic and pewter figures for gaming, painting, and display, mostly in Heroic 28mm scale. We are best known for our fantasy figures, which work in fantasy tabletop RPGs or as less expensive proxies for tabletop war games, although we have hundreds of sci-fi, modern, and historical figures as well.

I start with emails and watching up on our message boards, answering fan questions and generally chatting about the industry. Then I have development meetings where we discuss the Kickstarter projects, or whatever other projects I’m working on, like newsletters, new releases, or web design. After a quick lunch and a jog around the Reaper Campus, I get started on the meeting’s to-do list, where I hammer out whatever text, graphics, or code is needed, or I bug our art director for some piece of art. About every two hours I check on the forums again, because they get feisty if left unsupervised, and in the interim, I’m hammering away at my keyboard and mouse on super secret stuff that’s usually far more boring than it sounds, because it’s usually spreadsheets, projections, analyses, and alternate versions of the action plans.

Bones is certainly our most interesting line to me, as I have been deeply involved with the creation and development of that line. These are little white plastic models that have about the same body as the pre-paints commonly found in discount bins, but ours are unpainted.

02934 Elquin the Daring is my favorite. He’s this kick-ass elf mage with a hybrid staff-halberd, and he’s just got so much expression and movement.

It was a little overwhelming at times, but it has been tremendously exciting for me. Since winter of 2010 I’ve been working on that line, and these Kickstarters are definitely intense. Watching the numbers climb to numbers that until very recently no other miniatures project had ever achieved was astonishing. Not only did our first project make records in our category, but our second project made the Guinness Book of World Records for the fastest project to make $1 million. Since then, both of these things have been eclipsed by other projects, but it was amazing to be a part of being the first.

In more practical terms, we spend weeks developing the projects, and stay up late at night answering tens of thousands of questions, so it’s both exciting and exhausting.

We’ve already announced a Legendary Encounters Kickstarter, which is to develop our pre-painted plastics.  We’ve also had discussions about doing one of our game systems, or even something all-new, but there’s nothing concrete right now.

We certainly look at what types of miniatures are in high demand, and what our friends in the industry are doing. It’s important to be relevant with your products, but it’s also important to carve out your own niche and not just ride on everyone else’s designs. I do think that RPG players are more accepting of proxies, like dice or coins or cardboard chits, because of the sheer number of different models they need for even a short campaign. Wargamers and board gamers are used to having the exact model depicted in the art, so they tend to be less accepting of substitutions. By trying to reach the RPG market, we develop the breadth of product line, not only by having some of each critter, but by having variations of each critter that eventually we can serve the needs of the other guys pretty well, too.

My primary thought was that since the miniatures existed as a tool for use in games, and so many of our fans used them in games, that they’d want to be able to play in the games with us. It’s been well received, although the painting and sculpting classes are in much higher demand. Still, it’s usually pretty easy to drum up enough players for almost any game, and it’s a great way to rest your brain after a hard day’s classes.

I think that the d20 shows have helped  bring in new fans, but more than that GM Chris’ and GM Dave’s games at the show have always been among the most popular game events. They really know how to put on a great session, and the fans love them.

There’s a ton of great resources online for learning, but don’t be intimidated.  It’s easy to look at the professionals and think you can never be that good, but I don’t know any professionals who’ve been doing this for less than a decade. On the other hand, it only takes a few weeks to be better than 90% of your friends, and be the best in your game group or local store. And of course, while high-quality tools are always nice, and cheap tools can be a hindrance as much as anything, there’s no need to drop a ton on money on the best equipment right out of the gate. Learn on the cheap paint and cheap brushes. then invest in one or two better things, and watch what a difference that makes in your results. As your skill improves, upgrade gradually. Heck, just the sheer volume of paint can be daunting, with over 250 colors at $3 a bottle, so scour eBay or make do with inferior paints and don’t break your bank.

Well, obviously we have our third Bones Kickstarter running now, and I’d hate for them to miss that. If they do, it’s possible to join afterwards, but anybody who joins later and didn’t pledge during the 18 day project will pay a higher premium for the same rewards, so while we make more money, I’d prefer to see your readers save the money. We also do new releases every month, so they should keep an eye on our website or our forums.