The Summoner's Grimoire

Paper minis

Paper minis are a popular way to put some fantastically evocative shapes on a battlefield without all those battlefields breaking the bank. They’re pictures of RPG creatures printed on paper, which, to put it lightly, is WAY FREAKING CHEAPER than buying a miniature (a tiny model of a creature or person in an RPG).

A cheesy sales pitch

For ages past, the reclusive players of games first forged their homunculi of a cursed metal that would poison with a touch (…ahem, lead), and then they boiled the bones of long-dead leviathans (…plastic) for abhorrent shapes that must be covered in paint to be viewed by mortals. The poorest of those outcast players could rarely afford such extravagances, using naught but simulacra: tokens, dice, the sacred Cheeto. But I, the pre-eminent mastermind, the greatest conjuror of this or any age, have devised the ultimate solution for every one of our number!

Using art painted by mechanical hands, wood carved the same, and leather from never-cows… friends, colleagues…

I GIVE YOU THE SUMMONER’S GRIMOIRE!

What it is

It’s a paper-mini base solution with a laundry list of features I desperately wanted, so I made it:

• Low cost
• Compact
• Whiteboard-markable
• Thematic materials
• And PRETTY!

Honestly, after hours of googling I could barely find a set or home-made solution that ticked even one of those boxes.

The contents. All together the Grimoire is 191 mm tall, 102 mm wide and 20 mm deep. It holds 4 cards for 1, 2, 3 and 4 inch pieces (they’re a little undersized so they sit nicely on battle maps): 24 × 1″, 5 × 2″, 2 × 3″ and 1 × 4″ pieces, plus a strap to hold everything together.

The materials. The Grimoire is made of three-ish things: faux leather (no actual cows needed), 3 mm wood, and a plastic laminate that makes the pieces whiteboard-markable. Oh, and the metal studs on the band… three-ish things.

The repository. The Grimoire has been through a lot of incarnations, but it’s really the bases you can’t find anywhere, so that’s what I’m making. In the background of a lot of the photos you can see a business-card folio I’ve cut extra rows into, which is where I keep the actual paper minis sorted.

Great mini artists

There are tons of great artists selling PDFs of paper minis to print. My two favourites are Printable Heroes and Paper Forge. Both have enormous catalogues of free minis, but I highly recommend throwing a little coin their way.

Also check out 2 Minute Tabletop, and DriveThruRPG and the DMs Guild, where you can find sets in every style you can dream of.