Cyberpunk Red in 15mm

Why can I never do anything the easy way? Let me roll this back and start at the beginning. I started playing Cyberpunk 2020 back in the mid-90s. Even though it came out first, FASA's advertising budget was much bigger thanks to its successful BattleTech franchise, and so I had been dabbling around with Shadowrun for a few years before I finally found CP2020. Remember, the internet was not a thing back in the 1980s and so you had to learn about new games through these things called magazines or advertisements sent to your FLGS (friendly local game store). What you may not realize about my childhood is that I grew up in southeastern New Mexico, literally in the Chihuahuan Desert, which was pretty far away from any other population centers. We did not have an FLGS until just before I left, and it was more of a comic book store than a gaming store, so I never really realized that was where I needed to go to discover new games to play. Okay, we did have a Hastings bookstore, but as they only ever carried D&D products, from what I remember, I do not count them. Then I moved to an even tinier town in western Missouri (seriously, there was less people in the entire county than the city in New Mexico we moved from) which, while it was closer to larger population centers than before, might as well have been on the dark side of the Moon when it came to RPGs and tabletop wargames as it was still deep in the grip of the Satanic Panic. And still no internet. Except for D&D, I literally brought with me every RPG or tabletop wargame that town had ever seen up to that point when I moved in from New Mexico. 

Suffice it to say, I truly did not run into Cyberpunk 2020 until at least 1995. Do not mistake my preference for CP2020 over Shadowrun as a hatred or dislike of Shadowrun, merely a preference for Master Pondsmith's work. Shadowrun has some interesting ideas, some I would definitely like to see in CPRed, but otherwise I could do without the medieval fantasy elements mixed in with the dystopic sci-fi elements. Anyway, I started playing Cyberpunk in 1995 and we were broke college students, so "theater of the mind" was how we played pretty much all of our tabletop RPGs. But here we are, several decades later, and I am all grown up with a big boy's job and paycheck, and I can finally afford the miniatures I have always wanted. Not to mention that due to R Talsorian Games's partnership with CD Projekt Red and releasing CPRed at the same time Cyberpunk 2077 came out, there are more than a few companies suddenly making and selling Cyberpunk-specific minis, but in 28mm scale because that is what the majority of folks prefer. There has not been a better time to be playing a Cyberpunk tabletop RPG, but here I am ruining it for myself because I just "gotta be different". 

As has already been revealed by the title of this post, I have chosen to portray my CPRed tactical combats with 15mm miniatures. Why? Okay, usually us nerds sharing our hobbies on the internet with the Great Uncaring Masses would spend the next paragraph trying to convince you that my decision is obviously and logically the one true way, and everyone who is not doing it this way (for example: doing it the way everyone else is already doing and has been for at least three decades) is utterly, horribly wrong. But I am going to be honest, merely telling you I am going with 15mm minis in my upcoming CPRed (and Dungeons & Dragons and Savage Worlds) game because I want to, as I like being different. I think there may be a psychologic tic that I have that I just "gotta be different!" but I am not seeing a medical professional about any mental defects I may or may not have, so I cannot say for sure. Do not mistake me, I have a laundry list of reasons why I landed on 15mm minis - they are easier to store more of because they are smaller; they are cheaper and easier to buy more of, because they are smaller; the battlefields are automatically bigger; and let us be completely honest, my miniature painting skills are laughable so I do not have to make these Golden Demon entrants, just get some paint on them to make them a little more visually appealing, which is easier to do because, again, smaller - but I came up with those reasons AFTER I had already decided to switch scales, and not I decided to switch because I recognized those attributes. So why not 10mm? Or 6mm, 3mm, or even the miniscule 2mm scale miniatures? Why 15mm? And I am not making those scales up, there are companies making miniatures at those sizes.

Quick primer on scale sizes, without going too far into the weeds - the metric scale sizes (28mm, 15mm, 10mm, etc) are the measure of a 6' tall person with normal human features, measuring from the bottom of their feet to the middle of their eyeline. So the bigger the number is, the bigger the miniature is. And remember, it is in millimeters, which it takes a little over 25 millimeters to make one US/British Imperial/why are we still using this stone age measuring system? inch. If that last comment made your blood boil, answer me this without Googling it - how many feet are in a mile? I admit I have to double check myself because it is so easy to swap the digit order in the answer to that question. Now, how many meters in a kilometer? Here is a hint - the "kilo" in "kilometer" means one thousand!!!

Digression over with, back to the party - so why did I go with 15mm? Most of my reasons seem to tout lack of size as being advantageous over 28mm, why not go even smaller than half scale? And yes, 15mm is "roughly" half the size of 28mm, as most model makers tend to make their "heroic" 28mm scale models in 30mm or 32mm scale. There has been a lot of swelling going on over in miniature land, and not even 15mm is immune from it, most of the miniatures I have sourced so far are a bit bigger than I expected them to be. So half the size of the commonly used 28mm, so everything (the measurements you use on the table, if you measure rather than use grids; or the grids themselves if you do use grids; the terrain I 3d print to use on my table; etc) is just scaled down 50% of the original. If I went 10mm, everything would have be roughly a third the size of the original, and have you ever tried dividing by 3? Lots of repeating decimal points roaming around. 6mm is one-fifth the size of 28mm, which is easy on the math but is screamingly tiny, and 3mm and 2mm even more so. I may like smaller models as they are easier to paint, but there is a point where it flips from "easy" to "painful". 6mm scale miniatures are at that point of pain, and I just do not want to pull out the giant stand magnifier every time I want to slap some paint on a mini. Plus, the further you get away from the popular 28mm scale, the fewer options you have for your various games. Buying minis for D&D is easy, medieval fantasy is one of the biggest, most popular genres out there, so those are available no matter what scale I settled on, but I am also starting up cyberpunk (which is a blend of modern, sci-fi, and dystopic wasteland genres and themes), a modern theme game, a caped super heroes game, and a cowboy/Wild West game. Not a lot of options once you step outside of 28mm or 15mm land. If I had just settled for "normal" and went with 28mm, the sky would literally be the limit, as in I could have piled all of the minis I could use in that scale into one big pile and it would reach into the sky. The selection for 15mm is noticeably smaller, and 10mm is noticeably smaller than 15mm's selection, and on down the line. 15mm scale miniatures sit at that sweet spot for me of "smaller than 28mm" but still "having enough range to choose from". As in, I do not want to proxy EVERYTHING on the table. Some things I will have to find convincing stand-ins, but for a solid 75% or more of what I could possibly have my players run into in all of the above games, which makes 15mm the winner in my book.

All of that out of the way, if you too are thinking you want to go with smaller miniatures, here are some manufacturers I have found so you do not have to go deep diving the internet on your own search. Remember, this article is centered on Cyberpunk Red, and while I have mentioned the other games and genres I am playing in, most of what I am about to share is for CPRed and not the others. The other thing to keep in mind is that I live in the continental United States, so I tend to stick to US suppliers and manufacturers, even though there is greater variety in the UK/European manufacturers of smaller miniatures. Rebel Minis has an excellent selection of modern and sci-fi minis, as well as a decent variety of fantasy, but their fantasy line is more aimed at their tabletop wargame, Mighty Armies, and less on fantasy RPGs. Splintered Light is my go to for fantasy, as they focus heavily on that genre and especially for tabletop RPGs, and they also have an extensive medieval historical line. Khurasan Miniatures has a wide range of sci-fi and fantasy figures and vehicles, but is more boutique in nature rather than bulk offerings. Their website is not the best, so expect to do a lot of digging, but there are diamonds to be found there, if you spend the time. Clear Horizons is a newer shop in the US, and they do not have much, but what they do have, all sci-fi themed, is very impressive. Darkest Star is another small shop focusing on sci-fi minis. Old Glory is the last of the American domestic mini makers I am sharing, and while they mostly have have historical figures (including Wild West and Civil War figs, which will come in handy) they also have horror and superhero lines, which will make an appearance on my table at some point. Outside the US there are many different makers in this scale, which I am not going to type out a comprehensive list, but I will share Alternative Armies specifically because they have some cool pieces that are utterly necessary for a CPRed game, as I will share with you shortly. Let me encourage you, if you are in the States, and you can only find what you are looking for in Europe/UK, browse their entire catalog and make the international shipping a lot more palatable with a big order. Global commerce should not be discounted lightly.

The first thing when I am acquiring miniatures is what are the players going to want to represent their characters? Yes, I encourage my players to buy their own minis, but I still like to have a decent range available for them to pick from the first couple of sessions they play, see if they like the game enough to want to invest in a miniature they like better. For CPRed, that means futuristic or modern weapons and cyberware, with a few exceptions - most modern and sci-fi military and law enforcement will fill the majority of your typical CPRed roles, as they have plenty of big guns and modern/sci-fi helmets and body armor, and if they are not exactly sculpted to have cyberware, you can fix that by splashing silver metallic paint on a limb or otherwise exposed patch of skin, bam, instant cyberlimb. Especially at 15mm and smaller, this becomes easier than trying to find someone with sculpted cyberware, but still looks convincing. Here is what I am looking for in each of the different roles.

SOLO: The easiest of the bunch, get big guns or lots of guns, lots of body armor, lots of cyberware, or you could even go old school and make sure they have a katana, sheathed or in their hand ready to swing. A lot of modern military folks with helmets and goggles and full size rifles and body armor work great for Solos, like these Special Forces troops from Rebel Minis. If you want more personality there are two options here from Khurasan - the Hero and Resistance Leader have two good minis, but I like the guy in the armor but would still have use for the lady with the pistol; and the Teacup Tornado is a good option for those playing female Solos, and I think the back support is a katana. Sci-fi troopers also work well, like these Earth Force Marines or any of the figures from the Khurasan Forever Wars range.

TECH/MEDTECH: Pretty much like a Solo, but less focus on big weapons, in modern military lines look for medics and radio operators (also designated RTO), and techs or technicians in the sci-fi lines. Medtechs are easy to make from military models, simply pick a pack they are carrying, paint it white, and then paint a red cross on it, bam, instant Medtech. Yes, modern military medics are armed, only the chaplains are allowed to be non-combatants and not carry/be trained on a personal weapon. Unfortunately, Games Workshop does not make their tech priests in 15mm scale, as it would be very easy to steal their back-mounted helper claws to put on your own mini to make an instant Tech. It helps if they have goggles of some kind and lots of antennas, which you can make from toothbrush bristles and black dye or paint.

LAWMAN: Almost as easy as Solos, as you can basically use the same miniatures, just change your color pallet from green/camo tones to more blue/gray ones. If you are looking for specific LEO (law enforcement officers), go for SWAT models in the modern lines instead of police miniatures, as the SWAT minis have the guns and armor your average Lawman would be wearing in the Time of the Red. Rebel Minis has two separate sets of SWAT police (here and here), and a set of police in riot gear, if you are looking for shields and batons. 

FIXER: This one is both easy and hard - hard because there are so many different types of Fixers out there (hands-on/hands-off, young and spry/old and fat, armed/unarmed) that I cannot really pin down one style for you, you have to find it on your own. However, because of that variety, whatever you pick to be your Fixer, pretty much will fit in well with the CPRed setting. I like these Gun Clerics from Rebel Mini's sci-fi line, but you could go with one of the minis from Rebel's Civilian Hunters pack, as long as it fits what you envision for your Fixer. Lots of options out there.

EXEC: To me, an Exec calls for a suit and a tie. Rebel Minis has their Men-in-Black line, and Khurasan has their Paranormal BI Agents, which you can see here. Or maybe your Exec could never be bothered to carry an actual firearm, how bourgeois! Try out these Modern Civilians. But again, like the Fixer, what does your Exec look like. Make sure to browse all the miniatures of your domestic manufacturer and see what strikes your fancy.

NOMAD: The whole time I have been playing Cyberpunk 2020 and now Red, when I think Nomad I see Mad Max in my head - lots of leather, buckles and spikes, and improvised weaponry. Look for anything with "post-apocalypse" or "bikers" in the title, and you will be 90% of the way to finding your perfect Nomad. And if your Nomad has a motorcycle, there are a few minis on and off bikes out there as well.

MEDIA: This is where the options, at least in the States, start getting slim, but both Rebel Minis and Khurasan have options for you, Rebel Minis with a News Crew and Robber (I am unsure why this includes a robber mini, but you can always use it for rando in the background or gang member), and Khurasan has a sci-fi Info-Corp News Team and Federal Officials (seen here). You can see what they have in common - someone with a video camera, and someone else with a microphone. You can do a Media without a mic or a vidcam, but this is the classic option for me.

ROCKERBOY: This is where I thought my plans would come to a screeching halt. For the life of me, I could not, COULD NOT, bring enough Google-fu to bear to locate a suitable Rockerboy/grrl mini. So I asked the 15mm sci-fi tabletop folks over on Facebook, and sure enough, Alternative Armies, a UK mini maker, has an appropriate offering. You just have to make sure to search for "entertainers". 

NETRUNNER: Like Rockerboy above, this was another big problem. None of the US manufacturers had any miniatures carrying what looked like a keyboard, a cyberdeck, a computer, anything like that. While I was building an order with Alternative Armies for my Rockerboy/grrl minis I ran across a set of sci-fi minis that one of them was crouched over what looks like a keyboard, and they even look like they have some cyberware built into the sculpt. 

I am so very thankful there are enough talented folks out there doing the strange, esoteric sculpts that I could find Rockerboy and Netrunner minis. If I had no options at all for two whole roles, I would have probably given up on the whole project and just stuck with 28mm scale minis. Oh, one bonus of having to go with Alternative Armies - because they are in the UK, I was not going to just order those two packs of figs and call it good. Since I was ordering from them anyway, I scoured their site for anything else that would be useful, to justify the shipping costs if nothing else. In addition to some sci-fi cars and motorcycles and bunches of good sci-fi random folks, I also located something I would have never thought to look for, but now cannot imagine running a modern or futuristic game without - body bags. Yep, body bags. Admit it, for half a second you could not believe I was excited by body bags, and then you just pictured putting a couple down on the table in your game, to create a morgue, a crime scene, an atrocity of war, a cannibal's storage locker, the rejects at the cloning lab... the uses for these just go on and on. I am using these in as many games as I can, they just became my most favorite miniatures in the collection. And I also got good cultists from AA, you know, robes, cowls, very creepy cultists who should be yelling strange languages at the top of their lungs to summon an Elder God or something, those cultists. For CPRed, they will be Inquisitors. For other modern day games, they will be cultists, which is good, because at least one of my Savage Worlds settings needs cultists as bad guys. 

Vehicles are another area I focus on. A good CPRed game has gun fights in the streets. A great CPRed game has gunfights on top of a long haul dirigible, while a pack of scavengers and Raffen Shiv drive Mad Max-inspired vehicles screaming after them across the hard pan below. For 28mm scale games, you can easily use Hot Wheels and Matchbox die cast cars - the scales do mot match, but they are close enough that it does not matter. However, for 15mm, there are plenty of same scale options out there, both in modern-ish vehicles and sci-fi ones. Rebel Minis has their MATV Apache, that is basically a lightly touched with the sci-fi brush version of the US Army's HMMWV, as well as the MATV Commanche, and again, just a version of the US Army's JLTV, which is the successor to the venerable HMMWV. In fact, they are so lightly brushed with sci-fi-ness (I am unsure if that is a word, but work with me here) that I am going to use the Apaches where I would use a modern HMMWV in my modern Savage Worlds setting. The big problem with all vehicles is that most of the available stock from the wargame/RPG manufacturers are military vehicles, whether it is sci-fi or modern, they are covered in guns and armor. Which is cool, when you need that stuff, it is available. However, if you want just basic, civilian vehicles, your options are pretty much find a 3d printable file and scale it appropriately (if it is 28mm scale, 50% works pretty good), or search for non-copywrite infringing 1:100 scale models of civilian vehicles for miniature dioramas or model trains. Yes, they do not look like real vehicles (they would infringe on someone's copywrite if they did, and if you think I am joking, you have not been paying attention), but vaguely like real vehicles, which is actually good. Because they do not look like real vehicles, but vaguely like modern vehicles so your players think they are sci-fi/futuristic. You can also remove their shells and paint them in crazy, dystopic futuristic paint schemes, like you were making a Gaslands fleet, just to further enforce that this is not the world as we know it. There are a bunch of sci-fi and modern motorcycle minis out there, which is the other major vehicle in the grimdark future of CPRed. Aerodyne Vehicles (or AVs) were very big in CP2020, but in CPRed, they are not as prevalent. However, they are so iconic of the setting that I am still happy that I found a decent mini to stand in for the venerable AV-4, which is the dystopic's future version of the minivan - it is not swoopy or sexy, it is very blocky, very weapons-free, and very utilitarian. Clear Horizon has their Universal Shipping and Heavy Industry (USHI) Transport, and it is almost, ALMOST, exactly how the AV-4 has been pictured in the rulebooks since the 1980s. Sure, there are plenty other armed military VTOLs out there in the 15mm sci-fi realm, but you only need a few of those and it is doubtful you will have to use them very regularly. Or maybe you will run that type of game and you will need lots of them, all the time. Plenty of options out there for you to choose from. 

Terrain is the last thing I have been thinking about, mostly because I play almost all of my tabletop RPGs on a grid. I am going to do 1/2" vs 1" for 15mm scale, which is not necessarily something you have to do, but I want to so I can get bigger areas, especially for CPRed and modern/futuristic gun battles. Yes, most gun battles happen in less than seven yards, but come on, I want some of the longer ranges to be an option for my players and NPCs. I do not think that I will be able to put 800 meters worth of range on a normal gaming table (if each half-inch grid square is 1 meter, 800 meters is 400 inches, or 33 and a third feet... even if I turned that to each grid square being 2 meters, that is 200 inches, or 16 and two-thirds feet, a little much for most tables that are usually only six to ten feet long), but I can get somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 to 200 meters down the long axis of the table space available. If you could not tell, I do plan on playing tactically with miniatures and a grid. I currently use a chunk of Plexiglas over a grid (tape some pieces of cheap poster board together, and grid it yourself with a long, straight ruler and a Sharpie marker) and dry/wet erase markers on the Plexiglas to give vague outlines of what the players are facing. I am torn on if I want to go ahead and upgrade to fancy vinyl mats, but I really want to upgrade the table itself to one of those fancy gaming tables (covered, dropped gaming surface; USB charging ports; cup holders and book shelves for the perimeter; and Plexiglas gaming surface), I just do not have the space for one currently. Or, honestly, the money. I could afford it, I would also have to be able to use it to commute back and forth to work, five days a week. So for now, a slab of Plexi, some gridded poster board behind it, lots and lots of wet/dry erase markers, and 3d printed terrain. Is there any good cyberpunk-themed 3d printer files out there? I literally cannot put enough links in one spot to just the free stuff, much less the volumes of pay for files. Thingiverse has some really nice Collections of cyberpunk themed stuff, but those are curated by the users, so depending on whose stuff you are looking at, your mileage may vary. 

Now I am going to talk about something hardly anyone wants to talk about when it comes to miniatures - storage. We all have to deal with with it, but none of us wants to talk about it - if you have miniatures, where do you keep them in between games? Okay, so you leave them out on the table, you obviously do not have cats or children or anyone else living in the same space as you do, but do you seriously keep ALL of your miniatures on the table in between each game? Do you use all of your miniatures every game? Unfortunately, I cannot do that, as I have a wife, and daughter, and three cats, and more miniatures than I can use in one game (and multiple genres, to boot). Many other players and GMs out there cannot do that. What I have done in the past, especially with all my printed out and coined A Monster for Every Season monsters and NPCs was to use half-gallon and gallon-sized Ziploc bags and a storage cube with fabric holders. Yes, I needed that much space, because, well, see for yourself.

That above, by the way, is four sets out of six. I did print up and coin set number five, and I purchased the sixth set (and will do so for any other sets Master Burlew puts out, because I thoroughly enjoy his work) but have not printed them up yet. I kept all of those in a 9-cubby cube storage shelf with fabric bins (you know what I am talking about, they have become popular in recent years, the shelves have 1-foot cube openings, come in a variety of flavors - 1, 2x2, 3x3, 2x3, 2x4, etc - and the soft little bins that go in the cubbies come in wide range of colors and patterns) and that works for light weight paper and some coins. Yes, as I am transitioning from 28mm to 15mm scale, I am getting rid of the paper cutouts, but I am not just going to recycle them, I plan on donating them and my 28mm 3d printed terrain to a local high school's RPG club. My daughter will be attending there soon enough, maybe I can convince her to join, but I am trying to let her live her own life and decide what hobbies she wants to pursue (at the moment, it is watching YouTube videos and playing Minecraft and Among Us). I plan on keeping the shelf, and using the cloth storage bins until they fall apart, but fall apart they will, because while the 15mm miniatures I am switching to are smaller (so I can get more of them in the same space), they are mostly metal miniatures and therefore much heavier than the paper cutouts. When the bins (and eventually the cube shelf itself, as it is just cheap particle board, not real wood) die on me, I am already working on sourcing plastic replacement bins and I have already been working on upping my carpentry tools and game to add more shelving into our home, anyway. Also, since I will have to paint these minis, I do not just want to throw them into a Ziploc bag and plunk them into a bin to rattle around and rub off whatever level of paint job I give to them. I may be a crappy mini painter, but I do not want to see that work, however poor, wasted. I foresee an investment in many sheets of pluck foam in the near future. Yes, a sheet of cardboard for the base and to be a separator between the layers, and the foam glued to it, that is my plan for now.

That is going to be my bulk storage plan, but for the special minis, like all of the PC minis for each of my games, I have another option. I backed this Kickstarter (well, multiple ones, really) for a product called Wallhalla. Wallhalla is a portmanteau of "wall" and "Valhalla", an ode to your special miniatures sitting on the wall in their own Valhalla, and it is a series of interlocking, 3d printable display pieces you can mount on your wall or other flat surface. And it gives a cool diorama effect, so you are not just storing your miniatures, you are displaying them. Yes, again, this is meant for 28mm scale minis with 1" round bases, so I am again scaling them to 50% and seeing how that works. Maybe 51% to give just a little extra room. 

There are many other options out there for you folks who want to keep your collection mobile - I will be GM'ing my games from home and do not plan on travelling with the entire collection, ever, and only with small portions of it rarely - you just have to realize that most of the options out there are for 28mm figures and not 15mm. However, a popular scale for wargaming miniatures is 15mm, so go past the RPG specific trays and bags, and go to the wargaming section. Tons of bags and foam tray systems out there for your needs.

That is pretty much my plan for CPRed minis, as well as D&D and Savage Worlds, with minis and 3d printed terrain appropriate for every setting, using pieces across genres where appropriate. One special project for D&D is in the works, as I do plan on making one small set of minis, 3d printed terrain bits, and paper grids into a portable kit so I can inflict, er, take my favorite intro adventure on vacation with me. Yes, vacation. Oh sure, I would be willing to take it to a public setting and use it to teach folks how to play here locally, but I have this other crazy idea that will probably never happen. See, Thanksgiving is big in my family. Yes, it is big in a lot of American households, but my family, being not terribly religious anymore because of reasons (trust me, the story behind that is a soap opera unto itself), we really do not celebrate Christmas as much as we celebrate Thanksgiving. I have one living aunt still left, and her family and my family love playing all kinds of board and card games while we are at her house for Thanksgiving. I would love to get them to sit down, push minis around the table, and roll some dice. It will probably never happen, but since I am working on creating the majority of this anyway, I will go ahead and do the rest and bring it with me for this year's Thanksgiving. You never know.

That is it for now, I hope this article was informative and entertaining, whether you plan on joining me in my glory/lunacy (it could go either way, let us be honest) or sticking with how you are playing the game right now. Either way, get out there and roll some dice, have some fun, and share the stories with the rest of us.