Miscellaneous

What's DDM?

Brief history

With the release of the D&D miniatures set Harbinger by WotC in September 2003, the miniatures skirmish game DDM was born. With sets being released as a steady flow, the game quickly became very popular among D&D RPG and miniatures enthusiasts. World Championships were played every year in the game's home country U.S. and Europe had its own annual Championship. In 2008 WotC decided to issue a second edition of the game, along the lines of then-released 4th edition RPG. Each "old" set was given stat cards for the second edition, too. Not long after the manufacturer dropped the game (but not producing miniatures, although the larger sets stopped coming for a few years), handing the game's development and upkeep to DDM Guild through a license. Guild chapters were formed around the world and the playing continued, albeit with smaller numbers than when with the manufacturer support.

DDM Guild is a worldwide community run by people who love the game and put in the work for both vitality and betterment of this great game. In 2011 DDM Guild issued a Revised edition of the rules, which was still the second iteration of DDM. Through the years the stat cards, item cards, scenarios and even maps were released and tournaments held. Since the Icons of the Realms series started in 2014, there's been a plentiful flow of miniatures to be played in DDM. Up to this day, both the GenCon tournament in Indianapolis and the European Championships, each time in different country, have been held almost every year. People play on Vassal, Roll d20 or Tabletop Simulator, at home and in tournaments. Card design is at a high level and the game is more balanced than maybe ever before - opinions on that may vary and are passionately discussed.  :) In 2022 DDM Guild issued a new rules set, V3, which is much like the second edition, but developed even further to bring clarity to the rules and interpretation of cards, as well as a few minor changes to some creature powers in the game. All the miniatures from the 2003's Harbinger up to the latest Icons of the Realms set having cards released by the Guild are compatible with the V3 rules.

Game mechanics

DDM is an exception-based strategic miniature game with a very strong RPG flavour and a wide range of strategies and tactics. In DDM, you build a warband of miniatures that come from one of the four factions: Borderlands, Civilization, Underdark or Wild. Both, or all, players build to the same point limit and then set up to face each other on the battle map. The game is won by scoring victory points, which you score from either destroying enemy creatures or collecting victory points from the map's victory areas. The players take turns activating each creature individually, each creature once per round (in most cases, anyway). The attacks, initiatives, champion tests and saving throws to end conditions are rolled with 20-sided die. So, what you need to play is a map, a d20 die and DDM miniatures with corresponding creature cards. Toss in item cards if you wish. You can play in various point limits ranging from 50-point warbands up to 1000 at least. Most common and the so-called basic format is 200-8, meaning that you build to the 200-point VP limit with 8 creatures at maximum. To learn more, download the rules and read on!

Who am I?

I am Antti, aka Plastic Finn, a DDM enthusiast of over 15 years. I started by trying the War Drums starter set and it was quick rolling from there on. In 2009 I began playing internationally both face-to-face and online, and became the DDM Guild Finnish chapter master to start promoting the game along with organising events in my home country. I have an unfailing respect and thankfulness towards everyone who has given their time and brain power to not only keep the game going but improving it. I've played more or less without long breaks through the years, also painting the miniatures, trading and selling, updating excel sheets, arranging tournaments and multi-players and creating all kinds of new formats for our local group to try. DDM is so deep a game and its variations are endless! I thoroughly enjoy both the tier-1 tournament-level battles and the craziest of special formats with little to no weight on who wins.

I've issued the Finnish DDM newsletter in the past (nowadays replaced by Whatsapp) and also run the DDM site in my native tongue. In 2016 or so I became involved in DDM Guild's design and development efforts and have been a part of that in some form since, lately taking up typesetting the cards. I still enjoy the game as much as ever and love the community both locally and internationally. I hope to see you around!  :) A.