One Small Step Games is approaching the launch of Zone 17, our new tabletop role-playing and miniatures game.

The game’s basic set is composed of three rule books and a box. No dice. No miniature terrain. No miniature figures. Players must supply their own.

We wrestled with whether we should enter the miniatures-manufacturing industry in support of the miniatures-aspect of the game. We could have released Zone 17 as some mongo $100 boxed set. We took an alternate route.

We weighed the following issues when making our decision.

Pros:

We have the technical skill, capitalization, and space to design and manufacture figures.

Players generally desire canon figures for their games.
We possess commercial licenses for hundreds of appropriate figures.
We already create some buildings, vehicles, and terrain using our laser cutters.

Cons:

Times are a bit tough these days. Adding figures would double (at the very least) the cost of our product.
Players who enjoy miniatures games generally have substantial existing libraries of beloved figures.
The market is awash in model sculptors, miniature manufacturers, and online figure retailers.
Few elements of Zone 17 require specialized figures. The market already has more than enough generic terrain, modern soldiers, and agents cover most needs.
Some players will likely deprioritize the miniatures aspect of Zone 17 in favor of the role-playing aspect.

Some players will likely set aside Zone 17’s canon background in favor of a world of their own design. A custom world will likely have miniature design needs that are not aligned with anything we provided.

Ultimately, we opted to focus on books.

We will manufacture small batches of agents, monsters, vehicles, and buildings in the near future, but they will be sold as accessories — not integrated into a big, boxed set. We will begin adding these products to our online store (www.ossgames.com) starting in the next several weeks.

A printout sheet for Crawlers (futuristic tanks)

Feel free to buy our figures, use your own, or mix and match.

We don’t judge.

Unless you don’t paint your minis. Then we judge.