Not everyone can afford using miniatures in their games. The things tend to run in the $4-6 range for one or two minis -- unpainted. Paint isn't exactly free, and some people just don't have the patience or dexterity to do even a passable job at painting them.
I'm a prime example of this. My gaming budget limits me to getting only one or two books per year. Most of my current gaming library is actually on loan from one of my players; I think I actually own four books of the set. My hands tend to get the shakes when I'm trying anything that requires precision, so the idea of holding a wire-thin paintbrush steady is laughable.
For the longest time, I was using a pile of cardboard squares, marked with numbers, to represent everything in combat situations. My players were constantly having to ask what a particular chit represented, and representing large creatures was difficult at best. So, I've come up with a better way.
Here's what you need:
• A computer with a color printer, and a decent word-processing program (one that can handle shapes). MS Word does fine on this, and I believe the equivalent in Open Office can handle it too.
• Sheets of light cardstock. Most hobby stores can provide this cheaply, as well as stores that cater to schools and teachers.
• A set of printable stickers. These are essentially 8½" × 11" stickers, suitable for computer-printing. Check the school- and office-supply stores; a set of 12-20 would probably run you about $5.
• Scissors. A hole-puncher capable of making one-inch circles helps as well; hobby stores sell them for making buttons, and the 1-inch variety sells for about $3.
• Pictures. Grab all of the pictures from the Art Gallery at wizards.com, and use Google's image search for more.
Open up a new document on your computer, and make a 1-inch circle. Change the circle's background color to an image, and select the picture you want to use. Make the circle's border nice and thick, so you can see where to cut. Copy this circle as many times as you can fit on the page, and change each copy's picture as needed.
Print the page onto one of the sticker-sheets, and attach it to a sheet of cardstock. Make sure you don't have any bubbles under the sticker. Then use the scissors or the hole-puncher to cut the circles out.
If you're going to be using larger creatures, simply make the circle larger -- or smaller, in the case of familiars. I have a half-inch circle with the cleric's holy symbol, used to represent a spiritual weapon effect.
If you're interested in seeing the end results, I can e-mail you a copy of the document.
if you have Dundjinni you can make tokens for characters and monsters as well. I don't know if you can do it with the shareware version or not. something to look into.
Is it ironic that you both chose the pre-painted, lightweight plastic minis as your avatars? Not as inexpensive (nor creative) an option as yours, but takes care of you other concerns well enough. *grin*
Check out this site, though it's somewhat outdated:
http://dndcounters.tripod.com
i was using photocopied printouts of creatures from various monster books (going all the way back to 1E). actually, i would scan and resize them before printing. if i had more time to do that, i would have created many by now.
I go to Walmart and get a $2 posterboard (the foam, not cardboard). It's a nice, thicker base for the images I print out. Cutting is a litte tedious at times -- I use an exacto knife.
One of the really nice things for our groups is that we can use any image players want for their own pogs (counters).
Jack
Don't forget the art gallery on WOTC's site. You can pretty much make a counter out of anything that has had a picture in any rulebook by using the galleries.
http://paizo.com/store/byCompany/f/fieryDragon/counterCollection/v5748btpy7 li6
I used sometimes(proxy's) cheap plastic toys! like toy soldiers or dinosaurs, or robots,hahahahaha.
Customize Lego people for Characters!!
HAHAHAHA!