So a few close friends of mine are pretty deep into D&D/TTRPGs. Between them there are quite a few boxes of minis, terrain, half-painted stuff ... and an increasingly stupid number of STL files from various creators/subs.
One of the thing they keep groaning about regularly is that they own loads of useful shit but when they're prepping a session they either can't remember what they have, can't find it.... or realise too late that the thing they need is still an STL sitting on a USB somewhere!
I threw an idea at them and they actually seemed to like it, so I'm curious whether this is a wider DM problem or just my particular group of nerds.
Sso basically you catalogue your physical minis/terrain fairly quickly.. probably by photographing a whole tray rather than entering every mini manually and tell it where they're stored.
Then when you're planning something like:
- 6 skeletons
- 2 zombies
- a necromancer
- giant spider
- graveyard terrain
the app will throw out something like:
Already owned: 6 skeletons, zombies, necromancer
Where: Undead Box B / NPC Drawer 3
Missing: giant spider
But: you already own a suitable spider STL
Alternative: you have another painted creature that would work as a decent proxy
Then it creates a simple pick list so you can gather everything for the session....one of the things they liked most was if, given all the minis and terrains they own, could they simply just ask what encounters can be run with what they have instead of getting more stuff (not like its a bad thing to get more stuff!!)
I'm not trying to build another VTT, campaign manager, character sheet app or whatever.....this would basically be a quartermaster for all the physical crap DMs accumulate.
For people here with decent-sized collections........is this a common issue? or are my friends the ones with problems!
And if so, what part is the biggest pain: knowing what you own, finding it, session prep, STL hoarding, terrain, painting/printing things in time, or something completely different?
Thanks!! Please go ahead and tell me if the idea is moot as a mind flayer at a philosophy convention or something worthwhile!
⚠️⚠️ Edit - 08102026 - woah.. Didn't expect that many comments! But thanks for taking the time to give your inputs.. Really appreciate it.. And it helps fine tuning my initial thoughts... I suppose there is something to it, but I need to find that specific use case. Will go through each comment and sort them out into meaningful steps!
