# Scale of Paizo's Pathfinder/Starfinder pawns and paper minis

I've been a fan of Paizo's paper minis. Ever since I printed out the first batch, I noticed that they follow the 28mm scale for miniatures - i.e. in most paper minis representing adult humanoids, the distance from the feet to the eyes is about 28mm.

The 28mm scale is consistent with the Pathfinder tactical grid (5 feet to the inch = 1:60 scale), DnD5e materials, and most plastic/metal miniatures (e.g. Reaper minis), 3D-printed dungeon tiles and furniture that I'm aware of.

(By contrast, GURPS hex grids use a scale of one yard to the inch or ≈1:36.5 or ≈46mm from feet to eyes)

Recently, I've got access to the Starfinder beginner box, which features Paizo's cardboard pawns. To my surprise, the cardboard pawns follow a different (bigger) scale, which seems to be 40mm from feet to eyes on a 28mm-wide base:

Even when the size of the bases are the same (25mm diameter), they look obviously different.

This poses a few questions in my mind:

• Do the cardboard pawns from Paizo follow a known, consistent scale?

• As a GM, how can I minimize the visual clash when mixing 25/28mm-scale minis and bigger-scale cardboard pawns?

• Pretty sure every miniature I bought and painted back in the late 1970s was 25 mm scale. That was just before or about the time Ral Partha opened, so things have change some since. – Zeiss Ikon Jan 3 at 18:11
• RE: "What's the rationale for the change in scale between Paizo's paper minis and Paizo's cardboard pawns?" and RE: "Are there any plastic/metal miniatures for 5-feet-to-the-inch tactical grids which do not follow a 28mm scale?" Sadly, I suspect site policy prevents answering these aspects of this question, the former because it's asking for reasons why the designers make a certain choice (designer reasons are off-topic), and the latter because it asks for an unbounded list (shopping questions are off-topic). The middle issue (without its second question) is probably fine, though. :-) – Hey I Can Chan Jan 3 at 18:11
• Well, I haven't spent much time in RPG.SE, so I apologize about the on-topic/off-topic-ness of the question :-) I can happily cross-post in another SE site re: design aspects. Re: 3rd question, I'm asking for any counterexamples rather than a shopping list. – IvanSanchez Jan 3 at 20:15
• O, no need to apologize! It wasn't, like, a reprimand, and I'm not a moderator or anything anyway. User to user, I just wanted you to understand why the question may end up on hold. Like I said, Is the scale used for Starfinder cardboard pawns unique? is a probably by itself a fine question; it's just that the site doesn't handle the other two parts. (You can if you want read more about site policy on designer reasons and shopping, which is a synonym for What're more like this? questions.) – Hey I Can Chan Jan 3 at 20:33
• Gotcha :-) I've been on the giving end of "this is off-topic" on other SE sites and I do appreciate your understanding and the site policy two links. Let me try and rephrase the question a bit. – IvanSanchez Jan 3 at 20:42