Tell Me About Your Experiences with Theater of the Mind 5E

[Reynard]

I am tired of grids and miniatures and fiddly tactical rules. In days long gone, we used to play D&D without any of that. I think I have forgotten how.

Tell me about how you have succeeded (or failed!) with no grid/table/squares combat in 5E. Do you reduce the importance of combat generally? Do you just wing it, or do you use a "concrete" TotM system? Do you sometimes use minis (for "important battles, for example) or have you sworn off them entirely? Have you changed the combat rules in other ways to enhance the use of TotM? Have you changed the non-combat rules of the game as well? What do you do about "builds" (such as they are in 5E) that rely on 5 foot squares and other gridded movement/fighting rules bits?

Thanks!

 

[Jester David]

I've tried it a couple times. It works pretty well. Things are abstract enough that you can fudge positioning. And the DMG's suggestions for how many bad guys you can get in an AoE help.

When I have DMed, I've actually "cheated" and still shown a map. I've just not included minis or worried about exact movement. As I DM, I have a TV behind me hooked up to a laptop.

But I have a player who has trouble visualising and focusing, and really wants to be able to hold templates up above minis to see how many they can get. So, in deference to them, I use a grid and maps. (Which is ironic, as he wants to maximise his movement and actions, but I'm far more likely to fudge in his favour during TotM...)
Plus, I have a tonne of minis, and don't want to have wasted those purchases.

 

[Rabbitbait]

I find that 5e is much better for TotM than other editions, but still only with combats that don't have too many enemies to fight. When you have lots of enemies placement and position becomes more important. I'm back to D&D after running a Cypher System campaign (Numenera) which was purely TotM and that system seems to work better for holding everything in your head possibly as it is more of a narrative system than a hard and fast rules system.

 

[robus]

Check out the Roshambo approach, it’s great (even though my players don’t take full advantage of all its features we no longer squabble over trivial distances) : http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...he-Mind-combat-(updated-again-to-version-1-2)

 

[KenNYC]

I run it is a narrative and do away with the rigid action/movement/bonus/etc mechanic. You take your shot and then move away, the monster might move too. I see it as your action is just a snapshot of the fight and while you still may move 30 feet, the creature if they didn't move on their turn might still move if it makes sense. Basically, whatever makes sense and makes the battle easier to picture rather than this rigid chess piece/area control feeling of using minis.

 

[MaximusArael020]

I currently don't use minis or a grid mostly because they are expensive, take up a good amount of space, and a good map takes time to make (which I just don't have). I've really enjoyed the times that I get to play with minis and a grid, but I think my players for the campaign I am DMing now enjoy the freedom of TotM more. We tried a few battles with a white-board and some small figures, but with TotM they enjoy picturing what they have at their disposal more than what I can accurately show on a quickly-drawn map.

The way I DM TotM is I usually have a personal map of the space or quickly sketch one up for myself. I mark where enemies are (roughly) and then the players engage after I describe the area and the position of enemies. If a caster is trying to fiddle around with an area attack or a cone, I usually give them the benefit of the doubt of where people might be so that they can hit more people/miss allies. I don't move people across the room or anything for that benefit, but 5ft here or there I think is reasonable. I'm always interested in seeing what other people do for TotM, but for my group it just seems that when there's a quickly-sketched map they feel much more limited but when there is no grid they have more fun, are less frustrated, and come up with some really cool and innovative solutions to combat.

 

[Xaelvaen]

We use a combination of tangible maps/minis as well as theater of the mind, it all depends on the situation, mood, tension level, and the way the scene goes down. The more challenging the fight, the more likely it is that I'll have an elaborate map because I want my players to have environment and cover to protect them. When it's left to theater of the mind, they may not necessarily always keep in mind "oh right, the DM described a rusted sheet of metal over there I can hide behind to avoid those arrows flying at me!"

However, when the fight is meant to allow the players to be free form heroes and really fly all over the place and trash the bad guys, I tend to go more theater of the mind so they can sort of create the scene as they go. They don't need to worry about protecting themselves as much and really get to focus on pressing the attack, and theater of the mind does this really well.

 

[S'mon]

My text-chat online game works fine with ToTM. I run it like I used to run 1e at school, when I didn't use minis. I guess I don't worry much about precise positioning, but on narrow frontages I pay attention to PC ranks so I know which PCs are in melee range of the monsters. Generally one needs to lean to saying "yes you are in range" - but in any case I'm typically referring to a 10'-square grid map and I typically can pinpoint which square the PCs are in.

On Saturday the PCs fought giant chameleon spiders in a 20x20 room. All that really mattered was which PCs were in the room, which were in the corridor in the front rank, and which were in the corridor behind the front rank. For the spiders what mattered was whether PC AoE attacks covered the room & got them all. The dwarf forge priest used Spirit Guardians & stepped into the middle of the room; 30' diameter spell so it caught all the spiders. Then after all 7 spiders attacked the dwarf, the wizard fireballed the room, targetting the far corner so as to catch dwarf & all spiders, and not be hit himself. It was pretty easy to adjudicate.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

The important thing to remember is that, regardless of whether or not you actually put down a map with miniatures on it, all of the rules of the game behave as though you are going to. If your dwarf can move 25' in a round, then it's the same distance whether you can see it easily on a map, or whether the DM is tracking everything in their head. In that way, the map actually makes things easier for the DM, since you can just look at it instead of trying to remember everything the whole time.

The point of theater of the mind is that, most of the time, exact position doesn't matter. Since opportunity attacks basically don't exist, and flanking is pointless, you can just say that all of the melee people run forward and all of the ranged people hang back. For the vast majority of combats, you won't need to reference your mental map at all, so translating that onto a physical map would be a waste of time.

 

[Li Shenron]

I've used TotM frequently between 3.0 and 5e without necessarily simplifying the combat rules. You don't have to really remove any rule if you don't want, the challenge is to keep track of positions without a visual aid, which obviously increases with the number of participants in a fight.

The contentious points are always borderline cases, primarily near the end of weapon/spell range and around the edges of an area effect. 5e generous movement rules help, since it's easier to reposition yourself a short distance enough to get within range without losing your actions.

I think using TotM is a way to embrace the essential randomness of battle: whether you can catch 3 foes rather than 4 with your fireball depends on many circumstances, so whenever TotM requires a DM's whim, it's not less fair than the DM's whim of choosing to have 3 rather than 4 orcs in such battle. The DM can also roll a die to decide, if it feels better.

I've never had problems with TotM really, but in the last years I've found my favourite way in using a gridless map. I like the game to feature something physical (and cute, since I use Lego for minis) but I had enough with the grid which makes the game feel artificial or chess-like (pretty much counter to the supposed realism or simulationism that minis are supposed to add). I like the old-style of measuring distances with a ruler more, it happens only when you really need it by the way, and movement without a grid feels a lot more natural.