"Theater of the Mind" or Map and Minis?

[Yaarel]

In reallife, one of my players is blind (somewhat recently). I am glad my preference for mind style makes the game fun and accessible for him.

In the past, there are times when I would do a sketch to show the shape of a room and maybe significant positioning. Other times I might go grid style with minis for a boss fight. Sometimes, I show a picture of a particular monster. Now, I focus on verbal descriptions.

 

[Imaculata]

I've been running my current homebrew campaign for over a year now, and we often use dungeon tiles and miniatures for combat. But two of my players have recently brought custom miniatures of their characters with them, and those looked awesome. I should post a picture of those some time.

 

[Tony Vargas]

No. I was responding to someone's post about their experience and opinion with my own experience, because I find it interesting that we were finding the similar things in opposite techniques.

Yet when someone else does that from the other persepective, you accuse them of attacking the method you prefer.

I don't think the intention of this thread was to be some debate over which is better, or to dump on a style you don't favour.

Yet that's literally all you've been doing. Presenting overblown, unverifiable anecdotes of the pitfalls of one, and glowing testimonials of the other.

Look, clearly you've picked a side and that's all there is to it.
Enjoy your OneTrueWay.

 

[Satyrn]

Yet when someone else does that from the other persepective, you accuse them of attacking the method you prefer.

Yet that's literally all you've been doing. Presenting overblown, unverifiable anecdotes of the pitfalls of one, and glowing testimonials of the other.

Look, clearly you've picked a side and that's all there is to it.
Enjoy your OneTrueWay.

That is not what I got from his posts at all.


[MENTION=6834463]happyhermit[/MENTION], don't worry. Your posts read to me as though you were expressing your opinion, relating your experiences.


.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

While minis can help in many ways, I prefer TOTM. Reason being that in describing how the fight is going, I try to make it seem visceral and real, and to channel the movie fights we love. So I might describe a monster being shoved into the wall of the cavern to illustrate 1HP of damage being given. Or perhaps, the monster ducks out of the way but the PC kicks a stool at him. Just thinking of the Jason Momoa Conan where he has a fight with the bad guy and his minions and it’s all up and down the furniture - just walking up to a mini and trading lumps feels a bit static. Obviously PCs can move around and use Movement to their advantage etc but to me I like if I can to make the fight seem a bit more dynamic. A quick sketch is useful to show that there is eg a table or a cooking pot or the door is over there, but I like to keep it freer (in all senses - even using Photoshop to create cardboard standees in old Blood Bowl slotta bases is expensive in terms of time and ink, much less buying actual minis!).
Just my two penn’orth.

 

[happyhermit]

Yet when someone else does that from the other persepective, you accuse them of attacking the method you prefer.

Yet that's literally all you've been doing. Presenting overblown, unverifiable anecdotes of the pitfalls of one, and glowing testimonials of the other.

Look, clearly you've picked a side and that's all there is to it.
Enjoy your OneTrueWay.

That's right;
Sharing one's own experiences, and saying there is no objective "right way" or "right tool for the job" = Onetruewayism
Saying there are "right tools" for the job, telling people their preferred tool should only be used when other tools are unavailable, telling people who disagree that they're "doing it wrong" = What?

Thanks Satyrn, I had no intention of putting down minis, I didn't think sharing my experiences would be seen so negatively. After years/decades of people telling me that it's impossible to have a meaningful game using Totm, especially in D&D, I would hate to make anyone feel like they are "playing it wrong" but I really don't think I did.

 

[Tony Vargas]

That's right;
Sharing one's own experiences, and saying there is no objective "right way" or "right tool for the job" = Onetruewayism

Your experiences, which you tried to couch as being extensive, just happened to point to one option being ideal and the other unduly limiting, without exception.

Saying there are "right tools" for the job, telling people their preferred tool should only be used when other tools are unavailable, telling people who disagree that they're "doing it wrong" = What?

Asserting something can't be done or 'is discouraged' by one method, is inviting examples of how it can be done.

 

[happyhermit]

Your experiences, which you tried to couch as being extensive, just happened to point to one option being ideal and the other unduly limiting, without exception.

Maybe ideal for MYSELF and people I play with, when playing a particular type of D&D like game, what part of IME don't you get? The "without exception" part you are just making up, but even if I said that I have found that IME (as inextensive and inadequate as that might be) Totm works better for MYSELF that wouldn't be onetruewayism, nor would someone who prefers mini's saying the opposite. It isn't telling anyone else they are doing it wrong, or that they should be doing it my way.

Asserting something can't be done or 'is discouraged' by one method, is inviting examples of how it can be done.

Are you just trolling me? I literally said;

I'm not saying it isn't entirely doable

And you can honestly say that I was asserting something can't be done!?! You are just making stuff up and reading things into my posts that aren't there.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I am disappointed, but not surprised, to see grid maps in the lead.

 

[Morrus]

I am disappointed, but not surprised, to see grid maps in the lead.

Why?