When playing D&D I use battlemats...

[jdsivyer]

It does not have to be the official D&D one, but any kind of "battlemat"

 

[avin]

What's a "battlemat"?

 

[Betote]

It depends in the flavor of D&D I'm playing. With 3.x, I always use battlemats. With Basic D&D (RC/LL), I very rarely use them.

 

[DeusExMachina]

We've started using them with 4e and on one hand they make combat more tactical and clear, but on the other hand it focuses the game more on the game side and less on the roleplay side, which is sometimes annoying...

Overall I like them for 4e, but would probably not use them if we went back to any earlier edition...

 

[el-remmen]

We've used battlemats regularly since 2E.

Some small combats or purposefully confusing situations do no require them though.

 

[Crothian]

We rarely use them.

 

[Grazzt]

We rarely use them.

Same here

 

[firesnakearies]

I chose "always" because I will always use one if a combat occurs. However, it's entirely possible for a whole session to pass without a battle, so of course, in that case, I wouldn't be using a grid for anything.

I like to pre-construct maps of the entire dungeon/adventure location which the PCs are probably going to be exploring, by attaching dungeon tiles to several large sheets of black foam board with re-usable sticky tacky goo.

 

[Shemeska]

Never use them in my campaigns. And never used them in any games I've played in either.

Just as a style preference, I find a grid/battlemap/minis disruptive to immersive RP.

 

[Wombat]

As seldom as I can get away with it, which made it hard to recruit players at one point, but brought the right group of people to my table.