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Wherefore "mini-less" D&D assumptions?
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<blockquote data-quote="Henry" data-source="post: 4974989" data-attributes="member: 158"><p>One thing that's popped out to me in some of the edition "wars"/discussions has been the mention that 4E requires minis, with a seemingly unspoken assumption that previous versions never used them. Back when 3E was new, this would have been quite a shock to me, because the same claims were made about 3E back then; lack of the World Wide Web as a reference medium leaves me unable to tell if the same claims were made about 2E in 1989 or not - and the Dragon magazine letters of the time really didn't focus on it, because most of the negative press wasn't represented or dealt with, from what I can tell.</p><p></p><p>So, when it's mentioned that 4E requires minis, and this being mentioned as a megative point, I wonder if some people were just dumping a good quarter of the 3E combat system to avoid minis - Op attacks, spells and class abilities that affected 5-foot steps, bull rushes, armor speed reductions, Huge Monster threat ranges, etc. For that matter, even back in 1E, a large portion (or maybe even the majority, from informal polls I've seen) of AD&D gamers used minis, or some form of spatial representation in order to play.</p><p></p><p>I have to wonder - I know AD&D1 and 3E can be played without minis with plenty of trust in a DM (and even 4E could, too), but did so many people swim against the current that 3E was perceived by many as a "mini-less" game?</p><p></p><p>I know I have personally used them for the nine years I've played 3E and d20, and would only not use them in a very, very, short engagement that didn't involve much moving around, like <em>"you're around the campfire, and a single big monster attacks. Roll init!"</em> But in any combat with, say, 5 or 10 opponents, or in interesting terrain, I'm busting out those minis, for goodness sake, because I don't want to short change my fighters who invested in those cleave and tripping feats, and I don't want the wizard getting away with dropping fireballs with pinpoint "laser-guided bomb" accuracy and not have to worry about the party.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Henry, post: 4974989, member: 158"] One thing that's popped out to me in some of the edition "wars"/discussions has been the mention that 4E requires minis, with a seemingly unspoken assumption that previous versions never used them. Back when 3E was new, this would have been quite a shock to me, because the same claims were made about 3E back then; lack of the World Wide Web as a reference medium leaves me unable to tell if the same claims were made about 2E in 1989 or not - and the Dragon magazine letters of the time really didn't focus on it, because most of the negative press wasn't represented or dealt with, from what I can tell. So, when it's mentioned that 4E requires minis, and this being mentioned as a megative point, I wonder if some people were just dumping a good quarter of the 3E combat system to avoid minis - Op attacks, spells and class abilities that affected 5-foot steps, bull rushes, armor speed reductions, Huge Monster threat ranges, etc. For that matter, even back in 1E, a large portion (or maybe even the majority, from informal polls I've seen) of AD&D gamers used minis, or some form of spatial representation in order to play. I have to wonder - I know AD&D1 and 3E can be played without minis with plenty of trust in a DM (and even 4E could, too), but did so many people swim against the current that 3E was perceived by many as a "mini-less" game? I know I have personally used them for the nine years I've played 3E and d20, and would only not use them in a very, very, short engagement that didn't involve much moving around, like [I]"you're around the campfire, and a single big monster attacks. Roll init!"[/I] But in any combat with, say, 5 or 10 opponents, or in interesting terrain, I'm busting out those minis, for goodness sake, because I don't want to short change my fighters who invested in those cleave and tripping feats, and I don't want the wizard getting away with dropping fireballs with pinpoint "laser-guided bomb" accuracy and not have to worry about the party. [/QUOTE]
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