When playing D&D I use battlemats...

[justanobody]

Wow, fire your DM then. i found that buying the DM items I like to use in games usually works or just bringing it to game.

When they have too many minis to sort through, it doesn't matter if you buy them more.

And this one just hates crawling in the floor to place tiles since we sit around on sofas. He gets the only recliner of course....so we do the floor crawling of move things around on the table to show relative positions of the party and wing it from there.

I can play without minis, but prefer them for a few instances like marching orders, etc.

 

[Tewligan]

And this one just hates crawling in the floor to place tiles since we sit around on sofas. He gets the only recliner of course....so we do the floor crawling of move things around on the table to show relative positions of the party and wing it from there.

Daaamn. I am jealous of your DM - lounging around while the peon players are crawling around on the floor at his feet? The image in my head of your playgroup is somewhere between decadent DM luxury and weird S&M overtones...

 

[RFisher]

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

There’s an official D&D battlemat now?

 

[JackSmithIV]

I love my battlemat! Simple setup really. A few markers, draw simple lines and indicators, I use homemade standees with just names on them for players, and various colored glass beads like those used by TCG players.

One of the things that I find is that I run roleplay intensive games, which are highly aided by my battlemat. Sometimes having a visual aid as palpable as where everyone is in the room helps people take the most of a given circumstance. Players remember to keep their voices down because someone is only two barstools down. They know which shoulder to look over to signal to a friend. I may sound like a bit of a wimp for saying this, but just because roleplaying is a feat of the imagination, doesn't mean you have to let your imagination do all of the work.

The battlemat not only makes for great combat, but helps my players keep roleplaying situations in perspective. I've never had the following said at my table:

"Listen, there's something I need to tell you, secr- wait a second, ok, out of character... how far down is that shading halfling? He's at the bar still, right? Oh, ok, he's far enough away... *ahem, lowers voice* there's something I need to tell you..."

 

[Calico_Jack73]

My old answer would be always but I've since started using Dundjinni maps of my own and Campaign Cartographer maps that I've found online. Hand drawn maps are so last decade.

 

[Nebulous]

I almost always use a battlemat, either preprinted tiles or hand drawn. I'm also starting to move into more 3D territory with props, but that is sort of time intensive and i don't really like cutting and gluing those things together, although the end results look sweet.

 

[Hussar]

Hrm, when 80% of respondents use battlemaps a lot of the time, it's not a big shock that 4e becomes more battlemat dependent is it?

 

[rkwoodard]

since 1st

Hi,

I have been using a battlemat (of some sort) since 1st edition when the DM kept having his 9 ft. demon attack the wizard in the back of the party. The party was on a 10ft. ledge outside a cave.

Since arguing with the DM tends to destroy immersive RP for me. A battlemat tends to help.

RK

 

[jdsivyer]

Hrm, when 80% of respondents use battlemaps a lot of the time, it's not a big shock that 4e becomes more battlemat dependent is it?

I must admit, I'm a tad surprised that about 80% of those who have partaken in the poll use a battlemat pretty much every gaming session.

Maybe I'm too old school

I guess WOTC knew a lot more about people's D&D gaming habits than I did when they designed 4e

 

[Zinovia]

We used minis for some time even in good old AD&D, but primarily for the marching order. No mat though.

Then we played Rolemaster for 10 years and gave 2E a complete miss. We bought the hex mat for RM, and have used it ever since, even when going to 3E and now 4E. I love hex grids. They just work nicely for a lot of this.

I can't imagine trying to describe a complex combat scene without the use of minis, or some sort of markers for the various combatants. It just gets too hard to envision, and too hard to adjudicate, IMHO. Playing Rolemaster for so long is bound to have influenced my view of combat, including facing and flanking, but I always liked having a visual representation of how everyone was positioned.