Miniatures and Madness - Legends and Lore by Mike Mearls

[darjr]

Miniatures Madness

Mike Mearls defines two camps, one for the default 3.5/4e style of miniatures combat and one for a more free form style.

I've played a lot of 4e and I think I've since fallen into the latter camp. I don't mind a rigorous tactical miniatures part of the game but I wanted to play games that didn't 'seem' to require it.

I find it interesting that Mike Mearls falls into his second camp, wanting:

a simple method that doesn’t require me to draw lines, mess with the grid, or otherwise break out of the action’s flow

Like him, I remain a huge fan of mini's.

 

[Mark CMG]

Line of Sight predates D&D and the edge of a character sheet or side of a pencil works in a pinch to act as a line.

 

[CharlesRyan]

I'm really glad to see this question posed by Mike and the R&D team, because I think for the last decade D&D development has largely moved forward under the unquestioned assumption that more definitive rules are always better.

By and large, I think the game benefits from clarity, and definitive rules are one way of achieving clarity. But I think the game also benefits from imagination, and recalling that the action on the table exists only to illustrate action in the imagination--not to supersede it. As such, a rule that provides clear guidelines, but the relies on the GM to interpret those guidelines, is best for the game.

That's certainly what got my vote in Mike's little poll!

 

[Beginning of the End]

I was a big an of 3.0's approach of rewarding the accuracy provided by miniature play while not requiring miniatures in order to play. I was disappointed when 3.5 moved away from that, but not surprised when 4th Edition became a game you basically have to cripple and rewrite in order to eliminate miniatures.

Mearls does a good job laying out the two extremes, but I prefer the 3.0 approach of defaulting to no miniatures while rewarding miniature use.

 

[JoeGKushner]

5th edition will have no GM.

 

[Glade Riven]

*shrug* I like drawing maps & stuff, and I'm quick with a pencil. The only issue I have is when people study the map like a chess board for 5 minutes before deciding what to do when it's their turn instead of paying attention when it is not.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

5th edition will have no GM.

You may be joking, but if it starts to lean more toward the Castle Ravenloft board game approach I wouldn't be surprised at all.

Caveat: Before the 4E defenders line up to start taking pot shots? I LIKE the Ravenloft Board game, quite a bit and am eagerly awaiting the Wrath of Ashardalon to arrive from Amazon.

 

[MerricB]

You may be joking, but if it starts to lean more toward the Castle Ravenloft board game approach I wouldn't be surprised at all.

Caveat: Before the 4E defenders line up to start taking pot shots? I LIKE the Ravenloft Board game, quite a bit and am eagerly awaiting the Wrath of Ashardalon to arrive from Amazon.

Wrath is, in my opinion, a lot better.

Cheers!

 

[ShinHakkaider]

Wrath is, in my opinion, a lot better.

Cheers!

Right now my 9 year old is in Vegas with my wife on a mini vacation. He's was looking forward to Wrath when he saw the picture of the box in the Ravenloft set. I think he has this crazy notion that we're going to combine the sets and fight both the Dragon AND the Vampire.

AT THE SAME TIME.

 

[JoeGKushner]

You may be joking, but if it starts to lean more toward the Castle Ravenloft board game approach I wouldn't be surprised at all.

Caveat: Before the 4E defenders line up to start taking pot shots? I LIKE the Ravenloft Board game, quite a bit and am eagerly awaiting the Wrath of Ashardalon to arrive from Amazon.

No, I was not joking.

Dungeon, has for many moons, required little actual role playing and lots of dice rolling. I love rolling the dice but if it's all about combat combat combat, why does the GM need to be there? Each player can take a monster's turn on an opposing players turn or something like that.

The biggest obsticle to D&D is the GM. He's the keypoing, the guardian, the keeper of the way.

Eliminate that bottleneck and the game will flow freely! In theory at least.

That's what my gut told me when I read that article but it could have been the mojitos.