Theater of the Mind

[herrozerro]

Hello all!

Up until recently I have been a huge proponent of the battlemap and to some extent I still would prefer it in a heavily tactical game, but recently I started a game with several remote players. I also don't have a perfect VTT setup going on and in all honesty one of the reasons why I want to do TotM (Theater of the mind) is I really don't have the time with work and classes to design maps.

So that leaves me with TotM, I already have some experience with it my last few sessions I believe went well, they fought some bandits and I believe I was able to keep each player engaged with some decent description on what they faced. I had a few small issues with keep track of 15+ enemies but since most of them were minions tracking HP was not a huge issue. But a particular issue was a player who was sniping from far off was a little flustered when he couldn't attack some enemies on the other side of an obstacle, perhaps my own descriptions were a little off.

An interesting note I noticed that the group when not bound to a map seemed to split up a bit more with ambushing the bandits the group split up into teams of two with two solo players sneaking around. Something I never would have had if the battle had taken place on a map.

So, anyways. Does anyone have any good tips for getting more out of TotM?

 

[Ahnehnois]

The advantage of this approach is speed.

The classic statement about inaccuracies is movies is "if the audience is paying attention to the plot holes, your movie has failed to be interesting". D&D is much the same. If the player is worried about where the obstacles are, the combat is not interesting enough.

I find the best approach to these types of things is to focus on what the player can do rather than what he can't. If there's an obstacle, come up with the plan of attack for going around it in a couple of rounds. If the player asks whether he can bypass it, either say yes is it seems reasonable or no if it doesn't, and move on. Don't argue, just make a decision and move on. Ideally, you want the player to come up with something (I jump over the obstacle, I move and attack someone else and get to the main guy next turn, etc.) and have it work. You want to encourage that kind of thinking.

I also find it helpful to take a relatively active stance as a DM and suggest/explain things that characters might try to do. You can see the battlefield and they can't, so you want to convey as much information in as many ways as possible.

Also, I would suggest avoiding the 15+ enemies in general. Those are the ones I break out the maps for. Your memory can only hold so much information.

 

[herrozerro]

The advantage of this approach is speed.

The classic statement about inaccuracies is movies is "if the audience is paying attention to the plot holes, your movie has failed to be interesting". D&D is much the same. If the player is worried about where the obstacles are, the combat is not interesting enough.

I find the best approach to these types of things is to focus on what the player can do rather than what he can't. If there's an obstacle, come up with the plan of attack for going around it in a couple of rounds. If the player asks whether he can bypass it, either say yes is it seems reasonable or no if it doesn't, and move on. Don't argue, just make a decision and move on. Ideally, you want the player to come up with something (I jump over the obstacle, I move and attack someone else and get to the main guy next turn, etc.) and have it work. You want to encourage that kind of thinking.

thanks for the advice, I think this particular incident was that he had a vendetta against this particular enemy and didn't want to take no for an answer. But the enemy had dodged behind basically an impenetrable obstacle and the player was practically as far away from the battle as possible, he was at the end of his mid range with his sniper rifle so moving for positioning was moot.

I also find it helpful to take a relatively active stance as a DM and suggest/explain things that characters might try to do. You can see the battlefield and they can't, so you want to convey as much information in as many ways as possible.

I'll try to keep that in mind, I think I had done this to an extent. We are playing savage worlds and I had brought up several times actions like tricks or tests of will to do.

Also, I would suggest avoiding the 15+ enemies in general. Those are the ones I break out the maps for. Your memory can only hold so much information.

As I said just above we are playing savage worlds, which seems to do the best with about a 3:1 enemies vs players ratio. So, any particular advice for handling large combats in TotM?

 

[Ahnehnois]

As I said just above we are playing savage worlds, which seems to do the best with about a 3:1 enemies vs players ratio. So, any particular advice for handling large combats in TotM?

I don't know anything about Savage Worlds, but 3:1 seems like a very strange baseline.

That aside, if you want to run a large battle without physically tracking it, I think the method of choice is "chunking". That is, you divide the enemies into categories and consider members those categories together. That is, you remember that the archers are over here, the twelve grunts are swarming one character over there, the healers heal in a predictable pattern, etc. You seemed to already have some handle on this concept.

 

[Janx]

Interesting problem.

Acronyms: where relevant, would you mind defining these the first time you use them? I have no idea what TotM means. For instance, when I see SW, I think Star Wars, not Savage Worlds. We got a mixed crowd here, and these things confuse the matter, not clarify.

Virtual Table Top (VTT): consider Roll20. It's made to be ad hoc and quick to get playing and doing battlemat things (like a real battlemat). Includes voice/video chat. Works with Google Plus. It's kind of like the iPhone of VTT. Locked into specific features, but those features are done well and easy to use.

On PC sniping at enemy: Assuming the rest of the party was getting up close and personal, this lone PC had no right to special treatment. You can't sit at a distance and expect to be kicking as much butt as the guys swinging swords in the thick of it. With no other information, I'm thinking this player wanted to have the perfect "safe" killing spree and is miffed that you nerfed it.

To Battlemat or not: It sounds like you get interesting tactics like splitting up, if you don't use a map. I suggest either not bringing out the map until the actual combat (when they've declared their clever split up attack) or zoom your map out so they can see more than a 30x24 area. When you map is small, you build your plan to the map you see.

VTT Combat: I'd caution against too much combat in any tele-gaming system. It seems easier to work that stuff out in person, than in chat, play by post, or at best in VTT. More role play, problem solving seems to work well.

 

[herrozerro]

Interesting problem.

Acronyms: where relevant, would you mind defining these the first time you use them? I have no idea what TotM means. For instance, when I see SW, I think Star Wars, not Savage Worlds. We got a mixed crowd here, and these things confuse the matter, not clarify.

Virtual Table Top (VTT): consider Roll20. It's made to be ad hoc and quick to get playing and doing battlemat things (like a real battlemat). Includes voice/video chat. Works with Google Plus. It's kind of like the iPhone of VTT. Locked into specific features, but those features are done well and easy to use.

Sorry about that, TotM is theater of the mind.

I have been having a lot of audio issues with google hangouts, I had tried to use roll20 with hangouts but we ended up having to cobble together skype for audio and hangouts for video, since then we have been using skype premium for video conferencing.

Perhaps i'll give it another go now.

 

[Stormonu]

On the long range sniper - he may not have been able to hit the opponent directly, but you might have been able to offer an option for him to pin the guy until he could get close, or perhaps offer a trick shot (knocking down some rubble, penetrating a weak spot in the obstacle by spending a benny, richocheting a shot, etc.) The best option by far would probably have been "spend a bennie to make the shot somehow." Giving up bennies is a powerful thing - that's part of your XP and your ability to avoid taking a wound. It also gives the players some narrative power in making things more cinematic.

 

[herrozerro]

On the long range sniper - he may not have been able to hit the opponent directly, but you might have been able to offer an option for him to pin the guy until he could get close, or perhaps offer a trick shot (knocking down some rubble, penetrating a weak spot in the obstacle by spending a benny, richocheting a shot, etc.) The best option by far would probably have been "spend a bennie to make the shot somehow." Giving up bennies is a powerful thing - that's part of your XP and your ability to avoid taking a wound. It also gives the players some narrative power in making things more cinematic.

I could see that, though bennies don't factor into XP as of Deluxe.

 

[Neonchameleon]

I'd recommend looking at a system designed for Theatre of the Mind - either Dungeon World or 13th Age if you want to stick with D&D.

 

[Mallus]

I'd recommend looking at a system designed for Theatre of the Mind - either Dungeon World or 13th Age if you want to stick with D&D.

Or any version of D&D that isn't 3e, Pathfinder, or 4e!