D&D 5E Playing with a battlemat but without a grid

[Li Shenron]

Is anybody playing D&D or other RPG using a visual representation of the environment (battlemat, map or hand drawing with counters/minis) but actually without a grid-like subdivision of that?

This essentially means, to play exploration & combat by keeping track of distances and positions, but not using squares/hexes, instead just using free-form/continuous measurements.

I think I've heard this is the default in miniature games like Warhammer? Any experience on using this in D&D? Pros and cons?

Do you think specifically 5e can be run effectively or easily in this way? Anybody has already tried and wants to share their feelings about it?

 

[Phoenix8008]

So far in the one session of LMoP I've run, I just sketched out the basic scene of the goblin ambush site on notebook paper and wrote down letters showing approximate locations of bad guys and characters that could be erased and updated as the fight went on.

I wasn't using minis though or actually measuring distances with a ruler/tapemeasure like I've seen done in Dystopian Wars or Warhammer though. I think it would work fine to run 5E that way though.

 

[Shiroiken]

I did this throughout the playtest, and it worked perfectly fine. Some players who are used to the grid might take a combat or so to adjust, however.

 

[Pickles JG]

I think I've heard this is the default in miniature games like Warhammer? Any experience on using this in D&D? Pros and cons?

It is for Warmachine & much as I love that game it does come down to milimetres, proxy bases & & getting the laser pointer out.
Being so precise is a hassle & if you are not going to be so precise then why bother? If I want precision I use a grid & live with the abstraction.

I would use a map to give a broad picture of spacial locations & minis because I love minis but just fudge (aka TotM) the measurements.

 

[Li Shenron]

Being so precise is a hassle & if you are not going to be so precise then why bother? If I want precision I use a grid & live with the abstraction.

I would use a map to give a broad picture of spacial locations & minis because I love minis but just fudge (aka TotM) the measurements.

Well I am not sure yet. I am not looking for precision but I am looking for distance (speeds and ranges) and directions to still matter.

I have both used the grid and TotM in the past. They are both easy to use.

The grid helps adjudicating corner cases faster I suppose, compared to a grid-less mat. But its geometry also restricts options, and delivers a gamist feeling. The best thing about the grid for me is only that it helps visualizing and remembering where is who, and what is the environment around like. That is not because of the grid geometry however, so I'm thinking what can happen in the game if I "lift" the geometry and try to work with continuous locations and distances.

 

[edhel]

I use the zones idea from FATE. The map is divided into distinct areas and sometimes you might have to make an ability check to move between them. If we use minis, it's just to mark who is in melee with who and if someone is standing back.

DM Scotty on youtube has a whole series of videos about gridless play: https://www.youtube.com/user/theDMsCraft/search?query=gridless

 

[Pickles JG]

I think you will either have a nice viusal aid for TotM or you will be getting bogged down in minutiae (as soon as you start hand waving measurements to speed things up you arte in TOtM in my estimation).

I do think the cool visual aid has plenty of merit though.

 

[Li Shenron]

DM Scotty on youtube has a whole series of videos about gridless play: https://www.youtube.com/user/theDMsCraft/search?query=gridless

This looks promising, will watch the series, thanks!

 

[Uskglass]

I did an adaptation for D&D 4E to use 13th Age proximity 'zones' system and it worked smoothly for us.

http://community.wizards.com/content/blog/813026

I don't see why it couldn't be done for 5E as well - actually it should be even easier since it's not dependent on a grid.
You just need to establish that anything that can be reached with 1 move action as 'near' and anythiing 2 or more moves away is 'far'.
Then it's about converting area targeting into dice rolls.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I think no grid and the occasional map is the best way to play 5e.