(3.5E) Aw, crap...

[Tiefling]

Wow. And here I thought the current rules were about as miniatures-oriented as you can get.

 

[Henry]

my group doesn't even *own* a battlemat.

We didn't until August 2000, until then, we used one that a fellow gamer had made with pen, several sheets of paper aligned and gridded with aforementioned pen, and had it professionally laminated. Total cost was about $10.00.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

For a "battle mat" we either use markers to draw terrain on newspaper or a tempoary marker on a mirror surface. That and a ruler and a bit of leeway for the loss in accuracy.

I like the sound of this new line of miniatures being both plastic and painted.

 

[MerricB]

It's funny... though I don't use an actual battlemat, there's a virtual one in my mind when I run the game...

The tension between role-playing combat and game combat just keeps growing, doesn't it? 3.5E seems fairly slanted towards the game aspect... at least it includes rules for fun manuevers (trip, disarm, sunder, etc.) which add life/roleplaying elements to the experience.

I guess the poster grid that came with the Adventure game counts as a battlemat? Not that I've laminated it... normally the walls are various counters, pencils and dice on the rare occasions I drag it out.

I do wonder at how many new players actually use miniatures or counters. (I've got a nice collection of counters from Dungeon now...) It might be a lot more than I might otherwise imagine.

I think that miniature combat is a boon to the newer player and DM, as it helps with tactical and visualisation needs.

Cheers!

 

[boxstop7]

It's all about the benjamins. If WotC puts out "v3.5" or whatever, and stops printing prior versions, new players will have to use the new rules. Those rules essentially "require" the use of minis/battlemats, so new players will have to go buy said items. Two words: Profit. Margin. I don't really care about any of this, to be honest. If they change the rules to require minis, whatever. My group uses them anyway. I just wish they'd be smart about it. This "one-inch-square-no-facing" bullcrap is the most idiotic thing I've ever seen. What do you mean we've got the guy surrounded on all four sides and there's no "sneak" or "overwhelming"???? I understand that flanking is supposed to take care of this. But it's just stupid. The concept of "facing" is, to me, a key part of any combat. I wish they'd go to hexes and use a facing rule. Hexes just make more sense. Diagonal movement and area-affect is so much simpler. Facing and orientation is so much easier. *sigh* If only I ran the show...


~Box

 

[Tiefling]

I can't see how you would make facing rules when the combat round is six seconds long. That's enough time to change which way you're facing several times. Has anyone tried it?

 

[MerricB]

I can see it now...

"If you change facing three times in three rounds, your character becomes dizzy, causing a random 5' step at the end of each of their turns (roll d8 to determine direction), and a -2 to all attack rolls."

Cheers!

 

[Oni]

I can't see how you would make facing rules when the combat round is six seconds long. That's enough time to change which way you're facing several times. Has anyone tried it?

I have to agree with Tiefling here, facing seems really artificial.

Something like an AC penalty equal to every creature above the first adjacent to you would make more sense (because you have to divide your defenses fighting off more attacks from more directions, plus that makes gobbers and other things that attack in groups more dangerous).

 

[Olive]

personally, i reckomend using minis and a battle amt to anyone. sped up our games, everyone always know what was what, and allowed me to concentrate on making the game more exciting.

but like the Col, I can't imagine what they could change to make it more minis orientated.

 

[Creamsteak]

This seriously bites.

I game online; there's no way I *can* use Minis.

Through what Medium? If you play online on a messageboard like this, you can make use of a grid using excel and any photo program. If your talking about a 'chat' game or some-such, your going to need software, and I don't know what kind.