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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Philotomy Jurament" data-source="post: 5767878" data-attributes="member: 20854">The only time I use a battle mat or grid at all is for combat, and even then it's only some of the time.  We never it use it like a game-board during exploration and such.  (I run OD&D and AD&D, if that matters.)  During exploration and non-combat play, the players usually arrange their figures in a marching order, just for reference, but we just play using description, and sometimes the players map on graph paper or I might draw a diagram on some scratch paper.  During combat, there's often no need for a battle map.  (And the editions/rules I'm running don't require it.)  If I think the situation warrants one, we'll use one, though.  When I use a battle map, I don't use a 5' square, but a 3⅓' square.  Thus, a 10' dungeon corridor is 3 squares wide on the battle mat.  I do that because, depending on the weapons being used, I allow up to three characters abreast in a 10' frontage.  For example, three fighters with shields and short swords up front.  If the fighters were wielding longswords, I'd only allow two abreast, and a fighter with a flail would require the entire width of the passage.  The space required stats for weapons are a useful guideline -- I give those numbers some wiggle room, though.(I've been using minis and a grid at the 3⅓'/inch ground scale for years -- long before 3e made the 5'/inch square standard.  The 1e AD&D DMG has a passage about it: "…squares of about 1 actual inch per side are suggested.  Each ground scale inch can then be used to equal 3⅓ linear feet, so a 10' wide scale corridor is 3 actual inches in width and shown as 3 separate squares.  This allows for the typical array of three figures abreast…remember that ground scale differs from figure scale, and when dealing with length, two man-sized figures per square is quite possible, as the space is actually 6 scale feet with respect to length.  This is meaningful when attacking a snake, dragon, etc. if the characters are able to attack the creatures body length.")In OD&D with a battle mat, <a href="http://www.philotomy.com/combat_sequence.html" target="_blank">these are my preferred combat rules</a>.  When running without a battle mat, I usually use the same basic sequence, <a href="http://www.philotomy.com/simple_sequence.html" target="_blank">often like this</a>.I think AD&D 1e provides the best D&D rules for running combat without a battle mat.  This surprises people because they remember the little diagrams about number of figures that could attack a single combatant, and the discussion of miniatures and such (like I quoted above).  Nevertheless, the actual 1e combat rules are very abstract.  You can use them without any precise positioning at all.</blockquote>

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