Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pibby" data-source="post: 6596367" data-attributes="member: 6789849">Personally I like Theater of the Mind for most combat encounters, especially throw away or random encounters. It gives players a first perspective on the situation without awkwardly covering and uncovering areas of the map for line of sight. It also lets players imagine a more dynamic combat scene where characters don't stand in place when they do their actions (although you could technically move your miniature around the enemy to show your swashbuckler attacks but it's pointless to do so). I'm not saying you can't do that with a battle mat out but when it is out players will focus more on the battle mat as opposed to the actual color of the scene itself.I only like to use the battle mat when there are obvious terrain features that will matter in the fight by which their positions are a pain to keep track of with Theater of the Mind. The same goes for multiple enemies as well when the battle itself is not focused on one or two local areas. But some exceptions can be made depending on what kind of experience you want for important battles.I ran the last fight in the D&D Expedition "Shadows over the Moonsea" with a Theater of the Mind in one season and with a battle mat in another season. Without spoiling the fight, I felt that running with Theater of the Mind was better for this fight even though character positioning and minding obstacles were an important part of the fight. The fight was much faster this way and because the fight was supposed to be a chaotic war field it put the PCs in a better mindset for this particular battle.</blockquote>

Verification