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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sage Genesis" data-source="post: 6598640" data-attributes="member: 6706099">I find this topic a bit difficult because the term "Theater of the Mind" actually comprises two distinctly different styles. For the sake of argument I will call these "Measured Gridless" and "Vague Gridless".5e is a Measured Gridless game. The use of a grid is not assumed, but it does include exact measurements and distances such as you would expect to get out of a grid. The difference between movement speed 30 and 35 is considered enough of a salient difference to call it out in the rules. Spells and abilities have their ranges and areas expressed in 5-feet chunks. Positioning and movement can be important because it triggers opportunity attacks or special powers. (Note that I'm not saying that everybody must play the game like this, only that the game presents itself like this.)For a Vague Gridless game, look at 13th Age, The One Ring, or any of the Fate games. There are no distances in 13th Age measured in feet. What is the speed of an elf compared to a human? There are no rules for this because it's irrelevant. What is the range of Magic Missile? It's "one nearby or far away enemy". No really, that is a quote. How do you know which creatures can be caught in a Fireball's radius? Well, it affects 1d3 creatures in a group. So if you decide to chuck a Fireball at those gnoll archers up on the ridge, roll a die to see how many happen to be affected. (It's not as if they're perfectly stationary outside of their turns, nor is your aim perfectly accurate.)In my experience, the differences between a game on a grid and a Measured Gridless game are fairly small. A Vague Gridless game can be lightning quick, however, because you truly do away with measurements. And if you take those assumptions into the design of the core system itself it allows you to make some fundamental changes which are big time savers. However, no edition of D&D has ever really been built with this type of play in mind. D&D was always and still is based on a miniature wargame. And so we still have today a Fireball with a range of 150 feet and a 20-foot radius, with a note about how the explosion spreads around corners based from the point of origin. Great for the Measured Gridless style of play, real lousy for the even faster and looser alternative.Anyway, as to the OP's question:Yes, there is a real difference in speed, but 5e doesn't provide it. You need to go further down the rabbit hole to get real, consistent speed differences.</blockquote>

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