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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6601304" data-attributes="member: 42582">I think the last sentence is an exaggeration - this thread has plenty of people playing without maps and tokens. As well as those who do.I think it depends heavily upon the system, though. When I played AD&D (1st ed) and B/X a lot of the action took place in dungeon contexts where maximum distances were generally well-short of maximum ranges. And in those systems there are no significant rules for in-melee positioning or movement.Whereas in 4e (to pick the version of D&D I am currently GMing) their are intricate rues for in-melee positioning and movement, there are reach rules which both PCs and NPCs/monsters want to exploit, there are OAs triggered not just by retreating from melee altogether but by manoeuvring within it, etc. To give a couple of examples on the PC side in my 4e game: the dwarf fighter is built around exploiting his polearm reach to keep enemies at bay while cruelling them with multi-target sweeps (close bursts, in technical terms); and he synergises with the sorcerer/bard, most of whose powers allow him to teleport anyone he hits one or two squares. Classic D&D just didn't have this sort of precision movement as part of its combat resolution mechanics.The system also supports far more tactically intricate combats (in terms of terrain and architecture, force composition etc) than did AD&D or B/X (at least as we played them), and that interacts with the above-mentioned mechanical features to make maps and tokens more useful.When I recently ran some Burning Wheel sessions with combat in them we didn't use maps or tokens, because BW uses a "zone"-style system a little bit like that described upthread for 13th Age. The fighting took place on a ship, for which we already had a rough deck-plan, and when the fight was on we kept track of general positions in relation to the deck plan (eg "between the mast and the forecastle"; "in the galley doorway"; etc).Different mechanical systems demand different tools for their resolution.</blockquote>

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