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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 4325173" data-attributes="member: 996">You could aproach it two ways.&nbsp; You could try to adjust your attitude and visualize what's happening in spite of the lumps of plastic.&nbsp; Require that any successful use of a power be accompanied by a good, dramatic description of it.&nbsp; Not just &quot;I move 2 because it's a nimble strike and do my sneak attack damage since I'm in a flanking position which gives me combat advantage.&quot;&nbsp; But, &quot;as he turns his attention to Regdar, I slip in and plant a dagger between his ribs!&quot;&nbsp; If you can't visualize your exploit or power in a way consistent with the feel of the campaign (be it a sword &amp; sorcery, high fantasy, or action movie feel), you don't get to use that exploit.&nbsp; This would force players to think beyond the grid.&nbsp; Do the same for the monsters, providing dramatic descriptions of thier abilities.&nbsp; And, remember, that means making the PCs look heroic and having the players feel you're being fair, with your dramatic description, even as the monster kicks thier asses when it's nastiest power has recharged.Alternately, if you really can't stand the grid, you can just treat powers that slide, push or pull opponents more abstractly.&nbsp; The player just has to ask the DM who he can reach, or how many enemies he can affect with an area attack.&nbsp; &quot;I want to use my Dragonborn breath power, I've got the expanded feat, so it's big - how many minions can a catch in it?&quot;&nbsp; You just figure, well there are eight minions, I wouldn't want him to be able to hit half, but he does have the feat so.. &quot;Three, you could get the two Tordek is fighting, also, because of your expanded breath weapon, but he'd get caught in it, too.&quot;&nbsp; You use story considerations and the relative strength of the power (and whether it's encounter or daily) rather than grid, to answer questions about who you can attack, catch in an area, or whether you can push the bad guy into the snakepit.&nbsp; It might anger more tactically enclined players (I wouldn't be too happy with it, unless you were a /very/ good DM and generally found myself in accord with your judgement of story flow and drama).Champions uses a lot of tactical movement on a hex map, but I've been in games with good GMs who were able to take the 'dramatic' aproach with no figures, and still let me feel like my character was getting the full use out of the extra movement or force wall or whatever map-dependent power he paid good character points for.&nbsp; Heck, I've even been able to make it work, myself, in that system, when the only space we had available just wasn't suitable for a battlemat.&nbsp; So I know it can work, it's just not easy.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 4325173, member: 996"] You could aproach it two ways. You could try to adjust your attitude and visualize what's happening in spite of the lumps of plastic. Require that any successful use of a power be accompanied by a good, dramatic description of it. Not just "I move 2 because it's a nimble strike and do my sneak attack damage since I'm in a flanking position which gives me combat advantage." But, "as he turns his attention to Regdar, I slip in and plant a dagger between his ribs!" If you can't visualize your exploit or power in a way consistent with the feel of the campaign (be it a sword & sorcery, high fantasy, or action movie feel), you don't get to use that exploit. This would force players to think beyond the grid. Do the same for the monsters, providing dramatic descriptions of thier abilities. And, remember, that means making the PCs look heroic and having the players feel you're being fair, with your dramatic description, even as the monster kicks thier asses when it's nastiest power has recharged. Alternately, if you really can't stand the grid, you can just treat powers that slide, push or pull opponents more abstractly. The player just has to ask the DM who he can reach, or how many enemies he can affect with an area attack. "I want to use my Dragonborn breath power, I've got the expanded feat, so it's big - how many minions can a catch in it?" You just figure, well there are eight minions, I wouldn't want him to be able to hit half, but he does have the feat so.. "Three, you could get the two Tordek is fighting, also, because of your expanded breath weapon, but he'd get caught in it, too." You use story considerations and the relative strength of the power (and whether it's encounter or daily) rather than grid, to answer questions about who you can attack, catch in an area, or whether you can push the bad guy into the snakepit. It might anger more tactically enclined players (I wouldn't be too happy with it, unless you were a /very/ good DM and generally found myself in accord with your judgement of story flow and drama). Champions uses a lot of tactical movement on a hex map, but I've been in games with good GMs who were able to take the 'dramatic' aproach with no figures, and still let me feel like my character was getting the full use out of the extra movement or force wall or whatever map-dependent power he paid good character points for. Heck, I've even been able to make it work, myself, in that system, when the only space we had available just wasn't suitable for a battlemat. So I know it can work, it's just not easy. [/QUOTE]

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