D&D General Changing from 5 ft squares to 1 yard/meter squares

[Xeviat]

Hi all. I'd like to workshop an idea that would take a lot of work to implement, but I'd like to play around with the idea and see if there could be some good stuff coming from it. This came up when describing rooms, and having to make rooms significantly larger than 10 by 10 to really work in a dungeon, yet I can easily envision several people cramming into a 10 by 10 room and fighting.

The 5 ft space feels a little big. So, I wanted to see where this idea would go: what if the base scale was changed to 1 yard/1 meter squares?

First advantage: it is more easily metricked, only really requiring mile to kilometer conversions at a certain point. The base 30 speed turns to 10 squares, so that's fine. 25 ft would need to be rounded down to 24 but that's OK.

Obviously, map scales would be thrown out of wack. I make a lot of my own stuff so I'm not concerned about that right now. I just want to explore where it goes. But, maps would convert on a 3 to 5 ratio (a 3 by 3 space on old maps would turn into a 5 by 5 space).

Where I think real interesting things could happen would be in weapon reaches. We could have more nuance between light, one handed, two-handed, and reach weapons. Reach weapons normally had a reach of 10 ft, so cutting that back to 9 feet would be a reach of 3. Light weapons could have a reach of 0 and 1, medium weapons have a reach of 1 and 2, and long weapons have a reach of 2 and 3. Extra rules can be added for getting into reach, giving light weapons a goal of getting in close to deny someone use of their big weapon, while a large weapon user would want to keep someone at a range.

Monster sizes may need to be adjusted. 10, 15, and 20 ft spaces almost line up with 3, 5, and 7 unit sizes.

Can anyone think of any other fun stuff that could be added with a more granular grid?

 

[Xeviat]

Another little advantage is it might make spaces look more accurately sized on a map. I've had times where players have themselves positioned 30 to 60 feet away from allies thinking its not that far, when that's really a long way away if you get out a measuring tape and really think about it.

 

[commandercrud]

Swing a sword around you. Five feet isn't that big.

 

[Auramancer]

Swing a sword around you. Five feet isn't that big.

While true, I think there’s merit in the suggestion of a more granular breakdown of weapon reach and position. I think this point is adequately addressed by 2 meter reach on medium weapons. It could better represent maneuvers to get inside a foe’s reach and grapple or attack unarmed / with a tiny weapon (e.g. dagger).

The primary question is whether it would reduce fun by adding complexity and slow down combat.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I believe the d20 Star Wars game that WotC produced way back when had each square as 1 meter rather than 5 feet. There didn't seem to be any issues about it.

Truth be told, if the game just followed 4E's decision of measuring everything in squares, you could make the size of each square whatever you wanted.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Where I think real interesting things could happen would be in weapon reaches. We could have more nuance between light, one handed, two-handed, and reach weapons. Reach weapons normally had a reach of 10 ft, so cutting that back to 9 feet would be a reach of 3. Light weapons could have a reach of 0 and 1, medium weapons have a reach of 1 and 2, and long weapons have a reach of 2 and 3. Extra rules can be added for getting into reach, giving light weapons a goal of getting in close to deny someone use of their big weapon, while a large weapon user would want to keep someone at a range.

This is the part I'm most interested in.

I'd also give many weapons a couble range, by which I mean that the rapier would be able to lunge out across a square, perhaps as a bonus action as before mak,ing the attack, while a pike might be able to lunge out to 15, etc.

 

[Musing Mage]

1st Ed uses a scale of 1 Square = 3.3ft, so 3x3 squares is a 10ft area.

The movement rates and such are all geared around this scale, so factoring a per-segment movement rate is simply a matter of dividing your movement rate appropriately. If you're using indoor movements were 1" of movement equals 10ft, 1 segment of movement is your rate divided by 10. (there are 10 segments in a round)

So a human with a base movement of 12" can move 120ft per round, or 12ft per segment. Converting to squares, just divide your core movement rate by 3, and you get your per-segment movement in squares. (4 in the case of a movement rate of 12")

Outdoor movement is base 1 for 1. 1" = 10 yards, so therefore a 12" movement scale means 12 squares per segment of movement.


So if you're converting from a system that's designed around the 5ft grid square, you need to factor in all of the other elements. Just as changing 1E to 5ft squares creates a mathematical disjoint that needs to be addressed, likewise switching to 3.3ft squares from a system designed around 5ft squares will present some hiccups as you've noted.

Converting character movement to movement points is probably the best bet, but because all movement rates in 5e aren't equally divisible by 3 you'll get fractions. Perhaps a fraction equals a half point.... because you'll want any diagonal step to equal 1.5 movement points, so half points will see use.

Formula for movement pts is Base move in feet divided by 3, fractions count as half.

Move of 25ft therefore = 8.5 movement pts. 40ft = 13.5 movement pts etc etc...

On a practical level, 3.3ft square grids eat up a lot of space on your battlemap, so that might not be ideal if you're playing in a smaller space.

For my own part, I run 1E and use the 3.3ft spacing, and I have a large battlemat and a small one. I use them for 'zoom out' views, where I treat each square as a 10ft area - which is great for laying out the map for players. Then I 'zoom in' by plopping down the smaller mat when we need a close up for combat or more nuanced spacing.

 

[Rabulias]

You can also convert movement to squares - a 30 speed is 6 squares, which becomes 18 feet; 25 speed becomes 5 squares, which becomes 15 feet., etc. - which will not throw off any balance issues regarding how far characters can move.

 

[ccs]

1st Ed uses a scale of 1 Square = 3.3ft, so 3x3 squares is a 10ft area.

Except for all those times where 1 square = 10'.....

 

[Musing Mage]

Except for all those times where 1 square = 10'.....

Well, scale in 1st ed is specifically variable. 1" = 10ft is generally mapping scale for indoors. 1" = 10 yards is outdoor scale.

The ideal use of miniatures and a grid in combat involves a scale 3.3ft squares. Hence why I use two battlemats for 'zooming in' when needed for fighting.