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

[Mezuka]

A 30' X 30' room during AD&D exploration mode is divided into 10'x10' squares. As published by TSR.

The same 30' X 30' room during AD&D combat mode. Each 10'x10' square is subdivided into 9 squares (1-yard x 1-yard each). This offers many more travel paths to exploit tactically, than a 5'x5' subdivision. Which is always better for a thief trying to backstab someone. That is how Gygax envisioned it.

 

[Cadence]

It came up for me wondering about hallway size and squeezing though. Maybe there should.juat be a lot of places where fighting is hard. Trying to find a place for my son to practice kata or sword in the house during the pandemic required moving all the furniture out of the second biggest room we have.. and it was still tight.

 

[Reynard]

I am a land surveyor by trade and I can tell you with certainty that most people have very little understanding of horizontal distances and almost no understanding of vertical distances. Old school 10' square maps were a gameplay tool, not anything realistic. A 100' tunnel in the dark is the longest thing in the world if you have never been in one before, and a 15×15 room is huge until you add furniture. Moving 100 yards outside is easier and faster than you think.

As to weapon reach: remember that the vast majority of ancient and medieval weapons were pointy sticks of one kind or another, because you can pack a bunch of men shoulder to shoulder. Swinging big ass weapons around is for tourneys and show. Chopping weapons were close range in your face weapons, not for making big loops.

Not that D&D combat has to or should look like real combat, but if the motivation for changing the scale of the game is "realism" it stands to reason one should consider reality.

 

[Mezuka]

I am a land surveyor by trade and I can tell you with certainty that most people have very little understanding of horizontal distances and almost no understanding of vertical distances. Old school 10' square maps were a gameplay tool, not anything realistic. A 100' tunnel in the dark is the longest thing in the world if you have never been in one before, and a 15×15 room is huge until you add furniture. Moving 100 yards outside is easier and faster than you think.

As to weapon reach: remember that the vast majority of ancient and medieval weapons were pointy sticks of one kind or another, because you can pack a bunch of men shoulder to shoulder. Swinging big ass weapons around is for tourneys and show. Chopping weapons were close range in your face weapons, not for making big loops.

Not that D&D combat has to or should look like real combat, but if the motivation for changing the scale of the game is "realism" it stands to reason one should consider reality.

I fully agree with you. The AD&D 1-yard grid was a gaming tool to make weapon reach more granular within the context of the game. Gygax was a big fan of long spears and polearms as tools of war in AD&D.

With a 1-yard grid, it's much easier to differentiate the reach threat zone between a sword (1 square) and a two-handed sword (2 squares) and a halberd (3 squares). If your group enjoys playing on a battle mat and exploiting weapon reaches it is a much better system.

With a 5-feet grid, every weapon has a reach of 1 square except polearms. I bit bland.

 

[Reynard]

I fully agree with you. The AD&D 1-yard grid was a gaming tool to make weapon reach more granular within the context of the game. Gygax was a big fan of long spears and polearms as tools of war in AD&D.

With a 1-yard grid, it's much easier to differentiate the reach threat zone between a sword (1 square) and a two-handed sword (2 squares) and a halberd (3 squares). If your group enjoys playing on a battle mat and exploiting weapon reaches it is a much better system.

With a 5-feet grid, every weapon has a reach of 1 square except polearms. I bit bland.

Remember that AD&D made reach matter to the individual foot for initiative. For a guy that liked to protest that AD&D was not a simulation, he really worked a lot of details into the combat system.