Considering Hexes instead of squares

[moticon]

When first looking at 4E, and after playing KotS, I'm considering using hex maps for my games rather than squares...

There are several advantages I feel:

1. Burst and blast have a more rounded shape
2. Movement is still easy, but now the diagonals work a little more "naturally" for distance
3. You can still calculate range by counting hexes, but again distance makes a little more sense
4. Mini's fit in the 1" hex sheet...

The downside is that all the rules and provided maps are expecting squares... It could cause unintended consequences..

What do others think about this approach?

 

[Voss]

I tried it out. It works pretty well.

Notable consequences-

you can get less people adjacent. This actually works out in the party's favor, unless you have a really big group.

area effects shrink slightly. I'm honestly not to bothered by this, but a hard-core wizard player might complain. But unless you plan on absolutely filling the map with monsters, this should make a huge difference.

Large monsters also look a little weird on a 'triangle' of three hexes. But other than that...

 

[Blackeagle]

Horray for hexes!!

 

[beholdsa]

Hexes are awesome!

 

[Dausuul]

Another thing to note about hexes: You can do blast effects much more intuitively--going back to old-style "cone" effects instead of trying to put a hexagon adjacent to you. With hexes, you can have a Blast 3 ability look like this (X represents the source of the blast, * indicates the area of effect):

 _   _   _   _   _
/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \
\_/*\_/ \_/ \_/ \_/
/ \_/*\_/ \_/ \_/ \
\_/*\_/*\_/ \_/ \_/
/ \_/*\_/X\_/ \_/ \
\_/*\_/*\_/ \_/ \_/
/ \_/*\_/ \_/ \_/ \
\_/*\_/ \_/ \_/ \_/
/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \
\_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/

The number of hexes covered is actually fairly close to the number of squares you'd cover under the normal system, and it's very easy to draw.

 

[Tao]

Having played a lot of Warmachine lately, I'm actually very seriously considering going gridless for 4e and using string marked off in inches. My biggest concern would probably be attacks of opportunity/movement and potentially some of the AOE attacks, but for the most part, as long as I am consistent with my rulings, I think it might work out nicely.

 

[dm4hire]

I'm actually planning on doing away with squares and hexes all together and just converting it to inches and playing old school.

 

[DerekSTheRed]

I was going to house rule Pythagorean into 4E by renewing the cost of diagonal movement to 1.5 and new AoE templates. I never thought of changing to hexes and it would be a much cleaner solution. Kudos to you, Moticon, for suggesting it.

Derek

 

[Plane Sailing]

The downside is that all the rules and provided maps are expecting squares... It could cause unintended consequences..

What do others think about this approach?

I'd be all for it. The thing to find is a transparency marked with 1" hexes. Where would you buy that I wonder?

 

[sunrisekid]

octagons?

Just curious, but why not just use an octagonal grid? Sounds like it would satisfy all your movement and blast concerns.