Considering Hexes instead of squares

[Asmor]

A burst 1 and 2 on a grid is 9 and 25 squares respectively. A 5 and 10 foot radius on a hex map (using the link I provided) will have 7 and 19 hexes respectively. That's about as close as you're going to get. They also are counted the same way. You pick a target square/hex and then count squares/hexes away from that equal to the burst value.

Derek

I'm sorry, I misread your original post. My bad. You were right

 

[moticon]

We ran the first two KotS encounters tonight on a hex mat.

Overall it was much easier in my opinion, and it felt very natural for the bursts and blasts to work on hex paper.

We didn't have any large creatures, but I don't see any serious problems there.

I will probably use this as often as possible (when the other people at the table allow).

I'm also planning on playing LFR... will be interesting to see if I will be allowed to use this when judging LFR for our local living group...

 

[Jawar]

Squares function almost perfectly in corridors and small rooms (most official material)

Hexes tend to work best on open areas.

So, both should be used accordingly.
Still, do the players manage that environmental grid change?

 

[Mr. Wilson]

I'm back to using Hexes outdoors and Squares indoors.

 

[DerekSTheRed]

We ran the first two KotS encounters tonight on a hex mat.

Overall it was much easier in my opinion, and it felt very natural for the bursts and blasts to work on hex paper.

We didn't have any large creatures, but I don't see any serious problems there.

I will probably use this as often as possible (when the other people at the table allow).

I'm also planning on playing LFR... will be interesting to see if I will be allowed to use this when judging LFR for our local living group...

So you didn't have any problems with drawing the keep corridors on a hex map? How did you adjudicate partial hexes?

In regards to LFR, if you are running a home game, there shouldn't be a problem with using hexes since you're the senior judge. If you wanted to use hexes at a convention, you would probably have to get permission from all the players at the table. Otherwise, the ones who didn't want a hexmap could appeal to the senior judge and he would rule you have to use a grid.

Derek

 

[KarinsDad]

Most of the arguments against hexes can be reduced to "drawing on a hex grid is (supposedly) harder".
A few weeks ago, while we were discussing the matter of the 'irrealistic' 4E diagonals on it.hobby.giochi.gdr.dnd, Vincenzo Beretta suggested this brilliant solution: a hex-like distribution for squares (or, how to square the hex).
I've made a pdf sheet for use with my tokens you can find here.

This solution has been brought up many times in the past and most people just do not seem to take to it. Maybe it's because companies do not supply grid mats with it. Or, maybe it's because people have seen adventures with hexes or squares, but never with offset squares. Or, maybe it's because offset squares only have 1 non-jagged axis (in fact, the "jaggedness" of offset squares might be what people dislike about them).

Hexes have the slight advantage over offset squares that there are 3 relatively smooth axes with hexes, but only 1 (non-jagged) axis with offset squares (this is more of a visual issue).

And, hexes are more symmetical. The 6 cones on a hex system are all identical (both the narrow version of the cone that starts on the caster's hex and the wide version that starts one hex away) whereas there are 4 single sided step function cones and 2 double sided step function cones on the offset squares (i.e. not symmetical).

Finally, spread/burst area effects on a hex are hex shaped (as the typicaly rule) which is closer looking to a circle than they are with offset squares.

All in all, offset squares are more or less the poor man's version of hexes. They really are identical structures, but offset squares just have larger jagged visual issues that hexes do not. With offset squares, the perfectly straight line that one gains on 1 axis is offset by the severe jaggedness along the other 2 axes (whereas the jaggedness of hexes along all 3 axes can be mostly covered up by the thickness of the line being drawn).

I used this for my (fast-play) 4E demos at my gaming club's convention last weekend, and I must say it really is a reasonable compromise - almost as good to spot movement at a glance as real hexes, but with a lot less wasted space in dungeons and the like.

The wasted space in a dungeon with either hexes or squares is dependent on what is being drawn. WotC convinced an entire generation of gamers that rooms should almost always be rectangular shaped with least common dimensions of 5x5. But, very few rooms or corridors in the real world are dimensions exactly divisible by 5x5 feet, so why should gamers limit their drawings to that?

Both squares and hexes can be used for both irregular shaped rooms and rectangular shaped rooms (if one knows how with hexes). The solution you suggested here still requires "half-squares" in rectangular shaped rooms (there are 14 of these in your .pdf). The same rectangular room with a hex system as with the offset square system results in the exact same number of "wasted spaces" if drawn down an axis.

The reason some people go to gridless is because all grid systems require "best fit" solutions in many drawing scenarios.

But regardless of which grid system people pick (for those not going gridless), the real solution lies in the rules for handling "partial spaces" since any DM should not be handcuffed into drawing only rectangular shaped rooms and corridors and especially not ones limited to 5x5 spaces.

 

[KarinsDad]

So you didn't have any problems with drawing the keep corridors on a hex map? How did you adjudicate partial hexes?

Same question applies to squares unless all corridors go in N/S or E/W directions.

 

[Kobu]

Here's a quickie example of what can be done with just cut and paste. Right side intentionally left blank. If I took my time and made a better scan, it would look much nicer. I allow for occupying half squares, which explains the crates on the left side. If someone insists on climbing on them, then just follow the pattern with the offsets.

I've tried playing with selection tools and cloning, but I end up losing a lot of the floor texture. I think the plan at this point is to create a large offset square area as a base, then cut and paste elements from individual maps onto it. Once the base is done, the rest should go fairly quickly. I'll post the results once I have better scans to work with.

 

[Blackeagle]

Same question applies to squares unless all corridors go in N/S or E/W directions.

Don't all dungeon corridors follow the cardinal directions?

 

[Plane Sailing]

There are hex battle mats out there. In fact the one I use for my 3.5 game has hexes on one side and a grid on the other.

Derek

Sure (indeed we have one), but I'm thinking about a big (A2 or thereabouts) transparency which I could plonk down on top of the KotS maps, to give me hexes overlaid on an existing map.

Cheers