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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 4243790" data-attributes="member: 2011">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).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.</blockquote>

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