Did you use minis and grids pre-D&D3?

[Quasqueton]

In many discussions since D&D3's release, I've heard/seen some people say they never used minis and mats before D&D3. Some of these people even complain that it is a detriment to the imaginative aspect of the game.

I have used minis and some kind of mat/grid since soon after I started playing D&D back in 1980. I used to make my own grids by drawing lines on white posterboard. Before D&D3 I used 3 lines per inch to make squares representing 3 feet per inch. This worked when movement was figured in multiples of 3' (6', 9', 12', 15', etc.) or as metric meters.

My minis collection has been slowly growing for twenty years. I also have a ton of 1"x2" black, wood dominos that I used to set up walls and doors and tables and whatever. Lay the domino flat, stand a mini on it and you have a mounted knight.

Now I use a vinyl (?) mat with 1" squares for 5' scale. But I still like to use the dominos for walls and horses and such. I have a tackle box for keeping my minis and accesories. This box is nearing 15 years old now.

My set ups and accesories are not really elaborate or special; really just a mishmash of items we can pretend over. That 6-sided die is a treasure chest. Those crouched goblin minis are really dire rats. Those scattered dominos are boulders and rubble.

I love using the minis and mat for just about every game situation. I even place out the minis for non-combat encounters. I think it adds something to the feel when the players can see the courtroom, the dias and throne, and all the knights and courtiers with the king. I have always done this, even way before D&D3 incorporated the concept into the official rules.

[Plus, I'll admit that using the minis and grid draws the players' attention away from looking directly at me constantly. I'm not totally comfortable in front of an audience.]

Have you always used minis and grids for playing D&D? How elaborate is your mini/grid set up? How do you tote your paraphanelia?

Quasqueton

 

[megamania]

Yes, but very rarely. At the time it was too expensive for me and rules for it were not as good as now.

 

[arwink]

Never. Didn't really see the point, because tactical combat was hardly 2e's strongpoint.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

No, just started with 3E -- but boy, were we missing out back then! Of course the feat system and combat system now really reward the use of minis ...

Nothing fancy, for support -- a battlemat, some pens, and minis (Dm -- me -- brings the monsters).

 

[Outlaw]

We did except during mass combat when there were too many variables. It threw me when people made such a big deal about it in 3e. I didn't realize it wasn't a more common practice.

 

[haiiro]

For most of the time that I DMed 2e I didn't use a battlemat. For my last long-term 2e campaign, though, we did use a mat with markers and counters -- and I wound up really liking it. It certainly seems essential for 3e, and I like it even more these days.

 

[francisca]

No and Yes.

When I first started with Baisc/Expert and 1E, never ever.

When I hooked up with my current 1E group, they were using them, so I do now.

I have always used them for the 3E game I run. I think they have been a benefit, overall.

 

[Crothian]

Only when I meet a DM who had a very impressive minature collection. When he ran games we really liked to get out his minatures and use them.

 

[KenM]

Most of the time since I started gaming, yes. I just hooked up with a new group that did NOT use a battlemat and figs, I started to "ween" them on it. I can't understand how you can't, too many varibles.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Campaigns I've been involved in normally used mats, since about 1995 or so...