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

[pogre]

Yep, we used a plexiglass piece that was bisected with a number of lines - it was called an elysium field I believe. Still have the small one, but the big one broke a number of years ago. The battle mats are a lot more convenient.

 

[Droogie]

Our OD&D campaign used a shoebox full of LEGO castle mini-figs leftover from our childhood. We had all the cool accessories-weapons, armor, treasure chests, even a dragon. We had it all. We just needed them to show who was attacking what and we didn't really use any hard movement rules. But we had a blast building our lego avatars and we gradually began to realize that our D&D game was just becoming an excuse to play with legos. We hung our heads in shame.

Now we play 3e and we use homemade counters and a battlemat. I like the tactical aspect of 3e,and the less ambiguous rules. However, I will concede that it takes some of the imagination away. I know the rules well enough that our combats don't last forever, but I do get the feeling that we're playing a boardgame rather an RPG sometimes. Hopefully the revisions will refine things.

I can see the frustration in one of my players- more than once he asked to perform some oddball maneuver that resulted in lots of page flipping- I hate it when the game comes to a screeching halt just because someone wanted to think outside the box like in the good'ol days.

But I'll never go back. I like 3e. I love my counters. I like seeing what 4 hapless PCs look like in relation to 12 mounted hobgoblins.

 

[Droogie]

Yep, we used a plexiglass piece that was bisected with a number of lines - it was called an elysium field I believe. Still have the small one, but the big one broke a number of years ago. The battle mats are a lot more convenient.

Hmm plexiglass----can you use dry-erase on that? I was thinking of getting a square yard of it from Home Depot.

 

[Ron]

I've never used minis or a grid in my games. Truly, I joined a D&D3 game that used a grid. I found it interesting but I think it spoiled the roleplaying experience quite a bit. It looked like we're playing Squad Leader.

 

[thalmin]

In the first AD&D game I ran, we started out no grid or figs. While having difficulty explaining the situation to the players, I grabbed the nearby chess set. Next week, I had bought my first set of minis. A couple months later I discovered Battlemats (pre-Chessex) and have used figs and mats ever since, though not for every combat.
OMIGOD IT'S BEEN OVER 22 YEARS!!

 

[KnowTheToe]

We occassinallty used battlemats prior to 3E, but depended mostly on GM description. 3E's tactical system is created for power players who want lots of cool combat abilities and IMO does take away from RP a little by putting more emphasis on combat, but I like it because it combines a little war gaming with RPing.

 

[HellHound]

I used minis and battlemats MORE in 1e than I do in 3e.

 

[Aitch Eye]

We've never used a grid before or after. If the situation is complex enough to require some sort of visual aid, it'll either be on scratchpaper, done with spare dice, or (just occassionally) I'll get out the Weapons & Warriors pieces. We considered resolving a mass combat with the catapults once.

 

[JeffK1966]

Actually, we used minis and grids more in 2E than in 3E. Since the advent of 3E, we've upgraded our minis, terrain and all that to the point where we have so much nice terrain that we only use that for major battles - minor battles are just resolved with dice and descriptions. In 2E, we just had a regular battlemat and minis that we kept out all night.

But now, we have Mage-Knight castles, lots of terrain, etc. So, we only drag that out for special occasions, as it takes a bit to set up and all. And, I have some special minis that I've had painted up by top professional painters that I prefer not to use except for those special "climactic battle" situations.

 

[Chauzu]

I've never used minis (or grids for minis) because it was too costly when we could use pieces of paper.