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D&D 5E Do you play on a grid?
- Thread starter Klaudius Rex
- Start date
JonnyP71
Explorer
We sketch room layouts roughly onto a dry wipe board to help with visualizing size.
No grid though, I refuse to DM games on grids. They slow things down and encourage players to go into a more 'mechanical' mode, when I, as DM would prefer them to be more descriptive and imaginative.
No grid though, I refuse to DM games on grids. They slow things down and encourage players to go into a more 'mechanical' mode, when I, as DM would prefer them to be more descriptive and imaginative.
I have used lots of different terrain options over the last few years from mats, to dmscotty terrain options (currently using the 2.5D Next option), to printing maps on a large format printer, to theater of the mind, and roll20. Most have worked well. Even when I have had a grid, I have used direct measurements or eyeballed it for distance (either rulers for tabletop or Euclidian for Roll20).
Oofta
Legend
I use a grid, and almost always have. Even before using a grid was mentioned in the rules, we started using pieces of paper to represent PCs and monsters. I like the theory of TOTM, but I find it's just easier to have something physical to represent who is where.
I like painting minis so I have a bunch from reaper, but mostly nowadays I just use them for PCs and special NPCs. I use the plastic minis from the 4E line of minis for monsters or I find a picture online and print them out. I got some plastic spiders from a halloween sale after the holiday. I also bought a bag of zombies from some game because you can never have enough zombies for that horde.
For terrain I've tried various 3D cutouts and so on. I'm not organized enough (I rarely draw out maps ahead of time) to use them effectively. So now I either draw on the map or use clay cubes that I made myself. The cubes are 1 inch square, made from crayola air dry clay. I also made some "pillars" and bigger blocks to make structures and what-not. The first two were a bit of a pain, but after that I could just use the two I had made to size the others.
I find the blocks work well ... I can represent the vast majority of terrain I want it it saves me drawing time.
I like painting minis so I have a bunch from reaper, but mostly nowadays I just use them for PCs and special NPCs. I use the plastic minis from the 4E line of minis for monsters or I find a picture online and print them out. I got some plastic spiders from a halloween sale after the holiday. I also bought a bag of zombies from some game because you can never have enough zombies for that horde.
For terrain I've tried various 3D cutouts and so on. I'm not organized enough (I rarely draw out maps ahead of time) to use them effectively. So now I either draw on the map or use clay cubes that I made myself. The cubes are 1 inch square, made from crayola air dry clay. I also made some "pillars" and bigger blocks to make structures and what-not. The first two were a bit of a pain, but after that I could just use the two I had made to size the others.
I find the blocks work well ... I can represent the vast majority of terrain I want it it saves me drawing time.
Ath-kethin
Elder Thing
Man, I wish I had your budget.
aco175
Legend
We have a bunch of the terrain tiles from 3e/4e that get laid together. We also have a bunch of the pre-made maps from old modules and such that get used a lot. The King's Road must be the most treacherous road in the world. We have a lot of the old minis still from 1e/2e days and the pre-painted ones from more recent.
We talked about theater of mind play, but everyone likes to see where people are in relation to monsters and terrain that may be useful.
We talked about theater of mind play, but everyone likes to see where people are in relation to monsters and terrain that may be useful.
I use a variety of methods with 5e. Sometimes TotM and sometimes minis. With minis sometimes I use a grid and sometimes I don't. If I do use a grid then I just draw a rough map. Sometimes I use a pre-printed map if I have something that is appropriate.
I have a decently large mini collection.
I have a decently large mini collection.
JeffB
Legend
I used one for about 8 months. Sometimes it was helpful, but overall did not like how it affected the dynamics of play. I don't mind tactical combat aspects, but my group did not. Story/narrative focused is what we enjoy and the grid just slowed things way down, and caused serious analysis paralysis.
Not to mention, the way minis are sold today "surprise! probably won't get what you want!" is a complete turnoff as a consumer, especially with the cost involved. I know there are re-sellers where you can pick and choose, but...meh. Pathfinder pawns are the way to go (I have the first box around here somewhere).
That said, I love to look at minis! If I won the lotto, I would buy a ton of them to just to geek out.
On occasion I will draw something out on a piece of scrap paper if need be. That is my extent of "visuals".
Not to mention, the way minis are sold today "surprise! probably won't get what you want!" is a complete turnoff as a consumer, especially with the cost involved. I know there are re-sellers where you can pick and choose, but...meh. Pathfinder pawns are the way to go (I have the first box around here somewhere).
That said, I love to look at minis! If I won the lotto, I would buy a ton of them to just to geek out.
On occasion I will draw something out on a piece of scrap paper if need be. That is my extent of "visuals".
I cannot use TotM. I am a visual person and when given audio descriptions, I sometimes just don't get it. When I have used TotM, I sometimes got confused as to what is going on (4 rounds later "Wait, the battlements are on this side, not that side? Frick!"). The other problem with TotM is that if someone goes to the kitchen quick to grab some food, or goes to the bathroom or out for a smoke (we have 3 smokers in our group) mid-combat, not only does what just happened have to be relayed to them, but so does current PC positioning and status information. With miniatures, players can see the current positioning information (and prone information, and conditions information) at a glance. Plus one of our players plays remotely via camera, so without miniatures, that player would be more often confused because the camera view gives him so much more information visually than with no camera view.
So, we use a grid. We use miniatures, we use a Chessex hex map with individual hex numbers on each hex. This allows the player of an invisible PC to send a note at the end of his turn telling the DM exactly which hex the PC is located in. That way, the other PCs do not know exactly where the invisible PC is. If an area effect spell goes over that hex, the invisible PC might be caught in it. Alternatively as DM, if I have an invisible NPC, I can write his hex number down and if the PCs use an area effect, I won't misremember the exact hex the NPC is in. We also have a friendly fire rule where ranged or thrown weapon attacks have a slim chance of hitting a target who is in a direct line between the attacker and the real target, so an invisible PC could also get hit (super rarely due to also being invisible) by a ranged attack from an ally. Due to the strange stealth rules in 5E, we play that if you are in combat and invisible and not in disadvantaged stealth armor, you are for all intents and purposes "hiding" and nobody knows where you are because you cannot be seen and the other loud battle noises mean that you cannot be heard. Creatures with blindsight or other special senses typically still know where you are though.
The other advantage of the hex numbers is that in many cases, range can be calculated really fast. If the target is on hex 2130 and the attacker is on hex 2643, the target is 13 hexes away or 65 feet away. There are some cases where this does not work (due to how hexes work), but as DM, that just requires two math steps instead of one. I can still fairly quickly determine exact range and since this only has to be done once in a while (if the PC is 20 feet away, we don't really calculate range for his 60 foot spell), it's pretty doable. I totally get the "using a colored string" or other techniques that some people use for range, but numbered hexes more or less prevents the need for that.
We use an acrylic sheet over the Chessex map which allows us to draw with dry erase markers and avoid some of the coloring issues that sometimes affects a Chessex map.
We use little plastic soda bottle rings (the little colored rings that are on a plastic soda bottle after you screw off the colored cap) to indicate conditions and spell effects. Red is bloodied (a 4E term, but one which is applicable if you use the Describing the Effects of Damage rule on page 197 of the PHB), yellow is detrimental effect, silver is buff, orange is reserved for our remote player's miniature so that he can more easily see on his Skype video where his PC is located, blue is certain spells like Hunter's Mark, etc. The miniatures are knocked over to indicate prone.
I would love to use some type of game software and a digital TV monitor built into the table (which would also allow digital transmission to a laptop for our remote player), but I think that would have to wait until I retire. I would also like to use terrain tiles, but I am too lazy to prep all of that before an encounter starts. It's often faster to just draw stuff.
So, we use a grid. We use miniatures, we use a Chessex hex map with individual hex numbers on each hex. This allows the player of an invisible PC to send a note at the end of his turn telling the DM exactly which hex the PC is located in. That way, the other PCs do not know exactly where the invisible PC is. If an area effect spell goes over that hex, the invisible PC might be caught in it. Alternatively as DM, if I have an invisible NPC, I can write his hex number down and if the PCs use an area effect, I won't misremember the exact hex the NPC is in. We also have a friendly fire rule where ranged or thrown weapon attacks have a slim chance of hitting a target who is in a direct line between the attacker and the real target, so an invisible PC could also get hit (super rarely due to also being invisible) by a ranged attack from an ally. Due to the strange stealth rules in 5E, we play that if you are in combat and invisible and not in disadvantaged stealth armor, you are for all intents and purposes "hiding" and nobody knows where you are because you cannot be seen and the other loud battle noises mean that you cannot be heard. Creatures with blindsight or other special senses typically still know where you are though.
The other advantage of the hex numbers is that in many cases, range can be calculated really fast. If the target is on hex 2130 and the attacker is on hex 2643, the target is 13 hexes away or 65 feet away. There are some cases where this does not work (due to how hexes work), but as DM, that just requires two math steps instead of one. I can still fairly quickly determine exact range and since this only has to be done once in a while (if the PC is 20 feet away, we don't really calculate range for his 60 foot spell), it's pretty doable. I totally get the "using a colored string" or other techniques that some people use for range, but numbered hexes more or less prevents the need for that.
We use an acrylic sheet over the Chessex map which allows us to draw with dry erase markers and avoid some of the coloring issues that sometimes affects a Chessex map.
We use little plastic soda bottle rings (the little colored rings that are on a plastic soda bottle after you screw off the colored cap) to indicate conditions and spell effects. Red is bloodied (a 4E term, but one which is applicable if you use the Describing the Effects of Damage rule on page 197 of the PHB), yellow is detrimental effect, silver is buff, orange is reserved for our remote player's miniature so that he can more easily see on his Skype video where his PC is located, blue is certain spells like Hunter's Mark, etc. The miniatures are knocked over to indicate prone.
I would love to use some type of game software and a digital TV monitor built into the table (which would also allow digital transmission to a laptop for our remote player), but I think that would have to wait until I retire. I would also like to use terrain tiles, but I am too lazy to prep all of that before an encounter starts. It's often faster to just draw stuff.
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