D&D 5E Do you play on a grid?

[schnee]

Draw on a whiteboard app on an iPad.

It's not necessarily gridded, but we try to keep it somewhat accurate.

That way, a remote player - who's traveling through Asia - can play along.

 

[Helldritch]

We built our selves a wooden grid 4'x10' to accomodate my groups (6 players strong each). We numbered each square as to be able to "follow" the movement progression of invisible players and opponents. We use an accrylic table cloth to actualy draw on the grid. The grid can be transported and put on any table if the need arise. We do have some props like chests, doors and the like but we don't use them often. Otherwise, we are not planning to use Roll20 or any other digital tools.

 

[Bupp]

I use a small dry erase board laying flat on the table. No grid, and usually just draw on terrain with different colored markers. My players use Lego minifigs for their characters, while I've printed out a variety of paper minis. If I need a specific opponent, I'll just find an image online that I like, resize it, and print it on card stock.

Smaller fights we just do ToM.

 

[Ilbranteloth]

if so, how involved do you get with your grid?

do you collect a bunch of minis? craft terrain and objects?
or just slap a few lines and circles on a chessex map and hope for the best?

i want to know how intricate...and more importantly how much work do you go through preparing for these mapped out scenarios?

In the past I had a couple of thousand mins and also had cardboard tiles. While those were in specific sizes, other terrain I used was not. I have also used a dry erase battle mat to draw things out. For a period of time I used a grid, but eventually did away with it - can't stand counting squares and measuring everything in 5' squares.

Since I sold most of my minis, it's all theater of the mind now.

If I had the minis, then I'd still use them, no grid. Having terrain marked is useful because it gives you something else the characters can interact with. I don't like getting hung up on whether you're 5' short, or how you can move around the terrain and other minis to avoid opportunity attacks, etc. They aren't standing still - it's an illusion.

I'd highly recommend terrain (drawn, cardboard, or other) and no counting movement with minis.

 

[Morrus]

I do. Usually pens on a Chessex dry erase. Sometimes awesome poster maps I found. I am a big fan of tactical combat though.


Sent from my iPhone using EN World

 

[fjw70]

I have recently picked up some of these (along with a pack of 5" ones). I like them so far but haven't used them much yet.

https://www.amazon.com/Dry-Erase-inch-Dungeon-Tiles/dp/B016H0TNFY

 

[Lanefan]

Gridded chalkboard for us since forever, with metal minis for the PCs and (more recently) plastic for the opposition.

Gridding a chalkboard is an hour's work but if you use the right pen or marker (Staedtler-Mars indelible [i.e. NOT water-soluble!] M-tip marker works great) you only have to do it once. You can also use (and probably destroy in the process) an ordinary ballpoint pen but this tends to fade or wear off over time.

Lan-"then, put the chalkboard up on blocks so there's room for character sheets, drinks etc. underneath it - very necessary when space is limited"-efan

 

[LordEntrails]

99.5% Yes.
Mostly on a VTT (FG). Then the details are fairly high as we use or I make (with CC3+) good visual battlemaps.

When not on a VTT we use a dry erase mat and just draw rough boundaries and use mini's.

 

[pogre]

Dwarven Forge, Hirst Arts pieces, Miniatures, outdoor terrain, cityscapes - everything is modeled. Everything is painted. Every once in a while we have to make a substitution like that black panther mini is actually a displacer beast, but after collecting and painting minis for 30+ years I have most of the D&D monsters covered. I don't use a "grid" we use measuring tapes for movement, ranges, etc. I also have a lot of clear plastic templates for spell effects.

Miniatures and models are a big part of the hobby for me. One of my players used to jokingly say that I had destroyed his imagination.

I do not mind Theater of the Mind at all. I play in a campaign that is largely TotM and have a blast.

 

[guachi]

I had a Pathfinder dry-erase foldable grid but hated it because it didn't lay flat.

I've variously used:

Nothing but minis on a table and a foot-long ruler to measure movement and distance.

My own 1" grid on 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper (the grid itself is 8"x10"). If I need more space I can lay more pages on the table.

The above but one of the players actually draws the room on the paper. I often have a very small scale, maybe 1"=20 feet, map that I've printed from a pdf of the module that I can cut out with scissors and construct the dungeon as we go. If the small scale map is already visible, one player can draw the battle map while I get monster tokens, roll initiative, etc.

Pre-printed 1"=5 ft maps from available pdfs. With so many old adventures available in legal pdfs, I can crop an image of the map out and then resize it as needed. Then print it out and waste lots of paper! I print on low quality as the paler color actually works well to not be too prominent. A pair of scissors, some tape, and a pencil to mark the back with the room number and I'm good to go! Sure beats hand drawing on home-made grid paper like I did 30 years ago.