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

[iserith]

I use Roll20 and just about every combat (save for the odd random encounter) is on the grid. I use dynamic lighting as well so you can only see what your character can see, given the range of his or her light and vision. My maps are fairly detailed. I do this even for in-person games. No map, minis, or dice on the table make room for more bottles of liquor.

Also, it allows for the players to live tweet stuff from the game a lot easier:

 

[shoak1]

Full minis, terrsain, flavor, and grid

 

[Draegn]

We use a small blackboard and hand drawn maps. Our "tokens" consist of miniature figurines, various coloured pieces of arts and crafts paper labeled with what they represent, and the little plastic bits from a Risk game.

 

[Oofta]

Im interested in seeing these "cubes".
Can you upload a pic?

I will make some time tonight.

 

[LordEntrails]

...
I use Lego minifigs as minis, as well other bricks to represent a few important environmental objects (esp. for cover). In the past few years there have been lots of these "collectable minifigs" packs which actually featured a lot of fantasy characters and even monsters which are great for RPGs. Ideally, I'd love to build the whole environment with Lego bricks, but it takes a HUGE amount of time to do so, way beyond the time to actually prepare the adventures, so I had to just limit myself to minifigs and a few important terrain elements.....

FYI, I can't find it now, but some months ago came across a guys who had created a set of pre-fab sets in Lego's that you could build and then easily place together into standard rooms, halls, etc. Its a lot like Dwarven Forge in concept. Makes the setup and take down much faster than raw Legos. He also had a game with rules etc that he built around it that is a lot like Descent or Wrath of Ashardalon, etc with Lego character sheets and all

Pretty cool idea, but still never enough that I actually did it.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I've used the gamut of approaches over the years. When I first started, at age 14, we had no where to play, so it was all 'TotM' and no tactics. You find 20 orcs in a 10x10 room, you got attacked 20 times. No really. We were totally the kids they based Munchkin on. I put up with that for about a year before buying the 'Advanced' game and seeking out older players... that include buying & painting a mini for your PC, it just seemed to be expected (or you ended up using some Napoleonic officer or ancients Hoplite or something the DM had lying around from his wargaming days).

Playing at an 'FLGS' ('hobby shop,' back then), we had table space but not wargaming felt or sand tables, more like folding cardtables, and IDT chessex existed yet, so it was minis on a bare surface, maybe with dice or pencils laid down to represent walls or other terrain features. So that was fun until that shop closed and it was back to nowhere to lay out minis beyond marching order. Then I found a new place, and by then hex battlematts and cardboard standies were the order of the day for Champions! and gridded ones & leads for D&D.

That finished out the 80s, then that place, the last one in the area, closed, and it was back to limited space, shortly thereafter D&D lost me as 2e bloated, so I was running Champions! (more hex-dependent than any ed of D&D was ever grid-dependent) and Storyteller 'TotM' - though back then, if you uses 'theatre' and 'mind' in the same phrase, it was probably 'Mind's Eye Theatre.'

The it was out of college, better jobs, and more space of our own, but less interest in RPGs, so board games for a few years, then, 3.0 came out and it was D&D, and, since there was table space readily available, and battlematts with a long-disused grid on the flip side left over from playing Champions in late 80s, back to minis. After like 10 years of battlematts, a friend & I constructed some 3D 'sets' - foam-core board and papier-mache - for specific scenarios run at conventions, they included an island temple, with a pull-out 'underwater' cavern, a 3-story haunted house, cliff faces, and a tower. At the same time, I was running Encounters with poster maps and tokens.

Right now I'm finishing out one campaign (highest level PC is about to hit 24th) using mini's for PCs, tokens for monsters, and old poster maps and PF flip-maps (which, yeah, just do not lay flat).

When I run 5e, of course, it's TotM - same with 13A.

 

[Oofta]

Im interested in seeing these "cubes".
Can you upload a pic?

I have 3 basic types.

1 inch square blocks, 4X1 "pillars", 3X3 blocks and 4X4 blocks.

For the 1 inch and pillars I just did those by hand. The first two were a little bit of a pain, but after that I was able to use them as templates. Basically make a square, using a couple pieces of scrap wood and an old wooden ruler.

For the 3x3 and 4x4 blocks, I created a template using easymold silicon putty. The blocks are just air dry clay and are surprisingly light and durable.

At some point I may get some gray spray paint and paint them. I'm also debating creating a few more types, it's really a question how much storage room I want to take up.

 

[Lanefan]

[MENTION=54380]shoak1[/MENTION] that's an amazing setup you show in post 42. Very nice!

I've once or twice in the past tried doing something similar, though nowhere near as elaborate as yours, and what I find is that one of the following will almost inevitably happen:

- I'll set it all up and the party will decide to go elsewhere
- I'll set it all up, then whatever happens in that area gets done in half an hour of play (e.g. an unexpectedly fast combat, or they ignore everything and just pass through), then the session grinds to a halt while I take it all down and set up something else.

So, it's just lines on a chalkboard and some occasional props now.

Lanefan

 

[Klaudius Rex]

I have 3 basic types.

1 inch square blocks, 4X1 "pillars", 3X3 blocks and 4X4 blocks.

For the 1 inch and pillars I just did those by hand. The first two were a little bit of a pain, but after that I was able to use them as templates. Basically make a square, using a couple pieces of scrap wood and an old wooden ruler.

For the 3x3 and 4x4 blocks, I created a template using easymold silicon putty. The blocks are just air dry clay and are surprisingly light and durable.

At some point I may get some gray spray paint and paint them. I'm also debating creating a few more types, it's really a question how much storage room I want to take up.

View attachment 86035

I see that you also use a battle map grid as well. Do you use both at the same time together? You mentioned that these cubes represent any type of terrain that you need? Or are they just mainly to represent like dungeon walls?

Also how do you use the cubes that look like a bowl? The ones that are concave looking like the one at the top right of your picture?

Btw...they all look really good!

 

[shoak1]

[MENTION=54380]shoak1[/MENTION] that's an amazing setup you show in post 42. Very nice!

I've once or twice in the past tried doing something similar, though nowhere near as elaborate as yours, and what I find is that one of the following will almost inevitably happen:

- I'll set it all up and the party will decide to go elsewhere
- I'll set it all up, then whatever happens in that area gets done in half an hour of play (e.g. an unexpectedly fast combat, or they ignore everything and just pass through), then the session grinds to a halt while I take it all down and set up something else.

So, it's just lines on a chalkboard and some occasional props now.

Lanefan

My players would never dream of going somewhere other than where the adventure lies lol....Seriously, though, they really don't mind giving up the go anywhere thing in order to have some fun 3D D and D play