During D&D combat, how do you run it?

[Davelozzi]

All of the above depending on the situation. I prefer to use minis with no grid, but I have some Dwarven Forge sets (which are great) and they have the grid built into the floor tiles, so it's hard to avoid them there. Even so, we don't use make spell areas of effect and other things shaped to the grid, I usally just eyeball, which never seems to cause a problem. For battles that aren't so complicated, I prefer to just wing it and keep it in our heads.

 

[Emiricol]

All of the above depending on the situation. I prefer to use minis with no grid, but I have some Dwarven Forge sets (which are great) and they have the grid built into the floor tiles, so it's hard to avoid them there. Even so, we don't use make spell areas of effect and other things shaped to the grid, I usally just eyeball, which never seems to cause a problem. For battles that aren't so complicated, I prefer to just wing it and keep it in our heads.

For complex or large battles I go with the grid. For simple things, like Orc with Pie, usually I'll just wing it and go narratively

 

[D+1]

Does the DM keep track of where combatants are and describe it to the players?

Only rarely, such as when a combat is going to be so easy/fast that it's just not even worth the time of setting it up. However, combats that are so fast/easy that they aren't worth setting up are also generally not worth RUNNING in the first place unless there's some particular additional reason to do so that's not usually dealt with. E.g., when a PC has a Stoneskin in effect. The easy encounters are still run but without being set up just to see if/how much of the Stoneskin effect is used up.

Does the DM make all judgements on the fly?

Mostly yes, but it depends. Somedays it's preferrable to just rule on the fly and keep things flowing than to stop and look up the exact rules - even when you know where to look.

Do you use a battlegrid?

Do you have pewter or lead miniatures,

In 25 years I have NEVER played without using a grid and miniatures. Even when we first started out we had at least a few miniatures to use for characters and simply added more as time went on. Since we started long before Chessex Battlemats were invented we would go to office supply stores and buy 5 or 6 foot lengths of this plastic coated graph paper that came off a big roll. Tape the edges to a ping-pong table, whip out the overhead projector pens, and roll dice.

carefully painted?

Let's just say that the earliest of our painted figures have long since been lost, destroyed, or repainted so there is no remaining evidence of how much the painting really SUCKED! One of the biggest advantages of the new plastic minis is being prepainted. I despise using unpainted minis in the game only slightly less than painting gobs of minis. Doing one or two character figures when you get in the mood to paint or just GOTTA use that cool new figure you bought for your old character.

 

[Nifft]

Battlemat! Some of my players like to paint minis, so we have a bunch of really cool looking good & bad guys.

-- N

 

[Guilberwood]

I dont know if this kinda stuff is allowed here, but those who have an online galery of theyr painted minis( or cenarios or any stuff like that) could post it here so we could see them?

I have more than 300 minis
half painted, the other half is unpainted or to ugly to be considered painted

the good part is that I recived most as gifts from players that gave up playing, tough I must have bought 30-40 of them myself

I do not have them online yet, but one day I'll Will!!!!!!

See ya

 

[Dogbrain]

Whiteboard is fun.

 

[Orius]

Well, I'm running my game online, so I more or less just make all decisions on the fly. I hate it, but miniatures don't really mix well with an online game. Still, things usually work out well enough.

 

[Nagoragama]

My playgroup has always done on the fly battles in our heads. In fact, I wasn't even aware of minis and battlegrids until a few weeks ago, and I have played for years. Some of the people in my playgroup want to start using a battlegrid to clear up some problems we've had with distance and such.

 

[MerricB]

Well, the results of this poll are pretty interesting: about 80% of people use a battlegrid of some kind. (And only about 15% use no physical representation of location, relying on DM calls).

One might think, "Yes, but that's because of the way 3E/3.5E requires miniatures; it forces people down that path."

However, it's worth comparing it with this poll on the 1E boards of Dragonsfoot - 73% of people there use a battlegrid of some kind. (Only 16% use no physical representation).

Those results are remarkably similar. It leads me to suspect that WotC did the right thing in setting 3.5E more in miniature gaming terms wrt combat: that's the way most people play. To a large extent, it's also easier for a new DM to learn.

When you don't use a physical representation of the battlefield, DM judgement is paramount. It's a harder skill to learn, and one that is best gained through experience - much harder to learn from a book.

I would like to see articles about running games without miniatures in Dragon Magazine, but in truth, as I already know how to do it, it doesn't really matter to me.

Cheers!

 

[johnsemlak]

I think in emphasizing miniatures WotC is only further empasizing what (most) D&D comsumers have always wanted. They're not forcing people to start using minatures, they're acknowledging the fact that people do use them. It's consistant with WotC's other marketing decisions.

It's worth noting that the 1e DMG and other 1e products also prominantly promote the use of miniatures in combat (and only 'official' TSR ones at that--beware of imitations! ).

I would like to see a Dragon article on playing without minis and a grid.