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

[The_Gneech]

Once upon a time in the dim, dark, past, our group played Tunnels and Trolls, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, and MERP without minis, 'cause we were all in high school and couldn't afford 'em.

Then, I went off to college, got ahold of Cardboard Heroes and gradually started building up my miniatures collection.

I have never looked back. I love using the mat, drawing out rooms, bringing in props (bits of scenery from model railroading and such), and occasionally making the players panic by bringing out, say, a big pewter dragon and plunking it down on the table.

These days, I have a big collection of counters and a decent collection of minis, largely supplemented by Mage Knight, bought in tiny bits over the past 15 years, and I wouldn't want to try to run a game without 'em.

-The Gneech

 

[WayneLigon]

We use a gridmap (the Great Salt Flats from Steve Jackson Games), and Fiery Dragon counters or some form of token, depending on what we're doing.

 

[Voadam]

We game by e-mail in the long times between face to face playing. We have a yahoo group for our gaming group which has a photo section. The DM uses blank map sheets from SJ Games draws out the maps, and makes digital photos of the combats with his own miniatures although he has also used multicolored clay blobs as well. We have also had fights that were completely descriptive, even with lots of maneuvering.

 

[Deadguy]

That's certainaly an interesting comparison you make, MerricB. I never used to use a battle map before I played D&D3, relying on scrappy bits of paper and my own interpretation. But since starting to play 3rd ed I have come to greatly prefer this method - it saves so much time in being questioned by players as to 'where's the leader orc relative to me again?' and the like. And it also means that I have to keep less in my head come combat. Now I prefer to use a battlemap or equivalent for all the games I play - though some people are seemingly reluctant... Why? Becase they associate battlemaps with D&D and they regard themselves as well beyond the 'D&D stage'! People are strange!

It does indeed seem to be the case at least for this section of what we might call 'dedicated D&D players' that a map is an important part of the play. I guess it's not that the rules require it (though 3.X combat works much better with it), but because it eases play in a game that expects to include a lot of combat. Even in games that use less combat, the visual impact of a well-depicted battleground makes fights more memorable, I believe.

One thing I will note: I don't like using miniatures! In my own experience both player and DM get too hung up on the mini, which all too often isn't an accurate depiction of the individual. I find using paper chits and chess pieces adequate to the task, and that the effort made to visualise the markers leaks over into actually visualising the battlefield. It can sometimes become a little too 'wargame'-y and abstract if you are not careful - seeing the chits as mere ciphers rather than individuals. But that might just be me!

Shrewd poll to come up with MerricB!

 

[Aristotle]

Chiming in late...

I use a battlemat for small encounters/dungeons, and a megamat for large ones. I would love to use a mondomat, but the thing is just too darn big for our table.

For PCs or individual NPCs I use counters, the different colored glass ones are fine, but for creatures and the like I use dice. I suppose it counts as a counter, but I think the dice make it easier to keep track of combat than minis or counters.

Just get sets of 10 color coordinated d10s (or any other size), and when you place them you can put different numbers facing up. This makes it very easy to keep track of combat. I know, on my master sheet, that green 1 through 5 are goblin warriors, brown 1 is the evil sorcerer, and blue 1 and 2 are his ogre bodyguards. So I can easily track the damage done to them, and players can quickly reference which goblin they want to hit without me trying to remember where each one started the combat.

I may upgrade later, but so far the dice trick (as easy and often used as it probably is) has been a great asset to my game.

 

[jayaint]

John Madden would be proud of our group.

Legal pads all the way, baby!

arrows, and erasings, and crooked walls, with no sense of scale... watching our group in combat is a beautiful and warped thing.

 

[Sir Trent]

I use miniatures (mostly the new D&D minis---a godsend).

And since I have access to an Epson 9600 large format (44"wide on roll paper), I custom print full-color battlegrids one entire dungeon at a time.

I expect to be fired any day now.

Then you should print up a bunch of maps right away, before they fire you! In fact, you should request some weekend overtime so you can get ahead!

 

[KB9JMQ]

We use a battlegrid and the new WoTC Minis. Boy I love those things but they are addicting.

Even though we use a grid and mini's the DM places the figures originally then everyone moves theirs as needed.

 

[pogre]

One of the two folks for miniatures and no grid. I have a caveat, however, as the Mastermaze and Hirst Arts stuff we use does have a grid built in. We do a lot of outdoor battles and we use good old tape measures for this. Many of the spell casters have created spell templates for their most used spells.

Our combats go very quickly. We have had many people visiting our table comment about how smoothly combat flies.

Painting miniatures and scenery is a major part of my enjoyment of the hobby so we use them extensively. I am going to post a bunch of the dungeon "furniture" I recently painted in my model and figure thread in the near future.

 

[maddman75]

Personally, I'll either do minis+grid or just keep track of everything myself. I don't see how people think it's impossible, just tell people who they can get to. If two are attacking the same enemy, assume they can flank him by taking a 5' step. Stuff like that. My rule of thumb is that if the PCs outnumber the enemies, just keep track in your head. They are going to dogpile the bad guy(s) anyway, so dragging out the minis is a waste of time. However, if there's an even number of foes or the PCs are outnumbered, the battlemat will make things easier to keep track of.