Getting away from miniatures.

[Elf Witch]

I like minis for combat I have never found that it interferes with my ability to imagine what is going on. We have used them since we started playing 3E back when it came out.

I think it is impossible to really run a combat with all the movement rules, AOO, spells without them. In games that I have played without them I have found that it stifles my imagination because I am to busy trying to keep placement of everything in my head.

It also stops the arguments I used to hear before we used them like no way I was not in range of that fireball what you mean I can't do that I am right next to him.

 

[Stormonu]

I love minis, though sometimes I hate gridded combat. Sometimes I wish the game dispensed with squares and you just measured distances (like with tabletop wargames, such as 40K).

If I was good with spacial references in my head, I might be able to get away without them. However, minis have stopped too many of those arguments from ever happening in the first place I'm highly reluctant to giving them up.

 

[Umbran]

... what do you think are pros and cons of using miniatures?
Which do you prefer?

The cons: Setup time. Time required to use, and implications on the rules system - if the system really cares about your position to within 5', those rules are pretty fiddly. It takes a lot of time for players to work out what they're going to do in a fiddly system. By extension, such a game isn't so hot for someone who isn't really into highly tactical wargaming, and spending time worrying about exactly which 5' square their character is in.

The Pros: No more arguing about exactly who was where. Everyone at the table has the same image of the relative position of everyone concerned, at a glance.

I'm the sort who only calls for a physical representation only when the layout and tactical situation is complex, and matters a great deal. For combats that are intended to be small and fast, I prefer to narrate.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I use miniatures, tokens, dice only because position and distance is often important enough to be reasonably precise about it, but to keep them form being the focus of the game I do not make use of them until its time for initiative.

The cons: Setup time. Time required to use, and implications on the rules system - if the system really cares about your position to within 5', those rules are pretty fiddly. It takes a lot of time for players to work out what they're going to do in a fiddly system. By extension, such a game isn't so hot for someone who isn't really into highly tactical wargaming, and spending time worrying about exactly which 5' square their character is in.

The Pros: No more arguing about exactly who was where. Everyone at the table has the same image of the relative position of everyone concerned, at a glance.

I'm the sort who only calls for a physical representation only when the layout and tactical situation is complex, and matters a great deal. For combats that are intended to be small and fast, I prefer to narrate.

Double dittos.

I love me some minis, and have many thousands collected since 1977, but they only need to be used when positioning is going to be crucial.

 

[ComradeGnull]

I played without minis for many years. It speeds up combat because you will tend to ignore things like movement, cover, etc. That eliminates a lot of tactical options.

It's all about what game the DM and players want to play. If you run 3/4e without some kind of mapping, a lot of PC and NPC abilities become pointless. If everyone wants to play a game with a lot less emphasis on combat, that might be fine.

 

[IronWolf]

We don't use minis. We have them and tact tiles but it does slow the game down a little. Plus we prefer to game away from any large table and if we used minis I would want to be a good sized table.

As I am in Crothian's group my answers mimic his. Admittedly Crothian is better at running combats without minis than I am, his memory for where everyone is at is impeccable and our group trusts each other. I don't think we've ever debated whether or not someone was or wasn't where they thought they were. Sometimes we will ask "can I reach that guy in one move and still attack?" and we'll have an answer in less time than it would take to move the mini. It works well for us.

When I run I tend to run a large number of the small combats without a mat. Some of the larger or boss fights I might drop down some tokens or minis, especially at the higher levels, largely because I have a harder time tracking as many things simultaneously and running effective monsters than Crothian does.

So I think it takes two things to run without minis. GMs that can keep this straight (and for most combats it really isn't that difficult) and players that trust the GM and the other players. If you have those it can work out great and really speed things up.

A lot of our group's motivation to do this is due to our play environment. We play in a living room with a small coffee table that doesn't really hold a large battlemat that easily. So over the years we've adapted.

 

[Mark CMG]

There are times, even in an RP-heavy RPG, where minis just seem to be too big a help to not use, IMO. However, if the rules of the RPG focus too much on combat then, by extension, the minis being used become too much of a focus. This is certainly to be expected. And it is difficult to instutute a lower focus on minis in games that are combat-heavy, IME. Once they are on the table, there are certain expectation about their usage.

 

[Glade Riven]

I enjoy them, and I use them - then again, I'm an artist who's quick with a marker, and I like to set up terrain that players can use to their advantage/disadvantage. The one problem I've ran across is when someone studies the combat field like a chess board during their turn instead of paying attention to what is going on with other people's turns, so I have considered pulling out an egg timer to limit that sort of thing. You fail to act, your turn is deffered.

 

[nedjer]

Always use minis for PCs, but that can just be to line them up in party order - so there's an excuse to have the characters on show.