Hexes are cool!

[Mouseferatu]

D'oh! Nevermind; nothing to see here.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

It doesn't matter to me: sqaures, hexes, or a ruler all work fine. I also kind of like offset square grids, which are kind of a squares/hexes compromise.

 

[mattcolville]

Alright. I'm stumped.

What's wrong with diagonal movement?

Someone may have already explained this.

One a square grid, the distance from the center of one square to the center of any adjacent square is not constant. The centers of the squares North, South, East, and West of you are closer to you than the squares to the Northeast. In other words, unlike a Hex grid, it takes more movement to move diagonally than it does to move in straight lines.

The official rule for this is that every other diagonal square counts as two squares. This was a pain in the ass, because it meant A: keeping track of one more thing in combat. Urg. B: you had to keep track of all the diagonals you'd moved, not just sequential ones. So you'd be 6 squares into 12 square movement trying to remember if this was the 3rd diagonal square you'd moved through, or the 4th.

There's a limit to how much you can reasonably be expected to manage in a game, and this was it for us. So for no other reason other than negative conditioning ("we hate this, so we've adapted to not doing it") we don't move more than one diagonal per movement anymore.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

We have an ongoing joke in our game that the reason dwarves will always beat orcs in war is that dwarves form straight battle lines, while orcs always line up diagonally.

 

[Intrope]

Hexes and Offset Square grids have better distance handling, since just counting the hexes will be very close to the measured distance; i.e. moving 6 hexes in any direction will move you about 6" on the map. A square grid requires a 1-2-1-2 diagonal move rule to get close to that.

Square and Offset Square grids are much better for drawing architecture, since it's much easier to draw down a straight line! (Unless you're running tactical combat in R'lyeh...)

I mostly use Hexes because I've got a set of plexiglass tiles (like Tact-tiles) cut in a hex pattern. If I could get something like that in offset squares, it'd be better for everything.

I'm going to guess that the Point grid Danny mentioned has offset rows of points, so it'd be equivalent to a hex grid with no guidelines. Better for outdoor (where you don't have much architecture), worse for dungeons (At a guess!)

 

[RFisher]

I prefer hexes.

I've never been a fan of having walls, features, or spell effects line up with the grid, whether using hexes or squares. I use a ruler to make sure the wall or other features or spell effects I draw on the mat are the right size. Just ignore the hexes whilst drawing.

Treat partial hexes/squares as full hexes for movement/positioning.

For spells & similar effects, I tend to treat hexes/squares that are partially effected different. e.g. If a save means half-damage, then not saving in a partially effected hex means half damage while saving means no damage.

I've also just used a ruler & no grid.

Though, for RPGs, I prefer to not use minis or equivalents at all.

 

[The_Gneech]

I grew up on the HERO System and have always preferred hexes, myself. Either one will work, tho.

-TG

 

[MrFilthyIke]

My hex love started with Battletech.

I use squares for the ease of my players using 3E.

 

[francisca]

Only high-level clerics and royalty can move diagonally, and the clerics get stuck doing it..

Brilliant!

I'm a hex guy, because they appeal to my inner grognard.

 

[dagger]

Anyone used grid-hex before?

They are squares laid out hex style...