slaughterj
Explorer
I notice many of you mentioned that you use hexes for outdoors/overland travel and then squares for battles/combat - but what do you mean when you have outdoors combat?
Hexes or Squares?
- Thread starter slaughterj
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slaughterj
Explorer
CalicoDave
Explorer
slaughterj said:
It's not really a problem with a hex map itself, but more of a problem with my DM's drawing skill and his quickly tracing a room and having walls poorly positioned becuase he can't just follow a straight line to connect them up. Then we'll try to get into some of the partial hexes and be told we can't because the wall isn't exactly where it was drawn.
I've tried to attach a modification of your picture hopefully it comes through. On that picture we had a bad guy at "B" and PC's at "G" and the DM said that they had a flank. I didn't agree, but since I was also a PC I didn't argue.
Also, we might try to move to "H" and be told we couldn't because the wall just wasn't drawn in the right place.
So I think hexes are OK (I've played a lot of Champions) it's just that we don't use them well, and it's easier to make a square room by following the straight lines on a square battle map.
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The_Universe
First Post
Yep, we usually use squares (Laurel is in my group) because most pre-printed maps are on a non-offset square grid. I prefer hexes, but I also prefer not having to draw my own maps most of the time...Laurel said:Normally squares, but ocasionally just to confuse ourselves we choose hexesSome of us actually prefer them.
And I have learned something - I never knew they had off-set squares. Thanks MerakSpielman!
slaughterj
Explorer
CalicoDave said:
Interesting, I wouldn't think the Gs could flank B either, that's part of the point of backing up against a wall...
As for your drawing, I sort of see what your saying about H and the adjacent wall, but I think if people draw it through the hex overlaps like I did, rather than at the edge of the flat surfaces like your example, that it's pretty clear - doesn't seem too hard either, and I'm not an artist, but I guess everyone varies.
MerakSpielman
First Post
Quick question - assuming your hexes are 5' hexes - how tall or wide is the room? It seems... indeterminate.slaughterj said:
Salad Shooter
First Post
At home we use hexes, school squares
I can see arguments for both, and don't really mind using either.
I can see arguments for both, and don't really mind using either.
Depends who I'm with, at current I DM for two games a week, one I use squares, the other hexes.
Squares are simple, we can move (I generally igore the diagnonal = 1.5, especially as we have a new gamer).
The other group prefers a bit more realism (currently spycraft, but that's irrelvant) we use both hexes and facing rules from Uneathed Arcana, and they work well.
P.S. I have the nice double sided Crystal Caste battlemat.
Squares are simple, we can move (I generally igore the diagnonal = 1.5, especially as we have a new gamer).
The other group prefers a bit more realism (currently spycraft, but that's irrelvant) we use both hexes and facing rules from Uneathed Arcana, and they work well.
P.S. I have the nice double sided Crystal Caste battlemat.
CalicoDave
Explorer
slaughterj said:
Yeah, a little more accuracy in us drawing on the hex would help, but it doesn't happen for our group. I've gamed with the same guys for about 15 years and the DM and the players assuming different things from looking at the same map is a common problem. :\
As per MerakSpielman's question the room is 25' wide, but the height is a distance that we wouldn't use; it's between 30' and 35'.
SpiralBound
Explorer
While, I didn't post the pic, I too only use hex maps (not due to a dislike of squares, but simply because a hex map is what I currently own) and I think I can give how .I. would answer that question. It's really not that difficult.MerakSpielman said:
[soapbox]
First off, let's remind ourselves that the grid, be it hex, square, offset squares or triangles even, isn't supposed to be an actual feature of the terrain and is only meant to be a rules-based tool for representing distances on a map. Many buildings, especially historical ones, didn't exactly have perfectly straight walls or even true 90 degree corners. So the measurement problem you mention could easily occur under any type of grid.
Secondly, since the grid hexes aren't supposed to be actual hexes marked on the ground and are more of a conceptual tool, then you do have some leeway in interpreting them. For instance, were I gming a session and using a room as slaughterj has drawn, I would rule that the rooms width was equal to four hexes or 20 feet. I would count each full or almost full hex as 5 feet and each short side passed through as 2.5 feet. For the length of the room I would say that it is 6.5 hexes or 32.5 feet long. Is this 100% accurate? No, one could break out a ruler and argue that the rooms width is closer to 17 or 18 feet due to the missing hex corners down either side of the building. Is this accurate enough to play with though? It should be.
Let's face it, no grid system is a true or accurate representation of the real world. Under most circumstances two or more people can easily stand within a 5x5 area regardless of its shape. (anyone who's ever been in a crowded bus or elevator can attest to that!)
Combatants in a real battle will not conveniently arrange or move themselves in a grid-obeying manner. Instead, they may stand 2 or 3 feet apart instead of 5, align themselves at 37 or 45 degree angles to one another instead of 90 degrees and so on. The very fact that in this single thread alone you can have people all playing the same game with the same rules but using squares, hexes, and offset squares, sometimes even interchangingly depending on the circumstances proves that no one grid system is intrinsically better than the other. Each comes with an inherent compromise and an unstated acceptance that we're imposing an artifical grid onto a world that isn't composed of actual gridded distances.[/soapbox]
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