D&D 5E How Often Do You Use Grids?

[Arnwolf666]

Damn!!! That's pretty.

VTT player here - for many, many years. So, yeah, grid 100% of the time. Heck, even RP encounters generally have a background map and images. I'm using the tools, I might as well use them to their greatest effect.

That’s cool. I keep wondering when the day will come that the VTT will be indistinguishable from a video game.

 

[jayoungr]

I regularly use a grid because it's what my players enjoy. I only go TOTM if it's a very simple setup (a recent example was "You see four awakened trees in a forest clearing attacking some NPCs").

However, I am glad that 5E went out of its way to make TOTM a viable playstyle.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I never use a grid, having run Theater of the Mind as long as I can remember. If there's ever a question of positioning, I'll do a quick (and utterly horrendous) drawing of where everyone is.

When I play, which is mostly AL, however, about 90% of the time the DMs use a grid.

 

[Blue]

It's by group. For example one group, with a DM who ran a lot of 3.5, uses them for every encounter, and is often sketching other things on the battlemap for other encounters, like puzzles and area maps and such.

When I run I'm mixed, and even there it varies by group. One group I did it occasionally early in the campaign and trailed off, others are more depending on the complexity and hazards of the encounter.

And that's just D&D. Other games of course vary. In the FATE game I'm in we often use reprentation of zones, but there's no grid in FATE.

 

[dagger]

As usual, people fail to remember there is a third way. We use NO grid and NO theatre of the mind! We use minis on a gridless map and measure distances with a ruler.

We do this as well.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

If we are in the dungeon I will use the mondomat since its easy to draw stuff on, but if we are outside I will use one of my 6x4 or 3x3 grass/snow/etc mats and all measurement is done via tape measure. I'd prefer to get rid of the grid all together and just use tiles and tape measure for all situations but I'm not there yet. Getting rid of pre-measurement by counting squares would be nice, force the magic-user to pick a spot and cast his spell, hoping he placed it correctly to avoid frying his friends or not too far away and didn't get the foes he wanted to. Eventually I will be using entirely 3d terrain and mats will be gone.

 

[Tony Vargas]

As usual, people fail to remember there is a third way. We use NO grid and NO theatre of the mind! We use minis on a gridless map and measure distances with a ruler.

Wot? No sandtable?

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

I find great joy in making detailed, hand-drawn, 1-inch scale maps for use with figurines; but I would rather pursue theatre of the mind. Presently I occasionally use a grid versus theatre of the mind because players tend to expect it. Indeed, 3rd edition Dungeons and Dragons assumed use of the grid.

With 5th edition I right away saw the rules did not assume use of a grid, so I've been trying to reform my game ever since.

I have seen great potential in theatre of the mind with regards to analysis paralysis, player interaction with and co-creation of the terrain; and, quite frankly, with fudging. However, I do draw out occasional hallways and rooms because players tend to expect it--maybe not your players but mine do.

In the end I prefer theatre of the mind but I'm not the only one playing the game, and the above poll places me in the minority.

 

[the Jester]

None of the above.

I use a grid most of the time with some of my groups, some of the time with others, and basically never with yet others.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

With some success I've sketched maps not to 5-foot scale. This gives us a reference, and we can even place figurines on it to help track characters' general positions. This helps to encourage adventurous thinking during an encounter as the grid lines really don't mean anything at that point.

I think the writers of the Dungeon Master's Guide may have implicitly encouraged this with their advise to use 10-foot scale grids when making maps for encounters.

This could be a fourth way of handling grids (at least I believe that's the count thus far).