How "Table-Top" is Your Game?

[Psion]

tempted to get some of those fiery dragon counters, but i have no idea what they look like, or what's actually in them, and they arent 3.5 compliant anyway.

If you have no idea what is in them, what are you doing making proclaimations of their compliance?

At any rate, I noticed some of their newer counter products (the eldritch one and the modern one were already made using square facings, and I think counter pack 4 is, too). So your proclaimation of non-compliance is incorrect.

Much to my chagrin...

 

[Gnarlo]

My group is very much into tabletopping. When we play online, we use Klooge and everything is laid out on a map with tokens and icons (usually scanned in from the Firey Dragon collections or the tokens in Dungeon or Dragon magazine). When playing face to face, we use minis, stand up cardboard heroes figures, and homemade standup figures, and the terrain is Master Maze and Hirst Arts Blocks for the interiors, and a green grass sheet and railroad terrain for exteriors. I've just started practicing carving pink insulating board up for terrain as well

 

[reapersaurus]

Actually, my experience is just the opposite.

wow.
i never would have guessed that if anyone was going to be contradictory to me, it was gonna be Umbran

man, you should get another hobby.

 

[cptg1481]

How about this...

My group is very much into tabletopping. When we play online, we use Klooge and everything is laid out on a map with tokens and icons (usually scanned in from the Firey Dragon collections or the tokens in Dungeon or Dragon magazine). When playing face to face, we use minis, stand up cardboard heroes figures, and homemade standup figures, and the terrain is Master Maze and Hirst Arts Blocks for the interiors, and a green grass sheet and railroad terrain for exteriors. I've just started practicing carving pink insulating board up for terrain as well

We really have taken this to a new level in out game please check out our miniatures gallery at http://mir.theplothooks.org/ - just follow the link to the gallery.

There are some really col places out there to get stuff that will suprise you. I get alot of cool stuff, dinos, and such at the local dollar store along with some bizare scenery that mostly needs repainted. Also there is a line of christmas stuff from Michaels and JOAnn Fabrics that has awesome trees and terain that need no work at all. I got some great walls and stuff at 70% off last year after the hollidays. Like $2 for what would cost $20 from sat warhamer or another terrain source, and they are already assembled/painted.

 

[mistergone]

So far I'm seeing a leaning towards "table-top" useage, and I think it's good, overall. Before 3E, I was mostly indifferent to mapping everything out beyond a dungeon map on graphpaper or similar, that is, to scale with minis at least. Every once in a while, we'd roll out the giant battlemat and draw out some scene or other, and that always appealed to me, but I most ignored that urge. The play's the thing, for me, I always thought.

But, now it's been years and I've found that when I game, and I especially mean D&D, and there's no battlemat or similar... I feel... kind of short-changed. I really like that aspect of gaming now, the visual representation. I kind of have come to expect it. Now, don't get me wrong, for some games, there's almost no need for all the visuals. And of course, for "roleplaying" moments, yeah, you don't need the figures or maps or anything at all. I mean, that's for the most part obvious. It amuses me mildly to see people making sure they make it perfectly clear that don't actually use little figures and make them move and talk when they are "roleplaying" I mean, that would probably be fun, but yeah, of course we don't. I guess I should have made it more clear originally that I meant for combat situations.

I agree that battlemats make combat easier. Especially D&D. Once you know the combat system, it speeds things up by having everything laid out there for everyone to see. Initially, I resented the fact that 3E was so tactic and map-centric, but I've come to embrace it. Sure, I don't like to have to go out and buy a ton of minis, and I certainly don't have all the patience I could have for painting them (or skill), but glass beads and dice have served me well, as have "proxies" like other minis and small toys. I think they should have done what they're doing now with prepainted minis years ago. There's still aspects of visual combat I am bugged by, like how some scenes involve fantastic settings that just can't be done justice scrawled on a battlemat. Also that some Feats are so important for tactical combat and others are not, it feels limiting sometimes. Overall, I like my games to be decently and fairly "table-top", and my next game will definately have most to all of its combats on a battlemat.

Now to by some new dry-erase markers...

 

[Altalazar]

In my gaming hey-day in Undergrad, we would use classrooms and other rooms with whiteboards and we'd draw where everyone was on those.

Later, we'd use a portable chalk board until I finally managed to locate a battlemat with a square grid on it - then we used that ever-after, with miniatures - this is still what we use to this day (when we ever get around to gaming).

I also use handouts and props where I have the time / it makes sense for the adventure.

I like to hand out little "stories" too for some solo-PC activities that players want to accomplish between sessions.

 

[the Jester]

We use battlemats, minis, random objects and dice of the right size or for hordes of underlings, etc.

Since we usually play at my place, it isn't too much of a hassle to haul stuff here.

 

[F5]

When it's absolutely necessary, we use a roll-out hex-map and dry erase markers. Occasionally for a major encounter, our DM likes to build sets out of Jenga blocks. Really. Jenga blocks. They work pretty well, too.

A friend of mine who doesn't game with us much, anymore, had a brilliant plan. He got an old coffee table, and covered it with tile. His wife (not a gamer) was thrilled at his industriousness, until she realized that they were 1-inch square tiles, and what he had just built was the perfect gamers' table.

We once used peanuts as NPCs for a major battle. We would eat them as they died. Good times, and the one survivor became a semi-recurring NPC called Planter. I think there's a huge market for edible minis, though. You know your group's in for a big fight, so you pick up a bag of gummi orcs on the way to the game. The players eat what they kill...it's the law of the jungle. Kind of.

 

[MerakSpielman]

grid map and dry erase for the battle map.

every player now has an unpainted metal miniature, and the DM uses dice for monsters.

we use it for every battle.

i think it's a huge plus -- d20 combat is too hard to adjudicate without a visual representation of what's going on.

Ditto, right down to the details.

 

[Breakdaddy]

We use a Chessex 36" x 48" Wet-erase Battlemat - the most awesome gaming tool invented.

Oh, but I beg to differ, good sir. The tact-tiles dry erase modular battle mat is the most awesome gaming tool ever invented (IMHO, of course)! This and some plastic/metal minis with assorted dry erase markers are what we use to play out our battles, and they are quite handy.