Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Shaman" data-source="post: 2531283" data-attributes="member: 26473">I never played a game without minis of some sort or another, whether I was a player or a GM.One GM in our group liked to use a hex grid for combat, while I preferred to use a bare tabletop and tape measure. (Yes, even at twelve years old, I was already old school... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ) Eventually we both stuck with the hex grid after one-too-many times the table got bumped and the minis moved out of position. (If only I had a REAL sand table...)By the time I started playing D&D, I had about two years of playing a few different minis games: a couple of Napoleonics scenarios at the LGS using borrowed formations, a WWII game for which I had two companies of armor (Shermans and Hellcat tank destroyers, plus supporting infantry), and a colonial Africa game (Zulu War, Boer War, Fashoda, etc.) in which I played the Boers and the French. The concepts of threatened areas, reach, charging, flanking, overrunning, pushing back (bull rushing), and so on where pretty firmly ingrained when we first started playing D&D, so it was an easy transition.A couple of us experimented with Dex-based rather than Str-based fighters so that we could take advantage of improved mobility or ranged combat. My fighter was an ex-gladiator who wore light armor and relied on speed and moving to his opponents' non-shield side to get past AC whenever possible, or get behind an opponent altogether to cut it down - often this involved using cover, especially against big foes like wyverns or hydras, or some of the swashbuckling maneuvers like jumping from rocks or tables or swinging from ropes and tree limbs. Only a "dumb dwarf" or a knight would stand and take punishment in our games. We used reach weapons like spears or polearms then dropped those to close with the sword or mace. We hired men-at-arms to act as scouts, flankers, and rear guards (cannon fodder, really) when traveling in the wilderness. I know there's much more that I'm forgetting.When I hear gamers describe how tactical 3e is compared to earlier editions, I've never really understood what the big attraction was. To me, having played a game on a bare table where we measured movements and checked for weapon reach using a tape measure, 3e (and 3.5 in particular) seems like checkers. I understand a little better that the way we gamed was a bit different from the experiences of others.</blockquote>

Verification