My DM doesn't want to use miniatures...

[Monte At Home]

Monte,

Why couldn't the orcs have captured Jenna (or worse, depending on the tone of the campaign and your preferred explanation for half-orcs ) rather than finishing her off?

Because they were ordered to kill the party by the real bad guys in the fight, and they were particularly bloodthirsty orcs (already established as part of the campaign).

Unfortunately, that doesn't negate the potential for that to happen, or your point. An orc may take prisoners, but a dire wolf pack certainly won't.

Right. The point isn't that some alternate solution couldn't be proposed, it was that there were all were, DM and players, staring the reality of the game system in the face. The game was clearly telling us all what should happen next, rather than the DM and the players. Thus, the game had the power in that situation.

It was a situation that no one would have noticed if we weren't using miniatures, because it would have just been in our heads. But on the table, there were those orcs staring up at us, saying "we haven't gone yet..." (It's too complicated to describe in detail, but basically the orcs literally had nothing to do that round but kill her.)

And by the way, it's all fine. Much roleplaying angst over her demise ensued, and interesting things will develop from the event.

 

[Starglim]

It's been a long time since I played any game (D&D or otherwise) without some graphical representation of where party members are in combat. It seems to me that miniatures fill that role with more clarity and easier movement than any of the alternatives.

I'd want to alter the rules if not using a battle-map so that tactics depended only on those things that could be conveyed well by description - for example, who is facing off with whom, who is assisting, what objects or locations each combatant chooses to "guard" or "block" or use as cover. I don't think this would be particularly difficult to write. For example, perhaps a combatant is flanked if attacked by two opponents and not protected by allies or restricted space, or "outflank" is a move action.

 

[Steel_Wind]

I think I'd enjoy using minis and battlemats if they weren't so bland. If you're going to be visual, be visual. Besides the little PC and NPC figures, how about introducing some terrain features and little prop pieces? What about a little pop-up sort of thing that suggests stairs or towers and the like? Basically, I want little details that add to making the game seem more like fantasy roleplaying than a chess board.

BLAND? Disconnect? Wouldn't want to use miniatures???

Tac-tiles and Battlemats? Dry erase pens?

Uhmmmm. I think not.

You guys need to pine a little less for diceless Amber and start thinking about what's possible.

I wouldn't give up our DLP overhead projector - or our thousands of miniatures - for anything. I dare say our gaming sessions are pretty damn cool. And there is no lack of roleplaying in our sessions AT ALL.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Steel_Wind, are you Divine Rank 0 yet, because I'm worshiping you right now.

 

[Testament]

HOLY FUNTING MOSES!

What program are you genning that map on? Looks like an NWN editor to me, unless I'm very wrong.

 

[Kashell]

I find that in epic battles...with more than 5-8 PC's/NPC's involved, things can become confusing.


If you run under 10 people encounters all the time, it's grand to have descriptions.

As a DM, I want to spend more time on story and do the battles quickly. Or, sometimes I want battles to be very tactical in nature and last a long time (as one battle we did that lasted 7 hours...)

When facing 120 foes on a ship vs ship battle, things become complex.

When facing 1 foe in a square room, things are pretty simple.


it's all how you want to do it.

 

[Umbran]

I don't think weak DMs try to avoid minis. IME it tends to be the other way around. If a DM is concerned that his narration may not adequately describe the battlefield, he will use maps and figures to help. That way, even if his description is flawed, the players can look at the map and see exactly what he means.

I think that's pretty unfair, AuraSeer. Even the best narration can slip from a player's mind (or even the DM's attention) over the course of a complicated combat. Wanting a visual aid there to capture some fo those details says nothing about confidence in narrative skills - it simply denotes that everyone on teh table is human, and unlikely to have perfect recall.

 

[Melkor]

Steel_Wind -

That's a pretty cool set up you have there.

 

[hero4hire]

Steel_Wind,

From a veteran gamer...Props!

I am sure it is even more impressive up close.

 

[Ed Cha]

I use counters for convenience reasons. They're easy to carry around and cheap, too.

I would LOVE to have a whole collection of miniatures. If I could, I'd collect thousands, but I just don't have the space or funds for that. I'm the type of person who would get really annoyed if I didn't have the exact miniature and instead had to use an air elemental to represent a dire bear or something like that...