Mercule
Adventurer
We bounce between a grid and TotM. Generally, the more threatening and/or campaign significant the encounter is, the more likely I'll choose to use a grid.
Grids clear up confusion, but often slow down play. I do not think it's fair to anyone at the table to take the time to draw the terrain and any other tactically relevant bits for a random encounter with a handful of orcs. On the other hand, I've got a poster-sized sheet of 1" graph paper that I often use to pre-draw BBEG-type encounters. I have to have reasonable expectation that the group will hit that encounter in the next couple sessions, though, to do so. For other cases, I have a set of Tact-Tiles (and am waiting on my new GNL mats) for ad hoc mapping.
One trick I've added in the last few months is the idea of zone-based combat (cribbed from FATE). I'll do a rough map that may or may not be to scale, but divide it into zones. For the most part, this means just declaring how many increments of 30' (standard movement rate) the various groups are from one another. It can also include things like "on the road" and "in the brush". Most area effect spells are going to hit anyone in a given "zone", so I just let it go, barring any special circumstances. I've actually used it for pretty large-scale combats (the camp around Scarlet Moon Hall, for example) and it's been expedient without sacrificing too much clarity or tactical thinking. The players seem to enjoy it, even when they've had multiple characters go down -- I haven't explicitly asked, but I've got a couple players who would definitely give feedback if it bothered them.
Before doing the zone thing, I'd seriously considered going to a gridless mat that still was set to 1" = 5'. I got very frustrated by the constant chess-move quality of combats where some players would constantly recount their movements around the board and count ranges and areas of effect multiple times before picking a spell to cast. I realize that may be fine by some people, but it bothered me and several players. My thought was that going to a tape-measure would ease that a bit and also get rid of the overly tidy commonality of "the fireball cuts a neat line between the bad guys' line and the PCs". Doing the latter once is kind of cool. Doing it every session starts to erode my suspension of disbelief.
Grids clear up confusion, but often slow down play. I do not think it's fair to anyone at the table to take the time to draw the terrain and any other tactically relevant bits for a random encounter with a handful of orcs. On the other hand, I've got a poster-sized sheet of 1" graph paper that I often use to pre-draw BBEG-type encounters. I have to have reasonable expectation that the group will hit that encounter in the next couple sessions, though, to do so. For other cases, I have a set of Tact-Tiles (and am waiting on my new GNL mats) for ad hoc mapping.
One trick I've added in the last few months is the idea of zone-based combat (cribbed from FATE). I'll do a rough map that may or may not be to scale, but divide it into zones. For the most part, this means just declaring how many increments of 30' (standard movement rate) the various groups are from one another. It can also include things like "on the road" and "in the brush". Most area effect spells are going to hit anyone in a given "zone", so I just let it go, barring any special circumstances. I've actually used it for pretty large-scale combats (the camp around Scarlet Moon Hall, for example) and it's been expedient without sacrificing too much clarity or tactical thinking. The players seem to enjoy it, even when they've had multiple characters go down -- I haven't explicitly asked, but I've got a couple players who would definitely give feedback if it bothered them.
Before doing the zone thing, I'd seriously considered going to a gridless mat that still was set to 1" = 5'. I got very frustrated by the constant chess-move quality of combats where some players would constantly recount their movements around the board and count ranges and areas of effect multiple times before picking a spell to cast. I realize that may be fine by some people, but it bothered me and several players. My thought was that going to a tape-measure would ease that a bit and also get rid of the overly tidy commonality of "the fireball cuts a neat line between the bad guys' line and the PCs". Doing the latter once is kind of cool. Doing it every session starts to erode my suspension of disbelief.
