Please Help Me Run an Adventure Sans Battlemap/Minis

[Herremann the Wise]

Hello Everyone,

Essentially I need some advice in running a game (D&D 3.5 - Age of Worms - Spire of Long Shadows) without minis and a battlemap.

Our group has about 500 metal minis and well over 7,000 plastic minis between all of us. As such, we have always played with both a battlemap and the various minis we have from 2nd to 3rd and now 4th editions of the game. However, I have not run a dedicated campaign sans minis since my early AD&D days at school and while I'm fairly experienced as a DM, I'm sure you guys have some really good advice for running a game in the landscape of the mind.

My reasons for wanting to do this is to take the players out of their comfort zone but in an exciting way. The Spire of Long Shadows is a very tough module in the Age of Worms adventure path. However, it also focuses rather heavily on six significant pieces of imagery to be described when the PCs achieve certain goals. As such, I wanted to keep everyone focused on what they were imagining and not letting frequent returning to the battlemap break everyone's focus. I have numerous pictures to display that will assist the group. However, what do I need to make sure that I do and what do I need to make sure that I don't do to make the experience fun and exciting?

Thank you very much in advance for the advice. Hopefully, this will be a useful thread that anyone can take advantage of. Both 3E and 4E are very mini-centric so it would be really cool to get some good advice.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Lord Xtheth]

My group started playing 4E wanting to use minis in every single battle. It wasn't bad, but it made for a long setup trying to find the right monsters (or at least reasonable monster stand-ins) gradually I let the players fight smaller fights off of the map and eventually broke them away from the "We NEED a map" mindset.

Its all about making fair calls, and trying to picture the battlefield in your mind. concepts like "How many squares away is the bad guy?" should be thrown out the window and replace with "you can reach the minions this round, but not the king killer monster mage this round" or whatever you want to tell your PCs.

Playing without a map definately makes judgement calls on ranges and area of effects a little harder to arbitrate, but it's easily adapted to.

I guess my best suggestion realy is to just try it and see how it works out. Make your own calls on how to best handle the situations that come up. Start small though. "It's you and this solo monster, I'm not putting a map down for this" to "Theres only 3 dudes, we don't need a map" etc.

 

[Gilladian]

I think you have it figured out pretty well; lots of pictures to help them get a clear idea of what the room they're in is like. Also reminders on a regular basis. Whenever it is the monsters' turn or turns, give clear updates on their positions regarding the PCs. For example: "The orcs in the red shirts stand their ground in a line across the hallway, but the archer orcs behind them are now moving up. The shaman on the ledge above is still there, but the orc beside him has disappeared. You're not sure if he backed away or went invisible..."

Every round an update is needed since they can't see you do the movements visually. Even if things don't move, a recap is good!

 

[vagabundo]

I run all minor combats in 4e without a mat and they key is to be fair and imagine the scene clearly in your own mind. Your players should ask lots of questions, these help build the scene in their mind after the initial "boxed text".

There was a thread on running 4e matless here a month or two ago that had some very good mechanical suggestions, but I'm not sure if I have saved it.

 

[airwalkrr]

It's hard to run 3.5 and 4e without a battlemap, at least for important encounters. However, if you are willing to let 25 feet be 40 feet, a 5 foot step to be a 10 foot step, or a 20 foot radius to be a 15 foot radius from time to time it isn't so much of an issue. I would like to stress, however, that in 3.5 many times players see the tactical elements as a strength of the system and feel cheated if they do not get to take advantage of battle map combat. Perhaps you should discuss with your players what they prefer. Do they wish to handle more encounters each session or do they enjoy the tactical aspects of the encounters enough that they are willing to complete fewer encounters? I have played with players from both schools of thought, and chances are you will have mixed opinions within your group. Thus it might be advantageous to do as others have suggested and dismiss the battle map for minor encounters (such as those with wandering monsters or ELs equal to or lower than the party level) and only pull out the battle map for important encounters. This all depends on whether or not you can trust your players not to metagame which encounters are critical however. Decide on what is best based on what you know about your players and what they tell you they prefer.

 

[bert1000]

I'm trying to find the old thread that had a lot of great suggestions on this but can't find it either. One of the more interesting ones was to create "zones". Melee, close, medium, far. Or something similar. Melee is within reach, close is within a move action, medium within a charge, far requires a double move or more.

For powers with push, pull, etc. you just have to go back to the old way we did spells without a battlemap. Player/DM interaction goes something like: "I want to Thunderwave the orcs away from the ranger. How many can I get?" "You can effect 3 but the one on the opposite side, flanking him, you can't get" "Ok, I want to push them off the cliff" "Hmm, yeah, you are close enough. Ok, roll to attack"

 

[kensanata]

I have some notes on my blog:

• Split the fight up into little groups, usually such that it’s a n:1 situation.
• No attacks of opportunity against spell casters and archers (ie. you can always do a five foot step unless you’re in difficult terrain).
• Moving to another group provokes attacks of opportunity from the guys you’re leaving.
• If you stick to your group, you can do full attacks.
• The single guy in each group is flanked.
• Only single guys being flanked get cover from ranged attacks.
• Don’t ignore “into melee” for ranged attacks.
• Ignore movement speed.

Also note the additional comments.