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Review of New Players Handbook Posted at Acts of Geek...
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<blockquote data-quote="Bumamgar" data-source="post: 6353913" data-attributes="member: 38648"><p>To each their own <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>Some players prefer a tactical game and don't enjoy theater of the mind style play. It's really just a playstyle preference and neither right nor wrong. However, I'd argue that if the group is trying to play via theater of the mind, but is worrying about precise positioning as well, then they are probably doing it wrong and should stop trying to play in the theater of mind style.</p><p></p><p>I'd also say that it generally takes a lot more time to prep for and setup grid / miniature based battles than it does to provide the occasional location and movement clarifications. In other words, I'd claim that miniatures and grids are a waste of time <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> I only have a finite budget of time to use for prep work. With grid based combat, I'd generally spend most of that time prepping the battlemap (either planning out the various dungeon tile layouts, or drawing a map in Photoshop for VTT usage). With theater of the mind combat, I spend my prep time on designing the encounter and story instead. My group much prefers our D&D game to be about the story than the tactical combat. For me it also helps prevent DM burnout. Nothing worse than spending hours setting up a battlemap, only to have the players avoid the encounter entirely. Especially since not only was the time I spent in prep wasted, it also often meant I hadn't had time to prep alternative scenarios <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown :(" data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" /> Granted, there are ways to alleviate some of that by using dry-erase markers and paper tokens rather then dungeon tiles and miniatures, so my example might be a tad extreme. Guess it's my OCD kicking in, but if we're going to play with a grid and miniatures, well, time for me to bust out the paints and dungeon tiles! I'm an all-or-nothing kind of guy, I guess <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bumamgar, post: 6353913, member: 38648"] To each their own :) Some players prefer a tactical game and don't enjoy theater of the mind style play. It's really just a playstyle preference and neither right nor wrong. However, I'd argue that if the group is trying to play via theater of the mind, but is worrying about precise positioning as well, then they are probably doing it wrong and should stop trying to play in the theater of mind style. I'd also say that it generally takes a lot more time to prep for and setup grid / miniature based battles than it does to provide the occasional location and movement clarifications. In other words, I'd claim that miniatures and grids are a waste of time :) I only have a finite budget of time to use for prep work. With grid based combat, I'd generally spend most of that time prepping the battlemap (either planning out the various dungeon tile layouts, or drawing a map in Photoshop for VTT usage). With theater of the mind combat, I spend my prep time on designing the encounter and story instead. My group much prefers our D&D game to be about the story than the tactical combat. For me it also helps prevent DM burnout. Nothing worse than spending hours setting up a battlemap, only to have the players avoid the encounter entirely. Especially since not only was the time I spent in prep wasted, it also often meant I hadn't had time to prep alternative scenarios :( Granted, there are ways to alleviate some of that by using dry-erase markers and paper tokens rather then dungeon tiles and miniatures, so my example might be a tad extreme. Guess it's my OCD kicking in, but if we're going to play with a grid and miniatures, well, time for me to bust out the paints and dungeon tiles! I'm an all-or-nothing kind of guy, I guess :) [/QUOTE]
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