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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 4114025" data-attributes="member: 4937">I would think 6-10 squares per combatant*.  So, an average fight would occur in various room sizes:4x15 - 4x255x12 - 5x256x10 - 6x168x8 - 8x129x9 - 9x1010x10Of course, sometimes you'll want to break that mold deliberately to create different tones and tactical considerations.  Smaller rooms create claustraphobia, and force the players to deal with a situation in which they really don't have alot of room to manuever.  Larger rooms create agoraphobia, and force the players to deal with a situation in which they may not be able to close to melee easily.You can also do interesting things with where in the room the players enter.  For example, a 4x25 room (hallway like) is very different tactically if you enter in the middle of one of the short sides and the monsters are somewhere down the hall, or if you enter in the middle of one of the long sides and you have monsters at either end.   This is even more true of a 6x10 type room, where entering on the short side allows you to form a defensive perimeter with 5 characters, but entering on a long side probably doesn't.  One of the things I've been thinking about is perhaps changing the definition of a 'step'.  Since we are using abstract terminology anway, what's to keep 1 square from being 3' (or a meter) rather than 5'?   A ratio of 3' per square lets you do away with every room has to be a gymnasium, if that sort of thing bothers you.  A 10x10 room is then only 30'x30', well back within D&D's traditional scale, and the classic 20'x30' room (now a 7x10) is not that constrictive.*I probably should say that the term 'combatant' refers to medium-sized creatures, and this will go far wrong if you are dealing with something that isn't.  Basically, I'd advocate counting creatures according to the size of thier base.  A 10'x10' base needs the same space as 4 combatants to have the same number of positioning options.  So, for example, a fight with 5 PC's and 4 large monsters is effectively 21 combatants, and needs 126-210 squares (say a 10x12 to 15x14).</blockquote>

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