Scared about squares

[FitzTheRuke]

Not really. 4e is a boardgame, because it requires a board to get even basic support for the combat, while many other systems, including 3e, allow quite advanced board-less combat, with minimum amount of house rules.

Have you played 4e? Have you played it without a board?

I've done both. While you get all the tactical advantages playing with figures & mats, it's really no harder than any other edition to play without, and you have the advantage of immersion.

The trick to DM it is simply a matter of remembering that one of your jobs is to make sure that everyone has fun, so within reason allow things like movement and spell areas to line up in ways that the players are hoping for, but not all the time. (Because that wouldn't be fun either.)

I'm just scared that this switching will decouple the character-in-rpg from miniature-on-board in everybody's minds a lot more than 3e character-in-rpg versus character-in-combat. And I think that boardless 4e is a harder to pull out that boardless 3e. Not impossible, harder.

I wouldn't say it's harder than 3e. It's harder than 2nd to be sure, but if you were any good at doing it in 3e it's essentially the same skill set.

Fitz

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Dirt-simple conversion to run 4E without minis or a board:

There are 4 ranges you need to worry about: melee, close, short, and long. A single move action allows you to close or open your range to a particular creature by one category.
etc etc

This is pretty much how I do it. In fact, I like a few aspects of this one better, and I think I'll steal 'em... thanks!

Fitz