Simplified diagonal movement

[Asmor]

I take no credit for this idea. Syunsuke came up with it (or, at least, posted it) over in the thread on Non-Euclidean Geometry in the 4e forum.

So, the big problem with 1-2-1-2 movement is that it's a pain to remember if you're on an odd or an even diagonal movement, and so whether you should count it as 1 or 2. You could count them all as 1.5, but I know that several people I play with are math-phobic (to the point they use a calculator when they need to add 19+7 for their attack roll) and I suspect adding decimals would just confuse them more.

So instead, just give everyone movement points (MP) equal to twice their speed in squares.

One square in an orthogonal direction counts as 2 MP. One square in a diagonal direction counts as 3 MP.

This preserves the 1-2-1-2 rule almost perfectly. There is one slight issue in that if you take a single diagonal movement, under the old rules you could still take 5 straight moves (assuming 30' speed), but under these rules you'd be left with 1 MP left after moving 4 squares. You could fix that either by giving everyone one additional MP, by allowing a single movement of 1 square orthogonally for 1 MP, or you could even just accept it as a consequence, or even a feature, of this rule.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Or, to preserve some other issues, declare that the first square entered is treated as a 'straight' move.
This would allow your initial diagonal followed by 5 straight.
It also cuts off any fuss over taking a 5' step diagonally

 

[Asmor]

I don't see why it would necessarily have to be the first square entered... Why not just make it the first diagonal square entered?

 

[maggot]

Measure distances in yards instead of feet. Make the squares 2-yard squares instead of 5-foot squares. Then your movement is measured in yards: 2 yards straight, 3 yards diagonal.

Works for meters too. But I find that meters are too sci fi for D&D. YMMV.

 

[Asmor]

I had an epiphany in the shower today...

The ratio of the distance between two diagonal spaces to the distance between two orthogonal spaces is √2 which is approximately 1.414.

1.5 is a decent approximation, but 1.4 is a significantly better approximation. 1.4 is even more difficult to add, though...

But what if we look at it as a fraction? 1.4/1=14/10=7/5

In other words, diagonal movement on a square grid is seven fifths the length of orthogonal movement! In other words, if a square is 5 feet, then moving diagonal is almost exactly 7 feet! The exact number is 7.07 feet.

That's so perfect that I can only assume that when the Flying Spaghetti Monster created space and time, he created it such that it would be convenient for tracking distance on a square grid with 5' squares.

Think about what that means. The system's not abstract anymore! If you make it 5 feet to move orthogonally and 7 feet to move diagonally, you're almost perfectly approximating the actual distance! So if your character has 30 feet of movement speed, they get to move 30 feet. Not 6 squares, not 12 mp, they move 30 feet.

Brilliant!