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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 6659139" data-attributes="member: 996"><p>Oh, please, that canard has been around for going on a century now. First radio was going to render the masses illiterate, then TV, now, somehow, mobile devices even though they're used for texting. As much as it appeals to pseudo-intellectual elitism to think about one's generation as the last gasp of literacy or liberal education or whatever before the fall of civilization, it's never been borne out. </p><p></p><p>The need for precise positioning and calculation or range and area goes all the way back to the space-filling fireballs of classic D&D. It's not a new thing. </p><p></p><p> 'Mandatory' would be a universal claim. Your experience, alone, can't prove that claim. OTOH, any counterexample disproves it. In my experience, in no version of D&D (nor any other game I've run) is the use of a minis with a grid or other play surface 'mandatory.' 3e did not make the grid mandatory. </p><p></p><p>What 2e C&T and 3e /did/ do, though, was present a system that could use a grid to make movement, range/area and positioning quicker and easier than measuring distances or doing without any sort of visualization aids at all, with only a modest sacrifice in granularity. </p><p></p><p> I can. I can also run it more easily with one. A grid is /just/ a useful tool. </p><p></p><p> And, I did. Maybe there were just more old-school wargamers in my area. :shrug: </p><p></p><p> In other words, it was when the DM chose to run 4e more like 5e. </p><p></p><p> I'm sure you could learn to overcome that disability if you applied yourself. </p><p></p><p>Running a game with precise range/movement/positioning/area rules like 1e, 2e, or 5e "TotM," is, as you mentioned, largely a matter of hand-waving that precision away. You can do that with any system, regardless of the units or granularity involved. There is no meaningful difference between handling a 1e 'parting shot' or 5e AoO and a 3.x AoO in TotM: both require you to do nothing more than keep track of who is adjacent to whom.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 6659139, member: 996"] Oh, please, that canard has been around for going on a century now. First radio was going to render the masses illiterate, then TV, now, somehow, mobile devices even though they're used for texting. As much as it appeals to pseudo-intellectual elitism to think about one's generation as the last gasp of literacy or liberal education or whatever before the fall of civilization, it's never been borne out. The need for precise positioning and calculation or range and area goes all the way back to the space-filling fireballs of classic D&D. It's not a new thing. 'Mandatory' would be a universal claim. Your experience, alone, can't prove that claim. OTOH, any counterexample disproves it. In my experience, in no version of D&D (nor any other game I've run) is the use of a minis with a grid or other play surface 'mandatory.' 3e did not make the grid mandatory. What 2e C&T and 3e /did/ do, though, was present a system that could use a grid to make movement, range/area and positioning quicker and easier than measuring distances or doing without any sort of visualization aids at all, with only a modest sacrifice in granularity. I can. I can also run it more easily with one. A grid is /just/ a useful tool. And, I did. Maybe there were just more old-school wargamers in my area. :shrug: In other words, it was when the DM chose to run 4e more like 5e. I'm sure you could learn to overcome that disability if you applied yourself. Running a game with precise range/movement/positioning/area rules like 1e, 2e, or 5e "TotM," is, as you mentioned, largely a matter of hand-waving that precision away. You can do that with any system, regardless of the units or granularity involved. There is no meaningful difference between handling a 1e 'parting shot' or 5e AoO and a 3.x AoO in TotM: both require you to do nothing more than keep track of who is adjacent to whom. [/QUOTE]
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