What are your feelings on combat mats?

[Fenes 2]

It changes the game tone. Instead of roleplaying a combat situation, and making decisive moves, players begining fretting about "But if I move here, then with his movement of 30, he would be able to move within attack range... But if I move to THIS square instead of THIS square, he will be 10 ' away at the end of his move... and if I were to move HERE instead, the wizard could toast him with a fireball and catch his companion there on the fringe of the explosion, while it would stop exactly one square from me...."

That's not the type of game I want to run.

I second that. As does SurfMonkey01 I aim for a more descriptive feel (I call it cinematic) in my game. I want to play a roleplaying game, not a tabletop strategy. Maps are fine for planning assaults - especially when the PCs have maps - but they ruin the immersion pretty fast. If my players do not trust me not to screw them over - and I do not kill PCs as a rule - I see no need to argue over placement etc.

 

[KnowTheToe]

That said, I wish I had the time and space to make more scenery. I'd love to set up wargame-style "Terrain" and have folks not sweat the "grid" and measure distances with a tape. Like in Chainmail, there'd be no "pre-measuring", of course; "Oh, you charge the troll? OK, let's see, (zip! goes the tape measure) nope! You can't quite reach him this round. Who's next!"

My feelings exactly.

 

[Davelozzi]

** Cross-posted from your thread at RPG.net **

It depends on the game and the props available.

I wouldn't use them for a high energy action movie game such as Feng Shui. I probably wouldn't use them in Star Wars or Spycraft either. But I use them for D&D. And I would use them for any other game that's fairly tactical.

It also depends on what kind of props you have (or draw). Currently, in my D&D campaign we use Dwarven Forge Master Maze, which is considerably more attractive than a battlemat. My players love it and everyone thinks that it adds to the game. Likewise, in an old D&D campaign when I used a mat, if I drew furniture and other items (barrels, chests, etc.) it would add to the battles. The PCs (especially the swashbuckler) would flip tables, roll barrels down stairwells and generally get into all kinds of fun that they likely wouldn't have otherwise.

The other factor is that I'm more likely to use them in a game that I'm running as a long term campaign. For a one-shot or mini-series it's not worth the effort to paint minis so I prefer to just keep it all in our heads.

 

[Tcheb]

I try to only use mats for the big battles, 20+ combatants. They really help there. And it's in these types of battles that I want to encourage strategy.

For the small battles, once PC group against one or two foes, I find the mat slows things down - as was already said, people get too bogged down in strategy.

I disagree with the 'mat limits imagination' thought. We derive great pleasure in covering the mat with everyday objects to represent the fantastic. Books stacked up for hills, stuffed animals for monsters, etc... I think it encourages imagination.

We also use the mat for other things. We use it to write down initiatives, hit points, spells left, notes, etc. This way I (as DM) can see what everyone's status is easily, and all the players have a convienient place to keep track of those ever changing numbers.

Just about the only problem we have is we keep losing the friggin markers.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

** Cross-posted from your thread at RPG.net **

We don't use miniatures. We draw our maps on 5 mm grid paper (with one square usually equalling 1 or 2 meters), out them on styrofoam blocks, and put in pins to mark all positions. The PCs get pins with flags to show their facing.

Works like a charm, and it allows us to use really large-scale maps without it getting confusing. Plus, the players love to "collect pins" to show how many enemies they have defeated...

 

[Florin]

I actually tend to use a chessboard, because I'm too cheap to go ahead and buy a battlemat. With only two players, one of which plays a medium size character and one who plays a large, it's really easy to just use the chess pieces to represent everyone, although I've only run small-scale battles right now. I couldn't imagine doing it on paper, because I would feel like I'm only using half the combat rules and feats that I think make the game very cool.

 

[Rel]

I have several different battle maps and I love using them. I think they reduce confusion and encourage good tactics (I know not everybody wants their game to be about good tactics. I do.).

I also think that miniatures can enhance the tension and feel of the game. If the party looks at the map and sees 20 goblin figures all over the map, they get a distinct feeling that they are outnumbered.

I like my map and I would be hesitant to run a game or play in one (especially a d20 game) that didn't use a map.

 

[roytheodd]

After 19 years of DMing I finally bought a combat mat and I really enjoy it. It took a long time for me to cave in and get one, but the decision was ultimately made because of the following scenario:

DM: You enter a room with said description.
PCs: I go here. I go there. I do this. I do that.
DM: There are spooky monsters around this corner.
PCs: I go here. I go there. I do this. I do that. So where does that put us in relation to the spooky monsters?
DM: Let me sketch it out real quick. (Drawing square) This is the room. (Drawing Xs) This is you, you, you, and you.
PCs: I move here. I move there. I get around this. I hide over here.
DM: (Draws more Xs) Fine, now you're here and you're here, et cetera et cetera et cetera.

Not my favorite way to DM but there are those moments that degrade into this. So now I have a mat on hand for those instances. Do I use it always? Nope, I hardly use it all, but when I need it it's golden.

 

[Aristotle]

I can only echo what others have said. I have two chessex mats, and plan to get another couple eventually. I put them out on the game table whether or not I think I'll need to make use of them each session.

For the record, I use water soluable transparency markers on my mat. I can leave them on for an entire game session and wash them off with a damp towel with no staining. I sometimes leave a map drawn on the mat for up to a month. This has caused some staining, but regular cleaning with dishwashing liquid keeps the stains light.

I do not feel that using a mat "dulls" the creativity of a game. As others have said, it merely provides information that you would otherwise have to go over several times through a scene. It also makes for less arguing about where a character is, which way he is facing, and what is around him. You, the DM, still have to be just as descriptive with your scenery. In my opinion you can be even more descriptive. With all of the "facts" already on the mat in front of the group you can spend more time on description and other fluff.

A mat should not hinder a group who wants to run a "cinematic" game. I am notorious for such games, and I use my mats. The only difference is that the mat allows everyone to see the action in the same way instead of the DM assuming everyone is seeing what he is describing (and often being wrong).

Another "pro" argument. There are people who learn by be being told and people who learn by being shown (and a few who can learn both ways). Neither group is less imaginitive than the other. As a DM you can provide an equal level of enjoyment to players of both types by describing the action for those who learn from being told, and showing the action on the mat for those who learn from being shown. Everyone wins! (by the way, this is the same principal reason why teachers use blackboards or whiteboards.)

Someone mentioned that things get to tactical when a mat is introduced. I understand the argument, but do not agree with it completely. It makes sense to me that a character might move to avoid the possible movements of enemies. It makes sense to me that any Wizard worth his salt would be able to judge the approximate distance to a target for the purpose of centering spells. Otherwise he would probably have incinerated himself a long while ago. Remember that the "squares" (or hexes) are not there. The characters do not see them. So if you think that a character might not notice that he is lined up with an enemy or might have a difficult time gauging the distance to a target... call for some sort of perception test! If you want to play cinematic, then judge the character choice in the same way you would have without the mat and then apply it. Very simple.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

I am a big fan of any sort of tactical representation, and I've tried a lot of different things.

I actually have a pretyt good system right now, that's a bit of a mixed bag. But I don't use a traditional mat, per se.

When you get a chance, take a drive down to your local Office depot or Staples or whatever else works for you. I found easel-sized pads of 1-inch graph paper there for about 12$ for a pad of something like 40 sheets. You can even go up to something like $20 for a pad of paper that big with post-it note glue on the back, but I decide I didn't need that.

This way I can create a whole library of pre-made maps for my game sessions. It's amazing how much game time you can save by having the map drawn out ahead of time. And when the party returns to a place they've already been, I can just pull that old map out of the closet.

I use those pads for everything that I can prepare ahead of time. If I need to leave a few things off (secret doors, etc) that's easy to do. It also means that I can add a lot more detail to the map than I would if I were creating it on the fly while my players waited.

When we play, I also have a stack of Dragon Scale Combat Mat sheets (www.dragonscalecounters.com) -- 8x10" sheets that work great. I have a dozen of them, and I don't even use them every week, but I find the stack of tiles a lot more flexible and useful than a roll-out traditional matt.

-rg