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<blockquote data-quote="Stormtower" data-source="post: 3863173" data-attributes="member: 43631">I never played with minis until 3e arrived.&nbsp; My main group has always had at least 3 female players in it, and at first they worried about what others have said in this thread - &quot;Won't they (minis) turn the game into tactical chess?&nbsp; What about roleplaying and imagination?&quot;&nbsp; My players tend towards RP-heavy anyway, especially the ladies.After two sessions with the minis (actually foam core 1&quot; squares with colored glass beads glued to the top, back in 2000) they were hooked.&nbsp; &quot;It's so easy to tell where everyone is during combat.&nbsp; I can really plan out my moves now,&quot; was the most frequent comment from them.Fast forward seven years and a couple thousand DDM minis later (plus painted pewter when necessary) and those same players still swear by the minis.&nbsp; They have become tactically confident and increased their overall spatial reasoning ability (in and out of the context of D&amp;D games).&nbsp; In our group's case, the minis have been a fabulous and unmatched teaching tool for the visual/kinesthetic learners in our group.That said, we have a table rule where we don't fiddle with the minis outside of combat too much.&nbsp; Fantastic, magical vistas and scenic environmental descriptions do lose some of their impact, IMO, when a battlemap is plopped down in place of spoken words.&nbsp; There's a fine balancing act between letting the minis and mat do the talking and letting imaginations paint mental pictures.&nbsp; I've had to train myself to still give verbal monster descriptions when putting minis down on the table... so they can be a mental crutch for DMs too.Overall I love minis and I think they add a great dimension to the game... but playing without them is certainly possible with the right group, and the challenge of properly adjudicating a combat without minis is one that I'd recommend all DMs to undertake.&nbsp; There's no wrong way to play - it's all a learning experience and some folks rely on different tools for their learning.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Stormtower, post: 3863173, member: 43631"] I never played with minis until 3e arrived. My main group has always had at least 3 female players in it, and at first they worried about what others have said in this thread - "Won't they (minis) turn the game into tactical chess? What about roleplaying and imagination?" My players tend towards RP-heavy anyway, especially the ladies. After two sessions with the minis (actually foam core 1" squares with colored glass beads glued to the top, back in 2000) they were hooked. "It's so easy to tell where everyone is during combat. I can really plan out my moves now," was the most frequent comment from them. Fast forward seven years and a couple thousand DDM minis later (plus painted pewter when necessary) and those same players still swear by the minis. They have become tactically confident and increased their overall spatial reasoning ability (in and out of the context of D&D games). In our group's case, the minis have been a fabulous and unmatched teaching tool for the visual/kinesthetic learners in our group. That said, we have a table rule where we don't fiddle with the minis outside of combat too much. Fantastic, magical vistas and scenic environmental descriptions do lose some of their impact, IMO, when a battlemap is plopped down in place of spoken words. There's a fine balancing act between letting the minis and mat do the talking and letting imaginations paint mental pictures. I've had to train myself to still give verbal monster descriptions when putting minis down on the table... so they can be a mental crutch for DMs too. Overall I love minis and I think they add a great dimension to the game... but playing without them is certainly possible with the right group, and the challenge of properly adjudicating a combat without minis is one that I'd recommend all DMs to undertake. There's no wrong way to play - it's all a learning experience and some folks rely on different tools for their learning. [/QUOTE]

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