Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5210965" data-attributes="member: 42582">On this one, I think I agree with RC rather than Hussar.Gridless doesn't have to empower the GM over the players. Players just as much as the GM can be a bit flexible and creative about where they are in the non-visually-represented gamespace. And as others have said, for number of foes in a fireball etc it's often a die roll rather than GM stipulation.I think gridless may tend to empower the GM when players (as in 4e) have a lot of fiddly movement-related powers that are a big part of what their PCs can do. But that is pretty specific to a particular ruleset.If I've been following RC correctly, he's making the same point I made upthread in relation to Rolemaster - in some RPGs, the tactical decision-making (and hence the player empowerment) is located in aspects of the game other than positioning. For RM, this is in allocation of combat bonuses on a round-by-round basis to defence, initiative, crit-shifting, multiple attacks etc. I gather than RC's homebrew uses comparable elements - players have to choose how their PC attacks, defends etc. At least in my experience, in this sort of game the grid gets replaced by running sheets on which players record their declared actions for the round - a canonical record of this becomes more important to play than a canonical visual representation of the combatants' locations.A footnote: in a game where most combatants have movement rates comparable to typical weapon and spell ranges, positioning is likely to become less important. At least, this is my experience from RM: unlike D&D, it has 10 second rounds plus stat bonuses to speed and double movement rate at no penalty, leading to 100'+ per round movement rates. Whereas the most common spell range is 50'. And there are no attacks of opportunity. So typically you're either in melee or out of it, and if you're in and want to get out then you can, unless your opponent presses the attack after you.</blockquote>

Verification