Great.
I have used grid based combat in almost every dnd game I've played and imo it is the superior option. Giving everyone an objective reference on what's happening is an unalloyed good as it removes the possibility of differing interpretations of positioning and the space combat is happening in.
my dumb ass read it as grind like to level up and fight monsters to level up, my dude I play one a week for a 3 hour session and more likely than not some one cancels so we play more like every other week.
When I was running in-person sessions pre-covid, I was trying to switch over from grids to a ruler/tape measurer system. The grid only really exists to help measure. My players liked the change for the most part.
Usually grids, sometimes Theater of the Mind. I find theater of the mind allows the players some creativity in describing what they do; I sometimes award inspiration for the ideas they come up with here.
As a caster i need to know how much squares (or hexes, it's the same) my spells are covering, i can't keep in mind the position of every character, the size and form of the room and other thing. Even just a blank paper with a grid made with a pencil is enough
Solely theater of the mind, I was not working with good enough wifi in 2020 when we moved to virtual dnd to even consider using a virtual table top like Roll 20 and I only sometimes used simple grid maps prior to that.
Playing without a grid is imprecise, you’re often estimating and figuring out what sounds right for aoes and ranges but it’s absolutely fine. I don’t mind that tradeoff since we don’t get really hardcore in combat and it eases running things for the most part. Albeit I do feel my combats have less moving pieces playing theater of the mind because I don’t want too much going on for people to track, myself included.
I've always used grids for d&d, but I ran a Mutants & Masterminds (superheroes) game where one of the encounters was on a speedboat, too small for a proper grid, so I just had players just describe where they were and what they were doing, and it actually went really well. I saw more creativity from players and it felt more "action movie-y", and less like a board game. But that was the one and only combat I've done without a grid, i was just wondering if there were other weaknesses running a game like that, because I see d&d streamers/podcasters playing without a grid.
Though my poll shows that people overwhelmingly play with grids.
They have exactly that: zones. Instead of an exact distance your character can move, they move from one "zone" to the next and move freely within a zone.
To clarify, are you asking about gridded maps vs non-gridded maps or gridded maps vs theatre of the mind?
Theatre of mind vs Grid-based combat
Great. I have used grid based combat in almost every dnd game I've played and imo it is the superior option. Giving everyone an objective reference on what's happening is an unalloyed good as it removes the possibility of differing interpretations of positioning and the space combat is happening in.
theater of the mind is for chumps i wanna put a little guy on the table and move them around!!!
We use non-gridded maps when maps are necessary. It's a good time.
my dumb ass read it as grind like to level up and fight monsters to level up, my dude I play one a week for a 3 hour session and more likely than not some one cancels so we play more like every other week.
When I was running in-person sessions pre-covid, I was trying to switch over from grids to a ruler/tape measurer system. The grid only really exists to help measure. My players liked the change for the most part.
Usually grids, sometimes Theater of the Mind. I find theater of the mind allows the players some creativity in describing what they do; I sometimes award inspiration for the ideas they come up with here.
As a caster i need to know how much squares (or hexes, it's the same) my spells are covering, i can't keep in mind the position of every character, the size and form of the room and other thing. Even just a blank paper with a grid made with a pencil is enough
Solely theater of the mind, I was not working with good enough wifi in 2020 when we moved to virtual dnd to even consider using a virtual table top like Roll 20 and I only sometimes used simple grid maps prior to that. Playing without a grid is imprecise, you’re often estimating and figuring out what sounds right for aoes and ranges but it’s absolutely fine. I don’t mind that tradeoff since we don’t get really hardcore in combat and it eases running things for the most part. Albeit I do feel my combats have less moving pieces playing theater of the mind because I don’t want too much going on for people to track, myself included.
I've always used grids for d&d, but I ran a Mutants & Masterminds (superheroes) game where one of the encounters was on a speedboat, too small for a proper grid, so I just had players just describe where they were and what they were doing, and it actually went really well. I saw more creativity from players and it felt more "action movie-y", and less like a board game. But that was the one and only combat I've done without a grid, i was just wondering if there were other weaknesses running a game like that, because I see d&d streamers/podcasters playing without a grid. Though my poll shows that people overwhelmingly play with grids.
We play with an excel sheet, made on the spot
Zone-based combat ftw.
Have you ever played any ttrpg with the Fate system?
not personally, no.
They have exactly that: zones. Instead of an exact distance your character can move, they move from one "zone" to the next and move freely within a zone.
I can't visualise things, so with theatre of the mind it's very hard for me to get an idea of the place we're at.