|
Miniatures in themselves are not the problem...to the opposite they just help the players to get into the action!
MY true ennemy is the battle grid!
When not handled properly it takes all the focus from everyone at the table! Things start to slow down, even to a halt, when players are "calculating" their way to point B without provoking AoO or on wich grid Xsection to aim that fireball in order to hit those 2 guys but not the other one!!
This way they are not fighting a vampire lord close to dawn on the edge of a 100' cliff but instead they see that there is 2 square between that ugly looking mini and the line drawned on the battlemap!
At this point atmosphere goes down the drain!
If i really want to put the main light on dramatic scene and fantastic fight that my players will remember for years i have to find a way to get rid of the battlegrid without making the rules unplayable
In MY Ravenloft adapted Carrion crown AP there will be NO battlegrid! Just minis to help visualise and get in the mood!
Anyone around here might have some usefull input?
P.S. Back in 1st or 2nd ed. there was a lot of grey area i know... but we still remember these epic movie-like fight and not a stupid grid!
Could just make it Int checks to see if they avoid an AoO from moving, or if they can fireball an area without hitting allies.
Then just ask for an Int check with what they are doing.
Or, to be mean, make it a Cha check. "Why?" "Because I said so."
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
One suggestion I have seen is to use one of those little 3-minute hourglasses for a player's turn. In that amount of time they have to decide what they want to do and begin to resolve it, or they 'delay' instead.
This works for over-analyzing spell lists, attack routines, or other options too, not just hyper-examining the battle map.
Could just make it Int checks to see if they avoid an AoO from moving, or if they can fireball an area without hitting allies.
Then just ask for an Int check with what they are doing.
Or, to be mean, make it a Cha check. "Why?" "Because I said so."
I like this idea.
In Warhammer 40k tabletop game units have several stats, including Ballistic Skill (BS). This number relates to how well the use range weapons, including indirect fire guns like mortars. When firing such a gun the player selects the desired target on the table (within range of the gun) and then rolls 2d6, and a third d6 that has arrows on each face. This roll shows how many inches and in what direction the shot scatter. However, from the 2d6 total you subtract the firerer's BS, and this allows for better marksmen to make more accurate shots.
Replace BS for Int Mod and arrow dice for 1d8, and perhaps 1d4 instead of 2d6, and you might have a fun bit of fireball lobbing.
As for going gridless, I say do it.. Keep something around to show where the cliff edge is, but estimate distances. This will require more DM hand waving: "Can I reach him with my polearem?" "Sure why not." But this might also allow you to have a more flexible story in case you really don't want to kill that PC, or the vampire really needs to get away.
One suggestion I have seen is to use one of those little 3-minute hourglasses for a player's turn. In that amount of time they have to decide what they want to do and begin to resolve it, or they 'delay' instead.
This works for over-analyzing spell lists, attack routines, or other options too, not just hyper-examining the battle map.
At one time, six years or ago, we had a big problem with a couple of players waiting until their turns to start thinking about what they were going to do. I bought a fancy stopwatch and then printed out a picture of a huge angry Beholder, then taped it over the watch with the display showing through its mouth.
I then advised that everybody needed to consider what they were going to do during somebody else's turn, and that once it was their turn they had exactly one minute to decide, or they would lose their initiative. They'd have another minute at the end of the round or lose their turn. It worked, for the most part.
As to the grid, I long ago ditched it. I am a terrain junky, with a large wargaming table and many terrain pieces. I love making things. I build and sculpt and paint like a maniac. Most of the time we eyeball distance by the size of the bases, but we have various templates and rulers if there is any question.
You need to have a conversation. Which is better, tactically perfect play that minimizes risk to characters or speedy exciting play that includes imperfections.
Then, spell out what that looks like in practice. And enforce it.
|
I have to say I had the opposite reaction to the Grid, coming from 1st and 2nd ed. for so long we never used a grid, then when I decided to step into the new millenium the grid is one of the things that appealed to me and how well Pathfinder translated to the grid. For me it is what seperates this from more RP heavy games like WoD and L5R.
Miniatures in themselves are not the problem...to the opposite they just help the players to get into the action!
MY true ennemy is the battle grid!
When not handled properly it takes all the focus from everyone at the table! Things start to slow down, even to a halt, when players are "calculating" their way to point B without provoking AoO or on wich grid Xsection to aim that fireball in order to hit those 2 guys but not the other one!!
This way they are not fighting a vampire lord close to dawn on the edge of a 100' cliff but instead they see that there is 2 square between that ugly looking mini and the line drawned on the battlemap!
At this point atmosphere goes down the drain!If i really want to put the main light on dramatic scene and fantastic fight that my players will remember for years i have to find a way to get rid of the battlegrid without making the rules unplayable
In MY Ravenloft adapted Carrion crown AP there will be NO battlegrid! Just minis to help visualise and get in the mood!
Anyone around here might have some usefull input?
P.S. Back in 1st or 2nd ed. there was a lot of grey area i know... but we still remember these epic movie-like fight and not a stupid grid!
Not getting that AoO so you can get to the bad guy is a part of the battle, not an obstacle(annoying add-on) to be overcome IMHO, but I guess perception is the key to the usefulness of the grid.
I used to teach and run D&D 3.X at a game store, and had a lot of kids & first timers. I did a few things which, combined, really sped up the "grid" portion of the game.
First, count squares not feet. Write each character's movement in squares just below (or next to) where it's written in feet. That way we're all counting "1, 2, 3" instead of "5, 10, 15". It might not seem like much of a difference, and it might have less impact for experienced players who are used to counting by five, but it certainly did help.
For an unarmored character:
Move .... 30 feet ... 6 squares
Double .. 60 feet ... 12 squares
Run ..... 120 feet .. 24 squares
Second, do away with the "Diagonal counts double half the time" rule.This was the most effective change when it came to streamlining grid movement. Simply count every square moved as "one" instead of counting "5, 15, 20, 30" for a diagonal. Yes, this injects a slightly higher degree of spacial distortion into the map, but I've found that it's negligible in real play.
Third, get templates. I didn't invest in this one as I would have liked, but I've found that having templates handy for common spells and effects saves a lot of time.
If you want to ditch the grid, go for it. It works well for some groups, and poorly for others, and you'll probably know withing a few sessions if it will work for you. If you do stick with the grid, you might consider streamlining a little.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Most games I play an and GM we only use the grid in specific situations. Outdoor combats rarely get drawn out. Indoor ones get drawn more, but usually they are only in claustrophobic situations to avoid really bad spellcasting decisions.
Try using it less. I had used one a handful of times prior to 3.x for D&D (there are some games that pretty much require it, like Battletech), so when they encouraged everyone to use the grid in 3.x, we gave it a shot. I think it is overused. It is handy on a case by case basis, but most of the time you don't need it, IMO.
I also think that in most cases the grid makes the people at the table's imagination of the events happening in combat less epic.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Put me in the "give me a grid" camp. Otherwise there are too many potential misunderstandings between what the DM sees in his head, what he describes to the players and what the players see in their heads.
One suggestion I have seen is to use one of those little 3-minute hourglasses for a player's turn. In that amount of time they have to decide what they want to do and begin to resolve it, or they 'delay' instead.
This works for over-analyzing spell lists, attack routines, or other options too, not just hyper-examining the battle map.
We had a good DM when me and my brothers were learning to play a long time ago, and we still do what he did to us. When it is a players turn and they don't know what to do, they lose their turn. Now we are getting more laid back and may give a person 30 seconds to decide. But in a 6 second round you pretty much react and don't have much time to think. It makes players become a quick study.
|
|
One suggestion I have seen is to use one of those little 3-minute hourglasses for a player's turn. In that amount of time they have to decide what they want to do and begin to resolve it, or they 'delay' instead.
This works for over-analyzing spell lists, attack routines, or other options too, not just hyper-examining the battle map.
Thats pretty close to what i had in mind.
The first step before goin "gridless" would be to use my old and dusty "1 minute hourglass".But more precisely here is what i had in mind:
#1 The player, on his turn, would have exactly 1 minute to make his mind and act otherwise he just lost his turn due to plain hesitation or confusion.
#2 Forbidding the player to take any measure before moving/shooting, à la warhammer 40K if you want. So if the player make it or the spell got enough range the better otherwise you loose!
Of course these mesures would apply to me, the DM, of course.
What you think?
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Have you tried using a Hex grid instead of a box grid for fights? They make movement much easier to calculate and still allow for each tile to have six adjacent tiles.
Also, putting the initiative order on a whiteboard (visible to everyone) can really speed up the game -- it allows players to plan their turns in a more strategic and easier manner.
We've found that the timer or some sort of count down makes a huge difference. My Dm has recently just started counting down from 5. If you have not made a move you lose your initiative due to indecision. It has drastically sped up combat at higher levels. Now we have our spells chosen and know where we want to put it by the time it's our turn.
|
I'm in a group that uses RPTools' MapTool even when people are in the same room. We use a projector to show the grid on a wall, but you could easily do the same thing with a large monitor. The program calculates movement and provides templates for spell area effects, like cones, etc. It also keeps track of initiative and can handle some of the other tedious book keeping. As extra credit, you can easily create your own maps, which helps me get into the combat much better than looking at grid with lines, x's and o's.
For me, it lets me think less about mechanics and more about what's happening. IMHO, MapTool is the best thing to happen to RPGs since dice.
Miniatures in themselves are not the problem...to the opposite they just help the players to get into the action!
MY true ennemy is the battle grid!
When not handled properly it takes all the focus from everyone at the table! Things start to slow down, even to a halt, when players are "calculating" their way to point B without provoking AoO or on wich grid Xsection to aim that fireball in order to hit those 2 guys but not the other one!!
This way they are not fighting a vampire lord close to dawn on the edge of a 100' cliff but instead they see that there is 2 square between that ugly looking mini and the line drawned on the battlemap!
At this point atmosphere goes down the drain!If i really want to put the main light on dramatic scene and fantastic fight that my players will remember for years i have to find a way to get rid of the battlegrid without making the rules unplayable
In MY Ravenloft adapted Carrion crown AP there will be NO battlegrid! Just minis to help visualise and get in the mood!
Anyone around here might have some usefull input?
P.S. Back in 1st or 2nd ed. there was a lot of grey area i know... but we still remember these epic movie-like fight and not a stupid grid!
Honestly... I agree with just about everything here. Our 2E games never bothered with grids or battlemaps... but we still had miniatures. I LOVE miniatures. I paint them for EVERYONE because they either don't have the time, talent, or inclination to do so...
So that's MY job ^_^
LOVE them... just something awesome about seeing YOUR character in 3 dimensions standing there...
We just switched over to Pathfinder recently (after completely skipping 3E) and the grid is VERY off putting to me. It feels more like a chess game than a roleplaying game.
My personal advice... just lose the grid. We did just fine without it in the past... we can get by just as easily now. The only thing it REALLY matters in, is AoO.... and that is something ELSE we got by without for years upon years... In fact that the new beginner's box doesn't include AoO rules.... So I'd say just get rid of them too.
On a side note... I DO like the idea of 'drawing' the dungeon and maps on the battle map... but I do not like the grid one bit... I'd say find some compramise there. It's a little more accurate than arranging pencils and twizzlers on the table around our minis ;)
We had a good DM when me and my brothers were learning to play a long time ago, and we still do what he did to us. When it is a players turn and they don't know what to do, they lose their turn. Now we are getting more laid back and may give a person 30 seconds to decide. But in a 6 second round you pretty much react and don't have much time to think. It makes players become a quick study.
This. I've seen it work wonders on large-scale (and small-scale) games. After a point, it can speed up turns because players get used to paying attention and eyeballing the grid.
If you've a projector and a few personal computers, MapTools can be useful. It has a tool that lets players test-drag their icon here and there, and will autogenerate the distance for them.
I'd go with Arnwolf and others' options, though. It's not too difficult once you get the hang of it. It's pretty much just counting by 5s.
does anybody use string to physically deal with movement limits?
i haven´t yet ever, but it seems like it could work,
just a matter of how/where you stretch the string amongst the field of mini´s etc...
the string also lets you drop the diagonal movement rules and just use the real distance.
players could have specific strings for single move, double, etc,
and a general string marked off with 5´ increments could be used for everything else...???
i think templates, whether wire or pipe-cleaner or whatever are very good... players (or GMs!) micro-managing intersections is a drag, and just physically plopping a template down really does allow most of the accuracy you want, within the reasonability of doing the targetting AND the rest of your actions within a 6 second round.
i´m not sure if string for movement distance couldn´t be combined with templates for threat area to deal with movement AoO´s... maybe if you by default put a (stackable) wire template on each mini that was placed on the board?
Pathfinder (or Dungeons and Dragons) doesn't need a grid at all. Everything still works just fine and just the way it works with a grid, though the DM will need to be comfortable with making rulings. 3.0 was even written with the assumption that there was no grid - there were alternate rules in the 3.0 DMG that covered grid use if you wanted to use them.
Anything that can be done with a grid, can be done without one as well. Going without a grid has the added bonus of not feeling like a game of chess as well.
Second, do away with the "Diagonal counts double half the time" rule.This was the most effective change when it came to streamlining grid movement. Simply count every square moved as "one" instead of counting "5, 15, 20, 30" for a diagonal. Yes, this injects a slightly higher degree of spacial distortion into the map, but I've found that it's negligible in real play.
Interesting. There are people on these boards who have written 300 page diatribes on how this practice destroyed their games, and to what impossible metrics it drives the game when it comes to long range attacks like longbows and certain spells.
Personally, I can see it becoming a problem only rarely, but a big problem when it does.
I feel that if you're going to go that far, you ought to ditch the grid completely and just use rulers and/or measuring tape. Each 5-foot-square translates to an inch of grid. The easiest way to measure "diagonally" and still be fair, is to simply measure in inches on a ruler, eliminating "diagonal" movement completely, rather than miffing with it.
As I mentioned earlier, we use full terrain pieces, but even on a flat table with no terrains, rulers and templates work just fine.
Interesting. There are people on these boards who have written 300 page diatribes on how this practice destroyed their games, and to what impossible metrics it drives the game when it comes to long range attacks like longbows and certain spells.
Personally, I can see it becoming a problem only rarely, but a big problem when it does.
That's interesting....I've never really seen a situation where you have both the grid AND long range attacks.
the maps just aren't that big.... once they get to the edge of the map, it's all in your imagination anyway.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I've found that an easy way to speed things up during combat is to call out as each player's initiative comes up: "okay, it's Andy's turn. Bill, get ready because you're up next."
I do this as a GM pretty much every combat. Some of our players are pretty focused, and hardly need the reminder, but there's always one or two who seem to have drifted into the kitchen, and I need to make eye contact with them as I warn them their turn is coming up.
|
I did a Ravenloft campaign without figures or Grid, and while I liked it in some ways, I didn't in others. I then did a game that had miniatures but no grid, it worked better, but again it made things a bit to 'yeah I move in and hit'.
The best method I find for grid play is:
1) As a caster using Fireball or otherr AoE spells, they need to make an Spellcraft check to be able to be picky about where it lands (you know, the way a wizard spends 5 minutes counting out to find just about the right angle for the fireball to hit all monsters but not een singe another players nose hair). With a successful check he can pick a spot for the Fireball he thinks will work and can then shift it 5 or 10ft in any direction to get a 'better' placement. If you want to try keep things even faster you could forgo the check and just have him pick a spot and allow a bit of movement
2) Characters moving: each character should have planned his movement prior to his turn and counted and calculated how far and where he needs to go. Once it's his turn and he picks up the miniature to move, there are no 'take backs'. So none of this moving 6 sq. realising he has not reached, so backs up again and tries a different path, or realises he will cause an AoO so back he goes again. A round is 6 seconds, you want to move and attack, you can play around walking back and forth where by the time you decide what to do you have in effect walked about 200ft
While it sounds like it may be a bit strict, it is actually a lot of fun. It keeps things moving fast, tense and exciting as it helps bring you to the 'heat of the moment' I am reluctant to use the words 'adds realism' but in a hectic battle your Fireball may not land with pinpoint accuracy and you may walk to close to a monster when trying to get somewhere fast and attack
Could just make it Int checks to see if they avoid an AoO from moving, or if they can fireball an area without hitting allies.
This was always bugging me, casters trying to place the fireball exactly at the spot where it would hit the enemy's front line but not their allies.
I made up a new house rule. Caster may now choose between 'play it safe' or 'play it cool'.
'Play it safe' means they move the spell as much back as possible so they won't hurt their friends, which means there's only a 50% chance to hit the enemies (in the spell's border area, of course).
'Play it cool' means they will definitely hit the enemies, but there's a 50% chance that the allies are in the AoE, too.
Of course, there is still the option to 'play it crazy'...
So far, it works out fine. And it speeds up play.
Put me in the "give me a grid" camp. Otherwise there are too many potential misunderstandings between what the DM sees in his head, what he describes to the players and what the players see in their heads.
I agree, although I'll settle for a map or other visual aid. In my experience, getting rid of the map doesn't save as much time as one would think, since you get bogged down in dull conversations like:
"Where's the other goblin?"
"What other goblin?"
"The one that was by the east door."
"There's no door to the east."
"Well, wherever the other door is, the one we didn't come in."
"I guess you mean the north door. Or do you mean the set of double doors to the west?"
"I don't know, but one of those doors had a goblin near it."
"If it's the goblin I think you're talking about, he's dead."
(etc.)
I've never had a conversation like that in a game that uses a map.
|
|
If you wanted to convert to using a tape measure and no grid I would suggest instead of a tape measure have each player use a different color piece of string or yarn that is premeasured out to how far they can move. If they have different movement modes they will need different lengths (say if someone has fly going, or someone has a climb speed, etc.). Then you can just use a white board or other surface with no grids to draw the map and play. Make sure you have strings premade for your monsters also....should work out fine.
For spells you could use string also to do radius. Ask the caster to place a dot in the center and then you use the string to determine who is hit....make a fireball a bit more dangerous.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I've never had that conversation at all when DMing without visual aids Hogarth :P
I freely admit that I may be playing with a group of mental defectives (myself included) who can't keep mental track of the shape, composition and current state of various dungeon rooms. :-)
I have been often tempted to use the timer trick, and/or advise other GMs do the same. Some players respond to this tactic better than others (and usually the people who take 10 minutes to decide an action will be the ones who object most strongly. While sometimes you just have to put your foot down, that doesn't make the situation any more pleasant).
The thing is--the problem the OP describes I don't think is a problem with the grid. It's a problem with a certain kind of player.
Let's call this player the Delayer. This player hems and haws over everything they do, slowing down the flow of gameplay. The Delayer makes combat particularly a chore because they constantly second guess their actions, poll the group for what they want to do, read things off their character sheet as if it's the first time they've ever seen it a good year into the campaign, etc. etc. etc. The Delayer often doesn't take time outside game to learn the rules either, and they will also slow gametime down by asking for unnecessary rules clarifications. Some Delayers I think intentionally delay to draw attention to themselves and make the gameplay about them. Many others are simply clueless or lack confidence.
The Delayer combined with a grid can be problem because yes, they will overanalyze how the board affects what they do. If you have a Delayer and a Tactician (who analyzes the board excessively as well), this can turn combat into a slog.
The THING is, taking the grid away won't cure the Delayer (nor the Tactician, for that matter). The Delayer will still find some way to delay the game--they will be asking you where things is, and will this provoke and AOO if I do that, and let me re-read my entire spell list of up to 7th level spells one more time (Delayers often play spellcasters, who are of course the worst kind of class a Delayer can play).
And other players will argue with you till the end of time about how something the enemy did should have provoked an AOO or they were definitely outside the range of that fireball, that's not fair... arguments which the grid, ultimately, get rid of. In my experience, with players--whether veteran or brand new--who aren't delayers--the grid ultimately speeds combat up because it reduces the questions that need to be asked before an action is taken.
The cure of the Delayer's Curse is not to use the grid, but to stop the Delayer from Delaying. If I may indulge in a bit of sharing, I regret the last campaign I ran with a Delayer (many years ago now) I never really sat down and spoke with her about the problem. I feared her being defensive and feared losing group cohesion--and she has an overprotective spouse to boot who would defend her and make trying to find a time to talk to her and ease the situation difficult. But if I went about it tactfully, I probably could have found a solution (I hope). They are very good friends of mine outside of gaming, and honestly I'd rather not hurt their feelings over gaming and thus not game with them, than play with them and have that come between us. That said, both she and her husband have asked me to be in a game I run sometime again. Which is flattering, and they do both have positive things they bring to gaming as well, but I need to find a way to make sure they don't do that if I indeed invite them into a campaign or one shot. I haven't come up with good solutions myself that make the problem player feel put out and believe me am looking at this thread and ones like it for ideas. Wish I had better advice to offer myself.
I find a grid really speeds things up and avoids confusion. I don't add any extraneous rules about spellcraft checks or choosing corners randomly as those would just slow things down (and aren't allowed in PFS anyway). The spellcaster points at a spot on the map and we roll saves. We can usually see the spell areas in our heads, but I've seen pipe-cleaner AoE templates used very effectively in the past. 3D AoEs take a bit more effort though, such as planting a fireball in the ceiling above an enemy to reduce the radius at ground level... Again, the more we do it the more we remember the blast areas.
Most of the people I play with know how to avoid AoOs and if I GM someone who doesn't we'll help them find a suitable path until they get used to it. When an AoO happens its because there's no alternative, or it was deliberately provoked. We don't use them as punishment or to pounce on people for not knowing the rules, they just add a strategic element to the game. If I can see a clear path as a GM I assume the character took it unless the player says otherwise, and that also speeds up the game.
The biggest slow-down (imho) comes from OOC chatter and people offering advice far in excess of the few seconds the characters have to act. Cutting down on the chatter may reduce the effectiveness of the party, and some characters will accidentally get in the way of others charging or fireballing, but in the heat of combat that seems fair enough. Party communication during combat should be swift and succinct. That's a people problem though, not a grid problem. I find it depends entirely on which players are involved :-)
Miniatures in themselves are not the problem...to the opposite they just help the players to get into the action!
MY true ennemy is the battle grid!
Anyone around here might have some usefull input?
Like other posters, I find that the hex grid is much more organic when it comes to movement. I suspect that the square grid is more a tool for the DM than for anyone else, as it it easier to draw (and reproduce) buildings and dungeons against straight lines.
I'd suggest trying the hex grid; by allowing more movement it requires less analyzing to avoid AoO and such.
If you go grid-less, getting the strings and rulers will not speed-up the process of make it less "analytic" IMO; it may become even more tactical as a matter of fact.
Eyeballing the distances can work with the right group (especially in a more ambiance, less tactical game), but some players might feel cheated by your inevitable DM's fiat on some calls (and sudden uselessness of some feats). In that case, I'd suggest the Warhammer's golden rule:
In doubt, the player roll a D6. On a result of 1,2 or 3, the result goes against the player. On a 4+ the ruling is in the favour of the player.
'findel
The easiest way to get them from attempting Tactical Genius (TM) is to simply have a timer. They aren't going to pour over every last option when the building's going to collapse in 5 real time minutes.
|
|
I read all the answers so far and i found some very usefull advices and made some choices based on these as well as my own idea.
Here's what i'll do:
#1) I'll still use miniatures.. defenitly!
#2) I'll use some very thin wire/rope to calculate movement and spell/ability area. No more diagonal "extra" move.
I will keep the ratio 1" for 5', for exemple 30' of movement equal 6" of rope ;)
#3) I will set a time limit per player (i still hesitate between 30 seconds or one full minute)
#4) AoO will still be valid. So if your movement made you pass anywhere within 1" (or 2" if reach is involved) you just provoke something!
This is pretty much where i want to go so what you guys think about it and do you see any major issue/problem lurking at the horison that i did'nt?
P.S. with this i'm pretty confidant that my players will be more into the action and less into "over analysation"
|
When using templates I always hated the "precise" alignment of a grid to avoid hitting fellow PCs. I like to use a check to to place the spell. For example a Wizard wants to lay a Fireball in a specific place to avoid hitting other PCs. I would have him roll a Spellcraft check DC 10+ Spell Level + any perception type modifiers such as distracted. So a Fireball in combat is usually at least a DC 15. Not too hard to hit but runs the risk of missing.
If he misses we just use a splatter rules to see where the spell goes and then see who gets hit.
It seems a "more realistic" way of doing it to me. Of course I HATE realism in my fantasy but I like this. :)
By the way, here's a previous thread about pinpoint targeting for area effect spells.
One interesting suggestion was to pick a target square and then roll 1d4 to determine which corner of that square the spell would spread out from.
I think one thing ´against´ hex-grids is not just lining up mostly rectilinear terrain/buildings with it, but REFERENCING it. square grids are easily referenceable with letter/number combos. hex grids effectively alternate each column/row by a half-measure, which IS possible to deal with, but it´s just one degree less intuitive.
it also changes wierd thigns about the game: a 5´ radius effect on the grid affects 4 squares. a 5´ radius effect on a hex-grid affects 3 hexes.
honestly, i think it would be interesting if Paizo, or anybody, put out an adventure with hex maps... probably with a few rules necessary for ´adjustment´, e.g. area spell templates. see what happens when a bunch of people used to square grids play with hex.
|
Reaper Miniatures
|
I've found that an easy way to speed things up during combat is to call out as each player's initiative comes up: "okay, it's Andy's turn. Bill, get ready because you're up next."
I do this as a GM pretty much every combat. Some of our players are pretty focused, and hardly need the reminder, but there's always one or two who seem to have drifted into the kitchen, and I need to make eye contact with them as I warn them their turn is coming up.
I also do this.
As for grid/no grid, I always use minis, and usually use flip mats, tiles, or battlepaper. I prefer using flip mats, since tiles slip,and battlepaper, unless I take the time to predraw the map, is time consuming.
But then, I *would* always use minis, right?