Squares or hexes

[Xavier319]

Well, the title says it all. I've always used hexes with 3.5 and pathfinder, and found the movement and spell aoes to be more intuitive and the game just feels more 'real' that way movement and measuring wise. what are your thoughts, and points for and against squares or hexes?

[Adamantine Dragon]

I used hexes for years before finally taking the easy way out and going with squares.

Hexes have the advantage of being more intuitive for counting movement and determining things like blast radius.

Squares have the advantage of being more convenient for most humanoid construction techniques and being compatible with the vast majority of commercially available game aids.

I do squares now. But neither in inherently better than the other. Just do what fits your game style best.

[Xavier319]

The only thing i've found strange is the aoe for walls. since walls take up a 10' cube in pathfinder (a lot of them anyway) and on hexes a 10' cube or area is a triangle of hexes. so here's a question for someone who's got experience with this. do you set up the 10' so they 'fit together' like puzzle pieces, or do you put them end to end to cover the greatest distance, or is it up to the caster?

[Gnomezrule]

Hexes are far superior in almost everyway. The one area were they are not superior is manufacturer buy in. Which blows. Its like the offical car of Nascar being a Pinto.

[Jerry Wright 307]

No squares, no hexes.

We just use a blank formica drawing surface, three-dimensional terrain features and rulers.

[Tirq]

Jerry Wright 307 wrote:

No squares, no hexes.

We just use a blank formica drawing surface, three-dimensional terrain features and rulers.

I want to play with you.

[Jerry Wright 307]

Where do you live? We're based in Central Oklahoma.

[Tirq]

Nowhere near you. I'm moving to Maryland. I still want to play with you.

[Epic Meepo]

Jerry Wright 307 wrote:

No squares, no hexes.

We just use a blank formica drawing surface, three-dimensional terrain features and rulers.

I'd recommend knotted string over rulers.

[Jerry Wright 307]

Rulers can be held over leads with one hand.

But the string idea is a good one. :)

[Kirth Gersen]

I don't even use a ruler. In fact, I don't use a battlemat at all.
Believe it or not, this is actually possible -- ask the nearest 1e grognard about it.

[stormraven]

Kirth Gersen wrote:

I don't even use a ruler. In fact, I don't use a battlemat at all.

Believe it or not, this is actually possible -- ask the nearest 1e grognard about it.

As a 1E grognard, I have to say...

Just kiddin' ;)

[Jerry Wright 307]

I've been using leads since 1978. Miniatures and battlemats aren't anything new.

[TriOmegaZero]

I use squares simply because all my mat tools are designed for squares. I'm comfortable playing matless, but I need to work on my description before I can run matless.

[Orthos]

I use Maptool so squares.

[Laurefindel]

I really wish I could find a decent transparent vinyl hex map; my preference would be to draft on craft paper and then overlay a transparent (hex) grid over top.

Square grid has a certain convenience, but often has a certain artificiality. It seem to "force" designers to always create buildings with 90 degrees angles, with every building lining perfectly with another, streets that are straits as a ruler meeting at perfectly perpendicular angles etc. Many home maps created on the fly on a square grid also tend to be very Cartesian.

[pres man]

Anybody ever play with a staggered square grid (kind of a hybrid of a square and hex grid)?

[Tequila Sunrise]

Bees build their homes in hex format. Therefore hex maps are literally the bees' knees. :)

[Ringtail]

No map for short and/or small combats. Maps for larger scale or more complicated battles. Squares when playing online or when using an indoor map at a table. Hexes when using an outdoor map. Whichever works the best at the time on a map consisting of both indoor and outdoor areas.

[Epic Meepo]

pres man wrote:

Anybody ever play with a staggered square grid (kind of a hybrid of a square and hex grid)?

I've always wanted to, but staggered-square battlemats are hard to come by.

[pres man]

Epic Meepo wrote:

pres man wrote:

Anybody ever play with a staggered square grid (kind of a hybrid of a square and hex grid)?

I've always wanted to, but staggered-square battlemats are hard to come by.

Yeah, there was a time I was toying with the idea. I had to kind of make my own using a table format on word making them 1 inch wide and 1/2 inch tall, then combined ever other pair. Never did more than toy with the idea of playing with it though.

[Epic Meepo]

pres man wrote:

Never did more than toy with the idea of playing with it though.

At a glance, using a staggered-square grid would get messy if you use the standard Pathfinder convention of measuring a radius from a grid intersection. You'd almost need house rules for measuring radii to make a staggered-square grid work right.

[Laurefindel]

Epic Meepo wrote:

pres man wrote:

Never did more than toy with the idea of playing with it though.

At a glance, using a staggered-square grid would get messy if you use the standard Pathfinder convention of measuring a radius from a grid intersection. You'd almost need house rules for measuring radii to make a staggered-square grid work right.

Probably; the issue is similar (if not worst) with a hex grid.

Calculating emanation from an intersection becomes a mess, you need to calculate everything from the space of origin (square or hex). You then have the choice of counting the space of origin as part of the radius (resulting in a slightly smaller area of effect) or calculate the radius from the next space around (resulting in a slightly larger area of effect).

'findel

[Epic Meepo]

I suppose you could count the space of origin as part of the radius (resulting in slightly fewer spaces in the area) but say that each space is 2 meters instead of 5 feet (resulting in a slightly larger radius-to-space ratio). Unless you're working with very large radii, the two adjustments would approximately offset one another.

[Mystic_Snowfang]

For me either, I use squares right now, because we've got an old decent game that we use for our battle maps, and it's free and I am poor and in collage.

*flails*

[Laithoron]

I use squares for city-scale and smaller, and hexes for hourly or daily overland movement.

[Crimson Jester]

I know why the squares were chosen, simplicity. I so prefer Hexes. It allows for easier and better play.

Plus all our old school maps are Hex based.

[Ninjariffic]

Tequila Sunrise wrote:

Bees build their homes in hex format. Therefore hex maps are literally the bees' knees. :)

Agh! I hope you get hives.

:)

[Nymian Harthing]

I wonder if a local graphics shop/sign printer would be able to print hexes/squares on a clear vinyl surface...maybe acetate? The cheap route would probably be to find a sheet of hexes and make transparency copies at like a copy shop or something.

This thing could help you make your own hex grid out of spray paint and plexiglass.

Personally, I might actually go for the first route soon.

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

I use hexes for wilderness exploration, squares for combat, gridless for dungeon exploration and pure description for random encounters.

[Laurefindel]

Nymian Harthing wrote:

I wonder if a local graphics shop/sign printer would be able to print hexes/squares on a clear vinyl surface...maybe acetate? The cheap route would probably be to find a sheet of hexes and make transparency copies at like a copy shop or something.

This thing could help you make your own hex grid out of spray paint and plexiglass.

Personally, I might actually go for the first route soon.

I'm sure it can be done. I checked quite a few years back and my local shop couldn't do it because they didn't have the proper transparent vinyl I was looking for (this is admittedly a small shop), but it got to be doable nowadays for relatively cheap.

I have a transparent square map however; not as big as I'd like it doesn't "unfurl" nicely without weighting the four corner, but I love the craft paper + transparent grid combo. I just really wish it was hexagonal...