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Post by monkeywithtacos on Aug 4, 2013 4:28:11 GMT -5
Back when I started playing, in 1979, I was eight. As you can imagine, eight year olds are not sticklers for "the rules". (At least most I know/knew). But we did stick to the "main" rule of D&D as we knew it: Have fun! And nothing has changed in 30+ years from my perspective. Even into the 80's and 90's we viewed the gridded maps in the modules and source books as a guide for describing the size of the dungeon/area we were in. We too, used the 7/8th inch grid large sheets of graph paper to draw/map out the dungeons on, but never did we confine our movements to linear or diagonal within those squares. Nor did we use mini's. I remember getting my first mini as a teenager and painting it (horribly I might add) and bringing it to a game as a representation of my character. It sat next to my character sheet so someone could see what my character looked like. Not until many years later did they become as widely available and used as they are today. Hell, even when we did finally start to place them on the table saying 'this is where my character is standing", there were never any monster minis on the table for us to target (Well maybe, on occasion, we used the oversized giant d20 or a Mcdonalds toy and said "This is the where the Beholder is at in the cavern." But that was rare, rare, rare.....). We all talked about how cool it would be to have a dragon or beholder or rust monster on the table, but never did we think to limit ourselves by using grid squares for movement. Not that others did not. I'm sure there were those who felt it made sense. We just never did. *shrug*
Anyhow, 30+ years later and we still focusing on the Prime Directive, so to speak: HAVE FUN!!! And if your group is doing that, then no matter how you are doing it, you are doing it right......
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Post by monkeywithtacos on Aug 4, 2013 3:44:25 GMT -5
3rd and 4th editions removed facing entirely from the DnD ruleset. Dunno about Next yet, but I would imagine it is still gone, for streamlining purposes. Did 3rd initially? Because I know when we played it way back before we all took "new parent sabbaticals" ( Had kids that took up all of our time for a good 5 years or so), and just prior to the 3.5 changes that came down the pipe, my group of D&D, AD&D, and 2e vets continued to play it as: "If you were behind an enemy (opposite his facing*) or had an ally directly opposite you on the opposite side of your opponent/target, you were flanking and got your bonuses and/or sneak attack." Now, to be fair we didn't play on a grid then, and had only just begun to really use minis to represent our chars rather than just visualizing the whole thing in our heads, as we had from the beginning. In fact, I recall being under the impression that the whole grid thing that was listed in the appendix of the PHB in the "Role Models" section was, at that time, considered "optional" rules and provided as a way to visually explain certain rules. I'll need to dig out my books and check and see if they are 3.0 or 3.5 eds and see if what I recall was correct. I can't speak for 4th ed as I was on hiatus when it came out and I only looked at it briefly before deciding that Pathfinder was the way I wanted to go/stay with when we got the group back together and playing again. Of course, in that meantime we had all played wargames like Warhammer and Warhammer 40k and grown accustomed to that style so it was awkward to come back and start playing on a grid. Some of the rules, like no facing (or maybe I should say facing not having any bearing on flanking) and the 5 foot step (another I don't recall being in 3.0.... at least we never used it) were some pretty big adjustments for us to make. So we just said "let's go back to what we are familiar with and house rule it. And when I discovered Scotty and his tile system and started making mine, they all loved it. Now on occasion, we still us a grid for some things (and I definitely use them when planning out the dungeons) the group switches gears without a hitch. Anyhow, sorry to necro a slightly aging thread here, just adding in my 2 silvers worth of insight.... * i.e. He has his back to you
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Post by monkeywithtacos on Aug 4, 2013 1:37:12 GMT -5
I use a reusable wall mount piece I can place when the passage is revealed "Tutorial, mate, or it never happened!!!!"
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Post by monkeywithtacos on Jul 31, 2013 10:13:51 GMT -5
Yes, 1 square= 5ft in most games, and in translating them from game maps theoretically they would be the equivalent of 1 square of grid = 1 inch of of tiles, but where you run into issues is with the "wall" strips. Adding two 1/4 inch wall strips to two side of your tiles effectively leaves you with a tile that is 1 inch x 1/2 inch, so when crafting your tiles you have to compensate for it.
There are several ways I have done this or seen this done:
1) Add the additional 1/2 inch as appropriate to your tiles. Drawback: Very time consuming
2) Make your tiles 1.5 inches x 1.5 inches, to allow for the extra space needed. Drawback: Your tiles are no longer "accurate" by the map standards, as your minis/characters now have to use more movement to travel across your board.
3) Make a set of "generic" tiles and use them to build the dungeon, making it as close to the original as possible but using the flexibility you have as GM to alter and change things to fit your game. Drawback: For those who are "sticklers" and purists this can be difficult.
Personally, I currently use option #2 on my tiles. But I am thinking of changing things up a bit. As I am essentially lazy and like to get my tiles crafted in a quick and efficient manner I don't foresee me using option #1. I am leaning more toward option #3, especially after watching DMG's videos, as well as DMScotty's. I will be making several sets though that can be used depending on the locale the adventure is based in; Crypts, Sewers, Castles/Fortresses, Underdark/Caves, Woodlands/Forests/Swamps and others I am sure I'll think of as time goes by. In the end I think it may be easier than crafting tiles for every single adventure I plan to run, particularly when it comes to tile storage.
Hopefully my advice/comments were helpful to you and have fun crafting your tiles ( it does become quite addictive), and don't be scared to go "gridless". It adds alot of depth and realism without overly complicating things. =)
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Post by monkeywithtacos on Jul 30, 2013 10:49:19 GMT -5
I find that when I am creating my tiles I initially measure them out to 1.5 inches, so that by the time I finish putting on the wall edges ( I usually do mine at about a quarter inch) that the tile spacing is about equal to one inch. (I started doing that after making the noob mistake of cutting them to an inch the first time and them being too small) Granted, the measuring is still a bit off, but I find my players and I aren't too worried about it. We usually just eyeball the distances and only measure if it looks to be way over... I suppose I could just use the wider measurement where the walls are likely to be and keep the rest at 1 inch but that's a lot of extra measuring when creating the tiles. Who knows maybe I'll try it on the next set I build and see how much time difference there is and if my players even notice or not...
~MwT
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Post by monkeywithtacos on Jul 30, 2013 9:55:44 GMT -5
Seriously awesome work. I gm a weekly game, but because of her schedule my wife cannot get in on it, so she convinced me to run one for her and my son (who also plays in the weekly group) so she could get back into the game and play. So I decided to run them through the same Adventure Path you have chosen. Sadly, because of prepping for the other game, and no set schedule for her games, I have had almost zero prep time for her game. I would have loved to have had a set up like this to start them with. Great Work! I better get back to tile building and mini painting... So much to do and so little time. Still I wouldn't have it any other way Keep it up and I look forward to seeing more pics ~MwT
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