Topic: Miniatures or Theatre of the Mind?

[Peter R]

When it comes to ranges beyond point blank or short I ask for a perception or reasoning roll to judge the distance. The better the roll the more accurate an estimate I give the player but it is still an estimate and yes we have had spells fall short of their target.

I have seen players discussing strategic decisions between themselves when there characters are not in a position to converse. I would say a grid or hex map make those discussions more common.

That is another reason why I avoid minis and maps as often as I xan.

[jdale]

I've wanted the WH40K minis for some time just to paint them.  No one around me plays the game, but I love the novels/CPU games and the minis would be fun to have.

I've never actually played Warhammer but I have a literal army of lizardmen.... 

[Spectre771]

When it comes to ranges beyond point blank or short I ask for a perception or reasoning roll to judge the distance. The better the roll the more accurate an estimate I give the player but it is still an estimate and yes we have had spells fall short of their target.

That's an excellent idea.  I never thought to do that.  I (we) always just gave the players the benefit of knowing the distances, and gave them all their bonuses, but I love this idea of the PC trying to figure out the distances.  It certainly seems to be more realistic.  I've had to guesstimate distances when laying line from a hydrant to a fire and there are times I'm spot on and times I'm off by a shot.  Depends on the adrenaline, the impetus, the emergency, as to how well I gauge my distance.  Why not have the PC's in the heat of combat subjected to making a snap guess at distance? 

My players may not like the change to the gameplay, and if they don't I'll just say it was YOUR idea. 

[Peter R]

When it comes to ranges beyond point blank or short I ask for a perception or reasoning roll to judge the distance. The better the roll the more accurate an estimate I give the player but it is still an estimate and yes we have had spells fall short of their target.

That's an excellent idea.  I never thought to do that.  I (we) always just gave the players the benefit of knowing the distances, and gave them all their bonuses, but I love this idea of the PC trying to figure out the distances.  It certainly seems to be more realistic.  I've had to guesstimate distances when laying line from a hydrant to a fire and there are times I'm spot on and times I'm off by a shot.  Depends on the adrenaline, the impetus, the emergency, as to how well I gauge my distance.  Why not have the PC's in the heat of combat subjected to making a snap guess at distance? 

My players may not like the change to the gameplay, and if they don't I'll just say it was YOUR idea. 

No worries, I get blamed for a lot of stuff!

[Bravesteel]

We used to play extensively with miniatures when we started out with 3rd Edition D&D.  We continued to use them into 4th Edition and Pathfinder, but we have slowly shifted to a mix which leans towards fewer miniatures rather than more.  When the players need a better idea of positioning then I break out the dry erase tiles and custom counters.