The Tyranny of the Grid
Created: 2025-05-19
Putting out a battle map, setting out all the minis, and drawing out the room all takes time. Moving miniatures around by counting squares, watching other people move miniatures around square by square, and getting involved in lengthy conversations about whether someone is behind half cover or three quarters cover when standing at the corner of a wall; all of this takes time
See in context at The Tyranny of the Grid
Created: 2025-05-19
Running combat on a grid will often take more time than running combat vocally
See in context at The Tyranny of the Grid
Created: 2025-05-19
Switching from exploration and interaction to combat is usually a jarring experience. When that battle mat hits the table and the minis start marching across, we go from a flowing narrative discussion to a tactical wargame.
See in context at The Tyranny of the Grid
Created: 2025-05-19
Once you have so many miniatures (and I’ve been buying the plastic D&D ones since 2003), you need to find the ones you need. It takes time. For me to get the minis out for a 4-hour session can easily take an hour or more.
See in context at The Tyranny of the Grid
Created: 2025-05-19
When we spend the time to prepare a battle map, set it up, and pick out all those miniatures that Merric was talking about; we now have an investment in that battle. We want to run it. We don’t want to have wasted all that time setting up a big battle only to have the characters avoid it with a few lucky stealth checks.
See in context at The Tyranny of the Grid
Created: 2025-05-19
Not every battle takes place in a nice easy-to-draw flat 2d plane with perfectly aligned five foot squares and between five and twelve monsters.
See in context at The Tyranny of the Grid
Created: 2025-05-19
When we pull out that big gridded battle map and start getting tactical, the DM often ceases to be a facilitator for fantastic stories and becomes an opponent of the players