Modes Of Play | It's What Our Characters Would Do

Theater of the mind, maps, minis & terrain-you know the options. What you don't know, yet, is how Grace and I feel about them! Or maybe you do because I've talked about my current preferences in some recent videos. In any case, this is one of those topics I've changed my mind about over the years, so it's always fun to chat about. Plus, we're giving away $40 to spend on tokens from Zip-Tokens!
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✅ Originally posted on Patreon, September 4, 2023: / bobworldbuilder
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[@camelx162]

Thanks for talking about my comment in the episode!

[@dungeononion]

The pack-man dungeon sure got a laugh out of me! :D

[@samuelteare8160]

When I run for adults I tend to lean more into theater of the mind, but I found kids respond very well to maps. I don't keep too strict to the rules of movement with kids because, just like Grace said, its not fun to almost get up to the enemy and then not be able to do your cool thing.

[@davidjennings2179]

Absolutely agree, I've started running for my nephews recently and they just want to come up with some cool ideas and be their characters for a bit. They aren't there to count squares.

[@RowanMist]

I play D&D online and what I do for crowds is use a couple of large tokens for small groups with a counter for how many people it represents (usually about 10). If the group is attacked, I assume each individual within it has 1 hp and ac of 10 and reduce the counter accordingly. That way the players can see the crowd being affected without me having to track every single villager!

[@paulweyer4339]

I like grids because it gives me the feeling of tactical consistency and helps demonstrate visual diversity amongst encounter spaces.
I love plotting out environmental interactions. A table here and a torch there can spice things up quickly if players see there is something unique to take advantage of.
But as soon as I started seeing how little players would ever use their movement due to the attack of opportunity risk, I got to work on encouraging a new house rule.
For our campaign, if a unit is flanked, they cannot take attack of opportunity.
Now, if a player feels stuck because of their proximity to an enemy, another player can simply move into position in a way that unlocks their movement, encouraging retreats and switching tactics on the fly.
Admittedly, we haven't been doing it long, but I'm hoping this encourages movement across the grid and more teamwork moments that make for great roleplay setups after the encounters. "You saved me there..." can go a long way in building bonds.

[@JKevinCarrier]

I have two groups I regularly play with. One is mostly Theater of the Mind, the other uses battle maps on Roll20. Having done both, I'd say I prefer to have a map. It just helps me visualize the space better than a verbal description does. And as Grace pointed out, it's more fair when you're deciding things like who gets caught in the Fireball radius. We had a scenario just yesterday where one of the players was able to knock an enemy off a rocky outcropping, because we could see it on the map. If it were Theater of the Mind, I don't think it would've occurred to them to ask, "Hey, do we happen to be standing on the edge of cliff?"

[@wingusryu8289]

The only time I use any representation of positioning is during fights. Everything else is in the Theatre of Mind. I love Prof DMs ultimate dungeon terrain. You can arrange tokens, minis, etc in areas Close, Near, Far. Most of what I play is already in these zones, everything else I convert to zones.
You can add some minor pieces of terrain and other pieces, etc but I do more abstractly. You dont need every piece in the room. Like walls, etc. But you can just add a couple items in the zone to simulate the idea

[@Malkuth-Gaming]

I am very much a maps person.. I draw maps for everything. But for the most part they are for my eyes only. to better be able to describe what the PCs see. the exception is Dungeonmaps. They will be plopped down on Roll20 and then I'll let my players explore at their own pace ^^

[@dungeononion]

When do you plan to restart the bobcast under a different name?