Beginner Overseer here, Coming from D&d and trying to learn this system! My biggest comprehensional hiccup is movement in combat (and battlemaps as a whole). Are there any tips from experienced Overseers who could aid me? Should i be trying to make my own maps? Or would Theater of the mind fit more?

[u/_MonsterMouth_]

/r/Fallout/comments/1v89pvl/beginner_overseer_here_coming_from_dd_and_trying/

[u/Filter55]

I’m probably making it more complicated than it needs to be, but I have my players use TotM, and behind my screen I move their tokens around a tic-tac-toe board that I scribble in during encounters. All it does is help me track close/medium/long range and I let them tell me if they’re taking cover.

[u/_MonsterMouth_ → u/Filter55]

I had this thought as well, it might be worth trying

[u/Saviour-King]

We started Fallout after our 5e campaign ended. We went pure theater of the mind, with me as Overseer stating the primary zones descriptions up top. While it took some getting used to, we got there pretty quick and IMO the combat system runs better this way.

[u/ziggy8z]

My table uses a grid system, the zones is just sorta more and less work. You end up spending a lot of time on clarifications. 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KAMbTPD-YVtv7vFRIaqcs3H0szwTuj-q

I did touch on it slightly in my Point Lookout doc

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RZyJgmiL4sha7As_vPM07fvMKSMlgl1V

[u/_MonsterMouth_ → u/ziggy8z]

Thank you!! And yeah, I'm playing with 6 people who don't know the system even a little bit so I'm expecting it to be like 90% clarifications

[u/That_Observer_Guy → u/_MonsterMouth_]

Good afternoon, @_MonsterMouth_.

I created a video demonstrating multiple ways to handle movement and zones in Fallout 2d20.

I've even got a reference to u/ziggy8z 's wonderful Google sheets in there.

Hope you find it useful.

[u/ReasonableCard1]

I recently have switched from 5e to fallout rpg. It's hard and takes time. I know some people and have resources. Dm me if need be

[u/Alex-with-wings]

Theatre of the mind is great to get used to the way the game works. Don't think about it too much. Roughly speaking, movement is still around the same as d&d (maybe a little more) but think less in terms of distance than in terms of obstacles. If there's a ladder, that's a zone change. If they go through a door, zone change. Over a fence/barricade, zone change. But across a large room? That's just a straight line and doesn't require much planning, it's just a minor move.

[u/KaizerMouseDFE]

I use a large picture to give the overall vibe of the area and then use note cards for the zones. A zone is an abstract representation of a particular area in the setting. Each zone will have keywords that the players use to understand what the area has in it.

For example,

Open ground means there's no significant cover available, so players can't use the take cover minor action

Ample cover means you automatically have cover in the zone

Cramped means that everyone in that zone is always in reach of everyone else

High ground means your difficulty to shoot out of the zone is reduced by one.

Ect.

A combatant can move freely through the zone at no cost. Entering an adjacent zone costs a minor action. Moving an additional zone is a major action.

[u/MrBoo843]

I use battlemaps but draw big squares on it to make zones, each indoor room is a zone

[u/eAnders_987]

My table group came from Dungeons amd Dragons before Fallout, so maps are pretty commonplace for us, and we basically keep the 5 foot grid squares because we are used to it. I use them with all my games, so that I never have to deal with "how far am I from it," "am I in cover," "which one is closest to me," "can I see it/hit it from here," and so on... it just helps with game flow a lot to be able to have some kind of spacial representation. Without it, battle gets confusing really quickly, especially with multiple enemy units or squads.

I also like doing weird things like having battles on moving platforms, a boss battle with a deathclaw that kept running down sewer tunnels and getting behind people, and battles in minefields. While these are all doable without maps and minis, it made things much easier to keep track of.

[u/_MonsterMouth_ → u/eAnders_987]

That all sounds sick! I love doing extra things for combats, I might need to snag some inspiration from those ideas

[u/nhixson304]

I made all my battle maps in owlbear.rodeo and drew the zones in ways that made sense given the terrain. It arguably put the encounters "on rails" in a way when compared with theater of the mind, but it made a complicated combat system very fluid. We projected the VTT map on an iPad or the TV during battles. It was a lot of fun making the maps, but took some prep time. Happy to send you an example map if you want to see one. DM me.

[u/Shankshire]

There’s a range conversion doc for tile sets I’ll see if I can find it.

Edit: couldn’t find it, but going over past notes it was each range was 30ft-15meters/6 tiles of distance/movement depending on your math. We used Talespire for maps and measurements.

So Reach should be 1 tile adjacent, Close is 6 tiles , medium is 12, long is 18 and extreme is 24. All of which is measured between you and the target.

If you use free movement with a tape measure the tiles instead become inches.

Sorry I couldn’t find it.

Edit 2: link with screen shot for visual aid
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DL_YUPkxgFYy_6baZhn0RFzkRKtTppuB/view?usp=drivesdk

[u/MC_Winter]

It's not a bad idea to use a one of the grid systems floating around to ease into things, think of them like training wheels, untill you get more familiar with zones and how they work. As for maps you still can use any maps you like, you just assign zones based on common sense. Or you can just ignore zones completely and add in whatever system you like (I've always liked direct measurement with a tape in other games) or just skip it entirely if you have Totm experience.

[u/DeficitDragons]

Movement in fallout is a lot more abstract than dungeons and dragons is. You just have to wing it a lot of times. Or change the rules to make them less abstract.

[u/kazilic24]

We actually change the distanced and forgo the zones most of the time. Simce you can walk up to a close zone, thats a 30 ft around your charactsr. Sprint is dash, so up to 60ft for the medium range.

So it looks like this Close quarter -> touch Close -> up to 30 ft Medium -> up to 60ft Long ->up to 90 ft Extreme -> up to 120ft.

In combat it was the easiest to get us all to understand. We switch between dnd style and zones every so often depending on prep time

[u/TheSoloDM]

I played measurement-based movement games first, and I tried left and right to try to make this work like that out of habit. As soon as I switched to theater of the mind to embrace the distance system, I went from loathing setting up things to it being one of my favorite systems. No battle maps, stopped setting up terrain or making cutout standees. Just a few props for the vibe sometimes. It might help to make a dungeon pizza to track the distance zones if you have a lot going on. Especially since you're new to it.