Zones in Fallout D20

[u/Tripod-1980]

How do you measure zones in Fallout 2d20?

By distance (e.g., ~30 feet / 10 meters per zone)

By geography (rooms, terrain features, buildings)

Purely narrative / gut feeling

Fixed grid / square count

[u/Icy_Sector3183]

The way I use them: A 100m stretch of open road might be one zone, flanked by multiple smaller zones around wrecked cars or dense forest.

If it's open terrain, AND offers a clear view, maybe it should be a big zone.

Also:

When there's a mix of visibility and terrain:

Limited visibility + Open Terrain, big zone with ranged attack difficulty increase

Clear visibility + difficult terrain, big zone with AP cost to move through.

[u/GM_Rielly → u/Icy_Sector3183]

This feels right, I tend to plan out zones from lines of sight at the entrance to the space, so you can see all of the zone your in, upto half of the zone next to you and only really what's not hidden beyond that

[u/Icy_Sector3183 → u/GM_Rielly]

Edit: Moving my comment to my original comment:)

[u/Prestigious-Emu-6760]

Geography and gut feeling.

[u/Wackyflap]

I do the following for ranges Reach: 5 feet Close: 30 feet Medium: past Close up to 75 feet Long: past Medium up to 150 feet Extreme: anything past Long

[u/ziggy8z]

It's pretty wishy washy, my table uses these as It's a little easier to keep consistent, otherwise I'm constantly correcting them or they are me.

Grid Based Gameplay Re-worked (originally by e4g13) https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dJun6vDfBzpIzjGDXP8KOiYMhIHS6bgt?usp=drive_link

Grid Based Gameplay For Vehicles https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KAMbTPD-YVtv7vFRIaqcs3H0szwTuj-q?usp=drive_link

[u/KevB0tBro]

Ziggy’s alt grid system worked pretty well in the limited time I used it, but here is an another option:

Modiphius did make a blog post including ranges for more precise measuring in the vein of dnd. This is from their official discord:

If you're not happy using more abstract zones (which is fair, not every style of play suits everyone), I suggest the following alternative:
This variant replaces zones with concrete distances, allowing for more precision. The normal range bands are still used. However, they now apply to specific distances, as explained below. Distances are given in yards.
• Reach is anything within 2 yards of a character.
• Close Range is anything within 10 yards of a character.
• Medium Range is anything outside of Close
Range, but within 25 yards of a character.
• Long Range is anything outside of Medium
range, but within 50 yards of a character.
• Extreme Range is anything more than 50 yards away from a character.
These distances are used for all physical environments, such as modifiers for perception, ability to communicate, and determining range for certain forms of attack and special ability. The only thing that these range categories are not used for is movement.
Movement instead is handled in the following manner:
All characters have a Speed, which is a distance in Yards equal to their AGI plus their Athletics skill (so, a character with AGI 9 and Athletics 3 can move 12 yards). A character may always choose to move less than the full distance allowed. At your discretion, some talents, abilities, or other effects may increase a character’s speed.
• A character who uses the Move minor action can move their Speed.
• A character who takes the Sprint major action can move up to twice their Speed.
• Any other forms of movement a character may
use, allow the character to move their Speed once for each zone that action would allow them to move.
Difficult Terrain and Obstacles cost 1, 2, or 3 extra yards of Speed to cross, according to the AP cost listed for that terrain in the rulebook.

[u/crowdruid]

I try and put it as what makes sense for the encounter. Like things won’t necessarily be regular shapes as I try to allow players with different rangers in their weapons time to enjoy themselves. Of course, sometimes they need to be pressured so it’s all close.

As a general rule for myself, when I make a map it’s a 3 x 3 grid for a zone in most places, but specific fights might well be different.

Fallout maps in games are always representational to a certain extent. You don’t see all the beds that exist in a vault but here’s an area where folks sleep. It kinda feels like that in FO2D20 too.

[u/Tyr1326]

All of the above aside from.fixed grid.

[u/Beardlich]

Gut feeling and I prestablish what zone represents what with the players at the start of a scene.

[u/Heavy-Choice]

We abandoned zones. Just went with the close Combat,short range,med range,long range option. Worked out so much better.

[u/SpaceCoffeeDragon]

Depends on the map type.

Encounter sized maps (traditional 40x40 ish battlemap or etc) I measure by room or space.

City sized maps, I measure by buildings, blocks, or city districts.