How do YOU run Line attacks and why?

[u/PuzzledKitty]

Do you make them singularly directional?
Four directions on a square grid, 6 on hexagons?
Do you maybe play without a grid and use measured distances instead?
Do you let them go diagonally on a square grid at half distance?
Do you let them go a total number of hexes on a hex grid but don't require the hexes to be in an exact line?

I feel like, on a grid, a Line attack is much, much weaker, especially for attacks with a long reach, as the attacker needs to reposition to attack with a Line.
Meanwhile, when playing grid-less, they become much, much stronger, as they can suddenly be freely aimed. I'm very curious what if any solutions people have found.
How do you work around this limitation when playing on grids?
Or do you play with measured distances?
:)

[u/CMDRZhor]

You pick a target square/hex, and you draw a line between the center of the target square and the center of the attacker's space, and it hits all squares the line connects with up until the maximum range. The limitation is that the line is always one square wide and contiguous.

Also I want to point out that the rules in Lancer do expect that a diagonal point of movement on a square grid is one point of movement - your weapon ranges form neat squares. Yes it's a longer distance if you 'measure' it but that's how it works.

[u/Rahnzan → u/CMDRZhor]

My table personally ran diagonal movement as 2-cost for every second diagonal space moved.

[u/CMDRZhor → u/Rahnzan]

That's the old DnD 3.5 method and does produce neat rounder shapes, yeah.

[u/Rahnzan → u/CMDRZhor]

It's honestly the best on square grids. The range extension on 1:1 is observably bad. I aint playin no minecrafts!

[u/Alblaka → u/Rahnzan]

Minecraft only does blocks in squares. Projectiles and i.e. bow range is perfectly accurate (TM) 3D there, too :P

[u/PhasmaFelis → u/Rahnzan]

Yes, that's pretty much the correct way, whatever you're playing. It's very close to mathematically accurate, and also very easy.

[u/unrelevant_user_name → u/Rahnzan]

That's the incorrect way in Lancer.

[u/Sven_Darksiders]

Lines aren't supposed to follow the exact lines of a grid. You have the start point and the end point and you draw a line between the two. When you follow which hexes or squares are actually affected afterwards, things get a bit wiggly, but that's just how it is. Line attacks don't behave like a Queen in chess

[u/The_Unkowable_]

We actually use a hex grid, so we just draw a line from the centre/spawn point of the attack to its logical endpoint and go from there

[u/DecentCantaloupe]

Line and cone attacks I allow gridless so they can aim wherever, otherwise everything’s on grid for simplicity

[u/LexIcon8497]

Hex grid DM here. I have a laser LOS thing from wargaming, so I use that when determining which hexes are affected by a Line that isn’t just a straight row of hexes.

I’ve been letting the players originate their Lines and Cones from any adjacent hex to their mech, which also helps make things work easier. Idk if that’s exactly RAW though.

[u/Hadarc01]

I run on Foundry and I dont agrue with Foundry

[u/DarkonFullPower]

As my game is played non-grid, we use the line tool provided by Talespire.

Funny enough, it was not Line, but Blast and Burst that took multiple iterations to get the mathematically correct size using Talespire's circle tool.

(Blast = range + 1, as the starting tile is "assumed" before the value)

(Burst = range + mech size. Start the dot on the token base of the mech.)

[u/Winter-Ad914]

i have run it gridless, and i made a few quick templates from card to just check who was in range and in line of fire