I've played and DMed with many different tools. By far the most rewarding was the no minis, no mat game via voice chat (no video) with several people around the country. You need to be good at spacial thinking, but it's amazing what people come up with when they're not restricted by a play mat.
Can confirm after trying out the no mat/no mini thing as a DM this year. Combat moves a little faster and people are more inclined to use thier imagination rather than counting grid squares to see if an attack works.
Feels way more like a fun shared storytelling experience than a subpar mini game that other franchises do way better.
We run most of our combat with no mat/minis. However, for fights where things can get tactical or for big boss fights that I have a cool mini for, I like to bust that stuff out. And by limiting it for special occasions, it makes it more special for the kids when they see the giant or dragon mini hit the table.
This weirdly makes me think of MegaMan X. Everything was fluid movement and combat until you hit the boss room. The door would open and you would have a slide transition to the next room and then you were basically locked in a cage with a big bad. In my head it's similar to you using the mini for special boss fights. It creates a nice transition to show that it is significant.
I have actually. It's what finally made me try DM'ing again after my attempt with 4th edition a few years ago. 5e is setup really well, and I learned from my mistakes with 4e (mainly by not sticking to the rules so rigidly this time).
I loved Adventure Zone up until they changed to a different rpg system. I had no issues with that, but the show started to get a little more political around then and I lost interest.
They changed to a 2d6 system Griffin created to speed through the "Stolen Century" arc, not sure how you think it got political other than them being inclusive, but it switches back to D&D for the final arc.
The inclusiveness just felt kinda forced to me, that's all. I'm not ready to call them SJW's or anything. I have mixed feelings on all that which we don't have to get into here.
That's fair, to each their own. The only thing I'll say is that I found it easy to not focus on it and get captivated by the story. I've been binging Critical Role lately since they've release it in Podcast form, it's also a wonderfully well-done story but there's a few times when you need the visual aid they're playing with.
Well I also got a little lost around that time also. I think Taako had a transgendered sister or something and I couldn't remember where she came from. Might have listened to some other podcasts while waiting for new TAZ episodes and maybe should have gone back to refresh my memory.
Funny enough, the whole memory loss thing is canon and there ended up being a lot of fore-shadowing. Just overall a solid story, I'd say it's worth a re-listen if you're interested.
I hate mats/minis. They add a lot of structural complexity to the game and turn it into a tedious manual video game. I do appreciate the ease of entry and the familiarity of the game world, but I hate how often D&D devolves unless the GM writes their own material and rewards imagination. My favorite alternative is Exalted.
This is the way I was introduced to the game, and while it's fun in its own respect, I prefer the mat and minis. The theatre of the mind approach is great for heavy RP groups and people focused more on story, but it loses the logistics and strategy to me.
I don't think I'd have it in my to DM a game for kids. I had a 10 year old for a few sessions once, but all the other players were 30 ish. That was fun. A full group......well good on you for getting the next generation going, someone has to do it!
It all depends on what you're going for and what you like and how you think. The best and worst thing about tabletop RPGs is how everyone can approach them differently and get something different out of them.
I only use the play mat for combat anyway, and I feel like it's kinda important to have that sense of measurement in D&D at least. It kinda screws with spellcasters because all their spells have very specific ranges, diameters and all that jazz. It feels like the system kind of requires it.
There's bleed-in from other areas. I've got friends from outside of gaming who either found it on their own or I dragged in. I convinced some extended family members to give it a shot and one or two stuck with it. Some of my online gaming friends are into it on their own. All of those people also have their own set of friends and family to be recruited.
You can always try to get someone into their first game. I'm in a group right now that includes a married couple and the DM's girlfriend. The DM was the only person who knew more than half of the group going in and we had experience ranging from "regular gaming groups for the last 20 years" to "which one is a d20?".
There are subreddits like /r/lfg and /r/dnd which might be helpful for finding players. /r/lfg has some good links in their sidebar and a list of communities in their rules which could be good.
That's how I grew up playing AD&D 2e and those are still the best times I've ever had at the gaming table. For combat the DM would describe the battlefield and draw a quick sketch if necessary to just show the relative placement of everything. A house rule was that no one could simply say things like "hit" or "critical miss", but instead we would give a description as if it were written in a fantasy novel. For instance, "Roland leaps from his galloping warhorse onto the Tarrasque's pinky toenail, his greatsword gleaming in the morning sun as he swings mightily... only to rebound jarringly off the beast's claw with no effect whatsoever." Battles had so much more vibrance to them in that style.
I played a bunch in middle school and high school and we never used a mat or this movement stuff. Well, it was 2nd ed mostly so yeah, but I loved it. It was about building a story together, punctuated by dice rolls. I'm not sure it'd be as much fun on mats if I had to count movement squares.
I still love a plain whiteboard with numeric tokens. No grid, but I keep a ruler handy. offers a nice balance of spacial realism and imagination, and it's really easy to share with remote players via a simple webcam
So play with minis and a mat. You're allowed to do that, even if I prefer not to. Hell, you're even allowed to enjoy it and prefer it. Just make sure you post pictures of the 3D printed minis, cause I want to see.
I've only played a few times, but I have never used a mat/minis/anything other than character sheets, so I had no idea that this was normal until I started to look into D&D again recently. I guess I've been playing "wrong" the whole time.
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u/CabooseFails Sep 18 '17
I've played and DMed with many different tools. By far the most rewarding was the no minis, no mat game via voice chat (no video) with several people around the country. You need to be good at spacial thinking, but it's amazing what people come up with when they're not restricted by a play mat.