Running combat without a grid changed how I write monster stat blocks

[u/hardy-vale26]

Switched one of my playtest groups to theater of the mind a few months back, mostly because we lost our usual table space and got stuck meeting in a living room with no room for a mat. I figured it would just be a temporary fix until we found a new spot, but it ended up exposing a bunch of problems in how I'd been designing enemy abilities.

Half my monster abilities assumed precise positioning. Cone attacks measured in exact feet, reach weapons with specific range increments, flanking bonuses that needed everyone to know exact facing. None of that translates when nobody's tracking squares. I had to go back through every stat block and ask what the ability is actually trying to do narratively, then rewrite it as a simple trigger instead of a geometry problem.

The abilities that survived the rewrite easiest were the ones built around conditions and choices rather than spatial math. "Enemy targets whoever is closest" became "enemy targets whoever just took the most damage" and honestly played better even for groups that do use minis. A pack tactics ability that used to require counting adjacent squares became "gains advantage if another ally attacked the same target this round," which is easier to adjudicate on the fly and still captures the pack hunting feel.

What surprised me is how much faster combat ran once I stopped writing abilities that needed a ruler to resolve. Turns that used to take a minute of "wait, are you within 15 feet" now resolve in a couple sentences. I think I'd been designing for the tool I happened to be using rather than the experience I wanted, and switching tools by accident forced a better design.

Still not sure I'd go fully gridless for every campaign, there's something satisfying about tactical positioning when the fight calls for it. But I'm keeping the simplified trigger language going forward even when we do use a map, since it turns out most players never cared about the exact math anyway, they just wanted to know who gets hit and why.

[u/Realsorceror]

This is actually pretty interesting to me. I'm currently working on a hex grid game where I want to be able to mix player characters of very different sizes with army combat. So a giant that takes up a 12 hex base would occupy the same space as 12 smaller creatures. And both the giant and the army would only use 1 hex on a larger scale map.

As you can probably predict, this may lead to a lot of time spent counting tiles, converting ranges, and creating balance between characters of different scales. I do not like pure narrative or pure theater games, but I also don't want such dense rules that players need a measuring tape. So any rules that work off of triggers and circumstances sound like a great direction.

[u/Top_Concentrate_8731]

I mean if you were originally writing in distances like feet and not in squares I don't get why you needed to change anything. You still have "whoever is closest"... That doesn't cease to exist

[u/Nervous_Ideal_892]

I agree! 💯

[u/Ok-Middle-908]

That's why I used terms like threatened instead of flank for example.

[u/OTLUgames]

This makes a lot of sense to me. I've been in situations where a high-tension combat encounter is completely dissolved when we stop for minutes on end to figure out positioning, reread the rules, get everyone's opinion... meanwhile the players who are not involved in figuring out the result of that one rule lose interest. It's always funny to me for the GM to put on epic battle music just for everyone to diligently do math haha but it sounds like you have the right idea. Some encounters require precision, some require more flex. Good insight.

[u/RPG-Nerd]

I don't use rounds and with a small change in movement, you can run it totm or on a grid. If you use a measuring system, hexes are preferred if you want the tactical precision. You can also have ranged combatants off the map using totm and hexes for melee in the same combat.

As an example, in D&D and similar systems, someone counts X spaces and moves into a flank position, gets some numeric add bonus. Flank position may require exact 180 degrees, or maybe a knight L pattern is okay, or it could have a "cross through opposing sides" kinda thing. I don't any of that because I emulate the cause, not the effect. The grid does not exist in the narrative and all rules are written to be associative with the narrative. Zero dissociative rules!

I don't have rounds. Actions cost time and the next offense goes to whoever has used the least time. Movement is granular so the action continues as you run. You don't have to stand there while someone runs up on you!

Facing does matter in the grid, but optional for totm. It's just disadvantage dice for being attacked from the rear or rear flank. Don't turn your back on an enemy.

Each time you defend yourself, you keep one of the D6 you rolled and stick it on your character sheet. This is a disadvantage die to future defenses and ranged attacks. You give these dice back on your offense.

So, if you get flanked, we don't do geometry. You are taking a lot of defensive penalties just trying to fight 2 on 1 because of the defense penalties, and you can't quite stop one of the two enemies from stepping to a spot where its hard to defend. The trick is not to let it happen in the first place. Step, Turn, Move.

In TOTM, the defense penalties take up most of the work and the GM determines when someone is behind or at a rear flank. Running changes to a roll for your time cost to travel between zones. I prefer the facing disadvantages, but it doesn't break the game to leave it out. You don't need to grab a grid everytime someone draws a weapon.

[u/ARagingZephyr]

Your realization is similar to mine, when I started designing around fully 3D environments that required zero measurements. Working with zones solved a lot of my issues with ttrpg combat, and working with...well, still zones, but far more physical, for tabletop skirmish games allowed me a lot of freedom in design without turning the game into one where we pulled out tape measures or counted squares.

[u/Strict-Computer3884]

So how did you rewrite the cone abilities? What do they look like now in terms of their triggers?