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Author Topic: How do you handle table top movement?  (Read 2682 times)

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Offline providence13

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How do you handle table top movement?
« on: July 21, 2009, 06:55:50 PM »
I couldn't find anything on this with a search....

Some people use miniatures, either on a hex/grid or just to represent a vague idea of where their character stands.

A group I was in used yard sticks to show movement of their miniatures; no grid required. It was kind of weird. I show up and everyone has a yard stick in their hand. They said "Every inch equals 5 ft. This way, no one has to get up and squint over the table to see positions." I thought it was a bit odd, but they were pretty keen on it.

Maybe I'm "old school", but I always liked hex's/grids...
Anyway, how does everyone else handle movement/position?
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Offline rdanhenry

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Re: How do you handle table top movement?
« Reply #1 on: July 21, 2009, 11:36:27 PM »
Actually, they are the ones being "old school". Measuring distances for miniatures combat go back long before anyone started playing on grids.
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Offline craggles

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Re: How do you handle table top movement?
« Reply #2 on: July 22, 2009, 02:59:02 AM »
Definitely hex grid here.

We use one of those LARGE battle mats (which is larger than our dining table - I didn't appreciate it size when ordering it on the web) which I draw on in water based felt tip pens. Easy to wipe clean and you can follow combat without any problems, correctly determining flank and rear bonuses and because I draw any locations on the mat, it shows areas that are impassable to PCs as they attempt to get behind an enemy. No arguments and no fuss.

I already have the PCs movement hexes for the different speeds per second so we can easily see what rate to use and hence, how much exhaustion has been expended as well as keeping to the 3 phase movement allowance (20% for snap, 50% for normal and 80% for deliberate).

As the character sheets are excel documents, calculating each persons jumping distance under the 4 different situations (standing and running start for a horizontal jump and a standing and running start for a vertical jump) was also a breeze so their printed sheets show what difficulty mod is needed per character for the current distance.
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Offline markc

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Re: How do you handle table top movement?
« Reply #3 on: July 22, 2009, 01:38:38 PM »
 We use a custom hex mat that a person bought way back when. Yes it was very expensive then and I suspect even more expensive now. But the group has gotten a lot of good out of it gaming almost every week.

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Offline providence13

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Re: How do you handle table top movement?
« Reply #4 on: July 22, 2009, 09:45:44 PM »
Hex's and grids are much better than rulers... ;)
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Offline RandalThor

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Re: How do you handle table top movement?
« Reply #5 on: July 22, 2009, 10:17:58 PM »
Generally none of the above: I use my mind and every other mind at the table. Sometimes, we will have minis or other stuff to give very general positions, but that is it when I am running a game.
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Offline edxs

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Re: How do you handle table top movement?
« Reply #6 on: July 22, 2009, 10:22:42 PM »
Usually just in our heads, but sometimes a Descent (the FF board game) board with 20' or 5' squares, depending on situation. Stuff like "How far do I have to go to circle around the giant?" is GM fiat, since a grid can't represent it perfectly.
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Offline rdanhenry

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Re: How do you handle table top movement?
« Reply #7 on: July 23, 2009, 12:28:31 AM »
Tape measures are what you need for the big battles.
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Offline providence13

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Re: How do you handle table top movement?
« Reply #8 on: July 23, 2009, 08:40:19 AM »
Tape measures are what you need for the big battles

Wow! Now that's a big battle. Sounds like some train tracks are involved. :)
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Offline dutch206

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Re: How do you handle table top movement?
« Reply #9 on: July 23, 2009, 08:43:50 AM »
You handle tabletop movement by sticking a magazine under the short table leg.  :Joker2:
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