Battle Mat, or Theatre of the Mind?

[Zulfikar Zaban]

Greetings fellow gamers,

        I'm just curious, I haven't played much BRP, just a little Runequest and the solo adventure of Call of Cthulhu. When I played Runequest it was with a veteran gamemaster and we did use some maps and tokens, but I didn't know how you all approached the game, especially playing online, and what do you use for audio and for maps and tokens? Also, where do you get your maps and tokens for online if you use them? I personally like to use Discord for audio in other games I play, and have played on Roll20, and Fantasy Grounds, but personally prefer Owlbear Rodeo for it's simplicity and I think it helps lessen the confusion of trying to understand the ins-and-outs of an online platform on top of trying to educate new players on how to play with the rule system of a TTRPG.  I'm just curious how other people approach this, that is all, thank you.

[Kloster]

Battle mats and tokens, or whiteboards. I don't play online.

[Cloud64]

I second owl bear rodeo for online play. It's free, easy to upload your own maps and tokens, easy to share with your players. Our lockdown play was  theatre of the mind, but using an online map and tokens really helped clarify the situation. At table I'll tend to draw the scene out (or have it pre-prepped) on a piece of paper and we use that with home-made standees or tokens as a rough guide of what's going on. Occasionally the battle mat or a gridded print map comes out, but it's rare we're that pedantic about combat.

 

Edited March 9, 2022 by Cloud64

[albesias]

Theater of the mind. Quoting a friend: "I like seeing in a doom style"

[Zulfikar Zaban]

6 minutes ago, Cloud64 said:

"I second owl bear rodeo for online play. It's free, easy to upload your own maps and tokens, easy to share with your players. Our lockdown play was  theatre of the mind, but using an online map and tokens really helped clarify the situation. At table I'll tend to draw the scene out (or have it pre-prepped) on a piece of paper and we use that with home-made standees or tokens as a rough guide of what's going on. Occasionally the battle map or a gridded print map comes out, but it's rare we're that pedantic about combat."

Cool, thank you. That's helpful, and it's good to know Owlbear worked well for you and online play. I like TOTM for much of gameplay, but maps can definitely be helpful for combat. My players have expressed the same, they like a mix, especially in larger combats.

[Zulfikar Zaban]

5 minutes ago, albesias said:

Theater of the mind. Quoting a friend: "I like seeing in a doom style"

That's perfect, ROFl!

[JustAnotherVingan]

Don't play RQ online.

Online we tend to use maps with grids, keep track of movement etc much more closely than we do when playing at a tabletop. Somebody else referees.

Tabletop its much more OK he'll get 1 round of missile fire then you will be in melee with him

[Squaredeal Sten]

I have played role playing games both ways in the past, as a player and as a GM.

But right now I am  only playing on line.  PBF and on Zoom.  Not only because of COVID but also because Runequst players are thin on the ground, and because I want to play Runequest.

As far as theater of the mind vs. Icons on an electronic map, it is 95 percent theater of the mind, plus some sketch maps.  I have played with someone else GMing and using roll20.  But I am not skilled with roll20.

 

Edited March 2, 2022 by Squaredeal Sten
Spelling

[g33k]

I enjoy battlemats & mini's, but I don't have the time(*) & patience to paint mini's (nor money(*) to pay for painted)... nor any f2f players with the time/patience/$ for same.

Unpainted mini's are unsatisfying to me... boring same-y grey, none of them really stand out; just feels like a lost opportunity.  😒

So, mostly TotM.

===

Occasionally (when a scene calls for highly-technical combat where precise ranges/spacing/position/LOS/etc is critical) I'll use a battlemat, generally using dice as character-tokens.

===

Online, I haven't been GM'ing -- only a player.  I follow the GM's conventions... and generally am just glad to have some gaming during lockdown!

 

 

(*) technically, of course, I do have time and money; it's just that both are limited, and my gaming money is 100% committed to books &c, and my gaming time is 100% committed to playing-sessions and RPG-related reading (and gaming forums).

Edited March 1, 2022 by g33k
(*) technicalities

[ffilz]

Face to Face (if I ever get there again) - battle mat and tokens or miniatures. I have a bunch of the D&D plastic miniatures that I can use (even got some "broos" back when I was buying them... 🙂 )

Online - Roll20 with maps and tokens.

Cool bit about online. For my Thieves Guild campaign, I took the 11"x17" 50' to the inch map of Sontra from Columbia Games Streets of Gems and resized my hexes so I have 1 meter hexes on it for RQ... With 1" hexes that would be a 15' long map for face to face play...  There ARE some real advantages to virtual table top...

[dumuzid]

I've only played or run RQ using voice chat over discord, and it's always been theater of the mind.  

[Zulfikar Zaban]

16 hours ago, ffilz said:

Face to Face (if I ever get there again) - battle mat and tokens or miniatures. I have a bunch of the D&D plastic miniatures that I can use (even got some "broos" back when I was buying them... 🙂 )

Online - Roll20 with maps and tokens.

Cool bit about online. For my Thieves Guild campaign, I took the 11"x17" 50' to the inch map of Sontra from Columbia Games Streets of Gems and resized my hexes so I have 1 meter hexes on it for RQ... With 1" hexes that would be a 15' long map for face to face play...  There ARE some real advantages to virtual table top...

Ha, nice. I have definitely become a lot more tech savvy since covid. I have learned to make maps with sketchbook pro and have created paintbrushes for maps to create random sized mountains for mountain ranges and trees for forests, and pretty much whatever and I can use real mountains and trees as the images. I really quite enjoy it.

[PhilHibbs]

This "theatre of the mind" sounds awesome. Got a link to it? Is it a free service? 🤪

Edited March 8, 2022 by PhilHibbs

[Bill the barbarian]

1 hour ago, PhilHibbs said:

This "theatre of the mind" sounds awesome. Got a link to it? Is it a free service? 🤪

Yes indeed, and your avatar is in the correct position to insert the 1/4 inch jack to enable it as well!

Edited March 8, 2022 by Bill the barbarian

[Jeff]

On 3/1/2022 at 5:25 AM, Zulfikar Zaban said:

Greetings fellow gamers,

        I'm just curious, I haven't played much BRP, just a little Runequest and the solo adventure of Call of Cthulhu. When I played Runequest it was with a veteran gamemaster and we did use some maps and tokens, but I didn't know how you all approached the game, especially playing online, and what do you use for audio and for maps and tokens? Also, where do you get your maps and tokens for online if you use them? I personally like to use Discord for audio in other games I play, and have played on Roll20, and Fantasy Grounds, but personally prefer Owlbear Rodeo for it's simplicity and I think it helps lessen the confusion of trying to understand the ins-and-outs of an online platform on top of trying to educate new players on how to play with the rule system of a TTRPG.  I'm just curious how other people approach this, that is all, thank you.

For what it is worth, I almost always play Theatre of the Mind. You certainly can play RQG with a battle map, but I've never been much of a battle map guy (and I've been gaming over 40 years).

[Karlak One-eye]

We use R20 because I’m uk and my player is US. It works really well. Having said that we have used battle map or equivalent since I started RPG in 1977. I found it satisfied my wargaming vackground But also helped everyone understand the situation more quickly and hence reduced retconning due to genuine misunderstandings. 

[jajagappa]

When I GM'd face-to-face back in the 80s/90s, I liked using a battle mat to sketch out melee situations with miniatures.  But even then, many events used theatre of the mind with occasional maps/props for reference.

These days I only do Play-by-Forum games and is predominantly theatre of the mind with occasional maps/illustrations for reference.  On the rare occasion with melee, I may sketch a map and indicate rough positions of PC's, but not usually needed.

[Scotty]

I use a mix of 15mm figures (and paper standees), theatre of mind where appropriate. Never had a battle map but do draw on bits of paper. Even with Roll20, I only used maps loosely. Each to their own. 

[Lordabdul]

I generally start with theatre of the mind. Then if players are asking many questions about the environment, or there's some confusion about what's where and how far, or if I myself need help to visualize something, then I draw a simple map. In face to face games, I generally draw this on a small portable whiteboard, so just for showing, not for miniature gaming. For specific scenes, or when I feel we have some time for it, I occasionally bust out the battlemat and miniatures. In Roll20, however, the hastily drawn map would be done on the grid anyway, so at this point we often drag the tokens on it and use those. However, it's frequent that the scale isn't 1:1 so each square might be 3 meters or 5 meters or whatever, and we round up the distances for tracking SR. We don't go too deep in the nitty gritty tactical stuff even then.

Edited March 10, 2022 by lordabdul