Oh god I see this post now and you don't want to know how scared this makes me. I honestly would never have played DnD as much, or maybe at all, if it hadn't been for your tool. It just makes the one ugly thing about DnD, managing combat, so much easier. This is simply the best thing that has happened to DnD since the character builder, and honestly, this one is better. Please keep on doing this, although of course I can understand if you'd choose not to. I bet that if you did a donation drive...
View full commentOh god I see this post now and you don't want to know how scared this makes me. I honestly would never have played DnD as much, or maybe at all, if it hadn't been for your tool. It just makes the one ugly thing about DnD, managing combat, so much easier. This is simply the best thing that has happened to DnD since the character builder, and honestly, this one is better. Please keep on doing this, although of course I can understand if you'd choose not to. I bet that if you did a donation drive to make this a profitable hobby-thing you could get a ton of support.
I don't understand why people relate using a grid & miniatures to having deep and fulfilling combat. In my experience, people who play with miniatures are more prone to metagaming during combat - and that is definitely NOT fun nor fulfilling for me. Not using a grid invokes more creative actions I think, but using a grid doesn't prohibit you from doing anything (if it does, you've got the wrong DM!)
I agree with ruttentud & find TotM combats much more fulfilling than tactical grid battles ... when the battle occurs entirely in your imagination, it isn't restricted by the position of miniatures on the playing field. So, when Seti says (a page back) that "theatre of the mind can work, if the group doesn't want complex, fulfilling combat encounters" he is clearly seeing things differently than I do (and being a little demeaning, as well). While miniature combat can be complex in...
View full commentI agree with ruttentud & find TotM combats much more fulfilling than tactical grid battles ... when the battle occurs entirely in your imagination, it isn't restricted by the position of miniatures on the playing field.
So, when Seti says (a page back) that "theatre of the mind can work, if the group doesn't want complex, fulfilling combat encounters" he is clearly seeing things differently than I do (and being a little demeaning, as well).
While miniature combat can be complex in a rules-sense and can certianly be fulfilling for someone who likes those types of rules ... I have never found it to be nearly as complex or as fulfilling as TotM in a narrative-sense. (That is, combats that are dictated by description allow for more possibilities, and therefore more complex and fulfilling battles, than combats that are dictated by the position of playing pieces ... at least, in my experience).
Now don't get me wrong ... I can certianly understand the thrill of succeeding at sophisticated tactical game. (In fact, I enjoy playing tactical wargames like Warhammer, Mordheim, and Confrontation; but for me, they are a different animal than TotM-style RPG).
And, of course, I understand that a healthy dose of imagination is needed to make either method "come alive" ... but when faced with a grid, I always feel limited by both the squares I am froced to navigate through and by what I know is a more geometrically advantageous position, regardless of how cool my description might have been.
So, I am glad they are including rules for both TotM and the tactical grid ... I just hope I don't feel forced to use both.
Rake: It's a column about how life and DnD interact with and effect one another, through the lense of the writer's personal experiences. This isn't a print magazine. It is silly to assume that "page space" being used by this article would be used by something else if Shelly quit doing the column. A website like the official site for DnD doesn't have such limited real estate that they couldn't put something else up (this column was running before dragon content started to drop) alongside...
View full commentRake: It's a column about how life and DnD interact with and effect one another, through the lense of the writer's personal experiences.
This isn't a print magazine. It is silly to assume that "page space" being used by this article would be used by something else if Shelly quit doing the column. A website like the official site for DnD doesn't have such limited real estate that they couldn't put something else up (this column was running before dragon content started to drop) alongside it, rather than instead of.
And IIRC, she's an actual employee, not a freelancer. She probably isn't getting paid per article, it's just one part of her job at WoTC.
Congratulations Shelly! Don't worry, my wife and I also turned out honeymoon in Quebec City into a D&D adventure. She bought her first (and only) weapon (a mordenkrad) at one of the medieval equipment stores in the city. For the rest of the trip I wasn't sure if I had maried her, or Simone Wolfgunk, her Eladrin Avenger.
Hi, My name is sylvia i am interested to know you when i saw your profile, i will like us to be friends, reply me directly to my inbox so that i will send you my photo and tell you more about my self, sylviajamestoure@yahoo.com
View full comment