When to Use a Battle Grid

Many would argue that modern day table-top roleplaying games have their roots in miniature games and war games. These people are correct, but it’s quite obvious that the genre has deviated substantially since then, with a heavier emphasis on the roleplaying aspect with every rotation of games that are published. Even D&D has changed over the course of its five editions. One thing left over from the miniature gaming days that I still see consistently popping up is the use of a battle grid. I’ve heard them called by many names, but I’ll be using battle grid, as that is what my group took to calling it, when I first started playing.

I started the roleplaying game hobby in D&D 3.5, and have played plenty of systems since then. Some of these games all but required the use of a battle grid, like D&D. It’s very difficult to play without the grid, as many of the rules specify things like line of sight, cover, and specific distance. Other games, like Mutants and Masterminds for example, are made infinitely harder by using the grid. This is because the system wasn’t meant to be played that way. If you don’t believe me, try running a combat encounter between two speedsters on a 50×50 grid. Wouldn’t you believe that’s exactly what my group did the first time we played… We had a player in our group who was unwilling to play any game that didn’t make use of the battle grid, because he felt it would be impossible to keep track of tactics any other way. When one person in the party can move thousands of miles per round, then the battle grid is just in the way.

Many games don’t specify in the rules, and aren’t made more difficult with or without it. One example of this would be (You guessed it) Legend of the Five Rings. While the game doesn’t say anything about a grid, it would be quite easy to house rule its use into the game with the standard “1 square inch = 5 feet” that many are used to from D&D. When you’re dealing with this, it’s just a matter of preference. Now I know you might be thinking “You’re making this more complicated than it needs to be”, but I assure you, there are players out there who are very opinionated about this. Like I mentioned before, I had a player for a while that would NOT play unless there was a battle grid involved, because he wanted to be able to see every tactical advantage possible (Although, ironically, he never used any of them). Similarly, I now have a player that won’t play if there IS a battle grid involved. He thinks it takes up too much time, and makes the game more about tactical combat as opposed to roleplaying (Irony again, he happens to be a terrible roleplayer). The point is, there are people who have a very strong opinion one way or the other, so strong that some of them refuse to play any other way. Now, it’s worth mentioning that these players simply aren’t invited when we play a game that doesn’t fit their preferred combat style, so it’s not an issue of keeping players.

Ultimately, I prefer to not have it, if it is in fact not necessary to gameplay. Even combats that don’t have obstacles, such as an open field, I don’t use a grid for in systems that call for it, because I just genuinely don’t enjoy using them, especially as a GM. Now, if there’s eight enemies on the ground, seven on a balcony to the east, four on a balcony to the west, and three guys hiding behind the bar counter, then I’ll probably whip out the grid, because that’s just a pain. So do you prefer using a battle grid, or just using your imagination? Tell me in the comments!

 

-Goluptious Geek

 

The Most Rewarding Character I’ve Played

I’ve played more characters than I can possibly remember, throughout the course of my gaming days. In this post I’m going to talk about my favorite, and the most rewarding character I’ve ever gotten to play. Marhamel the Desecrator, formerly Nathrahn Dawnguard, was a Vampire Anti-Paladin of the lord of chaos, in a long term campaign that ran for about two years. Wait, I know what you’re thinking! “I would never allow that character at my table!” Many dungeon masters would not have, but mine did, and I’ll always be grateful for it. Nathrahn Dawnguard was a paladin, and expert vampire hunter for many years. A stalwart member of his faith, and borderline religious zealot, he vanquished anyone or anything that threatened his god or his faith. With no sympathy for evil, he was a relatively narrow minded man. Nathrahn’s life came to a halt when we was attacked by a group of vampires while hunting them. They overpowered him, captured him, and turned him into a vampire against his will. When he awoke to his new monstrous identity, he slaughtered the vampires who had turned him, and returned to his deity for help. Unfortunately, his god had even less tolerance for the undead than Nathrahn had. His god disavowed him, and the paladin order to which he belonged, was now committed to hunting him down, and killing him. Nathrahn’s crisis of faith broke him, as he struggled to find meaning in his life. After about 200 years, he was approached by the God of Chaos (a custom setting specific deity). The deity that Nathrahn spent much of his time as a paladin fighting against.

The lord of chaos would make Nathrahn a paladin again (well…kind of) if he would dedicate himself to him. It had been so long since Nathrahn had fought for good, he accepted. The lord of chaos gave him a powerful sword, Godslayer, and sent him to prove his loyalty by destroying what remained of his former paladin order. He went forth to his former temple, and massacred the paladins there. He desecrated the temple, removing its power and holy aura. This earned him the title Desecrator, along with a new name, Marhamel, as anyone who knew his real name was long dead. This is where my control of the character started.

Marhamel was a tortured man, who secretly wanted nothing more than to be accepted once again by the deity he worshipped as a paladin, but knowing that this was impossible, he tried to remove the desire from is mind. Along his adventures he would fall in love with a lawful good elf, save an entire city from a deadly plague, risk his life to save a descendants of one of the paladins who tried to kill him, adopting an orphan child whose parents had been killed by orcs, and creating a merchant group that fought to end corruption in the merchants guild. While he was an evil character on paper, he couldn’t leave his good nature in his pasty entirely. The omen he fell in love with was corrupted by his dominantly evil influence, as he wasn’t acting good 90% of the time. Marhamel found it harder and harder to cling to light, and would eventually succumb to the desires of the lord of chaos completely.

I had a so much fun playing this character! There was so much opportunity for roleplay, and other rewarding experiences, and he was hilariously powerful to boot. This character is also one of the primary reasons that I can’t stand the alignment system, as it was purely a hindrance for this character, as his alignment was complicated to say the least. Well, enough about me, what characters have you played that were rewarding, or have you never had a character you felt attached to? Tell me in the comments!

 

-Goluptious Geek

So You Want to Play an Ambidextrous Drow With a Panther? How Original…

You’ve all seen him. He’s a fairly new player who doesn’t have a lot of experience but he’s read a few D&D books, and wants to try it out. He has an original character concept. A good aligned, ambidextrous Drow. He duel wields scimitars. One ice, one fire (that part’s really important to the originality). He’s a ranger, and most importantly, he has a pet panther. Yes, I’m talking about Drizzt, the player we’ve all had to deal with. While I haven’t read the Drizzt books, I’ve had my share of Drizzt imitators over my years of DMing games. He’s like the Elvis of D&D. Now, to be clear, I hate this crap. The first time I had this character brought to my table, I didn’t think anything of it until another player said “So basically Drizzt from the books”. Now I had never read these books, so I had no idea what he was talking about. The Drizzt player responded with what everyone responds with. “Well, that was part of the inspiration”.

I feel that I should clarify something here. This has not been one player that I’ve had, but three. Always a guy between 18 and 22 that doesn’t not have an extensive knowledge of dungeons and dragons, but claims to be an avid reader. In most of the situations, I permitted the character against my better judgement, often only limiting the race. Drow often do not fit as party members for many story settings in D&D. But wait! Now the totally original character concept has been thrust into an identity crisis from which he could never possibly recover! Wrong. Being a Drow meant nothing to the character concept for the player, as he didn’t choose to be a good Drow because it was an interesting roleplay dynamic, he did it because “It was cool in the book”. So now I have a player that’s just a regular elf…that’s ambidextrous, duel wields opposite element swords, and is a ranger with a pet panther… So you can see how pivotal the race was.

I don’t have a problem with book, movie, or television inspired characters. I actually quite enjoy players who try to take a character concept from a different setting and capture their personality into a D&D character. I have a player with a particular fetish for Darth Maul, the duel bladed lightsaber wielding Zabrak from the Star Wars movie that totally didn’t happen and won’t be mentioned again. The problem? We’re playing D&D, not Star Wars. He made a Tiefling fighter that used a duel bladed polearm. His backstory was similar to the expanded universe story of Darth Maul. The character was great. He did well roleplaying it, and had a ton of fun. My problem comes when people make a perfect carbon copy of a character, like Drizzt, not putting any thought into how to roleplay it. They claim that being ambidextrous is a huge part of the character, but when told they can’t have it, the character seems to act no differently. Now, whenever a player shows up and starts with “Well he’s a Drow, but he’s good”, I already know how the rest of the character concept goes. How many Drizzt impersonators have you had in your group? Tell me in the comments!

-Goluptious Geek

Using Music in Your Tabletop Games

If you’re wanting to create the perfect mood for a particular city, or getting your player’s adrenaline pumping during a fight, there’s music for it. Music is an integral part of being human. We listen to it, we make it, and we use it to enhance various other experiences. One of the experiences might be say…Tabletop gaming. I know, I blog about Tabletop Gaming a lot. Anyway, music can be a phenomenal GM tool for creating a greater level of immersion in their games. I started using music in the games I run a few months ago, and it’s completely changed the experience for me, and my players. I first got the idea when I played a session with a friend’s D&D group who was looking for another player. I joined, and had a ton of fun with them. One thing that was different about this session, other than being over Roll20 which I had never used before, there was music. Really good, well selected music. I couldn’t figure out why I had never used music before in my sessions, after all, it seemed kind of obvious. I immediately made a playlist for my ongoing Legend of the Five Rings game. Mostly instrumental, traditional Japanese music, keeping with the setting. The difference was very noticeable. Everyone had a lot easier and more enjoyable time staying in character, and enjoying themselves. Here’s a few of the songs that I use for my campaign:

For ambient music in a village or town

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61ElDnzwL8Q

For a really depressing fight scene (player was forced to kill his uncle)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOMmnG87J5k

For a duel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qupswFhMCxI

There are many more that I use, primarily from artist Kiyoshi Yoshida. Now, as with all things, there are times when this just doesn’t work. First, if your players don’t like it, then don’t do it. That one’s pretty simple. The next issue, what if there isn’t any music that matches what is going on, or the setting in general? Is it better to play music that doesn’t make any sense, or to just leave it silent?  In my opinion, I would rather have no music at all, than something that just doesn’t make any sense. People have been playing Tabletop games without music for many years, it’s not going to destroy the game. If you can find music that fits, great. If you can’t, don’t worry about it. If it’s only going to be a distraction, it doesn’t need to be at your table, regardless of what it is. So what about you, do you use music at your table? What kind of songs set the mood for your game’s setting? Tell me in the comments!