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Theater of the mind or table with minies?

Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2025 11:24 am
by Yorveth
I usually play with theater of the mind because of space restrictions, but i always wanted to play with a board. I have over 10 board games with minies and it would be amazing to use them in a game. (i even bouth some games spec for the minies)

Theater of the mind or table with minies?

Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2025 2:09 pm
by Annoging
I assume most people don't have the means to play with figurines but I also think a lot of battles are improv and not everyone enjoys the war gaming aspect of TTRPGs. Personally, I feel like figurines are restrictive.

Theater of the mind or table with minies?

Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2025 3:22 pm
by Yorveth
Annoging wrote: Sat Feb 01, 2025 2:09 pm I assume most people don't have the means to play with figurines but I also think a lot of battles are improv and not everyone enjoys the war gaming aspect of TTRPGs. Personally, I feel like figurines are restrictive.
I mean they can be but i like somewhat the positioning system as well because i mean if you have 2 attacks where one is Range 3 and other Range 6, if you dont have a board the Range 6 one becomes less popular because range 3 has 1 more dmg for example, and if the space is approximate you can always stated that you are within the range as people can get a bit fussy about exact positioning

Theater of the mind or table with minies?

Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2025 8:20 am
by Annoging
Yorveth wrote: Sat Feb 01, 2025 3:22 pm
Annoging wrote: Sat Feb 01, 2025 2:09 pm I assume most people don't have the means to play with figurines but I also think a lot of battles are improv and not everyone enjoys the war gaming aspect of TTRPGs. Personally, I feel like figurines are restrictive.
I mean they can be but i like somewhat the positioning system as well because i mean if you have 2 attacks where one is Range 3 and other Range 6, if you dont have a board the Range 6 one becomes less popular because range 3 has 1 more dmg for example, and if the space is approximate you can always stated that you are within the range as people can get a bit fussy about exact positioning
That's true. I think I lean more towards skill encounters compared to fights. With some groups, when there was an improvised, surprise encounter, we'd spend 15 minutes debating on who was standing where which is usually entirely based on convenience and the process gets tiresome

Theater of the mind or table with minies?

Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2025 8:44 am
by Monsterio
i'd get into collecting if i had money but i'm broke

every session is improved with miniatures. the more the better. the dm can leave the room and i'll have the time of my life with the minis.

Theater of the mind or table with minies?

Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2025 10:23 am
by Peril
Let me nerd out here:

The issue with miniatures is:
1. Having a dedicated set up would solve a lot of problems - just a place you could permanently devote to TTRPGs. It's such a fuss to clean up every single time. As much as we all love a good DnD campaign, it takes ages to set up the board, use it fully, and then clean it up. For whatever reason, GMs get this absolute fit when they have minis and a good map, where they need to include a million goons in an encounter. This just slows everything down.
Not only that, but then they legitimately start calculating the moveset of each goon. It takes ages.

2. There are encounters that work better descriptively, and narratively, rather than focusing on the logistics of exact position.

3. Not everyone playing TTRPGs cares about battle stats. You have people who give zero shit about flanking - if you find yourself in a campaign where one person is a total pro, and the other one just wants to say "I wave my sword", the second one will be dying all the time because they have zero idea of the mechanics necessary to survive such a cut out battle encounter. It's a lopsided campaign.

So basically, I think minies and boards are great as long as they're used with consideration of the players.