Fantasy RPG Space Issues (an Epiphany)

[sixsideddice]

 
I have discovered something about playing RPG`s and using figures to depict where everything is (as opposed to playing pencil and paper style with everything imagined in your head).

For a standard Dungeon Crawl game, such as Dungeon World, where the action is driven along by the use of 10mm figures and 3D resin dungeon tiles, everything stands as is... BUT have you ever noticed that when you try to use figures in a role playing game (in any scale, it’s all the same) the figures often seem to be crowded into rooms shoulder to shoulder? Take a 30 foot by 30 foot room... at 5 feet per square.... lets say it is a Tavern lounge; the second you place 4 heroes inside it, the bar man, perhaps a serving maid and two or three patrons sitting at tables, suddenly the room looks ridiculously tiny and crowded. Lets take it a step further... imagine that, in addition, you had a rival gang sitting in the Tavern, comprising  a boss and four henchmen. Maybe a |Watchmen sits with his friend playing cards, and a travelling bard is playing  his harp by the fireplace.... at this stage we now have 17 figures all crammed into a 6 square by square 6 room. Can you imagine how that would look in a game, let alone try to play it out?

Well, I`ve discovered this can greatly be improved by placing your 10mm figures on 28mm squared tiles or game mats.

Give it a try... it looks so much better to oversize the tiles a bit in a standard RPG  

Has anyone else tried this?

[Fenton]

Well we always used the basis that each square was 10 foot ( we always used miniatures) but furniture etc  and terrain was drawn on, so that if a character is in the middle of  the square  then he technically should have 2-3 feet either side

Of course the simplest  way of looking at it is that your players are hero's , heroes dont bother with such mundane items and tables and chairs, they use them in the fight they are in and this is represented by their to hit roll and their opponents attempts to hit them

[Squirrel]

I have found the same thing Six. When I was running a Sci-fi RPG with 15mm miniatures I always used floor plans scaled for 28mm miniatures and it looked and worked much better.

I will probably do the same with the 10mm games I have coming up, though I may scale them down a little ....

Cheers,

Kev

[sixsideddice]

For me, the ideal is to play my table top (semi rpg and solo) games as is, using all the 10mm minis I can bring to bear from my collection. BUT when I want to play a RPG/D&D session... I simply use the same figures - but use 28mm squared card tiles (commercial and home make) to give myself and the players more space to make the experience more realistic.


Works a treat 


Six