The only thing I thought of so far is to do the map in 10-ft. scale (instead of 5 ft.), and then adjust the distances proportionately. For the sake of simplicity, people still occupy one 10-by-10 square, but to enter melee, you have to get into the same square as your opponent. You could then do a little "zoomed in" fight on a side board, or just carry out the fight through description (the two figs usually just stand t here in front of each other anyway). The only sticking point I can see is area-effects, but for the sake of simplicity (again), you could just round the 5-ft. scale up to the next 10-ft. square, and if you're caught, you're caught. It's a change that would affect both sides equally.
Anyone see any problems with this? Anyone have any better ideas?
Set up a large-scale map (whatever scale you like) for the sense of bigness you want, and then have little combat-maps made up for small-scale. The big map can be as big as you like, and then the small maps are 5-ft. Thoughts?
I've encountered the same problem with starship battles in SF games. The battlemat is too small for large fleet battles.
Our solution : We removed the table from the room and we played on the floor using the whole room (12'X14'). We mesured distances with a tape. When ships got really close we placed premade 11"x17" 1 inch paper grid under them for tight maneuvers. Its a bit crazy but extremely satisfying. Makes you feel like kids playing on the floor with green army men...
Try it some time its really fun. I also did a big Spelljammer space battle once with crumpled sheets of paper used as a moving asteroid field. The field had its how initiative and all the asteroids moved in the same direction 3" on their initiative... Players were going «insane» trying to make attacks against the enemy AND maneuver around the moving asteroids.
Playing on the floor does sound like fun, but I figure you could get the same effect from a big map on the table and then little side-maps for battles. They wouldn't necessarily have to be much bigger than an 8.5x11 sheet. You could just keep running off those little maps, if you had to.
I think your idea is good. But I have another idea just to shake things up even more. How about using «architectural scale» figurines? If I'm right they are twice as small as regular D&D figs.
Changing the scale of squares to 10' AND reducing figs size by half will give you HUGE areas to play on. 1/2" = 10' effectively quadruples the size of a regular battlemat.
32" x 5' = 160 feet as opposed to 32" X 10' x 2 = 640 feet !!! Awesome!
I'm intrigued. Where does one purchase these architectural figurines?
Train model hobby stores are a good place to look for them. Its called the «HO» scale.
For exemple:
http://www.discounttrainsonline.com/ho-scale-model-trains.html
Oh of course! Cool. I'll look into that.
he he! Glad I could help. Keep me posted on your next «mega battle».
pewter figs for security personel, vehicules and tanks. There are many scales available.
Remember that the figures are still symbolic and simply placeholders for imagination. They don't have to be scale accurate on your battlemat to serve their purpose. That's for Warhammer players to worry about. Just assume that if characters are in the same area they can make melee attacks and grapples and whatnot. Pick a scale, divide your movement by an approximate number and you have area's of movement. Then try to find some of those old marvel maps online, since they were simple and effective, if only for reference.
engineering pads
corkboard
colored and clear pushpins
stickers or paper flags
Each 1/4" on the pad is equal to one 5' square, the sheets are laid over a cork board and the pushpins represent the characters. Each character gets a color and the clear ones are NPC's with various stickers on the end or flags hanging on the pin to keep track of them.
An Engineering pad is 11 x 17 so each one represents a battlemat covering 220' x 340' and you can line several up on one large bulletin board. You can lay the board on your table or hang it on the wall. This way you can have massive battles, they don't get knocked over in between game like minifigs would and you can remain true to the D20 scale rules. Plus all materials still serve practical purposes.
Ok then:
engineering pads
corkboard
colored and clear pushpins
stickers or paper flags
Each 1/4" on the pad is equal to one 5' square, the sheets are laid over a cork board and the pushpins represent the characters. Each character gets a color and the clear ones are NPC's with various stickers on the end or flags hanging on the pin to keep track of them.
An Engineering pad is 11 x 17 so each one represents a battlemat covering 220' x 340' and you can line several up on one large bulletin board. You can lay the board on your table or hang it on the wall. This way you can have massive battles, they don't get knocked over in between game like minifigs would and you can remain true to the D20 scale rules. Plus all materials still serve practical purposes.
BRAVO ! I like this solution. Its dirty cheap too! Tks
Ok then:
engineering pads
corkboard
colored and clear pushpins
stickers or paper flags
Each 1/4" on the pad is equal to one 5' square, the sheets are laid over a cork board and the pushpins represent the characters. Each character gets a color and the clear ones are NPC's with various stickers on the end or flags hanging on the pin to keep track of them.
An Engineering pad is 11 x 17 so each one represents a battlemat covering 220' x 340' and you can line several up on one large bulletin board. You can lay the board on your table or hang it on the wall. This way you can have massive battles, they don't get knocked over in between game like minifigs would and you can remain true to the D20 scale rules. Plus all materials still serve practical purposes.
I think we have a winner!
