I am running Curse of Strahd for a 6-8 person party at any given time. My players tend to be wargamers that have drifted to DnD for the RP scenarios in addition to combat. I unfortunately have no maps and was wondering whether anyone had any advice for me. My players tend to have issues with theater of the mind and as of such I would prefer to be using maps. I have the minis just no maps.
I bought a dry-erase board to supplement my theatre-of-the-mind game. A quick and dirty sketch (in broad strokes) often makes it easier for the players to visualize what I'm describing and get an idea about relative positions in combat situations. (I use numbers or Xs and Os, a squiggly line to suggest a stream or a line drawing to suggest a floor-plan; I don't attempt to draw creatures and characters; I don't pretend the drawings are necessarily to scale.) Another thing you can do is give them very detailed descriptions and encourage them to draw their own maps.
If you're players are hard-core war-gamers, they may not be satisfied until you get some grid mats and draw things to scale for them.
I'll often run a hybrid between TotM and battle maps where we place the minis on the table without a map or grid just to show basic placement and numbers. Just enough to show who's next to who, how many enemies there still are, and roughly who is where. I've found the key to this working is to be very forgiving of distances with your players, "Am I close enough to cast this? Sure!" "With my movement can I get up to that monster? Sure!" "If I hit this area will I get all these monsters? Sure!"
If your players know you're not going to pull out a ruler and be really picky about placement then they'll lighten up about it as well. From there you might figure out that's enough for everyone to be happy, or you might all want more and decide to invest in maps, or you might all get used to how things work and be willing to try full Theatre of the Mind!
Just get a hex or square map that can take dry erase or other non-permanent markers. Play things in theatre of the mind until the combat breaks out then sketch the important features on the map - starting locations, terrain, obstacles, other features and play out the combat on the battle map. You don't need any detailed maps of the exact rooms, just a sketch of the area relevant to the specific combat.
OboeCrazy, that works great until you have characters/creatures whom have abilities that depend on clearly defined placement. Most people (even war gamers) can roll with ToTM and not get fussy about standard attacks of opportunity. When you've got abilities that trigger strictly off of AoOs, differing reaches, whether allies/enemies are directly adjacent, one or both within 5 feet, etc. it starts to become more important to have an actual grid. Anything fulfills this purpose: classic hand-drawn maps on grid paper, dry erase boards, wet erase grid mats, etc. all the way up to high-grade digital maps & 3D printed dungeon tiles.
$10-$20 for a wet erase grid mat & markers is all the investment you'll ever need to make sure all your different player types can be satisfied. You don't even need to bother with actual miniatures (but they're so neat!) as just about any small object can represent a creature. Dice not in use are a perfect stand in.
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You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
The maps seem to be included on DnDbeyond, you can download the images and print them.
For larger maps, you can try to find a composite poster tool that will print them on several sheets of paper and leaves some overlap to glue them together.
You can then cover those paper maps with a thin sheet of acrylic or Dura-Lar film, so you can use dry- or wet-erase markers.
I am running Curse of Strahd for a 6-8 person party at any given time. My players tend to be wargamers that have drifted to DnD for the RP scenarios in addition to combat. I unfortunately have no maps and was wondering whether anyone had any advice for me. My players tend to have issues with theater of the mind and as of such I would prefer to be using maps. I have the minis just no maps.
WillJ
I bought a dry-erase board to supplement my theatre-of-the-mind game. A quick and dirty sketch (in broad strokes) often makes it easier for the players to visualize what I'm describing and get an idea about relative positions in combat situations. (I use numbers or Xs and Os, a squiggly line to suggest a stream or a line drawing to suggest a floor-plan; I don't attempt to draw creatures and characters; I don't pretend the drawings are necessarily to scale.) Another thing you can do is give them very detailed descriptions and encourage them to draw their own maps.
If you're players are hard-core war-gamers, they may not be satisfied until you get some grid mats and draw things to scale for them.
Good luck.
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InsiderI'll often run a hybrid between TotM and battle maps where we place the minis on the table without a map or grid just to show basic placement and numbers. Just enough to show who's next to who, how many enemies there still are, and roughly who is where. I've found the key to this working is to be very forgiving of distances with your players, "Am I close enough to cast this? Sure!" "With my movement can I get up to that monster? Sure!" "If I hit this area will I get all these monsters? Sure!"
If your players know you're not going to pull out a ruler and be really picky about placement then they'll lighten up about it as well. From there you might figure out that's enough for everyone to be happy, or you might all want more and decide to invest in maps, or you might all get used to how things work and be willing to try full Theatre of the Mind!
Find me on Twitter: @OboeLauren
Just get a hex or square map that can take dry erase or other non-permanent markers. Play things in theatre of the mind until the combat breaks out then sketch the important features on the map - starting locations, terrain, obstacles, other features and play out the combat on the battle map. You don't need any detailed maps of the exact rooms, just a sketch of the area relevant to the specific combat.
OboeCrazy, that works great until you have characters/creatures whom have abilities that depend on clearly defined placement. Most people (even war gamers) can roll with ToTM and not get fussy about standard attacks of opportunity. When you've got abilities that trigger strictly off of AoOs, differing reaches, whether allies/enemies are directly adjacent, one or both within 5 feet, etc. it starts to become more important to have an actual grid. Anything fulfills this purpose: classic hand-drawn maps on grid paper, dry erase boards, wet erase grid mats, etc. all the way up to high-grade digital maps & 3D printed dungeon tiles.
$10-$20 for a wet erase grid mat & markers is all the investment you'll ever need to make sure all your different player types can be satisfied. You don't even need to bother with actual miniatures (but they're so neat!) as just about any small object can represent a creature. Dice not in use are a perfect stand in.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
DnDbeyond ;) has a few good articles about TotM:
http://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/325-why-run-combat-in-the-theater-of-the-mind
http://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/355-how-to-run-combat-in-the-theater-of-the-mind
http://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/360-using-abstract-maps
http://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/363-adjudicating-edge-cases-in-theater-of-the-mind
More Interesting Lock Picking Rules
Sorry, missed that part...
The maps seem to be included on DnDbeyond, you can download the images and print them.
For larger maps, you can try to find a composite poster tool that will print them on several sheets of paper and leaves some overlap to glue them together.
You can then cover those paper maps with a thin sheet of acrylic or Dura-Lar film, so you can use dry- or wet-erase markers.
More Interesting Lock Picking Rules