Just curious, 

Do your games tend to have more Theater of the Mind or do you use heavy graphic, maps, terrain, etc…?

I spent a lot on minis and then used a handful of them for one game. For me, it is just a money pit or a really fun hobby to paint for display. For play and for very practical reasons, I use TotM for most of my game. On battle days I will usually break out a digital map for visual aids, but everything else is TotM.

I generally prefer Theater of the Mind over maps, but then I want to paint and use minis so I also prefer maps over theater of the mind when the battle is tough enough to warrant going to the trouble

So, I have a 3D printer for making minis. I make them larger than normal so that they can all be custom figs of the character. For reference and joy. Not because they are going to be used on a battle map.

Theater of the Mind is my default, and has been since the very moment I started playing.  THe only time I attempt to do anything like a battle map -- or even use a VTT -- is when the nature of the circumstances are so peculiar that in order for everyone to have an idea of how things are going.

And those are usually little more than a quickly scribbled "map" and whatever I can quickly find for a token for everything.

Battlemaps slow us down in combat hugely. What might take one minute to resolve normally suddenly become five. It makes combat drag on for us, and we dislike that.

We use tokens (coloured buttons) on a map (we play in person). Having played Warhammer for longer, we like being able to use the space more tactically. We need some “theatre of the mind” to bring the buttons to life, though. 

We play online and use maps for some stuff and TotM for other stuff.  I paint minis to immerse myself but they are more for display/gifting.

TotM with a few maps sprinkled in here and there. 

It depends of ciscumstances. I'm fan of Tableau Vivant, using maps a lot more than Theater of the Mind, especially for combat encounters but for exploration and social encounters though, it's the opposite.

Quote from Plaguescarred >>

It depends of ciscumstances. I'm fan of Tableau Vivant, using maps a lot more than Theater of the Mind, especially for combat encounters but for exploration and social encounters though, it's the opposite.

 
That’s usually how the games I’m in go. TotM combat makes it too hard to do anything but a fairly basic slugging match, imo. They’re also good for some exploration scenes, particularly if the party is spreading out to explore a little; I’d rather not try and track the relative positions of 4 or more characters all in my head. For purely social stuff or less positionally relevant exploration, TotM is plenty.

Quote from The_Ace_of_Rogues >>

Quote from Plaguescarred >>

It depends of ciscumstances. I'm fan of Tableau Vivant, using maps a lot more than Theater of the Mind, especially for combat encounters but for exploration and social encounters though, it's the opposite.

 
That’s usually how the games I’m in go. TotM combat makes it too hard to do anything but a fairly basic slugging match, imo. They’re also good for some exploration scenes, particularly if the party is spreading out to explore a little; I’d rather not try and track the relative positions of 4 or more characters all in my head. For purely social stuff or less positionally relevant exploration, TotM is plenty.

 This is pretty much how I/we play. Maps for combat seems to make it go a little smoother. A few mini's and tokens for monsters and bad guys. 

For our group, it really depends on who is running the game.

In our main campaign, we have been using Maps & Minis as it is mainly a Dungeon Crawl.

When others in our group are the DM, we use Arkenforge VTT.

In general I like a good combo of Theater of the Mind and Maps/Minis.

Cheers!

I go with a blend as well.

Theater of the Mind until it gets tactical and then the miniatures and whatnot drop.

Quote from The_Ace_of_Rogues >>

Quote from Plaguescarred >>

It depends of ciscumstances. I'm fan of Tableau Vivant, using maps a lot more than Theater of the Mind, especially for combat encounters but for exploration and social encounters though, it's the opposite.

 
That’s usually how the games I’m in go. TotM combat makes it too hard to do anything but a fairly basic slugging match, imo. They’re also good for some exploration scenes, particularly if the party is spreading out to explore a little; I’d rather not try and track the relative positions of 4 or more characters all in my head. For purely social stuff or less positionally relevant exploration, TotM is plenty.

 The very rare time i will use Theater of the Mind for combat is it's an easy encounter with a single or two weak monsters that will be resolved quickly. Anything more elaborate is on map.

I am playing in three campaigns (one weekly, two biweekly). The two online games (spelljammer and a homebrew) use maps/VTT.

The in-person game (started yesterday) is The Wild Beyond The Witchlight and there is a map of the Carnival but not battlemaps. This is the only game I've played in recent years without a battlemap, including in-person one shots.

I use a territory or city map for when the characters are traveling or in town. Then use Theater of the Mind as they visit shops, temples, the inn, etc.. 

For dungeon crawling and combat I use maps. Then theater of the mind to describe combat or what they're looking at. 

Makes me happy there are so many Totm players!

More complex/tactical encounters happen on battlemaps with tokens, the rest with totm.

I use battle grids and miniatures, but that's it. Anything more just requires too much customization, but it's fun to have stuff to work on between sessions and I find a lot of players enjoy visualizing where things are with a grid.

I started to use the board game Nyctophobia for my players it’s tactile and the pieces lock onto the board as it is meant to be played blind. 

Thank you all for the feedback the tactical map makes things a bit easier to explain in combat. 

The majority of the game is theater of the mind.

In my games when combat happens I use maps of one sort or another. I don't want any confusion about where the bad guys are and whether you catch your party in your fireball.