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View Full Version : When you went from 2e to 3.0 did you use minis?



Ozreth
2011-01-30, 01:35 AM
Reading through a 3.0 module right now and it dosen't focus much on minis. I know the 2e crowd didn't typically use them and was wondering if you were playing back then did you immediately incorporate them in your 3.0 games or did you just slowly realize that it would work better?

I know some of you still don't use them at all, but thats besides the point.

bloodtide
2011-01-30, 01:59 AM
We almost never used minis back in 2E. They simply were not needed. Melee combat was a lot more like 'everyone just fights in a mob'. You did not need to keep track of where characters and monsters were.


We occasionally used minis for war games, like BattleSystem.


The only time they saw real use in 2E for use was when the players had dragon characters, and we needed to keep track of flying.

With 3X we had to use minis a little, but not much. Most of my group just does not care for it. For a big battle we might pull them out, but not often.

Remmirath
2011-01-30, 01:59 AM
We've always used figures in our games, whatever the edition. So... nothing really changed. I think it always works better to have a good idea of where your characters are in relation to things.

MeeposFire
2011-01-30, 02:22 AM
We used minis in 2e though they were not important in truth.

In many ways we ignored minis in 3e and 4e with certain groups so I can say I have tried it in all ways.

rayne_dragon
2011-01-30, 02:25 AM
Been using minis since I started with AD&D (and I'd like to note that the term "2e" makes me cringe). D&D just doesn't feel right without tile maps and little figures (with the occasional ridiculous substitution of things like chips, popcorn, dice, poker chips, cumpled paper, etc.). I think visual representations add a lot to a game, but aren't always required.

Ozreth
2011-01-30, 03:04 AM
[QUOTE=rayne_dragon;10265646]the term "2e" makes me cringe

...but it IS 2e and a lot of people draw a fine line between the two, either playing AD&D or playing AD&D 2e.

And I only use 2e AD&D in my example because it is what came right before 3.0 and my post is about the transition between the two.

MeeposFire
2011-01-30, 03:07 AM
Funny wen I first started AD&D I did not know about 1e, 2e, or even basic and freely used material from all three when I made adventures as a DM. Nobody (including myself) ever really noticed the problem. Any rules issues (which were exceedingly rare) were dismissed as just information that was just missing or assumed (and with how detailed things were back then it could be easy to forget something or misunderstand). It took me years later when I read about the history of D&D that I finally understood. To me 2e is really 1.5.

Lurkmoar
2011-01-30, 04:44 AM
We used legos and did the maps by hand with a ruler and pen.

Kurald Galain
2011-01-30, 05:13 AM
I know the 2e crowd didn't typically use them and was wondering if you were playing back then did you immediately incorporate them in your 3.0 games or did you just slowly realize that it would work better?
Neither. I've never used minis for 3E, and I don't agree that it would work better, either.

J.Gellert
2011-01-30, 05:29 AM
We had minis back in 2E for the larger battles, and we kept doing that in 3E.

But it never became standard practice, no.

dsmiles
2011-01-30, 08:52 AM
We used legos and did the maps by hand with a ruler and pen.

Almost ditto. The only time we really used minis back in the day was to show our marching order. (Granted, I still collected and painted minis, we just didn't really use them.) When I started with 3e, the book said "use minis," so I ecstatically pulled out my mini case and finally had a use for them other than looking pretty.

Jarawara
2011-01-30, 11:22 AM
Oddly enough, when I switched from 2e to 3e, I quit using minis.

But that's more because of my 3e games being online, while all my previous games were face to face.

LibraryOgre
2011-01-31, 06:57 PM
Funny wen I first started AD&D I did not know about 1e, 2e, or even basic and freely used material from all three when I made adventures as a DM. Nobody (including myself) ever really noticed the problem. Any rules issues (which were exceedingly rare) were dismissed as just information that was just missing or assumed (and with how detailed things were back then it could be easy to forget something or misunderstand). It took me years later when I read about the history of D&D that I finally understood. To me 2e is really 1.5.

My 2e DM loved minis, but I tend to avoid them in favor of chalkboard maps.

MeeposFire
2011-01-31, 08:12 PM
My 2e DM loved minis, but I tend to avoid them in favor of chalkboard maps.

I prefer dry erase to chalk. Chalk is so messy.

ken-do-nim
2011-01-31, 09:33 PM
I used to use minis for 1E and 2E, so the transition to 3E did not change that. Nowadays (back playing 1E), I just use Dry Erase boards and all my hundreds of lead and plastic minis sit unused.

Hammerhead
2011-01-31, 10:29 PM
I used minis twice in 3e. They really seemed to slow things down.

Jayabalard
2011-02-02, 02:21 PM
Personally, I made the jump from 1e (we used a bit of 2e stuff, but mostly thought it was kind of meh) to 3.5e... and I find that I've used mini's a lot more in 3.5.


Been using minis since I started with AD&D (and I'd like to note that the term "2e" makes me cringe).Why would that make you cringe? It makes sense to differentiate between 1e AD&D and 2e AD&D.

Ozreth
2011-02-02, 10:28 PM
I'm reading through Sunless Citadel (the first 3.0 module, 2000) and in the preparation part it says you should designate a party member to map the DMs descriptions of rooms and tunnels so that the players don't get lost, and there is no mention of using anything to represent characters. I found this interesting, I guess wiZards didn't start actually pushing the idea of using minis with 3rd until a bit later in the release?

MeeposFire
2011-02-02, 10:31 PM
Even if you are using minis you do not have to have a mini map with every room on it. Even with minis you should have somebody map your progress and such (unless mapping is not a big thing for your game).

Though minis were advertised more later in the run that much is true.

Ravens_cry
2011-02-02, 10:31 PM
If anything in 2nd edition and 1st edition, minis were more important because of facing rules.

MeeposFire
2011-02-02, 10:34 PM
If anything in 2nd edition and 1st edition, minis were more important because of facing rules.

True in that way though you still do not need minis even then. Though I always liked using minis back then too.

Ravens_cry
2011-02-02, 11:12 PM
True in that way though you still do not need minis even then. Though I always liked using minis back then too.
You never need minis. They can make things easier for certain games though.

MeeposFire
2011-02-02, 11:14 PM
They do make conceptualizing easier and people often like playing with their minis so I do find them to be a useful and fun part of a balanced game.

Czin
2011-02-02, 11:20 PM
Due to my large collection of Warhammer (lord of the rings, fantasy battle, 40k, any GW product) minis, terrain kits, as well as quite a bunch of WotC minis and hand crafted minis; I use them. When my old DM's old DM went from 2e to 3e, he still used minis.

With a party of twenty and five DMs not using minis would simply result in confusion.

Bagelz
2011-02-02, 11:27 PM
My groups started playing 3.0 without minis, but we realized the game went faster if you could look at the map and say "i'm moving next to orc2 and attacking" rather than playing 20 questions like "am I within range to hit orc2" "will I provoke attacks of opportunity if move next to orc2" "am I safe from being backstabbed if i don't move"

and how many can i hit with a fireball (we ended up cutting out 20'ft circle and 30ft cone templates to lay on the map)

We rarely used actual minis, we used dice, and parchesi type board game tokens, or chess pieces, or plastic army men from the dollar store, but we found it sped up the combat parts of the game

Ozreth
2011-02-03, 01:13 AM
Even if you are using minis you do not have to have a mini map with every room on it. Even with minis you should have somebody map your progress and such (unless mapping is not a big thing for your game).

Though minis were advertised more later in the run that much is true.

Good point. For some reason I've never played a game where a player mapped stuff out as they went. I've always sketched every room as they go, which I enjoy, but I think I'll give the player mapping thing a shot with Sunless Citadel , and only draw out areas that encounters are happening. Although I can't help but think that if I were a player this isn't something I would enjoy.

MeeposFire
2011-02-03, 01:31 AM
Mapping is something that was common 20 years ago but is mostly forgotten now. I have a hunch that it was because many people do not really care for it but that is mostly conjecture based on the fact I have not heard people who started playing since the end of 2e making players map often. I know it must happen but I have yet to see it or hear of it (outside of perhaps a forum since you are bound to find anything in a forum).

PPA
2011-02-03, 05:55 PM
I guess it depends on the players. The OP said that as a player mapping might be something they wouldn't enjoy, but I have players (usually with sicence, especially engineering, backgrounds) who actually like to map and do it for their own amusement.

When I actually have a map I'm using, that's fine and helps them get a feel for the places they explore. When I'm winging it and I don't have a map, it helps me not screw up and describe things that are physically imposible (overlapping rooms, corridors that lead to where I previously said there was open space, etc.)

For the player, it's great either way, since he gets to make his maps. Plus, last session my players were arguing about a session they played last year and whether they did or did not check for traps someplace specific, and this player was able to check his notebook and show us the map he drew that day and his notes about where traps were detected and whether they were disabled or not. This cleared an important plot poin that they were arguing and allowed them to go back to the dungeon in question and try to locate something they had unwittingly lost back then. Granted, I could've fiated it and allow them to regain their McGuffin in some other way, but they got a kick of revisiting an old location and deducing what had actually happened to their lost item.

Ozreth
2011-02-03, 06:41 PM
Sounds awesome! Maybe somebody in my group will enjoy it : )

Do you play 3.5? And do you use minis?

MeeposFire
2011-02-03, 08:54 PM
In a large group you do have a fair shot at having one person that likes making maps. They just might not know it yet.