Maps & Combat - Call of Cthulhu, Eclipse Phase, World of Darkness

[EccentricOwl]

I'll make this short and sweet. Pathfinder and Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition are two fairly crunchy games with a big focus on combat when it comes to rules, filled with all sorts of mechanics and ideas. Both system recommend but do not require a map for battles, though both recommend it.

But I run other games all the time. Usually with a bare-bones map or 'blueprint' of the area. It's not always ideal.


What do you do? What do you recommend? When you run World of Darkness, do you enjoy the visual aspect of a battle-grid? What about just an area map? Dresden Files's zones? Call of Cthulhu both requires and ignores battle terrain simultaneously. Eclipse Phase manages to be both meticulous and obtuse - just like Shadowrun - as to whether or not to use a map.

[Caliphbubba]

I've run tons and tons of oWoD games and very, very rarely have more than a simple blueprint of the surroundings for combat. Most of the time its not even that with just random scenery and described on the spot. It works fine for me as combat is rarely the thrust of my oWoD games. Even in Werewolf which is supposed to be more combat-heavy.

I believe the few times I've played Call of Cthulhu there was a little bit of general mapping going on, but really in my experience once the combat starts in that game you've pretty much already lost.