Has anyone here played on a 1-foot grid instead of a 5-foot grid?

[Elves]

Experiences? Seems like it could be interesting.

(Wouldn't necessarily make much impact when most range variables are already standardized to 5-foot increments, but it would allow more expressive range variables for new effects since it would allow proportional movement reduction and enhancement that is smoother for creatures with different sizes and base speeds. The lack of granularity there has always bugged me.)

Edit: meant to post in 3.5, tagging mods

[Lvl 2 Expert]

At first glance it feels to me like more trouble then it's worth. Imagine moving 60 feet using the dash action on such a grid, the rest of the table has enough time to go grab a drink. And you have to answer all sorts of new and exciting questions like "can I come stand and fight in this four foot gap between the dwarf and the wall?"

It implies a level of precision that a real fight does not have. Sure, a 7 foot minotaur with a halberd realistically claims some more space than a 5 foot human with two daggers but less than a 12 foot troll with a greatsword, but does that mean it can't run away if there's a 6 foot opening rather than the 7 it's been assigned for fighting? And if 6 is enough, couldn't the heroes sort of close the gap as a reaction, just move over 1 or 2 feet on both sides? The current abstraction with a 5 foot grid seems not really more realistic, but less likely to expose bothersome holes in its realism.

Although as a compromise, maybe you could try a 2.5 foot grid? That might be enough granularity to give a distinct flavor to the small races while still putting some sort of limit on the bookkeeping?

[Democratus]

Or you could discard the grid entirely and use measuring tape.

It solves the issues of diagonal travel neatly, and your miniatures take up whatever space they take up.

[Aotrs Commander]

The closest I've come is occasionally using 1 square = 1m for scifi, on the basis it's easier to draw the map on a grid generally (our map nis functionally a giant plaastic wall with a cardboard sheet with a gird on it inside) and a lot of the scifi ranges are in metres.

[LibraryOgre]

The Mod Ogre: Moved to 3.x

[NotASpiderSwarm]

Stick out your arms. Now spin. That's a 5' space. Do you really need any more precision for your character's location than that? Any movement within that space will be 1-2 steps, and therefore basically ignoreable when the planck length for the universe is 6 seconds. It probably does make angled movement easier, but as has been mentioned, so does a measuring tape.

[Zaq]

What problem is this solving, exactly?

[False God]

Yes, well 2.5, you run out of tabletop pretty quickly.

If I have to run a grid I usually run a 10x grid, because I can include so much more battlespace. We have minis, but I encourage using color/number-coded d6 to represent a character. (ie: the players are Green 1-4, the enemies are Red 1-6 & Purple 1-6; also works great for setting up teams!) In extreme cases I use metric .5mm graph paper for 5x, because I have colorful beads that fit those squares and you can fit SOOOOOOOO much on the tabletop.

My preference is TOTM, but sometimes it's hard to keep straight (which I honestly like, as that makes the battle feel more vivid), but my players don't like it.

But that's really it. The more you scale down how much a 1"sq represents, the less battlefield you have. Between character sheets, food, and whatever else, I usually only end up with ~3sqft of battlespace. At 1ft/1sq, that means you've only got 36 feet in any given direction, which is about an average American classroom and a half.(25x25 is standard).

[martixy]

Or you could discard the grid entirely and use measuring tape.

It solves the issues of diagonal travel neatly, and your miniatures take up whatever space they take up.

1-foot grid is just euclidean for the lazy.

[Asmotherion]

More trouble than it's worth. Like, a lot.

Just imagine trying to figure our how far you fire a fireball, by counting each of the (400+40ft per level) 1 by 1. And don't get me started on Chain Lightning.

[Elves]

Or you could discard the grid entirely and use measuring tape.

It solves the issues of diagonal travel neatly, and your miniatures take up whatever space they take up.

Yeah this is probably the way to go if doing it tabletop. That's what they originally did in Chainmail anyway, isn't it.

I wanted to do an ability that proportionally reduced movement, but it's easy enough to have people to keep track of the actual value while still having it not make a difference except in 5-foot chunks.

[Doctor Despair]

I agree that this system seems like it would be novel, perhaps even helpful for folks' immersion, but ultimately more work than it's worth. I wonder if this system would be closer to just running things in the theater of the mind rather than using a 5-foot grid in most cases; depending on how carefully you track things in the former, the freedom this opens up could just obviate the need for a grid at all, couldn't it?