After a weekend of art and studio tours, I am totally exhausted and my mind needs a break from that scene.
We have been gaming with the D&D miniatures for a good while now. It makes it much simpler to track what has happened each round. And in many ways, it's easier to get into the game with the minis because you can better envision any given situation. But I am beginning to wonder if it is limiting our creativity because we are getting used to seeing everything "by the grid".
Using minis may enhance player creativity because it is easier for the players to keep track of what's going on and really get involved in the game. Players are more likely to respond to cues that they otherwise may forget are there, such as room layouts, ledges, furnishings and other equipment, if they can see them on a map and see how the enemies are positioned in relation to them.
At the same time, I think that using minis might lessen DM creativity because it encourages DMing to the minis. We tend to trade off DMing, and there are a lot of creative people in the group that come up with some really neat ideas, but I think that, to some extent, we are planning adventures around what can be mapped out and what monsters we can use so that it will work with minis we have or can easily acquire.
So I'm not certain what the overall effect of gaming with minis is. It is easier to envision things, which seems to enhance player responsiveness and, consequently, creativity. But using minis also makes DMing to the minis seem like second nature. It is an unfortunate set of circumstances, if this truly does limit DM creativity while encouraging the players to be more involved, because it means that the players are more engaged in what may be a less interesting game.
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3 comments:
My husband mentioned that many seasoned gamers feel that miniatures actually limit player creativity and immersion. I don't entirely agree.
I think that miniatures enable the group to share one vision of what is happening and avoid idiosyncrasies. This allows for more productive creativity because no one is coming out of left field in some incomprehensible fashion (unless that's just how that person is normally). And players are more aware of what is available that they can use creatively, whereas otherwise they would need to remember the DM's detailed description of what is there and where it is located.
I agree with the immersion gripe because by seeing your character's actions in third-person it can be harder to get into character. Our group is unfortunately not very immersion-centered (I think we get together for the social occasion more than anything), so I hadn't given it much consideration before. I am going to post a new blog devoted to this topic because I find it interesting.
The beginners in my D&D games all preferred the use of miniatures because they enjoyed just that: Sharing one vision of what is happening. At the same time, I often have the very same players wondering how many squares they can move, how attacks of opportunities work, and so on. I think what works best is using a map without a grid, and using tokens, dice, coins, marbles, whatever. This allows you to reap the benefit (who is where and close to what) without the drawbacks (you can't do this, nor that).
I like your suggestion of using other things as stand-ins so that the players don't get caught up on the minis. Dice, coins and those squished marbles all work really well. So do M&Ms, Skittles and other candy, and then the players can have the satisfaction of eating the monsters as they take them out (assuming that they haven't gotten all gross from people touching on them).
The danger in this comes when you combine actual minis with said objects because then they become a source of humor and are taken less seriously.
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