Theater of the Mind

We will be Theater of the Mind, with occasional assistance of maps for organizational purposes, but not in a 5ft tactical manner of play.

Player Guidelines

• Describe your intent. What you want to accomplish?

• Use the features of the area to your advantage.

• Don’t worry about specific distances. Just describe what you want to do.

• Try awesome ideas based on the details of the location.

• Describe your character’s actions within the story.

Thinking about Movement and Distance

Don’t think about 5ft square, think about areas (and rooms).

Everyone within the same area can more or less reach anyone else.

A character with normal speed (~30ft) can move from one area to another as a Move

A character with increased movement (40ft+) can avoid attacks of opportunity from enemies not directly engaged in combat with them, and might have extra options.

A character can move across an area with a Dash or doubled movement, but may cause attacks of opportunity.

Let’s take the following Map as an Example.

You are in the (1)Bridge, as a move you can go to the (0)Deck; or the (4)Mess Hall below if the trapdoor is already open.

You could move & dash to reach the (0)Forecastle, (2)Crew Quarters, (3)Armory the (4)Mess Hall; or the (5)Companionway if the trapdoor is already open.

Now some ad hoc adjudicating:

“Common sense” suggests the (0)Sterncastle is too far away for normal movement. Only a fast (40ft+) or flying character can reach the (0)Sterncastle as a move & dash.
if you have a climb speed or are good at jumping, it’s fair to say you can reach the (0)Forecastle as a single move.
Moving through a door or the (5)companionway is only possible if no enemy is blocking the way. Making them great chokepoints to funnel enemies.

You might have noticed the distance between areas can be more or less than 30ft, don’t sweat it.

Sly Flourish’s Guidelines for Theater of the Mind Combat

If you want more guidelines here are some, but it’s more important to focus on what you want to do, and how; over seeking mastery “the rules” to twist for outcomes.