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RE: Tips on how to be a better DM-prep
That's a great question. Well for me I like to be as minimal as possible really so I just use a dry erase mat or dry erase tiles and I make the maps as we're playing when needed. Realistically the game can be played Without Maps or without tiles or anything like that it is theater of the mind after all so I would say just go for it. 75% of all of my sessions don't involve Maps or pictures and if they do they're just very roughly Maps so that people can get a perspective of what's going on . The important thing is to have people envision your world in their mind so you don't really need a map.
If there's only one enemy monster "theater of the mind" may work out.
You can see this, when actually doing a "one enemy monster fight" on a map. It's often very boring. The fighter/paladin/barbarian tanks all the damage, everyone goes to their position and never moves again. yawn
If there is more the one enemy monster, ranges are of importance. That is what a map is for.
The rules don't say:
The rules say:
If you're not using a map when ranges are this specific you are bound to break rules, because you inadvertently will get a placement wrong. Especially when AoEs with ranges are involved it often becomes a huge clusterf*ck of "Ooof, who does this even hit? Who's in a 10ft radius?".
So it often ends in GMs being nice to their players and throwing the rules overboard, saying the spell hits everyone they want.
If DnD tells you: You can move 30ft, and the spell has 50ft range, but you're winging it, you're playing the wrong game.
Do it rarely: Okay, no need to change systems.
Do it all the time: Change to a system with less of a strategic element. You obviously don't care about movement-ranges.
There is no way to play the game wrong. I've also played a game where we didn't have Maps and it wasn't terribly difficult for the DM to keep notes on where everyone was and we just envisioned the whole thing in our mind. The thing about D&D that's wonderful is that the rules aren't absolute and really you can do whatever you want in fact they want you to go outside of the rules of the game and be creative which is why they have very few rules in the first place.