Using square grid tactical maps

[afschell]

In preparation for the release of the Dungeon Fantasy Role Playing game, I am working on translating adventures from other rule systems to GURPS. Unfortunately, all of the tactical maps use a square grid rather than hex grid.

Does anyone have any suggestions on either a) modifying the maps for a hex grid (short of redrawing everything) or b) modifying GURPS' tactical combat facing to a square grid?

Thanks much!

[Kilmore]

Hex grids are used to simply emulate 1" distances more clearly. So just measure all distances with a ruler. The bigger problem is that other RPG's measure 5 ft to an inch instead of a yard. To correct this on a map, I guess measuring 3/4 of an inch as a GURPS 1" wil do.

[weby]

We have now used square grid in the current campaign for 5+ years and 200+ sessions.

We started with full tactical combat with facings and such and ran it for about 3 years, now we use a more abstract flanking system.

Movement/shooting ranges are easy in any case: count diagonal move as 1.5/square

In the tactical system facing is a bit trickier, we ended up with 0.5 move points/45 degrees for changing facing and three forward squares, two forward side squares, two side squares and one rear square.

Facing "up" on the first schematic
Facing "up left corner" on the second schematic

f   f  f    f  f fs  
fs  .  fs   f  .  s
s   r  s    fs s  r

f=forward: normal defenses and attacks as normal in gurps.
fs=a new type: full dodges and defenses/attacks by weapons/shields on that side, -2 to defenses/attacks of the opposite weapons/shields.
s=side as normal
r= rear as normal.

You can of course use different distribution according to what you feel is suitable. The front/side direction increases complexity but we felt it useful distinction as else either the side or the front would have been to large.

A further note: We have move as speed truncated to the nearest 0.5 downwards, instead of full number as the above system uses 0.5 increments in turning and diagonal move.

The current system we use does not use facings, with the maps only used to indicate placement.

[Bruno]

I've found just ignoring the grid squares to work great, but it's sometimes really hard to just break people of the habit of following the squares. It's like playing hopscotch, or trying not to step on the lines on a sidewalk.

I made a big map on a plotter printer and went gridless, and it was interesting to see what happened with my players. They rapidly invented a culture of drawing their movement on the paper, with tracing their mini-base to mark where they ended up at the end of their turn. Everybody really liked the visual effect of having their movement history right there.

[Warlockco]

Originally Posted by Bruno

I've found just ignoring the grid squares to work great, but it's sometimes really hard to just break people of the habit of following the squares. It's like playing hopscotch, or trying not to step on the lines on a sidewalk.

I made a big map on a plotter printer and went gridless, and it was interesting to see what happened with my players. They rapidly invented a culture of drawing their movement on the paper, with tracing their mini-base to mark where they ended up at the end of their turn. Everybody really liked the visual effect of having their movement history right there.

Would love to have a budget like that for gaming, would make maps so much easier. I did get a presentation pad about 3'x4' of 1" squares to predraw maps on to speed things up, but to be able to plot it as a file and print it again as needed would be wonderful.
Instead of having to draw and redraw maps on a vinyl mat, making the game stop at times to draw things out.

[Proteus]

GURPS often ends up with a figure scale (1" to 6 feet) noticeably different from its ground scale (1" to 3 feet). Really, we should be using 15mm hex grids which, with 30mm(-ish) modern fantasy figures, would come out about right.

So 1" squares representing five scale feet is at least closer than standard practice!

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Proteus

GURPS often ends up with a figure scale (1" to 6 feet) noticeably different from its ground scale (1" to 3 feet). Really, we should be using 15mm hex grids which, with 30mm(-ish) modern fantasy figures, would come out about right.

So 1" squares representing five scale feet is at least closer than standard practice!

Or use Lego minifigs, with regular GURPS scale. Or just ignore figure scale altogether (which is what I do, especially since "figures" are often coins, poker chips, and marbles anyway)

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Warlockco

Would love to have a budget like that for gaming, would make maps so much easier.

It was awesome, but basically a one-off favor (a two-off favor, technically, but after that I ran out of favors :)

However I've done a lot of printing out across multiple pages and using oodles of scotch tape. As long as you make sure to label each page so you don't accidentally have something upsidedown, you can have "arts and crafts time" go pretty quickly as people are coming in and getting settled. It's handy to have a program like GIMP (which is free!) that has a "guillotine" feature designed specifically to cut up one big picture into page-sized chunks.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Bruno

However I've done a lot of printing out across multiple pages and using oodles of scotch tape. As long as you make sure to label each page so you don't accidentally have something upsidedown, you can have "arts and crafts time" go pretty quickly as people are coming in and getting settled. It's handy to have a program like GIMP (which is free!) that has a "guillotine" feature designed specifically to cut up one big picture into page-sized chunks.

Yeah, I've done that with big maps I've made in Campaign Cartographer (which also has print option to facilitate this) but I put hex overlays on those for GURPS.

[demonsbane]

Originally Posted by Bruno

(. . .) it's sometimes really hard to just break people of the habit of following the squares. It's like playing hopscotch

Indeed! It can be helpful trying to hide, conceal or desaturate square grids at least partially without spoiling the image behind, although depending of one's skill and patience with image editing apps, like GIMP and others, this may be viable or not.

This is good for usage with virtual tabletops, which don't require printing on paper.