To be honest, I just use whatever scale I think will work well. If it's something like a city, I'm not going to use the same scale I would with a single building.

Actually I was thinking more that when there is an encounter, just break out a blank 10x10 map, if it's a small battle, or a 30x30 to cover 9 of the "big" squares.

I'd then quick draw up details based on where the encounter happened. Meanwhile other encounters can happen a good distance away, people can be on their way, etc.

In fact, for fun I just made up the Pearl St Mall in Boulder with 50 ft squares which I hope to spring on my players soon.

The link is here: https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0Bw7WeAh30rD2ZDc3OTFlN2UtY2Q0Mi00NmI3LTk1MTA...

The most I could probably muster in my house is about 6 ft x 6 ft and that wouldn't even allow for any books etc. on the outside edges.

Yeah, except I don't particularly like playing on the floor!

...and I don't trust my cat to not knock everything over...

...and I don't trust my kids to not knock everything over...

iggy rock wrote on Apr 20^th, 2010 at 7:43pm:

I forgot to ask, do you have pictures of your setup?

I'd love to see it!

We often use a large vinyl map, and it's big enough that it almost always does the trick (at 1"=5 ft.).  I can confidently say that I've seen many hundreds (perhaps over a thousand) battles done this way, and it rarely spills outside the battle map area (even when outdoors).

In fact, for us, the V&V ranges factor in extremely rarely, since most things occur within 30" or less (interestingly enough, for "real life" combat, I've heard that most actual combat/battles for police and local law enforcement end up occuring over just a couple of seconds and with combatants only a few feet apart).

One time I created a big event in downtown Nawr-lins (that's New Orleans) right after Hurricane Katrina.  Due to the much bigger scale, I similarly created some larger maps to show the bigger area.  My actual battle map - created for one of our local GuardianCons - was a simple 3-D replica which was a bit bigger than normal; I even used a Lando Calrissian action figure on horseback to represent the necessary statue of Andrew Jackson in Jackson Square!    

Yeah, maybe it's just the way it went down, but I felt rather confined by the small space in a battle we just ran on a 30x50 battlemat. Movement rates essentially meant nothing and I just sort of hand waved that the bad guy got away because he had a higher movement rate.

Maybe because I'm used to games where most characters move 6 inches per turn as opposed to 30+, I felt like I lost out on tactical aspects of movement (anybody could move anywhere). Again, maybe I just need to be "trained" or I'm doing something wrong.

Lord Inar wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2010 at 6:45pm:


You're not doing anything wrong, Lord_ Inar; it might just take a bit to get 'up to speed' using movement V&V style, but it works well once you get the hang of it.

One option we use - from a published magazine article - is to charge characters 1 point of Power if they use 1/2 (or more) of their Movement in any given turn.  It's a good system that slows people down a bit, and it symbolizes well how much it takes to exert for a long period of time (an ordinary man will tire quickly when running at full speed - or even jogging - for a number of minutes).

For flying and superfast characters, movement is somewhat irrelevant.  They get to move wherever the heck they want to all over the game board.  For more "normal" characters (with 40 or 50" of movement), they tend to be able to move pretty much wherever they want (on a limited battlemat), but it's not uncommon for them to be a little restricted in where they can move (i.e., they might not be able to get where they want until the next turn).

Remember that a character with 40" of Movement only gets that amount per turn.  So if they run into the center of battle (spending 16" to get there) and punch the bad guy (who then flies back 10" from knockback) and then on their second move they move 15" to get to where the bad guy is at that point, they've used 31" of their 40".  If they get to move a third time, they now can only move a maximum of 9 more inches!

There are a lot of other things in the game that cost "Movement only", and I've actually come up with a list (though I rarely use it) that shows what it takes to do certain things.  Some is based on little blurbs in the modules, but much of it is stuff I made up myself.  So it might take 3" to move through an unlocked door, 5" to put on a coat, etc. (I"m making these up; I don't have my list in front of me).  Each of these would - in theory - take up some of that character's movement allowance for their turn.  Someone who got really nitpicky could charge each player for each time they get stuff off their utility belt, dodge a punch, or even to evade!

Bottom line is that movement rarely factors in.  For the most part characters can move towards (and get to) each other without huge restrictions in this game, and I rather like that.  Other games have movement taking up actions, and this can tend to slow a game down tactically.  I really like the way V&V allows most movement to occur without restriction.