Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[Ron Blessing]

We discussed Interludes and Games Without Miniatures from Deluxe. Feedback triggered more about chases. We also ended up discussing adjudicating rules during play. This was a long one, folks!

http://podcast.smilingjacksbarandgrill.com/2012/04/23/episode-11-and-the-savage-mommy-gets-his-way/
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Ron Blessing
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[Thasmodious]

I really enjoyed this episode. Crunchy, I liked the interludes (and love the interludes system). I agree with, whoever it was, that said their one disconnect with SW has always been the "this is a minis game" part. I've never used minis with SW and our games are much improved for us retiring them from our D&D days, they pace better, it de-emphasizes combat (counter to RP, skill encounters and the like), the players tend to be more creative and seem to visualize the game better. I'd love to see a future edition of SW perhaps present the two options on equal terms, representing movement and range in yards with the easy math of yards/2=inches mentioned in the "playing SW with miniatures section", along with the templates.
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[gnomestress]

I enjoyed this latest podcast. I have a new obsession and its name is Earthdawn.

I do have to represent the mini lovers though. Yes, using minis promotes counting squares, strategizing, and creating a chess game of sorts but that's a big part of the fun for me. That element of combat is as much fun to me as roleplaying is. While I'm hardly a "break down the door" style of player, I appreciate the merits of a well planned encounter with strategically placed traps, obstacles, cover, and so on.

Being able to see the layout of the enemies and area helps me see the fight from my character's perspective. I might see that cluster of baddies hiding behind a building but depending on where my mini's placed in relation to them my character might not even know that they are there. My Marshall might say that we're fighting a massive creature but seeing the difference in the size of my mini and that of the critter that's out to chomp on my character's tasty insides really helps hammer that size difference home. That changes combat dramatically to me and it makes things more realistic.

As far as a game using minis requiring a lot of prep time I think mileage varies from person to person. For most of our games we reuse enemy minis for most encounters and we use a dry erase map for most things as well. Special encounters might have a specially purchased and painted mini but that's few and far between.

TLDR: Minis VS no minis seems like the Savage Worlds version of the Butter Battle Book. The Yooks like their combats without minis and more abstract while the Zooks prefer a more calculated experience.
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[chugosh]

Good episode.
I have had games without miniatures and with, and they were both a lot of fun, but there is that Final Fantasy element to the ones with miniatures.
I've been a fan of the interludes rules since they came out, but very few of my fellow players seem to enjoy them as much.

[Vinzent]

The discussion about mini-less game play gave me an idea. Sometimes when I'm improving a game my mind gets cluttered with everything that's going on and I neglect the environment. I think I'll make some Location Cards for common locations that list a brief description, cover items, their Toughness, and any environment rules that might make things interesting like if your shot misses in the villains lab, draw a card. If it's a face card you have hit a volatile experiment, or something like that.
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[Ron Blessing]