Using Close / Short Ranges with Miniatures

[Stan Shinn]

I want to use miniatures and square grids when running Traveller combat, but I'm struggling as to how best to interpret Close and Short ranges when using a grid.

According to The Traveller Book, when using square grids, "one square should generally equal 1.5 meters."

Close and Short range are described as follows:

• Close: In physical contact; touching.
• Short: At sword or polearm point; 1 to 5 meters. [this would work out to 1-3 squares]

Let's assume you're a player character wielding a Broadsword (-8 DM at Close range, and a +3 DM for Short range) and you're in combat with two NPCs. Does the below diagram accurately show NPC1 being at Close Range, and NPC2 being at Short Range? So any miniature in an adjacent square (all of the yellow squares) is at Close range, and any creature who is one square away is in Short range (all of the blue squares)?

Thanks in advance for any feedback. I ran Classic Traveller recently interpreting the rules as described above, and players with modern RPG sensibilities (i.e. D&D as a reference) felt it odd to have a -8 DM to attack an opponent who is adjacent to you.

I suppose you could say adjacent squares are Short range, but then Close and Short ranges are represented the same way with miniatures (assuming only 1 miniature can occupy a square) which I think leads to confusion.

-- Stan

 

[Axe]

On the board, "close" is represented by having the bases of the miniatures touching. "Short" is represented by the bases of the miniatures not touching.

I'll look up where this is backed up in the books.

I really dig your summary sheets, by the way. One needs some minor editing.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

I would call adjacent squares (~1.5 m) Short range, i.e. normal swordplay range.

Close range would be more or less wrestling, which I would consider to be in the same square. Note that even daggers and claws are at a disadvantage at Close range; teeth have an advantage at Close range.


So, in your example both NPC1 and NPC2 are at Short range from PC, NPC1 at sword range, and NPC2 at polearm range.


Touching miniatures are used to distinguish between Close and Short in the range band system (since they are both in the same range band), it has no bearing on the square system.

 

[Axe]

*oops*

 

[Lord Kilgore]

From Snapshot (pg 9) which also uses 1.5m sqaures:

Range: There are four ranges in Snapshot, labelled close, short, medium, and long. Range may be traced horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

Close range is any adjacent square.

Short range is any square at a distance of two squares from the character.

Medium range is any square at least three squares distant, but not more than thirty-three squares distant.

Long range is any square at least thirty-four squares distant. Technically, long range extends to 166 squares, but rarely, if ever, will that distance be exceeded in any interior situation.

 

[Stan Shinn]

Ah! Thanks for everyone's feedback. In particular, I think the Snapshot rules show the intent of the original Traveller rules with regard to gridded combat. Awesome, that's the answer I needed

 

[infojunky]

I have used base to base contact for Close range for years. And short being adjacent spaces. Though I use a variation of the AHL rules.

 

[mike wightman]

AHL has a different range system to CT/Snapshot.

For a role playing game I use close/short/effective/long.

Small melee weapons get a bonus at close, handguns are at a small penalty while long guns are at a greater penalty.

1h melee weapons get a bonus at short range, long guns get a small penalty.

Small penalty is -2 or a bane die, great penalty is an increase of difficulty from 8+ to 12+ (or 10+ and a bane die)

 

[creativehum]

Stan, for my own reading....

Close is the miniature touching and effectively in the same square.
This doesn't mean the combatants are pressed up to each other the entire round... but they will be that close ("touching") for the attack.

The radius of two squares outside the PC's square would be Short.

But if you have a consistent system that works for you, that's all that matters.