Watching Chris Perkins run D&D at PAX has made me want to try TotM. I noticed that he didn't use any maps (for 5E/D&D Next) and mostly winged it with descriptions. There was no Attacks of Opportunity, or positioning shenanigans, just short and sweet combat that ended after one or two rounds. He would even mix in lots of skill checks in the middle of combat based on what the players wanted, like cutting down chandeliers.

How do you guys run the game with TotM? It seems like some parts of the game might not work with it, like Attack of Opportunity. Do you just do away with those or manage somehow else?

I do a lot of TotM, and still do AoO as they come up.  But it's not as tight as you would with a grid.  Usually it only comes up when it's obvious you're leaving an opponent's immediate area, and if it's up in the air just how close you got to the opponent, we just don't worry about it.

The biggest impact is if you choose to play with feats that are built around it, like the polearm master or sentinel (I think that's it) feat.

I run AD&D without maps or miniatures frequently; the 5e games I've played (not counting playtest) have been without map or miniatures so...it went...well?  I guess?

I guess you'd do it the same way any other RPG which doesn't have abstract range measurements; that said, I've ran 4e without a map. It wasn't the greatest thing in the world, but it worked fine enough.

I guess I'm just old. I only break out the map when there's lots of monsters and the players are really wanting to know the how a location is setup to do their sneaky stuff.

otherwise I just do my best to explain what they see from their character's perspectives and let them make perception/insight rolls and color the scene with those. It's pretty basic old-school GMing.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;820976How do you guys run the game with TotM? It seems like some parts of the game might not work with it, like Attack of Opportunity. Do you just do away with those or manage somehow else?

Been TotM for the last two campaigns (7th Sea and D&D 5e)

I use attacks of opportunity, but I acknowledge they will come up less often.

Other things that matters less...
- Movement speed (who can keep track of all these abstract positions clearly enough for an extra 5-10 feet to matter?)
- Positioning area of effect spells (I have to wing and fudge this a lot)
- Effects that push people around (unless there's dangerous and unambiguously placed terrain in the joint)

I try to keep terrain mostly uncomplicated because TotM really doesn't handle that stuff well. Occasionally I prep a non-gridded map if it's really necessary.

It all mostly looks like Final Fantasy combat in my head, one neat row of baddies taking orderly whacks at one neat row of adventurers. Fights take 10 minutes, then back to exploring or socializing or whatever.

I allow improvisation all the time with skill checks, but the unspoken understanding around the table is never do an improvisational trick more than once per campaign.

That's how I run every single RPG ever.