I tend to run a decent amount of the content in my games in theater of the mind. In fact, I tend to only take out a flip map if the combat gets particularly complex. However, in general I like to avoid doing so as it can often slow the game down, and many combats aren’t impactful enough to justify the time it takes to set it up.

Personally, I’m a fan of using the theater of the mind combat rules from the Enhance Your Battlefield: Combat Arenas from Gatepass Gazette Issue #29 for both Level Up: Advanced Fifth Edition and Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition. They provide a solid framework to be consistent with your rulings, and provide helpful tables for things such as area of effect. You can get the article on their Patreon (requiring a paid subscription) at https://www.patreon.com/c/gatepass/ or you can view them for free by visiting https://a5e.tools/rules/gate-pass-gazette and scrolling down to Issue #29.

I do have my own system for What’s OLD is NEW, and some house rules for how I handle positioning in both Level Up: Advanced Fifth Edition and Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition. They all boil down to the same framework, and I believe they can be ported to other systems as well, provided they have some form of stacking bonuses. However, all of these assume that you are utilizing a zone system, which I’ll cover first.

Zones

The battlefield is divided by zones, and each zone has a size of small, medium, or large. The exact measurements of zones do not necessarily matter, but aim to max out a zone at about a 60 ft. by 60 ft. or 12 square by 12 square area, for simplicity. A small zone can have up to 3 occupants, a medium zone up to 5 occupants, and a large zone up to 8 occupants.

Advice: Do not have more than 5 zones, as it can get quite complicated to keep track of everything.

Each zone has a direction relative to another zone. Using the cardinal directions of North, South, East, and West keeps this simple. Describe where the zones are relative to each other at the beginning combat.

Advice: At the start of combat, state where the zones are, and who’s in what zone. At the start of each character’s turn, remind them which zone they’re in, which zone their allies and enemies are, and what direction it is. Once you get into the flow of doing this, it becomes quite natural and easy. You can do a quick sketch of a node map of the zones if it helps you.

You can always move within your own zone without spending an Action or using your movement speed (system-dependent). Moving to another zone takes 1 Action, or using your movement speed. Moving over two zones takes two Actions, or the Dash action.

If a character is in melee combat with another character, they have engaged that character. Movement away from that character would trigger an Opportunity Attack, if your system has that mechanic, even if it’s with their free movement within the same zone.

Range

Assume that all targets within the same zone are within range of a ranged attack. Attacks that are greater than 60 feet, or 12 squares, can reach into an adjacent zone. If your system has a mechanic where a penalty is applied when an enemy is within melee ranged of a ranged attacker, this occurs when a melee attacker is engaged with a ranged attacker.

Area of Effect

For dealing with area of effect, check out the general area of effect ranges for your game. Taking 5e-based games as an example, each area of effect ability effect starts at sizes of 5 ft., 10 ft., or 15 ft., and scale by doubling. Other systems may handle area of effect sizes differently, but if there’s a consistent scalar for your system, you can utilize this method.

• First Size Increment: Targets up to 2 characters in the same zone
• Second Size Increment: Targets up to 3 characters in the same zone
• Third Size Increment: Targets up to 5 characters in the same zone
• Fourth Size Increment: Targets up to 8 characters in the same zone

Make a little reference guide for these sizes, such as the table found in the Running an Arena header in Enhance Your Battlefield: Combat Arenas (which can be easily used in any 5e-derived system).

Positioning

Here’s a system neutral explanation of the system I use. Any time I refer to a ‘bonus’, this could be applied to a stacking bonus method your system uses to give bonuses to characters. If your system does not provide such a bonus, then this method would likely not work for you. Enemies can gain these bonuses as well.

As an example of a stacking bonus, What’s OLD is NEW is a d6 dice pool system, so you add +1d6 per environmental advantage you gain. For Level Up: Advanced Fifth Edition, you have the expertise die system, where you have a scaling die that increases (starting at +1d4 and scaling up to +1d6, then maxing out at +1d8) from each expertise die bonus source. I do also use the expertise die system in Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition for the purpose of this system, but you could also easily have a +2 to their roll for each source, maxing out at +6.

Additionally, when I refer to an action below, this is in reference to What’s OLD is NEW action points. In What’s OLD is NEW, you have two action points you can spend on your turn, and almost everything is 1 action. For games with a different system, like 5e-based games, these can instead cost half of the character’s movement. Other systems that use Action Points can likely have Take Position only take an action.

• NEW ACTION – Take Position: You can use an action to Take Position to gain an environment benefit, such as taking cover, gaining the high ground, setting up a flank, or setting up a crossfire. It takes one action to gain these benefits, and you can only gain one environmental benefit per action.
  Example: You can use one action to scale a 10 foot wall to gain the high ground, and another action to declare that you want to set up a crossfire with the enemy bandit. If you want to benefit from cover, it takes one action to gain half cover, but two actions to gain full cover.
• Crossfire: You can only gain this benefit if at least one ally has used the Take Position action to set up a crossfire on the same target as you, and only up to three allies can gain this benefit with the same target. You gain a bonus on ranged attack rolls made against that target per ally who has used Take Position to set up a crossfire on that target.
  • Note: If you are using zones, the target must be in the same zone as each character that has used the Take Position action to set up a crossfire.
• Flank: You can only gain this benefit if at least one ally has used the Take Position action to set up a flank on the same target as you, and only up to two creatures can gain this benefit on the same target. You gain a bonus to melee attack rolls made against this target.
• High Ground: You gain a bonus to melee attack rolls made against targets that you are at least 5 feet above, and a bonus to ranged attack rolls made against targets that you are at least 10 feet above.

Environmental Hazards

An excellent way to spice up or diversify combat, and add complications to the situation, is to add environmental hazards. This can be traps, natural obstacles, or a change in the situation caused by a character interacting with the environment.

In general, characters can use their system’s equivalent of an object interaction to directly interface with the environment. This can include things such as opening doors, pulling levers, picking up an object, etc. If there is a hazard in a zone, characters should be able to use the Take Position action to keep themselves safe from it, but this can also require a check to accomplish.

Hazards should always be intractable to both the players and enemies’ advantage or disadvantage, such as pushing enemies into open pit traps, knocking out a bridge, releasing a gas valve, etc. It can create cool, cinematic moments, and helps with the problem of not everyone’s vision of the battlefield being the same.

Most Important: Be Open to Ideas

The mind map of the situation is going to look different to everyone, no matter how evocative or descriptive you are of the situation. Lean into the fantasy that your individual players create, and be open to allowing whatever shenanigans they come up with to utilize the battlefield to their advantage. Theater of the mind gives a lot of breathing room for creativity, and it should be fostered and encouraged wherever possible to create memorable combats.