Introduction
Despite the hobby's roots stemming from the war gaming scene, many Keeper's and Players believe that minis do not belong or otherwise deter from investigative role-playing games.
While that may hold true for some groups, I have been using minis in my games at home to great effect. In today's episode I would like to present my reasons for doing so, the benefits it has provided me as the Keeper/GM, and some tips and tricks on how you can begin to incorporate minis and terrain into your games.
Background and Context
Like many of you in the audience, I have been GM'ing Call of Cthulhu for many years primarily in the "theater of the mind." And that works okay until combat, or a chase scene would comes up. In those instances, I would resort to minis or in many cases, a piece of paper with a crudely drawn map on it, and some extra dice to give the Players a lay of the land.
My group and I have been playing Masks using the Pulp Cthulhu rules, which lends itself towards combat, and chase sequences. At first we started out in the theater of the mind, playing through the Peru prologue playing out two chases without minis. We had fun playing the chapter, but I did notice myself having to repeat myself a lot.
Player engagement/immersion
It has been my experience that players have an easier time paying attention and engaging with what is going on in the narrative if they can physically interact with their characters' environment. When I began introducing minis into our sessions, I was using them solely for combat encounters. Maybe it stems from my early days of GMing dungeon crawls in my teens and early twenties, but it just felt obvious to use minis when fighting, and theater of mind when talking.
In many ways I was right, my players enjoyed combat more, which in turn had them discovering more of the mechanics and figuring out--through gameplay--what their characters were capable of. This is turn lead me to creating more interesting combat encounters, which is something I have always struggled with as a GM. It quite literally added a whole new dimension to combat. Height. The benefit of having the battlefield laid out before the party goes both ways. This became essential once the scope of the campaign ramped up and the PCs were up against the likes of a dozen plus cultists, byakhees, flying polyps, and nightgaunts. My use of minis in this way is one I've heard many others online say they have tried in their games. This approach for me had the side effect of my players seemingly being less engaged with the investigative aspects of the game.
At first I chalked it up to typical player behavior, shoot first and ask questions later. We were playing Pulp Cthulhu after all! The truth of the matter was more nuanced and worthy of consideration than I had initially given it credit. I remember at one point in our campaign, my players joked that things only got serious when the GM busted out the minis. When I look back on those moments now, I think my players had a point in their commentary. By running our games in this way, I as the GM had unwittingly set this expectation. The uncanny duality of social scenes and combat scenes had a tangible effect on my players experience of the game. Initially this discouraged me, I had it in my head that their joke meant they weren't enjoying the game during these scenes, so I did what any good GM should do in this circumstance and
I talked to my players about it.
I expressed my concerns to the group and they reassured me that they were in fact having fun at all points in the game. My wife (also a player) added that she found it easier to correlate my descriptions to what was happening in the game when she could look at a map, or see the minis out on the table. Her comments made me think about how we as GMs use handouts and props to drive player engagement and immersion during investigations. But rarely does a description of a bedroom or hallway illicit the same reaction.
Cutting to the chase
As GMs, we spend a lot of our time telling the players what their PC observes. This is time that yields to inconsistent results and ultimately is left up to interpretation. The use of maps and minis maintains a level of consistency in your game world. Rather than detailing the features of every room the PCs stumble into, The players take an active role in spotting things, and you as the GM fill in the gaps for them. Some may argue that the time spent arranging tiles and minis on the table makes this point moot, but I find this argument to not be representative of my experiences. This sentiment only rings true if you are unprepared or whatever system you are using is cumbersome to use, which segues nicely into my first GM tip.
Keep it simple.
It is tempting to 3d-print huge set pieces, or buy tons of models, but you must resist the urge. All you really need is a some way to make walls and major objects easy to spot. A modular tile system will go a long way. Before my journey into 3d-printing, I used a tile set that you would draw on with dry erase marker.
Taking my wife's comments to heart, I began incorporating more maps into our sessions. Over time I noticed that my players were quicker to act, and I was spending less time pouring over visual details, giving more time for social interactions and genuine investigation. A couple sessions after trying out this new approach, I realized that it wasn't that my players enjoyed investigation more or less than combat, but rather, I was putting more thought and effort into how my players were engaging with the game world during combat scenes.
Moving fully to using minis did involve a bit more work at first, but not in the ways you might think. Sure, more maps are required for potential encounters, but with the plethora of online resources, An afternoon of surfing DriveThru will likely yield enough material for years worth of playtime. No, the challenge came in a change in mindset. Before I would be focused on *what* the PCs would discover, making sure my players had all the information they needed to progress the story. Having concrete layouts of all the locations the PCs might go meant that I could spend time focusing on *how* they discovered new clues. I was now thinking about alternative entries into key areas, patrol routes, and other security measures I tend to neglect when running games in the theater of the mind. In other words, I was thinking about how my players would engage with the game world. Stealth scenes became a lot more tense with minis on the table as a scene could now easily turn into a fight or a chase. This leads me to my second GM tip.
If you going to use minis, commit fully.
Minis and terrain, like dice, are tools for story-telling. Using minis and terrain will have an impact on your game, and it's important to embrace that.
Accessibility & Cost
There is no denying that terrain and mini cost money. However, that does not mean you need to go out and spend a fortune to get started. Simple crafts and paper cutouts get you 90% of the way there. If you have a 3d-printer, then I don't need to tell you about the options available to you. Low cost solutions are out there. If you're looking for suggestions or additional resources for terrain and minis, head over to our discord server and I am happy to help.
Conclusion
TL;DR, minis and terrain do not detract from horror/investigative roleplaying games. A GMs shoddy, half-baked utilization of them does.
