From:	Eve Forward <lutra@******.COM>
Subject:	Re: About miniatures
Date:	Sat, 23 Sep 1995 12:22:05 -0700

About ranges in mini combat; I don't think you should be THAT determined
to use minis. Mini's aren't very good, as you pointed out, for large-scale
long-distance stuff like that; and they really aren't necessary. Either
you can see the guy and shoot him, or you can't. (with vision mods of
course.)
We mostly only use mini's when it's vital to know exactly where
everyone is in relation to everyone else; a dodge-and-shoot firefight
in a junkyard, for example, or anything relatively head-to-head so you
can see who the monowhip might hit if you miss your target. Transition
from playing without minis to using minis in the middle of a game doesnt
take more than a few minutes if the GM already has the map prepared.
Admittedly the players know something's up when you say, "Ok, we'd
better break out the minis for this", but it really does help.
And for minis we usually just use my AD&D minis, or the little
SR card-minis, because we aren't really inerested in having the mini
look just like our character. Most of the characters are too wierd to
fit any storebought mini anyway.

-E