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I had this idea but lack the skill to create one. Think about a battle mat or board but round like circles in circles, circles being the stances. Rearward being the most outer circle. There will be some descriptions about the stances and the abilities you can use. Then put the minis according to their stances on the mat.

I thought making it circle because it would give the feeling of a real combat rather than putting them all next to each other in a normal rectangler mat.

Here's a sketch to give the idea. This way even if they are in other stances the minis will look as facing each other.

Just an idea.

You'll surely give the impression that stances are distances from the enemies, which they are not. Stances are representations of how aggressively you're fighting. The more abstract the illustration, the better to avoid accidentally thinking that earlier stances are closer to the foes.

Yes that can cause some problems in the mind of the players concerning the imagination of the battlefield, you are right.

farinal wrote:This way even if they are in other stances the minis will look as facing each other.

Bear in mind that for PCs vs. NPCs/Creatures what you describe there never happens. PCs choose their stance, opponents don't.

Rich H wrote:PCs choose their stance, opponents don't.

I figured he meant "monster that is fighting a character who is in the forward stance," and so on. I don't see that circles give any benefit that an abstract mat does not.

Stormcrow wrote:I figured he meant "monster that is fighting a character who is in the forward stance," and so on. I don't see that circles give any benefit that an abstract mat does not.

On the mat you can just put the enemy in front of the PC mini so I figured farinal was talking about being able to place opponents in different stances in front of each other as, like we've both said, a mat can do the former.

The only stance absolutely related to positioning in combat is Rearward. It is a Ranged Combat stance (see AG 158) and no engagements are assigned to characters in it. All the other stances are Close Combat stances and require engagements. The Combat Stances table actually describes Rearward as, "Staying away from the press, to attack your foes from a distance."

I created a Battle Mat that includes a hero and enemy Rearward zone as well as 6 engagement circles. Anyone can access it by visiting my blog site (link in my signature). I should probably create a second page that explains how to use it properly, but nevertheless, here's a simple explanation:

Hero and enemy tokens (minis) are placed on the mat according to their assigned engagements. So, if a combat includes 3 heroes (choosing a close combat stance) and 2 enemies, the Loremaster should put the enemies on the mat (one per circle since there are the same number or less enemies than heroes). After choosing engagements, the hero tokens should be placed on the mat in the appropriate circles. In this case, 1 hero would be placed in a circle with 1 enemy and the other 2 heroes would be placed in a circle with the other enemy. Heroes stay engaged with the same enemy (or enemies) until it is defeated. Sometimes new enemies will join the circle.

The stances of the heroes are kept track of mentally (or the Loremaster can write things down). This is fairly easy to do because at the top of a round, the Loremaster asks everyone their hero's stance and this forms the order. Another suggestion would be to create color-coded stance coasters that sit under the hero tokens or minis. Each time a hero changes stances, the player should change the coaster to reflect the new stance. For example, a red coaster could represent Forward stance, green - defensive, and white - open.