Use of Miniature Figures with the Game

Although D&D is a game of imagination, occasionally it is necessary for clarification reasons to clearly define the player characters' positions with relation to each other and the physical scope of the game world.  Therefore, a diagram of some kind or a reusable map grid, in either squares or hexes, can be used to demonstrate the distances between characters and other combatants: their location, facing and line-of-sight, depending on represented obstructions and other details.  For some, this may make certain parts of the game, particularly combat, a little too much like a war-game ... but without a visual aid, players will become hopelessly confused about who is on which side of whom or the distance between themselves or the enemy or even simple things such as who is nearest the trouble at hand.

By having the players establish concretely where they are when something happens, such as opening a door, walking along the edge of a pit, inside or outside a building and so on, we resolve game-challenging arguments about which player characters can see, reach for or take a desired action with respect to the game's physical space.  Once the player points to a precise location, identifying that as the place where their character stands, there can be no further argument that the player wanted to be further away or was misunderstood when all havoc breaks loose.

The use of a physical "map" made up of squares, approximately 5 feet in diameter, laid out on a table between the players, can be accompanied by the use of inch-high miniatures, to give flavour and personality to the positions of the players.  Of course, any object or cardboard chit can serve, if all we want to know is location, but miniatures have a certain personal flair for players.  They can be lavishly, lovingly painted and personalized, to help the player feel a sense of immersion in the game's setting.

However, beware that some players will become overly attached to a miniature of their creation, such that they will resist the game reality that sometimes characters die — whether or not a miniature exists that represents that character.  Players too much in love with a miniature can sometimes find the wrenching shock of a character dying is deepened ... such players need to be reminded at the appropriate moment that this gives them the opportunity to seek out a NEW miniature, which can be freshly designed for the new character (presuming there's time to paint the miniature before the new character also dies).

An option to physical maps and miniatures is to implement a visual computerized representation of player characters (plus NPCs and Monsters) as well.  D&D need not be limited to physical apparati — a clever designer can invent a personalized top-down figure (or even one that is three-dimensional) that can be moved about on an intuitive interface.  This can do more than depict the character - it can change the objects in the character's hands, the colour of clothes worn, the presence of wounds and injuries, etcetera, depending on how elaborate the artistic player chooses to become.  Combats can then be rendered on easy to see large monitors, which sit conveniently on one or two nearby walls, or be viewed on the personal devices of every player.  We don't live in 1979 any more, so we are free to update the idea of miniatures whenever we're inspired to do so.