Как строить боевые карты и вести на них бои
Два десятка статей о дизайне карт, правилах сетки, ведении боя онлайн и о том, что происходит внутри 3D-виртуального стола. Написано для мастера, у которого три часа на подготовку и сессия во вторник.
Ещё статьи, на английском
Пока не переведены; эти ссылки открывают английский оригинал.
Arcana Unleashed subclasses: what the eight do at the table
Arcana Unleashed reached shops on 15 September 2026 with eight arcane subclasses. Which two are genuinely new, what the monk and warlock options do in play, and what they add on a grid.
· 6 мин чтения
Area of effect templates on a square grid, counted in squares
How many squares a fireball covers, how to lay cones, lines and cubes on a 5-foot grid, the DMG token method for spheres, and the fast rulings that keep a spell from stopping play.
· 6 мин чтения
Boss fight arena design: how to build a battle map for the villain
What a boss battle map needs that an ordinary room does not: a stage for the villain, something to fight over, height, changes the map itself triggers, and floor enough for a Huge creature to move.
· 7 мин чтения
Bridge battle maps: chokepoints, falls and river crossings
How to build a bridge encounter in D&D: how wide to make the span in squares, what falling in the river costs, swimming and current rules, and why holding one end is the whole fight.
· 5 мин чтения
Cave battle maps: building caverns that do not look like rooms
How to make cave and cavern battle maps for D&D that feel organic: irregular chambers, stalagmites as cover, water and rubble as terrain, ledges and pits for height, and light that shapes the dark.
· 6 мин чтения
Cover in 5e: half, three-quarters and total, and how to judge it fast
The three kinds of cover in D&D 5e, what each does to AC and saves, the corner-to-corner method for deciding cover on a battle map, and why 3D maps make it a glance instead of an argument.
· 7 мин чтения
Creature sizes on a grid: how many squares each token takes
Tiny to Gargantuan, in squares: the space each D&D creature occupies on a 5-foot grid, what reach means for a Large monster, how squeezing works, and how to size tokens in a VTT.
· 6 мин чтения
Critical Role Campaign 4: how its three tables actually work
Critical Role's fourth campaign runs thirteen players across three rotating tables in a West Marches format. What the Soldiers, Seekers and Schemers are, and what a home group can steal.
· 6 мин чтения
Crypt and catacomb battle maps: layouts that play well in 3D
How to build crypt and catacomb battle maps for D&D: the four layouts that work, sarcophagi as cover, alcoves for ambushes, light that makes undead frightening, and a 3D example to start from.
· 7 мин чтения
Difficult terrain: what it costs, how to mark it, and when to use it
How difficult terrain works in D&D 5e — double movement cost, stacking with diagonals, climbing, swimming and crawling — and how to mark it on a battle map so nobody has to ask.
· 6 мин чтения
D&D Beyond's September 2026 drop: dusklings, four odd spells and Phandalin
What is in the D&D Beyond September 2026 content drop: the duskling species, four deliberately non-combat spells, Storied Encounters, and the first drag-and-drop Fantastic Location.
· 5 мин чтения
D&D Encounters returns with Red Wizards' Gambit: what it is and whether to go
Wizards' relaunched D&D Encounters runs Red Wizards' Gambit in local game shops from 23 September 2026. Four short sessions, levels 3 to 5, and what organised play is actually good for.
· 5 мин чтения
Flanking in 5e: how the optional rule works and whether your table should use it
The DMG's optional flanking rule explained: what counts as opposite sides on a square grid, why it hands out advantage too freely, and the alternatives DMs use instead.
· 6 мин чтения
How to read a battle map: a five-minute guide for new players
A new player's guide to the D&D battle map: what the squares mean, how far you can move, what reach and adjacent mean, how cover and height work, and three questions to ask before your turn.
· 6 мин чтения
Manor battle maps for a heist: floors, patrols and sightlines
How to build a manor battle map for a D&D heist: stacking the floors, sizing the rooms in squares, hiding the servants' passages, and running guard patrols without a spreadsheet.
· 5 мин чтения
Opportunity attacks on a grid: what provokes and what does not
The 5e opportunity attack rule in plain terms: the one trigger that provokes, the moves that never do, how to read threatened squares on a battle map, and the cases tables argue about.
· 5 мин чтения
Running a chase scene in D&D: when to use a map and when not to
How to run a chase in D&D 5e: the DMG's chase rules, Dash limits and complications, why a full battle map usually fails, and the strip-map method that keeps a chase fast on a VTT.
· 6 мин чтения
Sewer battle maps: channels, walkways and grates, sized in squares
Build a D&D sewer map that plays well: how wide to make the channels and ledges, treating sewage as difficult terrain, grates as total cover, and where the light comes from underground.
· 5 мин чтения
Ship deck battle maps: sizes in squares, rigging and boarding
How long a sloop and a galleon are in squares, how to use rigging as height, rails as half cover, and how to run a boarding action across two decks without losing track of anyone.
· 5 мин чтения
Sigil is shutting down. Here is what to do before the end of October
D&D Beyond's Sigil 3D VTT closes at the end of October 2026. A practical checklist: what to save, what cannot be exported, and how to rebuild your maps in a browser-based 3D tabletop.
· 6 мин чтения
How to make a D&D battle map without losing a weekend
A repeatable method for building battle maps fast: block the shape, floor and wall it, light it, then dress it. With the three mistakes that cost the most table time.
· 8 мин чтения
The best free virtual tabletops in 2026
What each free VTT is actually good at — Roll20, Foundry, Owlbear Rodeo, Alchemy, TerrainTale — and how to pick by what your table does on a Tuesday night rather than by feature count.
· 9 мин чтения
3D vs 2D battle maps: what actually changes at the table
Where a 3D battle map earns its keep (height, cover, reading a room at a glance) and where a flat map is still the right answer. A practical comparison, not a graphics argument.
· 7 мин чтения
The 5-foot square, and why every grid rule comes back to it
Squares, creature sizes, reach, squeezing and difficult terrain, explained as one system built on the 5-foot cell — and what breaks when a map is not authored to it.
· 6 мин чтения
Diagonal movement in 5e: three rules, and when to use each
Every diagonal as 5 ft, the 5/10/5 variant, and true distance — how each one plays, which one your table probably wants, and how to stop arguing about it mid-fight.
· 5 мин чтения
Running combat online without slowing the game to a crawl
Why online fights take twice as long as table fights, and eight concrete changes — turn order, telegraphing, pre-rolled initiative, a shared timer — that get the pace back.
· 7 мин чтения
Initiative tracking that stays out of the way
What an initiative tracker has to do (order, current turn, round count, HP) and everything it should refuse to do. Plus how to handle surprise, lair actions and mid-fight arrivals.
· 6 мин чтения
Twelve dungeon map ideas that are not just corridors and boxes
Flooded vaults, collapsed floors, a chapel with a balcony, a mine cart line, a room that changes between rounds — dungeon shapes that create decisions instead of hallways.
· 8 мин чтения
Tavern battle maps, and the bar fight everyone remembers
The layout that makes a tavern brawl work: sightlines, a bar to vault, tables to flip, a hearth that hurts, and stairs. Plus how to reuse one tavern for a whole campaign.
· 6 мин чтения
AI-generated battle maps: what works, what does not, and why
Image models make pretty maps you cannot play on. A structured scene recipe an assistant writes — rooms, walls, props on a real grid — is the version that survives contact with a table.
· 7 мин чтения
Lighting and vision: making darkness do tactical work
Bright, dim and darkness as game mechanics rather than mood — plus darkvision, light sources with real range, and how to light a map so players walk where you want them to.
· 6 мин чтения
Theatre of the mind vs battle maps: the answer is both, on purpose
When narration beats a grid, when a grid beats narration, and a simple rule for switching between them mid-session without anyone losing the thread.
· 6 мин чтения
Using a virtual tabletop on a TV at an in-person game
A flat TV, a laptop and one HDMI cable gets you a digital battle map for a table that meets in person. Screen size, viewing angle, scale, glare and the settings that make it readable.
· 6 мин чтения
Height and verticality: using the third dimension in combat
Climbing, flying, falling, ranged attacks from above and the rules that govern them — and how to build maps with height that players actually use instead of ignore.
· 7 мин чтения
Session prep in thirty minutes: what to do and what to skip
A repeatable half-hour prep: the five beats, two maps, three names, one secret and a monster list. Everything else is optional, and most of it is procrastination in a nice hat.
· 6 мин чтения
CC0 assets for D&D maps: where good free models actually come from
ambientCG, Poly Haven and KayKit explained — what CC0 means for a map you publish, and why a library authored to one grid beats a bigger library that is not.
· 6 мин чтения
Self-hosting a virtual tabletop: what it really takes
A realistic account of running your own VTT — the box, the bandwidth, TLS, accounts, backups — and when self-hosting is worth it versus using a hosted table.
· 7 мин чтения
Forest ambush encounters that are not a coin flip
Building the road-through-the-woods ambush so it is tense rather than a surprise-round execution: sightlines, cover, escape routes, and giving the party something to do on round one.
· 6 мин чтения
Castle and siege battle maps: gates, walls and the courtyard fight
How to build a castle map that plays well — the gatehouse, the parapet, the killing ground, the postern — and how to run a siege without tracking a hundred soldiers.
· 7 мин чтения
Your first online D&D session: a checklist that actually works
Everything to settle before session one online — voice, the map, dice, safety tools, a fifteen-minute tech rehearsal — so the first hour is play rather than troubleshooting.
· 6 мин чтения
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