I had a very similar experience with a young man – he was all over the place! It was a bit harder with him, as the rest of the group ended up being more annoyed than amused, so I had to gently teach this young man some social group mechanics.

My answer to battle mats? I don’t use ‘em. I have minis as marching order and I use the tiles/mats only when players request them or it’s an intense sort of combat, or a set piece that I want to highlight.
.-= Chgowiz´s last blog ..The Land of Two Rivers – General Concepts =-.

Actually, I think it would work perfectly for 4e if you agree on what distance equals “1 square”. 1 inch is the obvious answer for those on the imperial. 2cm might be easier for the metric gamer (although most people into tabletop wargames are used to inches anyway).

An Area 1 Burst within 10 because a 1″ radius circle within 10″ of the caster.

A close burst 2 power attacks all targets within 2″ of the caster.

The only real complications that I foresee are:

(1) close blasts, but they can be pretty accurately modelled by preparing a 90 degree segment of a circle of the appropriate radius; and

(2) OAs, but there’s pretty simple too once you realise that melee range is 1″ and reach 2 is 2″ etc…
.-= Colmarr´s last blog ..The H Bomb =-.

As for getting your munchkins into more imaginative stuff; I agree with with Trabant and Rob’s ideas on set dressing. Having an NPC demonstrate the rewards of doing so and giving PCs the same opportunities can coax people out of their rut… video game combination moves provide all kinds of inspiration – just make sure you avoid accidental TPKs when having a fight in a storeroom with lamp oil barrels in it!

Using the occasional riddle or simple puzzle encounter can also work wonders as well as using combat powers in non-combat ways. One of my personal faves was having a locked door made of bones that summons 2-5 skeletons to attack anyone trying to pick the lock but that can be turned or rebuked by a cleric to open.
.-= satyre´s last blog ..play vs. story =-.

@Colemar: Yeah, he played 3 PCs and all died… (or ended up asleep at the bottom of a pit). Heck, the Dwarf fighter even swung #1 as a weapon after he dropped at 0 HP.

I had all new PCs arrive as new adventurers coming from somewhere else in the dungeon.

Did I read that right? He died (at least) twice and kept recycling the same character. There must be a whole clan of ADHD halflings camped outside the dungeon

Glad to hear everyone had fun.
.-= Colmarr´s last blog ..Character Concept: Elf fighter =-.

“#4 I don’t care what the grognards are saying, I’m bothered by out of spell Magic Users. While it’s fun to explore a dungeon, I always remain lukewarm to low level Vancian casters. At least the Cleric can turn undead at will, but an out of spell level 1 MU has limited options in combat (yes they can do other stuff, but so can all other PCs and Hirelings).”

It’s a very valid complaint. If you look around, you might find some good house rules on that. Personally, I maintain that 0-level spells were one of the best innovations D&D ever had, if only because they gave you a couple of magicky shenanigans to play with after that Sleep spell was gone.

A low-impact trick I’ve personally used (very successfully) to combat this is to give the wizard (either as gear they can buy, or in an early treasure haul) a wand of fairly weak fire bolts: A charged item where a single target saves or takes 1d3 damage. Make sure it is priced like and lasts at least as long as a shortbow and ammo – Call it 40 gp, and have it hold as many charges as a full quiver does arrows. It only does about half the damage of the bow but still has its own unique uses, because it beats any weapon against armored enemies and can set things on fire from a distance. (Plus, its not like 1st-level enemies have that many hit points anyway)

I tried that on a young cousin of mine in 3rd edition. The wand had 40 charges and shot 1d3-damage jets of green flames any time she said “Alakazam!” Her 1st-level sorceress actually preferred using the wand in combat because she hated “…wasting my good spells on stuff those guys can just fight.” (Her words!)

Another house rule I’ve heard of people using is to let wizards use swords, but still no shields or armor. I like this one because finally Gandalf makes sense as a PC, but I’ve yet to try it myself. I don’t see any reason it wouldn’t work, though.

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“#5 Putting a gridded Battlemap in front of new school players automatically make’s everyone’s mind conform to modern game assumptions, I had to fight this by telling players they could do a lot more than just ’shift and attack’.”

This is very true. If this bugs you, but you still want to use a battlemap, one thing that I’ve found helps is to use an ungridded map. In my experience, if you put a map in front of them, people will relate best to the things they can see. If the grid dominates the map – and because they span the whole thing, they usually do – they’ll relate to the grid. But without having the 5′ squares dominating their vision, players will instead cue more closely to any actual objects you draw on the map.

Which is why instead of drawing rooms with grid squares in mind, it helps to envision the layout and furnishings like a movie set, and draw them on the map (badly, if need be). Fill that empty space with some chairs, altars, barrels, crates, bushes, pillars, stairs, or whatever. Your PCs will use those as landmarks instead of gridlines, and almost always start trying to figure out how to use them. I don’t think I’ve ever drawn a cliff or a balcony on a map without *somebody* trying a Death From Above shenanigan.

Gotta say, too, I really like that one-parting-shot-limit rule. I might have to try it sometime.

I houseruled that leaving combat only got you one attack from monsters, no more so PCs eventually started being more strategic rather than tactical..

In Hindsight, I shouldn’t have used a battlemap.

I know I said like 8 times during the con, but watching that kid play in your game gave me so much joy. He was so friggin’ psyched! He was having such a good time I thought his head might explode. It truly warmed my heart to see a young geek really getting his game on like that.
.-= walkerp´s last blog ..episode 5.5 – special Draconis episode 1 – an interview with the organizers =-.

Sounds like you had a good time. It’s bugging me that I didn’t get the in-joke without wikipedia. Guess it’s all experience.

To OrangeYngvi: Let enemies attack them creatively, using terrain and things the players haven’t thought of, force them to adapt. When they’ll outwit you with their creativity you’ll be sorry you tried!

Battlemats are for the weak anyway, in my day we only used graph paper and pencils, had to go get it from the only office-supply shop in town, barefoot, 5 miles up & down a hill and LIKED IT.

I’m bothered by out of spell Magic Users.

I think I’m with you on this one, but not sure what to do about it.

Do you have any suggestions or exercises that could help me break the habit?