VTT Zoned Combat

Online play has exploded and now there are more virtual table top options than ever with all sorts of wonderful features to help immerse players. But sometimes the players do something you didn't expect. Or sometimes you are improvising and the dice and player's decide it's time for combat! Sometimes, an encounter you are expecting to possibly happen just doesn't need a full on battlemap and isn't worth the prep time, choosing instead to focus on the real meat.

Game masters that use VTT's have libraries of maps they could use...but that takes time to find and setup, they can do theater of the mind...but that can lead to confusion among more tactically minded players, OR you could use Zoned Combat. The sweet spot between quick improvisional encounters and tactical combat, giving you improvisational fast paced narrative combat with some tactical play so characters special features are still predictably relevant.

Inspired by ideas presented by Professor Dungeon Master/Ultimate Dungeon Terrain, Sly Flourishes Guidelines for D&D 5E Narrative Combat, and Ultimate Dungeon Terrain Zone Combat for RPGs by David Neilson, this product supplies some prefabricated UDT-style themed maps for zoned combat.

You can create your own by heading over to VTT Zoned Combat - Rempelstiltskin Productions | DriveThruRPG, pay what you want, and download the overlays. Combine them in your favorite image editing program with a background of your choice and upload to Shard for endlessly re-usable zoned combat maps. Use a simple brick pattern for a dungeon floor and drop tokens from collections like WyldFurr's Fantasy Furniture tokens to add extra details you would for an in-person zoned combat session. Put an image of a sky behind the 5 zone overlay for an arial combat extravaganza between wyvern and griffon riders!