It’s here! Steve Jackson Games’ Warehouse 23 Store now offers the Range Ruler, a tool for finding battle map combat ranges without counting hexes. It’s based on a design I submitted to SJG, and after a kind reworking by the pros there, maintains pretty much the same look, down to the the corny text and this site’s URL.

(About the only thing not there is my requisite attempt at an abbreviation. The best I could do was GURPS Range Indicator Plank (GRIP), to which Dr Kromm sagely suggested the much better GURPS Range Increment Plotter, before someone apparently nixed abbreviations altogether. Probably for darned good reason!) 

Best of all for you, the GURPS Range Ruler (GRR?) is FREE! It won’t cost you a shekel. So print some out, arm the table, and get down and tactical on any surface, with or without battle maps. Oh, and while you’re on Warehouse 23, buy GURPS stuff. It’s fun!

Tips and tricks!

Here’s what I’ve got for now:

• Super obvious: Ruler-based positioning doesn’t simply mean using your regular battle maps while ignoring hex lines; it means using any map, with or without hexes or grids or other markings. Even no map at all – just bare tabletop, carpet, whatever.
• Keep in mind the point of the thing: measurement, not hex-counting. And that means measuring what matters: yes, in some cases you want hexes of distance (e.g., when casting a Regular spell), but in other cases you just want the “Speed/Range” TH modifier (e.g., when throwing a weapon). There, don’t measure out hexes and convert to a TH mod; just slap that Range Ruler down and instantly read the “SPEED/RANGE” modifier printed right there in big grey blocks. Fast!
• A minor, obvious benefit to measured, not hex-based, positioning: No more need to worry about aligning structures to a hex grid when sketching out a battle map; no funny “half-hexes” poking out of walls. (“Uh, the halfling can stand in one of those, OK, but the barbarian can’t…”)
• Using a ruler, you’ll still have to GM-call and eyeball things, particularly facing. Ruler-based positioning creates a bit of a middle ground between basic and tactical combat.
• Using flat counters makes for easier ruler maneuvering and measurement of combatants’ center-to-center distances.
• For packed melee spaces – especially with miniatures, not flat counters – use a short ruler. Just take that Range Ruler and lop it off at, say, four inches. (Or even three, likely the biggest melee attack distance that’ll pop up on any battlemap free of pike-wielding levies.)
• Using one-inch counters or bases makes it easy to eyeball a Step or other short, inch-based movement without rulering. And hexagonal bases make it easy to eyeball angles for facing purposes. (Like these, these, and these for Cardboard Heroes or other standup cardboard figures.)
• Two closely adjacent combatants: are they in close combat or not? If their counters are close enough that they want to overlap, let ’em overlap; that’s close combat. (If you’re using miniatures, you’ll likely have to eyeball close combat.)
• You can even get funky with counter (or base) sizes if you like: an extra-small one for the halfling, a jumbo-sized one for the barbarian. Fun, though movement will likely involve less eyeballing, more measuring.
• If you want to exploit hex-less tricks to the max, you can also try out fractional Move scores. As in, Move 4.8? Sure, just measure it. (I’ve got an unfinished article on using unrounded Move scores. It’ll pop up eventually.)
• You can even experiment with finely detailed Step distances and weapon reach if you’re into that. Distances that aren’t in neat inches will be the norm; make use of that if you like. The PC wants to make a Retreat? Okay, if there’s a full inch or more behind the figure, measure (or eyeball) an inch and move the figure backward. But if there’s only a half inch or so open? Hmm… Disallow the Retreat? Or allow it, but for a lesser bonus? You call it!
• In any case, whatever you do with a ruler, stay open to reasonable eyeballing. Obsessive measuring isn’t fun.

Download

• GURPS Range Ruler (Warehouse 23)

More info

• GURPS Range Ruler in action on the easyGURPS YouTube channel
• GURPS Range Ruler on the GURPS Wiki (Japanese)