2011-11-07

A Compilation of D&D Miniature Scales

Suggested man-to-man/dungeon action board scale when using miniatures for different iterations of classic D&D:
  • Chainmail Man-to-Man Combat (1971, p. 25): Undefined.
  • Dungeons & Dragons, Vol-3 (1974, p. 8): 1" = 10 feet.
  • OD&D Sup-III, Eldritch Wizardry (1976, p. 7): 1" = 2 feet.
  • Holmes Dungeons & Dragons (1978, p. 9): 1" = 10 feet.
  • AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide (1979, p. 10): 1" = 3⅓ feet.
  • Moldvay D&D Basic Rulebook (1981, p. B61): 1" = 5 feet.
  • Mentzer D&D Players Manual (1983, p. 57): 1" = 10 feet.
Any others from this era that I missed (official D&D rulebooks only)?
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10 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 7, 2011 at 8:40 AM

    Swords & Spells?

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  2. faoladhNovember 7, 2011 at 10:09 AM

    And for Swords & Spells, the scale is 1" = 30 feet.

    ReplyDelete
  3. faoladhNovember 7, 2011 at 10:11 AM

    However, I should point out that S&S doesn't really treat man-to-man combat. It refers the players to D&D for that.

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  4. PlanetNilesNovember 7, 2011 at 2:05 PM

    Hold on... 3 and a third feet is close enough to a meter to make no difference. AD&D DMG circa '79 was metric?

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  5. Spawn of EndraNovember 7, 2011 at 2:54 PM

    IIRC the 3 1/3' is to reckon 3 people abreast in a standard 10' wide passage. Later on 2 abreast became the default.

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  6. DeltaNovember 7, 2011 at 3:34 PM

    Yeah, I agree with this --> faoladh said: "S&S doesn't really treat man-to-man combat."

    And this --> Spawn of Endra said: "IIRC the 3 1/3' is to reckon 3 people abreast in a standard 10' wide passage."

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  7. UWS guyNovember 7, 2011 at 5:26 PM

    The figure mounting scale in s&s works for individual as well as mass scale. Men are 5/8", bugbears are 1", a giant is 1 5/8" etc.

    This scale matches ad&d exactly if 1"=3 1/3 feet in combat scale, in exploration scale 1" =10".

    This can be translated back to CM, which shows fantasy scales of 1:10 using millimeter, it is simple enough to show this in 1:1 scale.

    Doing this shows you how many PC's stand abreast in a hall, and acurately shows an ogre or dragon as well.

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  8. Zak SabbathNovember 7, 2011 at 9:32 PM

    Doesn't AD&D use two different scales--one for in dungeons and one for outside?

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  9. DeltaNovember 8, 2011 at 9:00 AM

    UWS guy said: "Men are 5/8"... This scale matches ad&d exactly if 1"=3 1/3 feet in combat scale, in exploration scale 1" =10"."

    I like some of that idea, except as you put it, you don't the full 1" to fit the 5/8" figure. Like, what it's actually ideal for is a 1"=5 feet table scale -- 10' passage is 2", and 3 man-figures is also 3*5/8 = 15/8 ~ 2".

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  10. DeltaNovember 8, 2011 at 9:06 AM

    Zak S said: "Doesn't AD&D use two different scales--one for in dungeons and one for outside?"

    This is a third, distinct issue: The miniature-table-inches in the DMG are different from both the indoor and the outdoor range inches in the PHB. Which is totally nuts, but commonly overlooked.

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