New to this system! Have a quick question!

Hey guys. Running a game in about two days here. I have a question for you DM's out there. Whats the best way to have characters tokens controlled? Meaning, Do i give the players free movement? And Is that movement turn based? How do you guys have players move about the map and whats the best way. My game uses fog of war and as players discover more of a map, it will be revealed to them. Thoughts? I would appreciate any help, thanks!

What I do, and what I've seen done most often, is to yes give the players free movement. Allow each player to move their own token at will, UNLESS something happens that will restrict that movement, such as entering combat or encountering an obstacle or trap. Make sure that, when the GM says "Stop Moving!" the players agree that they will immediately stop moving their pieces. Once combat starts, restrict the players to their character's movement rate per round. Assuming you're not using Dynamic Lighting, it's fairly easy to manually reveal parts of the map as tokens approach it, which also helps to limit the players' movements. With DL, it's somewhat more difficult to control their movement as they can all be moving independently all over the place at once and it can be hard to track who's moving where.

You can use both dynamic lighting and fog of war if you want to that way you reveal the rooms before they enter but it keeps them from just placing a token anyplace and seeing a surprise.

Letting your players move the tokens gives them a feeling of more control of their characters, at the same time it can create issues regarding placement during combat and other scenarios. So be vigilant in making sure you are keeping to a consistent rule of movement whether it be your own rules or scripted movement speed in the race/class of version your playing. I am a bit meticulous when it comes to movement and utilize the grid and map size, when movement turns come into play using the arrow keys players can move tokens using the arrow keys, so assigning a pre determined amount of squares each person can move (Not counting Movement Modifiers). This way keeps it very consistent and easy for players to understand. Another method ive used is using the Auras each token has and setting the desired size indicating how far that particular token can move. Hope this helps! P.R

It's not uncommon to give your players full control (pain in the butt for you if not, and gives your players something to do). Many DM's ask their players to move slowly; only a few squares every few seconds. This lets them move freely but gives the DM time to interject when they stumble across new and interesting ways to die. I would keep your NPC's and traps and anything you don't want them to accidentally see before they're supposed to on your DM Layer.