Thirty Fourty Sticks
	2020-11-28

Thirty Fourty Sticks

We play on top of a hex/square battlemat and I was/am looking for a way to measure ranges.

Tape measures are nice, but they quickly become toys. Rulers are usually as wide as the miniature bases, they get in the way somehow. I wanted something that could be left on the mat and sneak between the miniatures.

The most frequent use case is "I move in that direction" and the "I" is a human character. That makes for a 30ft move (six quares) so I printed half a dozen of 30ft sticks to help me (the GM) and the players determine their max move for the round.

The 30ft stick also indicates the normal range of a javelin or a sling, and of a hand crossbow. Handy.

By using two 30ft sticks, one can determine the dash range of a human, or the move range of a horse.

The normal range of a dart, a dagger, or a hand axe is 20ft. I don't think it necessary to print 20ft sticks. I added a "hx/lh" at 20ft on the 30ft stick, I should probably change that to something simpler like "x".

But I printed 40ft sticks. Fourty feet is the speed of a dog or a wolf.

By lining two 40ft sticks, one reaches 80ft and that's the normal range of a shortbow or a light crossbow.

The 30ft and the 40ft can be combined. Ftt for a heavy crossbow (normal range 100ft) and FFFt for a longbow (normal range 150ft). But that usually falls out of the battlemat...

Each stick is labelled in feet on the top, in meters on the side, and in squares on the other side. The bottom is free of markings. The sticks are 5mm by 5mm thick. They are very light and are easy to move in and out of the setting. The 40ft sticks are handy as pointers as well.

I printed the 30ft sticks in bright color and I leave them in front of the players. The 40ft sticks were printed in black or grey and are left in front of the gm screen. The player mostly need the colorful 30ft sticks. The grey 40ft sticks are for encounters and ranges.

Here is a table with various ranges at low level. F is for "fourty feet stick", while T is for "thirty feet stick". FFFt means 3 fourty feet sticks plus 1 thirty feet stick. t-2 means 1 thirty feet stick minus 2 notches.

Maybe a t-2 "twenty feet stick" might be worth printing, for now I'll try sticking to t-2, using the "thirty feet stick" minus 1 or 2 notches.

sticks and rulers source code / 30ft stick stl / 40ft stick stl

And yes, you are right, one can cut wooden sticks at the right size and mark them to have even nicer whatever feet sticks.

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