Verticality in combat adds a lot to encounters. Tactical challenges, creative opportunities, and strong narrative moments all get easier to include. Perhaps most important of all though, it adds variety. Unfortunately, it’s an opportunity many gamemasters (GMs) seem to miss.
What Is Verticality in Combat?
It’s a location where differences in elevation matter. That “matter” is very important. For instance, a player may decide their character jumps onto a table to attack; if there’s no mechanical advantage or disadvantage—it’s just to look cool—then gameplay continues as normal. There’s no need to slow the game down with needless detail. However, if there is a deadly gas at low level, climbing onto the table becomes important.
Verticality should give players interesting decisions to make about movement. Places where characters must climb, jump, fall, or fly are the focus of this article. Places that encourage movement to get an advantage, deny a disadvantage, or affect line of sight may also be relevant, too.
Types of Verticality in Combat
There are four main types of elevation GMs can add to combat:
1. Terrain That Doesn’t Move or Change
This includes cliffs, ledges, balconies, rafters, bridges, and stairs. While on these, characters and enemies may face a challenge if there are strong winds or other environmental effects.
2. Terrain That Does
This includes lifts, gondolas, crumbling floors, breakable ledges, and sinking ships. These will force characters and enemies to move. Clever players may be able to exploit the situation to quickly defeat an enemy—or vice versa! These types of terrain may move or change at the end of every round, constantly challenging the players with a changing situation. Alternatively, they may require activation, making them useful traps or emergency escapes.
3. Obstacles
Terrain that blocks or needs special movement includes walls, big holes, gaps, and gas vents. Characters may be able to climb or jump across these; other obstacles may block movement completely. These will create chokepoints and limit escape or reinforcement routes. This makes them ideal for ambushes. If player characters can jump across dangerous terrain, the GM has two choices. First, let the characters jump without a check, the danger only coming into play from combat moves like knockbacks. If the GM wants a check, treat falling as dangerous, but not always fatal.
For instance, a character fails a check to jump a pit of lava. The failure could mean they’re now clinging onto the edge, not falling to their death; another failure may mean they lose a valuable resource like time or a piece of equipment as they climb to safety. Consider if death is the most fun and exciting result available. An enemy forcing the character into the lava is a lot more epic than a bad jump. Keep dice rolls meaningful, but fun. Also, let enemies trip and fall, too!
4. Interactive Items
Things characters can interact with, changing the environment. These include chandeliers, ladders, collapsible platforms, swinging ropes, and tall furniture characters can push over. These should give choices to players; solving puzzles, reaching hard-to-get-to enemies, and new ways to attack are just some of the options these can provide.
5. Bonus Type: Enemies Adding Verticality in Combat
Enemies that can run along walls, ceilings, fly, or tunnel can all give new challenges to players. However, take care not to completely stop a melee-focused player character from joining in the encounter; furniture or terrain that lets them get near enough to attack with some movement and creativity should be present. Side note: any experienced fighter should be carrying a ranged weapon for these occasions, though!
Why Have Verticality in Combat?
Because it’s cool. The answer is simple; however, characters jumping through windows or leaping from crumbling platforms are more fun than those always running 30 feet.
Additionally, it makes movement matter. Players sometimes see their characters as damage delivery systems. Movement becomes a minor consideration, but encounters that encourage this thinking lose a major source of variety. By making movement important, it gives players something extra to consider. This stimulates their mind in more ways, giving them a puzzle to solve or an advantage to exploit.
Furthermore, it gives tactical options. Baldur’s Gate 3 players know it’s often a lot more effective to push an enemy off a ledge than fight them. Different elevations give player characters and enemies places to hide, attack advantages, and options beyond just hitting the opponent. Routes of retreat, ambush locations and chokepoints also become easier to create. Utility items, spells, and skills all become more worthwhile; grappling hooks, Wall of Stone spells, and parkour skills all let players exploit elevation, creating new options.
It’s often a lot more cinematic, too. Fights on a collapsing bridge easily create powerful narrative moments. Fights in a flat room with some pillars will take a lot more work. This combines with the general advice of making locations dynamic. Locations that change during a fight keep the players thinking and the characters moving. Locations that change areas of elevation are a natural level up.
Verticality & Narrative
It’s also worth noting people often connect elevation with symbolism. Places and creatures that are high up often have more power. Conversely, places and things that are very low down often seem very dangerous or scary. Characters moving higher and higher during a fight are literally and symbolically rising to a climax. Likewise, characters moving lower and lower during a fight will expect more danger, increasing the tension at the table.
Elevation can also help with environmental storytelling. Characters exploring a dungeon where room exits are high up will probably meet something that prefers climbing or flies. Bodies piled on top of each other by a wall may suggest an exit accessible by climbing.
Common Problems Using Verticality in Combat
There are four main issues I want to cover here; three are nice and quick.
- First, avoid making things too complicated. Keep the number of different elevations to three or four. Whenever possible, group similar terrain types for speedy reference. For example, all the ledges in a room are 25 feet up, or all of the holes are 15 feet down.
- Second, be careful with differences in movement abilities between player characters. If one character can run up walls, but the others can’t, include terrain for that character to spotlight their skill. However, keep a choice of paths available for the other characters so they have interesting choices to make, too.
- Third, I mentioned it above, but also be careful of character builds. Using elevation is about creating choices and variety for the players. Including flying enemies the characters have just one way, or even no way, to attack is doing the opposite. Of course, encourage players to be flexible by having a range of attack styles if possible; however, a Dungeons & Dragons barbarian’s design forces players to play a certain way. Don’t punish players for following the rules.
The Fourth Wall: 2D Maps Making Verticality in Combat Difficult
I used to GM for a player with aphantasia—the inability to create mental pictures. This meant theatre of the mind gameplay was really hard for them to enjoy. Consequently, maps were almost essential for combat. However, this created a common problem, especially for people running games online. Most maps are 2D.
This means a lot of players—and some GMs—forget about height. Unfortunately, very beautiful, pre-made maps encourage this. Maps made for printing or online play often have very few levels of elevation. Many have none. This isn’t an attack on those artists; it’s a natural limitation of the medium. However, this removes variety and creative opportunity.
For people playing in person, this problem is a lot easier to solve. Adding physical terrain—like third-party plastic scenery or 3D printed terrain—on top of maps is an instant solution; homemade scenery from toilet paper, glue, and water also works wonderfully well. Improvisations are great, too. Books, blocks, and cups are readily available. One member of the MGS Discord has shown a fizzy drink can works brilliantly! Any quick visual reference is fine; the goal is to remove questions about mechanics so the action keeps flowing.
Writing notes on the map is also an option, but the location must be simple; anything complex ends up looking like a crazy maths professor’s blackboard. Index cards, sticky notes, and dice colour-coded to certain elevations may be better alternatives here.
Verticality in Combat Online
For people playing with virtual tabletops (VTTs), the problem is more difficult.
Now, I have run The Lost Mines of Phandelver on Tabletop Simulator. For some, I’m sure it works brilliantly, but it was a bit too clunky for me. TaleSpire looks really cool and has a massive range of community-made maps ready for download; people with more time can make their own of course, too. Unfortunately, I don’t have first-hand experience with it; anyone happy to share helpful insights, please let me know in the comments or on the Discord!
Most of my experience comes from playing on Roll20, Owlbear Rodeo, and Foundry VTT; I’ve been using the latter since its 0.27 beta.
Verticality in Combat on Beautiful Maps
Pre-made maps often look amazing. They inspire awesome encounter ideas—a quick shout-out to MGS partners Baileywiki, Miska’s Maps, and Moonlight Maps. Adding notes about important elevations is still an option; however, turning the map into a crazy maths blackboard defeats the point of having a beautiful map.
One alternative is adding assets. In the same way adding physical terrain works for an in-person game, digital assets can solve the problem online. These have the extra benefit of being easy to copy, move, and erase when the wizard inevitably casts fireball.
When assets are not available, consider having a note ready at the side of the map for everyone to see. For instance: “Platforms are 20ft up” or “Red ledges 10ft up; blue ledges 40ft” and “The pit is 30ft down.” Keep it to two or three points maximum to keep gameplay moving quickly. Furthermore, adding to the note or creating a new one mid-combat should always be an option. This combines with my next piece of advice.
Maps Serve The Group; The Group Don’t Serve The Map
Both GMs and players should treat all maps as inspiration, not final products. By this, I mean a map is not What You See Is What You Get. Unfortunately, I have found the more detailed and beautiful a map, the fewer questions players ask. Players should always feel free to ask if the group can add fun or useful items. The GM might say “No,” and that’s fine, the game continues as normal; however, if they say “Yes,” then a new creative opportunity is ready for exploration.
Player questions should always include what they want to do with the item. For instance, a player asking “Are there any chandeliers in the room?” has no intent. Consequently, GMs have no idea if there is a plan, if it’s a good plan, or it’s just curiosity.
Open communication lets GMs accurately judge if saying “Yes” will be fun and fit with the situation. So, “Are there any chandeliers my character can get onto to avoid the guards?” is a much better question. GMs are much more likely to say “Yes” or “No, but” to these questions, too. Answers can get added to that note by the side of the map if needed.
Maps That Encourage Questions
Abstract maps are another alternative. Interestingly, when I ran Alien RPG’s Chariot of the Gods adventure, the player with aphantasia had a great time. The combination of combat in zones—flexible areas instead of a fixed 5ft grid—and sticking to tropes seemed to work really well. GMs don’t need to describe lots of hospital equipment when “it’s a medbay” is enough. Then, players focus more on any extra details the GM does spotlight. With abstract maps, players will quickly learn to ask more questions. From there, the creativity and fun can flow.
There is a huge range of fantastic—and free—abstract map makers online. For Alien-inspired sci-fi, try this one. For a more traditional fantasy dungeon look, try this one. If these don’t suit, a quick search online should get a more desirable style.
Change Coming?
Foundry VTT’s next update (V14) will introduce ways to handle multiple elevations in the same scene. By coincidence, Dungeon Alchemist has also just released its Fun with Objects (Part One) update, which includes multi-level map designing. For these users at least, it might be the end of their multi-elevation display problems. Time will tell!
Verticality in Combat Raises The Game
People think in 3D. It makes sense that combat maps should be in 3D as well. Verticality in combat makes it more exciting, more cinematic, and adds more variety. If there was no plan to, try adding a couple of differences in elevation to the next encounter. Give it a try and let me know how it goes!
