[RPG] Is it possible to run Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition without a battlemap

dnd-4etheatre-of-the-mind

The push, pull, and slide mechanics immediately come to mind as being difficult to track accurately without a battlemap. Auras are another.

Has anyone come up with a simple solution to narrating these mechanics that your players were happy with? How did you do it, and why do you think it worked? What didn't work?

update: to clarify, when I say without a battlemap, I mean to say using a completely narrative approach.

Best Answer

Lost Soul on ENWorld wrote up a set of rules he's calling "Fiction First". It changes a lot more than just the battlemap, although at a quick glance it's still clearly 4e-related. There's a section in the playtest PDF on skill combat, which is potentially gridless. The other material might or might not be useful to you, depending on how far from 4e you want to drift.