I haven’t played in decades, when we did we never had visual aides it was just describing. Okay some visual aides (usually used some dice) to show how the groups were situated but it was usually just the initial setup and we took it from there. Even that was rare though, I sort of wondered how often that happens these days, everyone seems to be talk about maps and such. I thought some of the great part of RPGs was using your imagination for it and the DM(or whichever term) would work with it. That said I can totally understand for more tactical games and this was in D&D 2nd Ed era when it was hard to come by those things unless you paid. The times we played say WoD I don’t think we used that sort of thing once, so game system makes a difference too.



One time I managed to roll 1 to hit, 20 for dex check (had to roll under I forget current rules, over two decades ago), okay I’m dual wielding could be worse, rolled 1 to hit then 20 for dex check on second attack…huh…I don’t buy lottery tickets and barely have interest in scratch tickets at Xmas. That’s my usual luck though those rolls were a once in a lifetime.
Yes probably some house rules going on was 2nd edition just how we played then.