Mainly, what sort of props will I need? I have dice and some miniatures (I play the tabletop game) but it's my first time running a one shot OW session (I planned on running Old Soldiers, unless you guys think it's a better idea to make something up on my own which I'm more than willing to do!) Do I need a playing board for when we get into combat? How should I scale the "Field" so to speak, or do I leave it completely verbal and give it a very loose feel to make combat a little less daunting to them? Any help would be appreciated thank you!

The only "prop" I've ever really used, was a whiteboard (and BFG model for ship combat in RT).

But it's really a matter of taste and style

Leave it verbal, minitures have been one of the biggest tools in the dumbing down process that has ruined countless RPGs and almost killed P&P.

If you absolutely must flash your models about use them as examples of things "this is what a commissar/lasgun/autocannon looks like" and such.

If you absolutly cannot avoid it use a pad and pencil to sketch maps of combat locales, to aid players (and you) withkeepig track of where everyone is.

The only thing I ever prepared were maps, to give the players a general feel of ranges and terrain. Otherwise, keep it verbal.

I always keep it verbal. In addition, I tend to design my own adventures. Especially since I joined here. So many ideas available for sneaky usage, and if you're still stuck, nobody cares if you ask.

No no I've been enjoying the feedback I'm excited to make it verbal I feel like it'll be much faster and interesting for the whole group! Another question I have is how long does it normally take to finish say, the first chapter of Old Soldiers because of a time constraint for my group we'd have 5 hours? I'd imagine that's a good amount of time probably more than needed unless they're really into it hah

I use miniatures and a white checkered roll-up board to act as grid. Verbal might be nice, but it only ends up being you and the players sitting around a table, tlaking. A map and minis at least add some level of interaction than just talking with papers in front of you.

It helps to see who's in melee, what you can see clearly, what you can shoot, if that grenade will catch everyone else in the blast alongside the Xenos, if you use the flamer without burning everyone along etc etc...

I use miniatures and a white checkered roll-up board to act as grid. Verbal might be nice, but it only ends up being you and the players sitting around a table, tlaking. A map and minis at least add some level of interaction than just talking with papers in front of you.

It helps to see who's in melee, what you can see clearly, what you can shoot, if that grenade will catch everyone else in the blast alongside the Xenos, if you use the flamer without burning everyone along etc etc...

Maybe you should be playing Necromunda instead of OW (seriously, Necromunda is awesome.)

Roleplaying is "just talking" that`s the thing that makes it so versatile. If you want precise measurements and physical implements then you should probably play TT games.

Personally, I very much appreciate and enjoy when my friends and I can get to use minis and a wipe-board, or something, so that we can get an idea of some loose scales, positioning, and such. It also helps us remember where some people actually were, and blah. When I play RPG video games, I appreciate a decent map system, too, and P&P D&D, Star Wars, or such are also fun with that; D&D minis was sort of a crap game, on its own, so it's also a nice excuse to get some real use out of them, playing D&D. Oh well, to each their own, and things like hordes, those might not be so easy to do with minis.

Most of the time i keep it verbal. Sometimes when fight is more tactical (and on uneven odds) i use miniatiures and hex grid so everyone know who is where and give players idea of range. In games like only war where there are not only your players but also comrades, npc's, lots of enemies it's a good idea to at least draw a map so people know where they are. Unless of course you wanna argue with players if they were in range of grenade blast

Basic maps are pretty much a must I think.

I recently started using grid maps so scale could be measured more accuratly. It has worked well though works best in close encounters in buildings etc.

I think keeping it verbal would be reasonably difficult for a game like OW which focuses so heavily on combat. Games like Nobilis or CoC would be a little better for pure verbal play.

I've had a lot of luck with Mappingboard, which is a wargame mapping utility. It has a modifiable grid (which helps for ranges) and so I've been using that for terrain making and setting up ranges. Usually, as GM, I would just tell the players the ranges and point out where enemies are on the map (at least the ones they could see!) based off of an identical copy of the map I made for myself with the actual enemy locations drawn in.

Recently Ive made some good 3d arenas in sketchup, because i was bored with 2d ones. No vertical movement or shooting, not so many tactics to think of...

Make the battlefields in the way it gives you fun and then think what tools you need to describe it to the players. Not the opposite.

Whether or not you use minis is a matter of personal taste; there's no right or wrong answer ( despite what people who don't have the skill to paint figures might tell you! ). You can make an argument that purely-verbal combat maintains a higher degree of 'immersion', but you can also say that being able to see the battlefield and where everyone is in relation to everyone else opens up more tactical options than general descriptions allow for.

I use miniatures for all but the simplest combats (i.e. snuffing a guard). I usually use a wet-erase mat with a grid of 1" squares for indoor fights, and a standard 40K tabletop set-up with 3-D terrain for outdoor combat- or sometimes I'll draw a scale map with Sharpies on a length of wrapping paper. Check out the MINIATURES GALLERY thread in the FAN ART section of the DEATHWATCH FORUMS for a sampling of the terrain that I've used in WH40KRP (this computer isn't allowing me to set up a link for some reason).

If you do decide to use minis, I recommend that you go with a scale of 1/2" = 1 meter (maybe even 1cm = 1 meter for long-range firefights), since a scale of 1" = 1 meter makes it way too easy for combat to 'spill' off of the table.

I like to use a dry erase board to avoid confusion with players, for example I'll have a dark eldar sneak up behind and take a guardsman hostage, then my PCs will start complaining "I wasn't in the back," or "I was watching the rear so that couldn't happen despite my rolling a 99 on Awareness check" but it is simpler and more immersive to go all narrative.

I like to use a dry erase board to avoid confusion with players, for example I'll have a dark eldar sneak up behind and take a guardsman hostage, then my PCs will start complaining "I wasn't in the back," or "I was watching the rear so that couldn't happen despite my rolling a 99 on Awareness check" but it is simpler and more immersive to go all narrative.

I always just say, "Too bad" and the biggest whiners are the ones I make a note of getting later on.

I think the best way is to go in the middle. When playing fantasy based RPG I stick mostly with verbal sometimes giving a hand made map or making one on the fly. With OW it's different, this setting/system has so much tactical depth to it that I would want to play every skirmish on a grid with measuring and such.... alas our GM doesn't think like I do and mostly only uses hand drawn maps of surounding, never the less it works well and keeps the pace high (I know my way propably wouldn't).

I have tended to do things verbally but I will often produce maps mainly for my own benefit to keep things in the right place mentally. The main thing I've found useful with maps is when things are on a large scale and you are trying to keep things organized, I often use real world relief maps for OW to show where units are in relation to each other, for RT I have a hex grid star map which I use to show position of ships, planets, asteroids, stations and so on, very helpful for working things out.

I tend not to give my players maps as I'd rather they draw them on their own as it leaves fun stuff like them getting confused about layouts and making mistakes or making things be too big and so forth.