@Eagle0600
@yiffit.netSome people really would say "nah, I'd live/I know how to do it safely, but I can't afford the fine."
Just drawing the situation out, even roughly, is already an enormous step forwards from theatre of the mind, and is doing most of the heavy lifting here. It's also not "theatre of the mind," like the original poster is implying. It's a map, just one without grid-spaces or precise distances.
This works for situations where exact positioning isn't too important. When want to have AoE spells, move speed, flanking, and battlefield control, it generally because difficult to ensure that the GM and the players have the same picture of the battlefield. Even just drawing it out roughly can help a lot, but pure theatre of the mind really works best when you only care about distance rather than relative positioning and complex battlefield conditions.
It did the moment Rogue Legacy came out and people who've never even heard of an actual roguelike described it as a roguelike.
Before I went to Paris, I thought the Eiffel Tower was just ugly.
I still think it's ugly, but now I know it also has a quite impressive physical presence when you're basically standing right under it that doesn't really come through in pictures. I still wouldn't want to live near it, though.