Post/Author/DateTime	Post
priest of blipdoolpoolp 01-19-06, 01:24 PM	Anyone not see the point of darkvision? I for one like the ol' heat-sensing infravision- more fun for DMs... ...cold undead approach... ...can't read, etc.
Tzor 01-19-06, 03:36 PM	I've been playing D&D since 1st edition AD&D. I've been playing since college. Under the old system there were three systems and one of them never made any sense whatsoever. Ultravision was vision in the UV range and is the equavelent to low light vision in 3E. Passive Infravision was what you are probably thinking of, being able to see in the IR range, but was limited to 60'. Active Infravision basically had the person shoot infrared radiation out of his eyes to illuminate everything at ranges beyond 60' typically to 90'. Infravision had an "activation period" meaning that it took time to activate, and it did not work in the presence of any light source, no matter how dim. Infravision was semi-scientific meaning you had to have a good understanding of thermodynamics to understand what you could see and for how long. (That's a college course, so we all knew that stuff already.) The effects of active infravision interference to passive infravision characters was never really developed and was often just ignored. Darkvision hand waves everything. No more activation period. No more worrying about the various temperatures of objects and creatures in the area. No more worrying about the human carrying the 30' torch making things impossible for the non humans. It's much simplier. It's easier to use. Unfortunately, you no longer get jokes like. Dwarf: "Man is she hot." Human: "Yes I guess she is cute." Dwarf: "No I mean she's HOT. Perhaps we should turn on the fan?"
Antioch 01-19-06, 04:06 PM	I also would love to invent rules on how much heat a creature radiates, making its presence known beyond the space it actually occupies. Not to mention that fire-based creatures would radiate even MORE heat. Also since logically heat could remain on the ground to help track creatures, we get to invent rules on how long the tracks remain. Finally, would you blind yourself due to your own body heat? What about other creatures? What about creatures made of fire? What about fire-based effects going off? For the record, that was all sarcasm.
priest of blipdoolpoolp 01-22-06, 12:44 AM	"Also since logically heat could remain on the ground to help track creatures, we get to invent rules on how long the tracks remain." Actually Antioch, it's funny you mention this... our group used to have a rule for this... Gotta love infravision!