So, im kind of at a crossroad on a particular rule (or set of rules). I got to thinking about rules for the various sources of light, and what they add (or rather, don’t add) to my game.
Now, one part of me wants to simply dismiss them in my game. Sure, its not realistic, but I cant think of one situation in which requiring my players carry around a torch or cast a light spell has actually added anything that could be considered "fun" to my game. Also, when drawing out the battlemap, thinking about what the players can and cant see seems to add needless complexity, rather than any type of suspension. Now, I realize that the reason it hasn’t is because I haven’t designed my encounters with lighting in mind, if I did do you believe that it would add enough to my game to justify the hassle of keeping up with it?
Do you guys use lighting rules effectively in your game? Or do you simply require your players to have a lightsource and then don’t pay it any mind after that point? If you do use light effectively, tell me some scenes where it has added to the awesomeness (is that a word?) of your game. Not for proof that it can (I assume it can), but as inspiration or at least information that I could use to make a better decision.
Thanks in advance.
-Ozz
The key elements of using the lighting rules are: (1) someone needs to be holding onto a light source, (2) if the light source burns, it can burn out, be blown out, etc., and (3) not every locale is pitch black, since intelligent monsters with darkvision will still generally have dim lighting in their lairs. This means that lighting for one thing cue the players about where they are, e.g. whether they are in an abandoned area and/or one with mindless creatures and/or undead, or are there intelligent things living there. It also allows using environmental features to add tension, e.g. high winds in a large cavern that can blow out torches/unprotected lanterns. Likewise, since characters bringing their own light are visible from a distance, intelligent monsters with darkvision can choose to extinguish their own lights in order to make the PCs have a harder time (e.g. shooting arrows at them from the darkness beyond the PCs' light source). In any event, when the light goes out, players can also be clued in as to whether, e.g. the opponent is using magical darkness, or whether the ambient lighting was just extinguished deliberately, or whether the high winds blew it out, etc.
I don't see a need for awesomeness to include rules for lighting. It can communicate mood and it can also provide an environmental challenge to a locale or encounter, much as high winds on a slippery ledge or debris falling from the cavern ceiling or whatever.
Llenlleawg wrote:
Ozzmal1 wrote:
Ozzmal1 wrote:
My son's Bard cast Light on the human Monk's shortsword. Now we all know when he gets a critical hit 
because it suddenly goes dark for a moment.
The Monk also saved us from a nasty encounter: one room was full of centipedes ... except that they flee into cracks in the walls if any light enters the room (like cockroaches do). The Monk charged in first. When I - Paladin, group's 'tank', usually go first - arrived, the last bugs were just escaping. We had a large group and could have faced 16 swarms.