"Do Any Rules Deal With DARK (Low Light) Environments?" Topic

Just curious . . .

Have you used any rules for low light situations (dim corridors, caves, tunnels, dungeons, sewers), where your foes are in their element?

How do you manage the difference in vision between the humans and the subterraneans (Morlocks, Ghouls, Aliens, whatever)?

Also, do you make your terrain so that the human party can only see the portions they visit?

Thanks.

CC

HELLFIRE and some other Jim Webster games used different reaction tables for night/dark conditions for humans and others: The tendency in the night was for humans to react faster and less controllably to surprise and outflanking manouvres by the opposition.

I imagine most games could be adjusted by having the nocturnal force add to targeting rolls, be able to gauge LOS at longer distances and move faster over terrain in darkness.

Considering the typical physical effects when someone enters a subterranean setting, it should definitely be reflected in rules.

link

I seem to remember an article on how most people have some sort of reaction to dealing with unknown obstacles in a dark setting.

And, as for wargaming tactics, I guess this would create one-sided hidden moves too.

CC

Song of Blades and Heroes does, if you have the Song of Gold and Darkness supplement (very fittingly named it is ^^)

As hwarang noted above, we just impose a -1 (on a d6 opposed roll combat system) on ranged combat and limit the range of shooting. Players of monsters/fantasy races have the option to say that their creatures are nocturnal. Nocturnal creatures hae no such limitation but have a -1 in daylight scenarios. This is an optional rule and worked well in fantasy.

In horror (see my just released horror ruleset "Fear and Faith") scenarios are either foght at twilight or at dawn, and when a player has rolled 2 turnovers (two failures on an activation roll, the key mechanic of the game) night turns into day or vice versa, with the obvious nasty effects on vampires :-)

For mass battle rules the old Fantasy Warriors had a rule for the differences between day and night.

It seems like 3rd Ed. 40K had night fighting rules.

D&D has this worked out quite thoroughly. The basic idea is a model that can't see behaves as if it is blind. I don't have a book here but IIRC it defines 3 categories of vision: normal, low-light, and darkvision (I may have the names wrong).

Normal vision is the reference system. It needs light to function. In darkness, the same standard modifiers apply in the D20 system as if the model was blind -- something like -4 to hit and defend. Ranged attacks require seeing the target so they are shutdown completely.

The radius of various light sources is given (in squares/hexes on the tabletop for playing with miniatures, or in prior editions, inches); within that radius models are assumed to see and fight normally. For example (again I may have the numbers wrong), a candle can see 2 squares and a torch 10.

Low light vision can use a candle as if it was a torch, or something like that.

Darkvision doesn't require visible light to see, so it has no penalties in darkness.

To simplify overlapping situations, any light source ruins low-light vision so as long as there is a light on, all models use it as a source. I think that my be true of darkvision as well unless the model has an additional trait, something like "does not use eyes to see so ignores light".

D&D is a heroic system so there are not overwhelming horror mechanics. If you wanted to include that you could use whatever its rules are for fearsome monsters (I don't remember them but probably it's a courage check of some kind to confront a model with that trait) but require it anytime a model is attacked when blinded.

Ambush Alley sort-of deals with this: The Regulars are all assumed to have NODs/NVGs, so their Optimum Range isn't affected, but the Irregulars have their Optimum Range halved or reduced to 6".

They also suffer reduced Firepower, and I think Defense, but I don't have the books in front of me to doublecheck.

Then again, AA assumes that you can shoot all the way across the table, but can get more effective fire if within Optimum Range.

At Hawgleg Publishing we recently published a Gutshot adventure that makes extensive use of light sources and details the effects of shooting into and out of darkness in an underground gold mine.

If you're interested, go to this page and download the 10th adventure, "I Hit a Vein!" link

You really don't need to know anything about Gutshot (other than it's a 2d6 system) to get a good grasp of the modifiers and illustrations used in this adventure.

We found using flashlights, helps move the lead around the table.

WHAT i and others have done for years is to allow troops with vision enhancement gear to see normally in low light and no light conditions.

vehicle mounted night vision gear is treated as that worn by troopers.

vehicle mounted searchlight/spotlights produce a cone of very bright light from the vehicle mounting out to 60". normally these can be rotated independently from the direction the vehicle is moving (either 360, 180, or 90 degrees from the light depending on how/where it is mounted on the vehicle)

vehicle mounted headlights produce one or two cones of interlocking bright light out to 24" from the vehicle.

as for ye aulde vacc-suit, or environmental hazard suits, with assume all come fitted with helmet lights that project a cone of bright light out to 18" from the wearer.

as for ye aulde flashlight we assume it projects a cone of bright light out to 18" from the user.

electric or liquid fuelled lanterns project a circle of light in all directions up to a distance of 6" from the user.

liquid fuelled or electric lanterns able to project light only in one direction produce a cone of light up to 6" from the user.

torches (ie, firebrands), produce a dim and wavering circle light in all directions up to 3" from the user. night vision is zip beyond this circle of light! torches will also be able to indicate the direction of airflow (if any) by the movement of the flame.

candles or oil lamps produce a dim and wavering circle of light in all directions up to 2" from the user. beyond this cicrle of light night vision is zip! candles and oil lamps will also be able to ndicate the direction of airflow (if any) by movement of the flame.

sentients and critters with night vision are able to see normally in low light and no light conditions but will suffer vision reduction/and or total blindness for x turns when suddenly exposed to bright light .

sentient and critters with MK I eyeballs (ie, daylight, good low light conditions only) have low light vision reduced to 1"circle from the owner. in total darkess they cannot see zip! sudden exposure to light results in complete blindness for x turns.

DAWGIE

Previous thread from a Gutshot/Zorro perspective:

TMP link

Gracias,

Glenn

'limit the range of shooting' – Cripes! I already have found the ranges too limited, so we play house rules with more 'realistic' values. Great game though, just needs a few tweaks (IMO) to make it a bit better. Of course, we've only played it a couple of times, but the range point, and low combat value of ranged units (that we used) shone out at us from the start, so we changed them. rest of it we've left unchanged and it playes really nicely.