"How Do You Handle Low Light Vision In Game Scenarios?" Topic

How do you handle unilateral vision impairment, as in the case where one side has enhanced night vision, while the other side does not?

Either in night combat, or in dark caves, tunnels, passageways, etc.

Thanks.

Dan
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Night Time rules, visibility (ranges) cut in half. With proper equipment LLV eyes you can add 2d6".

Make the players wear sunglasses?

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

LOL

Good one, Parzival. Good one.

Dan

We generally bring in some floor lamps and flashlights if people are having a hard time seeing the table.

(Parzival's was better)

;-)

Ok guys. Yes, I know. The wording of the title sucked. But there are only so many characters allowed in a title. :)

Please help me out with the spirit of the question.

Thanks.

Dan

Just apply your low-light rules to one side…? Of course in "real life" the disadvantaged side wouldn't be able to see the other outflanking them etc., but that's a problem you have in any wargame (helicopter generals) unless you play double-blind.

Sumo Boy: "Double-blind"?

Please tell me more.

Dan

three tables and a ref, set up in separate rooms. The ref's table shows everyone, and each player's table only shows what they can see. It's a bit involved.

Ambush Alley simplifies the equation to 'side with NODs sees like normal, side without night-vision can only see 6" (iirc).'

Wow. I'm definitely intrigued now. Thanks.

Dan

For the side with low vision, they need to roll for detection as well, in addition to having a reduced spotting range. Say a 50% to see troops in the open; 10 – 15% in cover, etc.

Seeing things isn't automatic in low light.

There should also be a chance for "friendly fire", not that their compatriots will think it very friendly if fired upon erroneously. Values for that depend upon how dark it is, whether the unit is firing, etc. Say 20% – 50% chance to fire on a friendly unit, especially if it ends up not where planned, e.g. keeping even with your own unit, on the left flank, etc. (see the rules for getting lost, below). A greater chance to fire on the friendly unit should occur, when firing first starts up, especially from behind the unit doing the spotting (people don't like things that go bump in the night, especially if they suddenly appear behind them).

For a random event, each unit (squad, platoon, individual – depending upon the scale of your game) has to roll for "stealth failure", each turn, with a 5% chance of giving away their position to any forces within "X" distance. For example, the person/squad lights up a cigarette, despite orders not to do so; lights a match or turns on a flashlight to look at their map; trips over something, making a large racket; fires a shot at something he thinks he saw; has gear not secured properly, so is making a lot of noise while moving; talks too much; etc.

Finally, even walking/advancing in the open shouldn't be guaranteed, unless following a road, fenceline, riverbank, etc. It is fairly easy to get lost at night.

For that, roll 1D6 for every turn of advancing in the open, for deviation to the side of the intended path, if not following one of the above major landmarks. Flip a coin, or roll again for deviation left, or right (1 – 3 = left, 4 – 6 = right). Note, these should be rolled after the point of advance is declared by the player(s), but before actual movement.

The side with low-light vision goggles can operate normally, unless they are airborne units (helo pilots, etc), where there is a chance of vertigo.

Enjoy!

"three tables and a ref, set up in separate rooms. The ref's table shows everyone, and each player's table only shows what they can see. It's a bit involved."

The same effect can be managed with one table and a map for each player and the ref.

The slightly well off can manage two tables, one for each player, a map for the ref, and double the number of miniatures available. That would work fine for asymmetrical spotting.

We did it for a game of 40K Rogue Trader once where one side could see through smoke and had bio-scanners and the other side couldn't see through smoke. Course we were high school kids and couldn't afford a map, so as a ref I just ran back and forth between the two tables to figure out the line of sight.

Troops with NVGs have to make Quality Check to ID at daylight ranges. Give plus modifier if target has moved in the last turn (easier to spot motion).

Non-NVG troops make quality check to ID targets at half daylight ranges. Again, allow plus for moving targets.

Better trained troops will do better in both cases.

Any one firing is 'spotted' by anyone in LOS regardless of range and remains so unless they don't fire for the next turn.

Allow environmental light (light from windows/doorway/streetlamps/illum rounds from mortars/what ever). Any one 'lit up' is visable. Use yellow circular template to show lit area (semi circle for light from windows/doors). Any one with light source in a line between shooter-target-lightsource is identified if shooter makes quality check with a plus modifier. If the line is shooter-lightsource-target no matter range target cannot be identified (unless shooter has thermal capability).

Jake

Another rather simple way to handle low-light spotting is to have the side without night vision to measure their spot-checks as normal, then modify the distance x3. For example, enemies 12" away will be spotted as if they are 36" away.

If the side with night vision fires, then the side without can opt to fire at the muzzle flashes with 1/2 chance to hit.

This is well-handled in most versions of D&D.

Complete darkness is the same as blindness.

If a model can't see the target but knows it is there and is judged able to make an attack, treat as blind and apply the appropriate penalty (up through D&D 3.5 that was -6 on a D20 to hit, haven't looked it up in 4e).

Enhanced senses of whatever kind (smell, sound, etc.) apply if the target is in range of them; in that case, either add the appropriate benefit (probably typically +2 to hit offsetting the penalty), negate the blindness effect entirely (i.e., you smell him so well it's as if you can see him), or do so subject to a perception check (you hear the air swishing as his legs move, if you make your check you know exactly where he is).

Daylight allows unlimited visibility.

(I may have misquoted the following ranges.)

Bright light (large fire, glowing magical effect) allows vision within a large area (50 feet / 10 squares).

Medium light (torch, lantern) allows vision within a room-sized area (25 feet / 5 squares).

Dim light (candle, glowing magic weapon, natural phosphorescence) allows vision within the immediate area (10 feet / 2 squares).

Nightvision allows seeing in total darkness as if it were daylight.

Darkvision treats darkness as medium light.

Stealth requires silence and concealment. The amount of light sets the difficulty level for any checks. Failed check, you were moving in the light when someone was looking, or you made too much noise. If a target is hiding and not moving, its stealth skill is used to figure the difficulty number for someone's perception check to see them.

Modern technology would adapt fine to the above, just decide what it equates to.

For electric lights, treat like a fire that throws that much light. Flares or street lights are bright light, lanterns are medium light, flashlights are either candles or they are medium light but only in say, 30 degrees of arc (read further).

In D&D, models can look any which way (easier to play) but having a light with restricted arc would give either a bonus to enemy stealth checks or a perception bonus when the light is directed at a target.

Enhanced vision goggles would equate to a certain amount of light depending on the technology, would possibly work only in a restricted arc, and any advantages wouldn't apply if the target didn't emit the type of wavelength they enhance (e.g., can heat vision see undead since they're the same temperature as what's around them?).

Motion scanners would most likely give a small bonus to perception checks by the model carrying one (unless they are integrated into vision goggles, then see above), or they could make stealth checks harder. Or it could be roleplayed "there's something moving that way, do you look or tell anyone?"

Muzzle flashes … ah that's a good one. They would tell you a target was there despite darkness, but he would still get a concealment bonus, since you can't actually see the target, just the end of his gun. Same I guess with flashlights mounted on gun barrels. Laser sights maybe count as flashlights but with a better concealment bonus, except in dust/fog/smoke when they give less.

The side with better command control, training, equipment, intel, and/or vision is going to be able take and hold the initiative and operate at a much faster tempo than the side without. There are few if any rules that model that at all.

"The same effect can be managed with one table and a map for each player and the ref."

It can also be managed by putting all the players on one side, and have the other side played completely hidden by umpire(s). Rather like an RPG.

The two table version can be amanged with energetic umpires to run between the rooms and keep track of stuff.

An alternative is to just have one table (the umpires), all the players get are sitreps and a map to try and keep track of stuff on.

Since I'm a big fan of KISS rulesets, especially for moderns, I prefer the Ambush Alley version.

Units fighting at night and lacking night vision devices lose one die of firepower and have their optimum range cut in half. Units with night vision devices suffer no such penalty.

Example: An Insurgent unit with a Firepower of 6 and a Troop Quality of Untrained is fighting at night. The unit has no night vision capability, so its Firepower is reduced to 5 and its Optimum Range, which was 6", is reduced to 3".

I did an Ambush Alley game based on an attack at Tarnak Farm in Afghanistan. It was a night op which in reality it probably would have been. The NVds of the US regulars gave them way too big an advantage in my opinion. But talking with a buddy who debriefs Stryker infantry from Iraq and Afghanistan up at Fort Lewis, he said that was the reality of the situation in those two warzones. I would not make the NVDs as powerful as they were in my first iteration. They should probably be useful to at most 200m. I have used some in the Army, several years ago, but I imagine that they have improved a whole lot since then.
If you want a complete massacre, make them really powerful, otherwise tone them down to a level you are comfortable with.
Count Natokina.

Although I was originally joking, I wonder if you could pull off a game where some players are "handicapped" by clever means. What if you did dim the lighting and have one side actually wear sunglasses? The side without the glasses will probably see fairly well, but the other side will be limited. When a unit shoots, you could briefly shine a flashlight or laser on it to indicate muzzle flare, and use a very bright light for explosions. You could also rule that a unit can carry lighting, in which case you shine a flashlight from the location of the unit in a direction the player chooses… but any enemy the beam falls on gets a chance at a free shot!
It could turn out to be a fun experience (or it might not work at all). Worth experimenting with anyway!

I've played a few games of Necromunda where we dimmed the lights real low and used pen flashlights to spot targets… it was fun.

Those Ambush Alley rules seem simple and too the point.
I'd think the 'blinded' side might also have a slightly reduced rate of movement.

I'd be tempted to use blip counters, like in Full Thrust and Space Hulk… with the night-vision side having a much longer range at which blips are replaced with the actual units. Have some of the blips be 'bogeys' that get replaced with small animals (or big ones… 'hello Mr. Tiger!').

Another idea is to use multiple counters to represent on unit or one mini. This represents possible spaces they could be where it looks or sounds like someone could be lurking. Just an idea. A few rules systems for boardgames use this for hidden movement.

Having good night vision kit is not as important as good training, leadership and doctrine etc. In the Falklands the Argentinians appeared to have the night vision kit, the Brits did not. The Brits conducted a series of successful night attacks.

Current-issue nightvision does have some limitations (mostly a really narrow field of view and complete lack of peripheral vision), but at the short ranges represented by Ambush Alley (and most other wargames) it's really an overwhelming advantage. I mean, vehicle-mounted systems are sharp enough to resolve weapons on infantry at over 1500m, and I think the soldier-versions are resolving weapons at over 200m.

Depends of course on just how dark it is. If it's pitch black, then good luck. The blind sods are going to get mayhem of a sort that does not wash out of carpeting. If we assume night-time with limited illumination from torches, bonfires, lights or the moon, then I'd say half ranges for everything, and possibly even reduced movement. Melee won't be affected; as long as there's *some* light, you can see things five feet away just fine.

I've actually fought in the dark before. LARPing in the mountains is great, until the moon goes down and you realize just how dark things can get without a handy Light spell, and even then, a glowstick ain't gonna cut it for more than being able to see what you're swinging at. On the plus side, once your eyes adjust, it makes stealth insanely easy to accomplish. Then add some fog…