"Advice for portable lighting setup for tabletop gaming" Topic

In some ways, my home theater room is a great place for gaming, and it easily converts from theater to game room. It has a large open space I can set up folding tables to make a 5 x 7.5" tabletop, and it has a big screen TV which is great for a player to cast a player-view of Maptool when I run D&D. It's right next door to where I store my figures and terrain, and I wheel in my shelf unit where I keep my 3D dungeon.

However, the walls are painted gray-brown, the carpet is dark, and while the lighting is not bad, it's just not bright enough for a fully successful game. There are four recessed lamps in the ceiling and a lamp/ceiling fan combo, and two windows. I don't have the option of installing new lamps or changing the existing fixtures.

If the walls were white, a few floor lamps might cast enough back from the walls to light up the room. As a test, I brought in two shop lamps on stands that I use for mini photography, but they didn't make a strong difference when pointed at the walls, and these particular lights wouldn't work to point at the table with their exposed bulbs as they would shine in our eyes.

Who is good with lighting setups and can you offer advice on portable a lighting rig with a 10-minute or so setup time? Advice on particular lamps to buy, how to position, etc.

I'm no expert, but I've seen a fair few con games that employ their own specialized lighting setups. The first thing you need to get are lengths of PVC piping. There are any number of ways to get them to stand in the vertical. The easiest is to tape them to the legs of your table. It's messy to disassemble, but fast to setup.

The second critical element is to get light fixtures that have spring loaded clamps at the back end. I've seen them at the Home Despot. (Sic). Use the clamps to figure out what diameter of PVC pipe you're going to need.

The hardest part seems to be figuring out how to run the wiring without creating a trip hazard. Experiment with different kinds of bulbs to create the best lighting. Anticipate mounting the fixtures at least 6 feet off the floor, projecting down to avoid glaring out your gamers. With some PVC glue you can create sleeved sectioned uprights for compact storage.

This really shouldn't end up being too expensive.

Is this what people will need to do at the new historicon site? We have read that the lighting in the gaming rooms is not very good.

Torchiere Halogen lamps: inexpensive; light is blasted at the white ceiling, which diffuses it across the entirety of the room; high Lumen output, as they use quartz-Halogen bulbs, which are clear, and bright, usually starting at 150 Watts of power (see below, for cautions).

Now, to be safer, replace the quartz-Halogen bulbs with cool-running LED's (available on e-Bay, and elsewhere). The Torchiere lamp can handle the same wattage of LED, but you likely won't find an LED that consumes that much power, but they should put out many more Lumens, per Watt! Here is one LED torchiere lamp, for example, from Amazon (close in price to a q-H lamp…): link, pumps out 2,100 Lumens, for $50 USD + S/H; two such lamps adds 4,200 Lumens of lighting, for $100. USD

The Torchiere lamps, with q-H bulbs, come with a wire-frame dome, to keep the bulbs from contacting anything, should the lamp fall over. Those q-H bulbs burn very hot, and have been known to cause house fires, when the lamps fall over and touch something like a couch or a chair… LED's are your friend, but q-H may save a few dollars up front, while LED's will run cheaper, in the long run. Check the color temperature, too: 2,700K-3,000K, is equal to the q-H; 5,000K is Daylight, 6,000K is blue-ish, in color.

These lamps are free standing, easy to move, just plug in, and go. Check your local stores for them. They typically sell for less than $40. USD Wattages vary, so shop carefully -- DO NOT put over-sized bulbs into a lamp (put in a 300 Watt bulb, into a 150 Watt lamp)! This will result in a fire!… Cheers!

I bring a halgen work light to conventions. Used it this weekend at Cold Wars.

The only downside as mentioned above, it's hot as hell. And will warm up a small room. If I bought a another one, I'd go with the LED version.