Darkness

[Guybrush Threepwood]

I'm looking forward to do a second playtest of the darkness rule together with the new enhanced monster chart this weekend.

[Redav]

In reality, a shield requires some effort and dexterity to handle and a person would normally drop a torch hold in the same hand at start of a meele combat, or, more probable, leave it to the companions who carry only a single weapon anyway. Game-wise, in the original rules, a shield always counts as a second weapon, "using up" one hand to hold.

I get that. I was talking about a character who is carrying a shield in one hand and a torch in the other. My rules (currently) only allow changing weapons during your turn and lists a penalty for being caught with a torch and shield equipped but no weapon. I'm thinking of changing this to only if you're ambushed.

Realistically, most adventurers would be walking around with a weapon held. It probably wouldn't be common for a person to have a shield and torch equipped. If anything, it might be a situation where it's the weakling mage who has a torch while carrying a staff (two handed) so probably couldn't defend without simply throwing the torch away.

[Gold Bearer]

Can your monsters see in the dark?

I'd say yes, for two reasons -
First, in terms of in-game realism; as long as the heroes carry the light sources or stay in contact with friends that do so (which will be the case most often), everybody in the dark will definitely see them, more prominentely even than under "normal" conditions.
Second, and most important in terms of real world practicability: the GM knows the whereabouts of both monsters and heroes and making the mosters act as if they could not see the heroes (or each other) would mean a great deal of thinking agaist his own interests.
It's also not illogical that most monsters have a better night vision than heroes and that monsters that live in a dungeon where the corridors are left dark are used to this condition.

Yea I was thinking that if the light goes out then certain monsters like night goblins and skavin should be able to attack in the dark. If you're using just the standard monsters then goblins. Maybe all undead should be able to see in the dark as well since they don't 'see' in the traditional sense. If their touches are lit I think all monsters should be activated as soon as they have a line of sight.

I think a torch should be able to attack with one dice, two against mummies.

[gootchute]

How about a little more abstract of a rule (inspired by Torchbearer).

Rather than counting squares, just simply say the hero holding the light source and a number of miniatures in his LOS are considered illuminated (see below). Being illuminated has no effect on the game rules other than Illuminated miniatures may not cast or shoot at miniatures in darkness. Not being illuminated triggers the darkness condition, in which the hero rolls half their normal attack and defense dice (round down) and may not search for anything (dwarfs can see in the dark so they round up). Miniatures in the darkness may still shoot and cast at illuminated miniatures without penalty.

Candles illuminate the bearer only, torches illuminate the bearer and the 3 closest miniatures, lanterns illuminate every miniature in sight of the bearer. In this way the enemy could tactically swarm the Torchbearer and block out the light for other heroes... maybe this is a dumb rule which makes no logical sense, but thematically you could say it is the evil one's will enacted by his minions.

The downside is a torch reaches all the way down the longest corridor most of the time, so suspension of belief needed.

[TMU]

Honestly, I think that the game is in need of new rules as soon as you have played it trough a couple of times. Making the dungeons dark and kinda blurred is a great idea. It has been covered some times here, so every one can pick that wich suits their houserules the best. New perspectives to the subject are always welcome.