Vaults of Vaarn 2E does a curious thing with the introduction of light mechanics. 1E has no rules for lighting, and the rules for generating vaults fit on a single page. By contrast the spark tables and travel rules take up far more page real estate. This suggests a greater emphasis on the pointcrawl in play. 2E adds far more tables and guidance for building out vaults at a scale that is more in line with the expectations of OSR play. It also has rules for light now, which are as follows:

Vaarn’s vaults are mostly lightless, their glow-globes having long since burnt out. Each PC carries a chemcell torch illuminating their surroundings. This torch does not use an item slot and does not run out of power, but it confers no additional benefits.

Without light, the PCs travel blindly: they take three Exploration Turns to move from one location to another and cannot effectively search an unlit location. Encounters always surprise the party. Ranged attacks cannot be made without light, and melee attacks have DIS.

This rule threw me for a loop. I looked into Leo’s reasoning, and he said that he didn’t see the value in tracking torches in the game when water is already a scarce resource, and in play tests this sort of light management didn’t work fictionally for the players, e.g. tracking light didn’t fit with their conception of a futuristic setting, even one in ruins. Fair enough, but this strikes me as an uneasy compromise. Many of the changes in Vaarn 2E make the game more compatible with OSR conventions, allowing modules to easily slot in and only having to make cosmetic changes to fit in. Would swapping out tracking water/rations for light really be functionally identical? Personally I’m not so sure.

It is a complete cliche in OSR play culture that tracking light is important. In most games I’ve played, people dutifully track their torch usage, but also it is trivial to have a requisite amount of torches, so what’s the point? A slot based inventory system helps by tightly constraining how many items a player carries, but that just means you’ve turned an illumination problem into an inventory management problem. What exactly is the challenge being presented to the player? I’ve never actually experienced the party running out of light mid-adventure. So does lighting actually matter then? What is the game actually teaching us? Is there any need to track light if you already have mechanics in the game that put players on a clock? The light rule for Vaarn 2E was making me question some deeply held assumptions about OSR play.

When I went to check the rule for how the use of light works in B/X clones (in this case OSE), I knew that torches burn at a certain rate and lanterns at another, but I was surprised to see what the actual rule was for light itself, and that I had been neglecting it in my own play:

Characters or monsters that carry a light in a dark environment are usually unable to surprise opponents, because the light gives their presence away.

That’s the entirety of the rules on light and darkness! Surprising your opponent is a big deal as they get a free round of attacks on the other party. It can make even lowly 1HD enemies a significant threat at low levels. What happens if the players are in total darkness? It doesn’t say. In the combat section it does state that blind characters cannot make attacks at all, so that’s the reasonable thing to apply. Following that train of thought, no more torches available is a TPK event.

So lets think about this: the party implicitly needs a light source to see and identify the environment, but carrying a light source means they will almost never get the jump on someone, but 1/3rd of monsters encountered (they get a 2-in-6 chance of surprise) will get a surprise attack on the party. That makes the experience of exploring the dungeon a series of jump scares. I haven’t seen the game run that way, but maybe it should? Who’s holding the torch? How close does the rest of the party want to be to the torch-bearer knowing that they’ll get jumped when the could gain an opportunity for a counter-surprise (assuming they don’t stumble their way in the dark and give up their position)?

I asked around about how other tables use light and received informative reports back. Broadly speaking, it came down to the following features, with different points of emphasis depending on the individual:

  • Torch usage requires a hand. That means the person holding the torch cannot use shields, two-handed weapons, etc.
  • Distinguish between total darkness and dim conditions. In dim conditions you can take actions, but not easily (e.g. you see the outline of things, but cannot make out specific details), whereas in total darkness a character is near helpless.
  • Tracking light usage becomes less important as the party levels up and becomes more powerful, having access to more spells, magic items, retainers, etc. It shows off to the players how powerful they’ve become if they survive those low level experiences!
  • It’s less about the rules and more about the level design around the rules. Make the environment produce opportunities and hazards for play with light sources. Have dark pits that you can drop torches into to see into the depths, have oil barrels to set on fire, have monsters that avoid the light and monsters drawn to the light, have flooded areas that require the re-lighting of torches, etc.

I think that last point is key. The OSE rule is simple and elegant, and I would prefer not to overly complicate things by tracking how many feet ahead can the party see, etc. That means offloading interesting details onto the adventure design itself. And if you can’t produce those interesting details in your adventure? Then I guess light isn’t that important for that particular adventure, which is fine too! Not every adventure should require the same types of challenges and considerations.

One final thought: Games set in fantastical environments should also have fantastical light sources available. Instead of making illumination a binary there can be various forms of light that are mechanically distinct. To that end, I present a merchant that can be located in the bazaars of Sargattea in my Vaults of Vaarn game.

Maestro’s Illumination Emporium

Maestro is a synth with a plasma globe head and theremin-like voice that beckons you into a garrish, bright tent.

Buys: Drugs & rugs

Sells:

  • Light Pods The default of light source found throughout Vaarn. Single use gelatinous pod that when squeezed gives off a pale green bioluminescence. Lasts a similar duration as a torch, but will not go out if submerged in water, or from strong gusts, etc. On the other hand, can’t be used to set things on fire, and may not strike fear into denizens of the dark. Requires one hand. 3 to a slot.
  • Torches Also quite common as a light source. Of varying make and quality, making the duration of torches quite unpredictable. Can be used to inflict 1d6 fire damage. Requires one hand. 3 to a slot.
  • Flashlight Battery powered lightsource. Less commonly seen, but sometimes unearthed near ancient ruins. Can be turned on or off. When light exhaustion is rolled on the hazard die make a usage die check instead of automatic diminishment. A full battery charge is d8 usage, but d6 or d4 is much more commonly available. Requires one hand. 3 to a slot.
  • High-Powered Flashlight The larger, more robust version of the flashlight. d12 usage. Requires two hands and takes up two inventory slots.
  • Night Vision Goggles Night vision goggles allow the wearer to see in the dark without giving off light, allowing them to surprise NPCs they encounter, and more easily sneak around. Night vision goggles work best in cold environments and pick up heat sources. When those conditions aren’t met the image quality can be grainy and/or blurry. Rare. D8 usage at most. Takes up one inventory slot and cannot wear another helmet unless the wearer is a two-headed cacogen.
  • Synthetic Illuminoid A delicate hovering synth orb of glass, ceramics, and various composites that acts as a hands-free light source that can move around spaces based on commands. d6 usage, but solar powered so fully recharges after a day exposed to sunlight. 1d6 HP. Takes up one slot when not in use.
  • Planeyfolk Mirror Inverts light and darkness. Unlimited usage, but on a light exhaustion hazard die roll make an INT save or suffer a hypergeometric mishap.

Special Thanks

I want to thank everyone that took the time to answer my questions about how they handle light usage at their tables, as well as people that have seriously blogged about this very topic: DIY & Dragons, All Dead Generations, Rise Up Comus, I Cast Light, Necropraxis and others that I am surely forgetting at this moment.