#RPGADAY 9 Light

After thinking about shadows and yesterday – today I’m thinking about illumination. In the context of OSR adjacent games like black hack but also in other genres like my beloved historical and Sci-fi.

There the way I see it are three elements to lights in games to think about

• Tactical effect
• Effect on exploration & detective work
• Atmosphere and description

Tactical effect – is easily given representation in most rules systems in terms of too hit modifiers etc; there is the opportunities the use of stealth or ‘hide in shadows’ poor light provides as well as poor light making escape easier assuming your opponents don’t have dark vision.

Poor light also increases the chance of getting lost, confused and friendly fire – which is easier to present in a theatre of the mind fight (or if only the GM has the battle map.)

When thinking about poor light let’s not just think about night time or dungeons – a thick forest canopy (especially on an overcast day) could give poor light as could an overcast day in the shadow of mountains or tall buildings . Furthermore without artificial light many modern buildings (say hospitals ) could be gloomy so that should feature in post-apocalyptic games.

But the tactical effect of light is not limited to gloom or shade. Oh no – many of us will have had the experience of driving on a crisp sunny winters day into the sun and battling the blinding effect of a low sunshine – including reflected of a road surface. Fighter pilots in the world wars strengths to attack ‘out of the sun’ as they were harder to spot. So snipers etc can use these effects so they are harder to pick out or an approaching party riding out the sun may be more difficult to estimate numbers.

Furthermore light in darkness can effectively blind an opponent (like a stun grenade) – so can shinning a light in their face in a dark room like a police interrogation scene.

These same principles and environmental factors can be applied to exploration and detective work. Relative light and darkness and it’s effect on vision can make it harder to discover navigation perils or clues. It may make it harder to accurately judge distances. In an environment like a forest poor light could lead to becoming poor navigation – even becoming lost. It can also explain when NPCs haven’t found vital clues but our brilliant PCs have. In modern games blood splatter detection through UV light is also a tool available.

In terms of atmosphere we turn from simulation to story telling. The use of light is an obvious tool of painters and in particular film makers so in our descriptions it should be a matter of consideration. Bringing into our descriptions as a GM then allows us to allow the consequences in tactical or other effects to breathe.

Here’s an article on different types of film lighting obviously your not going to have a light department illuminating your NPCs but thinking about these filmmaking tools might inform your descriptions I.e ‘ the old baron walks towards the window and as the morning sunlight blasts the shadows in his face you get a glimpse of the callous warlord he once was.’

Alternatively ‘ the door to the tavern opens – with the spring sunshine behind them the three men entering are just heavily armed shadows striding in as their stirrups jungle .’

What do you think ?