Anyways, I've been lacking in my use of lighting so far in my time running games, and it's put me in the mind to start brainstorming my own (Though I am horrendously bad at actually putting my homebrew into my games). So, here's my quick and dirty brainstorm for lighting rules:
Torches:
You have two types of torches: torches you buy, and torches you make. Torches you buy are going to last longer than torches you quickly make by grabbing some grass or a tree branch.I should probably get some form of time passage for dungeon exploration typed out before I go any further.
A dungeon room takes either five or ten minutes to explore, depending on how easily the players come up with a solution, or how reckless they are being. For example, if they bumble about down the hall it's not going to take them long (Unless they need to unimpale themselves 😉), whereas them carefully searching every nook and cranny for the trigger to a trap is going to take quite a bit longer.
Now let's get back to torches. A shitty torch will probably last 30 minutes, while a good torch lasts an hour. Lanterns last days, I have a kerosene lantern that I've ran multiple days and have never had to refill, those things last a while.
How much do torches light up? (For simplicity's sake, I'm going to make it so all forms of lighting cover the same radius, the duration is probably plenty reason to invest in better lighting). five feet from you is bright light, and thirty feet from you is dim light. This means that you need to move pretty close to something to see it as more than vague shadow.
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| Look at this helpful diagram I made! The grey circle is 5'. |
Of course anything past dim light is simply heard, which is a great way to make dungeons creepier.
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| Just this photo spooks me. |
Anyways, this is just a brainstorm I wrote whilst typing this post, so any feedback in the comments is appreciated.
