Light Levels

[Sunrunners_Fire]

I have seen this thread. It is a thread where someone had a table of light levels (darkness penalties) using printed examples ... and I can't find it. My search-fu has failed me. Anyone have a quick pointer?

[SCAR]

GURPS Mysteries has expanded Sense Roll Modifiers p47/48.

[Dragondog]

The Light spell, I believe, in Magic also has some info on darkness penalties.

[simply Nathan]

-3 for torch-lit fight
-5 for candle light
-7 for dark of night

It's what goes between these that I have a hard time gauging.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Kenneth Latrans

-3 for torch-lit fight
-5 for candle light
-7 for dark of night

It's what goes between these that I have a hard time gauging.

Well, presumably somewhere in between those levels. Doing light properly is a mess, I have house rules about it (though they make starlight -8), but I don't believe detailed official rules exist (if they do, High Tech is a likely candidate, but I don't have HT).

[Omegastick]

One thing that confuses me is why these modifiers apply for hitting your target during shooting. There should be, at most, an initial sense roll to spot him and then you are 'locked on' until he moves out of your LoS.

[Stripe]

I've not seen that thread nor that table, Sunrun.

The only canonical, RAW, light level examples I recall off the top of my head from books in my library are found on Magic, p. 110:

• Starlight -7
• Candlelight or moonlight -5
• Torchlight -3

Also, Dungeon Fantasy 2 p. 6 has details about light levels.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Omegastick

One thing that confuses me is why these modifiers apply for hitting your target during shooting. There should be, at most, an initial sense roll to spot him and then you are 'locked on' until he moves out of your LoS.

Well, part of the penalty is because you need to be able to see your gun sights to use them. But that's only a little bit of it.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Omegastick

One thing that confuses me is why these modifiers apply for hitting your target during shooting.

Realistically, poor lighting means that you cannot consistently follow the motion of a target even if you keep track of its general position, so it's not ridiculous, though in melee it should be more of a defensive penalty than an offensive penalty (it's easier to track a target, which is pretty big, than an enemy weapon).

[Omegastick]

Still, it seems a bit much. If I was shooting at a guy in the corner of my room with a skill level of 10 then I would be at -3 for lighting. That takes me down from 50% probability of hitting to ~16% probability of hitting.