Darkvision blinded by the light

[ericthered]

I'm sure that this has been needed by someone, but I can't find any examples of this.

I'm building a race that can ONLY see in the dark. Any light at all, even that of the stars, blinds them and hurts their eyes. (they live underground of course). I know I want darkvision and blindness, but the two are specifically mutually exclusive. Also, what is the cost for blindness (only in the presence of light)?

While were at it, how do you create a character who sees at -3 in normal light and -6 where most people get -9?

thanks!

[Pomphis]

Nightvision 3 [0].

[Stripe]

I'm away from my books right now, but I'm pretty certain there is a canonical fantasy species template that has this problem, and I think it's an orc. Perhaps Fantasy?

[Jerander]

Originally Posted by ericthered

I'm building a race that can ONLY see in the dark. Any light at all, even that of the stars, blinds them and hurts their eyes. (they live underground of course). I know I want darkvision and blindness, but the two are specifically mutually exclusive. Also, what is the cost for blindness (only in the presence of light)?

I'd call their Dark Vision a Feature. The Blindness would have an Accessibility modifier based on how often the are *not* in total darkness.

Originally Posted by ericthered

While were at it, how do you create a character who sees at -3 in normal light and -6 where most people get -9?

I believe it's described under the Night Vision advantage in the Basic Set. Set the light level that's normal for them, then they get -1 to Vision checks above *or* below that. (Ninja-ed).

[Pomphis]

Oh, and if you can see only in the dark that might be Dark Vision [0].

[the_matrix_walker]

I don't know about combining Dark Vision with Blindness... Rather than blindness you would probably take Infra-vision or Ultra-vision at the zero point level where it replaces your normal sight rather than supplements it.

Probably be easier to model if you could share HOW they see.

But modifying the visual comfort zone is easy enough. Just set your "zero point" as a feature. Trolls for example have

"Night-Adapted Vision: You have a non-advantageous form of Night Vision. When the darkness penalty is -5 or worse, reduce it by -5; thus, -5 (night) through -9 (near-total dark) give you only 0 to -4. However, you have -1 per level brighter than - 5. When most folk would have no penalty (daylight, or in range of artificial light that cancels darkness penalties), you’re at -5!"

[Jerander]

Originally Posted by Pomphis

Oh, and if you can see only in the dark that might be Dark Vision [0].

Even though even a -1 in "light" penalties makes them Blind? Seems you'd need to add Blindness on there, too.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Jerander

Even though even a -1 in "light" penalties makes them Blind? Seems you'd need to add Blindness on there, too.

No, it's just like getting Infravision[0] -- the lack of normal vision is part of the 0 point cost.

[ericthered]

thanks to everyone who responded. It appears the native vision at -3 is easy to do, but I fairly sure I looked at both Night Vision and Orc for exactly what you described. I'll have to check troll. It makes sense though.

The race that sees only in the dark does so by picking up the very small portions of ambient light bouncing around. This lets them see where other's can't, but just about anything we can see is a blinding stab of light to them. PS, this is fantasy.

I can see the argument behind making it a 0-point darkvision, but my objection is how easy it is to remove it: to deprive a human of sight requires blocking light sources, which means you are attacking specific targets, while depriving darkvision only creatures of sight requires your own light source, and they have very few ways to stop you from bringing that out. In fact, it will be a standard part of all their interactions with other species.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Stripe

I'm away from my books right now, but I'm pretty certain there is a canonical fantasy species template that has this problem, and I think it's an orc. Perhaps Fantasy?

There's a section about it in the Characters chapter of GURPS Fantasy, clearly intended for use to simulate Tolkien-style orcs.