Cavern monsters and dark vision

[phiwum]

Originally Posted by Shostak

The simple answer is “Which beasties do you want to have the ability to “see” in darkness?”. The related game mechanical issues are how far and how well they “see” with whatever ability they have, whether being in either light or darkness impose a DX penalty, and if there are conditions that interfere with whatever sensory ability they have.

That sounds right. I was asking how others had answered this question.

One interesting consequence of your suggestions regarding the exact mechanism that these beasties "see" with is that it can hobble some spells. If one uses echo location or smell or extraordinary hearing, say, then invisibility doesn't do anything at all. Arguably, if they see infrared, then invisibility works as expected. In game terms, these consequences won't matter too often, since the PCs can't usually see in the dark. It would only be those rare circumstances that one is invisible and also has dark vision (or something similar) when this would matter. Maybe a particularly bold PC with Acute Hearing might try moving in total darkness while invisible, but again, pretty rare.

For now, my initial ideas are the guideline I'm using. A human-like critter doesn't have any special abilities in darkness unless I can find no way around it. A monstrous critter or a beastie which spends a large portion of his life underground is more likely to have some ability to get by in those circumstances. And I like Henry's suggestion (which you echo) that those critters that spend the bulk of their lives in darkness may well have issues fighting in bright light.

[Skarg]

I have taken it on a case-by-case basis, and consider anything (even humans) who spend a lot of time in complete or near-complete darkness will develop very good "dark vision" but not the ability to see in complete darkness (because that would require magic or echo-location or something). However, they may also develop the ability to get around and do things in complete darkness. For example, cats or dogs that are completely blind can develop the ability to move around their home territory, go up and down stairs, jump up and down surprising distances, use the litter box, and explore and understand changes to their environment remarkably effectively - they use their noses, ears, whiskers and so on, and maintain mental maps.

Q.v. also the Actue Hearing talent, which by human standards, many animals have.

I also like that it's not in ITL, because that means players can't just have read the book and know what can see in the dark and how well - they need to find out during play, if they want that advantage.

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by phiwum

One interesting consequence of your suggestions regarding the exact mechanism that these beasties "see" with is that it can hobble some spells.

Right! If a subterranean creature has sightless vestigial eyes and only "sees" by echolocation, Dazzle won't affect them at all.

If you don't want to have completely dark labyrinths, you can sometimes have pockets of bioluminescent fungus. This could give a low level of light that allows "normal" sight to be enough to get by.