Flashlights in combat

[Der Wanderer]

In my present day campaign I have a player who wants to use flashlights in combat. After some minor testing we realized that this could prove to be extremely effective.
A tiny flashlight, e.g. Olight S10-L2 (70mm long) delivers up to 400 lumen of light. At close range this can completely blind anyone, including anyone wearing sunglasses. So unless you are fighting on a sunny day on a glacier, this flashlight is capable to completely take away your vision or at least to entirely "obscure" the person holding the flashlight.*
In addition it is extremely easy to shine a flashlight into someones face.

But what are exactly the rules? Can anyone point me to where I would find them?
Thanks.

* Not to mention that a NiteCore TM26 delivers 3000 lumen in a tiny body (142mm long x 68mm (head) / 50mm (tube) diameter). To put this into perspective: According to WikiAnswers a welding arc is ~800 lumens!

[PTTG]

Consider the following to be ignorant speculation: One thing to remember is that most people sparring or practicing are effectively using a determined all-out attack.

I'd probably consider flashlight blinding to be a brawling technique at a moderate penalty. I'd also give the target the opprotunity to dodge, HT rolls to resist.

It can certainly work, but it will rarely work as well as it does in practice.

[gilbertocarlos]

High tech has rules for that

[Edges]

Tactical Shooting pg. 18-19

[Running Wolf]

Wow, why not use one of the bigger sized one? I'm sure now in days there are high lumin ones that are the size of a billy club. Can blind someone at a distance and bash them in the face or ribs at close range.

When I just saw the title of the thread I thought it was just that, bashing not blinding.

[Der Wanderer]

Checked the rules in High-Tech and called a friend who has Tactical shooting, thanks for the pointers.

I think the rules are outdated and are for far weaker flashlights with a much narrower illumination cone.
Today's flashlights are powerful enough that you only have to point in the general direction of the foe. Personally I seriously doubt that you can resist the blinding effect of a modern flashlight.

Actually GURPS assumes a beam throw of ~100 meter. You can get that with a Mini Maglight @ 14 lumens. And to illustrate the evolution:
Mini Maglight: 14 lumens
Mini Maglight LED: 84 lumens
Mini Maglisht LED PRO+: 245 lumen
Each generation gets 20mm longer. And I wouldn't call Maglight top of the line (but they have nice data sheets).

So the problem with the existing rules is that it does not take into account that a flashlight can have a huge range in brightness.
I can live with the rules, probably increase the penalties to resist to to -5 for 150+ lumens and to -6 for more than 1500 lumens. More problematic I think is the required aim maneuver.
I'm not convinced if the aim maneuver is still the right maneuver for pointing a flashlight at someone (Its not a laser but a rather wide cone). Guess I have to read up the rules about cone-attacks ;).

In case you are wondering what 3000+ lumens look like TM26, go to 7:47, you can see it switch through the modes (and you can also see the inner and outer cones).

[Der Wanderer]

Originally Posted by Running Wolf

Wow, why not use one of the bigger sized one? I'm sure now in days there are high lumin ones that are the size of a billy club. Can blind someone at a distance and bash them in the face or ribs at close range.

When I just saw the title of the thread I thought it was just that, bashing not blinding.

Portability for one. Besides most baseball-bat shaped flashlights are generations back in technology. That said the point here is using the flashlight beam as a weapon. Using the flashlight itself is a whole other point.

[gilbertocarlos]

Actually, most conversions are 1 lumin=1y. Sure, you may get 100y with 14 lumins, but the light will be almost nothing, and you'll barely be able to see a jumpo airplane.

[Running Wolf]

yeah I've seen the coffee pot sized one that are like little suns. Using one that uses 4 D batteries is what I was talking about... When I was growing up the cops used them as well as the batons.

A small pen light mounted on the barrel of a rifle (like a laser sight) might work. Especially at night that or a flash bulb like burst would ruin any sort of night vision for a while.

[Phoenix_Dragon]

Originally Posted by Der Wanderer

Actually GURPS assumes a beam throw of ~100 meter.

I have a Mini Mag. It's a great flashlight, but I doubt I'd even be able to see the light-on-target at 100 yards, much less illuminate something so much as to reduce the vision penalty. I might be able to see that there's a building out there, or maybe a tree.

The HT roll seems overly penalizing, actually. 90% of the people you shine that beam at will be completely blind for an average of about 4 seconds. It's not that 10% of them are so badass that they can stare into it without effect, but more like 10% of them manage to blink or look away before they're thoroughly blinded. The rules are already pretty harsh.