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Parvum
2016-02-13, 11:50 PM
I'm making a setting where there is almost no light. Right now the plan is the bottom of the ocean, also contemplating a surface world where the sun has been blotted out. But I'm very keen on a setting where the sky provides no light. There are some glowing plants, torch-analogues, but for the most part everything is darkness and players can expect to be in pitch blackness most of the time.
So I'm thinking about the races, most of which are adapted or created exclusively for this setting.
First thought was that everyone had darkvision and light blindness. So everything within 120 ft is black and white and dim, and sudden exposure to bright light blinds the character. This is the standard vision, some could see out to 60 ft and not have light blindness.
But I'm wondering if I should play with vision more, since it is such an important part of the setting. Make unique ways of navigating the darkness- the anglerfish race obviously has a torch in front of their face, the living constructs can have a spotlight. There is a race that can see the indistinct ethereal plane out to a certain distance- this would let them navigate freely and see the features of the world but none of the creatures within it (if I understand seeing into the ethereal plane correctly- and if not I can just change something) unless they've brought a light. And there might be other ways to change vision around.

Or it might just be a bad idea and I should leave everything as 'darkvision 120 ft and light blindness' for everybody. Having characters seeing different things can get complicated.

Any opinions? It's fifth edition, if it matters.

VoxRationis
2016-02-13, 11:56 PM
I'm making a setting where there is almost no light. Right now the plan is the bottom of the ocean, also contemplating a surface world where the sun has been blotted out. But I'm very keen on a setting where the sky provides no light. There are some glowing plants, torch-analogues, but for the most part everything is darkness and players can expect to be in pitch blackness most of the time.
So I'm thinking about the races, most of which are adapted or created exclusively for this setting.
First thought was that everyone had darkvision and light blindness. So everything within 120 ft is black and white and dim, and sudden exposure to bright light blinds the character. This is the standard vision, some could see out to 60 ft and not have light blindness.
But I'm wondering if I should play with vision more, since it is such an important part of the setting. Make unique ways of navigating the darkness- the anglerfish race obviously has a torch in front of their face, the living constructs can have a spotlight. There is a race that can see the indistinct ethereal plane out to a certain distance- this would let them navigate freely and see the features of the world but none of the creatures within it (if I understand seeing into the ethereal plane correctly- and if not I can just change something) unless they've brought a light. And there might be other ways to change vision around.

Or it might just be a bad idea and I should leave everything as 'darkvision 120 ft and light blindness' for everybody. Having characters seeing different things can get complicated.

Any opinions? It's fifth edition, if it matters.

I'm a fan of "other ways to change vision around." Include different degrees of conventional vision, with sensitivity to different wavelength bands (there are deep-sea fish that use red light because everything else uses blue or yellow-green and can't see red). Include sensitivity to pressure and tremors. If in water, include electrosenses, both passive (as in sharks) and active (as in mormyrids or electric eels). Include a hive monster or even a hive PC race that just sends out tiny scouts in all directions as its form of primary sense.

Necroticplague
2016-02-14, 12:05 AM
There's also non-vision senses. Maybe some creatures navigate entirely by a fine-tuned sense of hearing, hearing the sound waves bounce off to get an image of their surrounding. When they need more detail, they emit noises of their own. It's also possible for something to live almost entirely on it's sense of smell, especially if it lives somewhere subterranean .

Lvl 2 Expert
2016-02-14, 04:13 PM
If you're underwater you can have an electric eel like race, sensing (bio-)electricity, and probably the conductivity of water too. That way you get 3 "colors" to paint with: water and other conductive substances, rock and other non-conductive substances and anything actively producing an electric field of its own. To make the senses feel real to the players, maybe "visualize" these colors as red for conductive and blue for electric fields (and black as non-conductivity/the absence of either). The water looks red, like a light fog, obscuring anything further away. A fish looks blue, a typical water plant a much dimmer shade of blue leaning to purple, a robot looks a very bright blue-purple, a car tire is pitch black.

I'd definitely play with this sort of thing. Darkvision is a shortcut, it's a handy way of catching most forms of "seeing" in the dark and make them easily relateable for players, getting them functioning in darkness quickly. If you're going to have an entire campaign set in the dark though you can do better than "it's like seeing, but it works without seeing". Explore all the options the darkness hands to you.

VoxRationis
2016-02-14, 06:28 PM
And of course, make sure to include deception in these sorts of senses. It's especially easy, when the maximum effective range of a sense is short, to include lures that disguise the full size and strength of an animal.

Parvum
2016-02-16, 12:47 PM
If in water, include electrosenses, both passive (as in sharks) and active (as in mormyrids or electric eels). Include a hive monster or even a hive PC race that just sends out tiny scouts in all directions as its form of primary sense.
I'm always in favour of swarm PCs, and that's a beautifully blunt solution to being blind.
I also really like active extra senses. I want to cultivate a creepier feel to this campaign, and passively knowing when they are being snuck up on might hurt that a bit (though on the other hand it could make them complacent which is also an excellent advantage for me). But if the players have to actively feel around and it can help with feelings of paranoia, as well as terrifying revelations if they 'turn on' their senses at the wrong (right) time.


To make the senses feel real to the players, maybe "visualize" these colors as red for conductive and blue for electric fields (and black as non-conductivity/the absence of either). The water looks red, like a light fog, obscuring anything further away. A fish looks blue, a typical water plant a much dimmer shade of blue leaning to purple, a robot looks a very bright blue-purple, a car tire is pitch black..
I really like this way of making the strange senses they'll need more accessible. Plus it'll make an extra challenge of identifying strange objects in the environment when something is hampering vision, like clouds of sediment. Could be a tunic, could be an undead squid. Make the fighter poke it.


There's also non-vision senses. Maybe some creatures navigate entirely by a fine-tuned sense of hearing, hearing the sound waves bounce off to get an image of their surrounding. When they need more detail, they emit noises of their own.
Just putting a small, "Perceptive creatures, especially other creatures with echolocation, might be able to tell when they've been seen by this sound." That not only gives players a reason to use this sense cautiously, but also give me a tool for letting them know they're being watched by something they can't see.


And of course, make sure to include deception in these sorts of senses. It's especially easy, when the maximum effective range of a sense is short, to include lures that disguise the full size and strength of an animal.
I know that some fish glow red because apparently some fish can't see into that end of the spectrum. Could make a couple of creatures be invisible to normal darkvision. And there's that moth that messes with echolocation, too. Plus constructs and undead and other fantasy creations mean opportunities are endless for messing with senses.
But mostly I just can't wait until someone runs right into a a wall.

So these are a lot of good ideas and they make me really want to give everyone more unique forms of perception. But my main worry is that it will start to get confusing giving everybody different vision and senses, especially if the players choose very diverse races. I've done games in the past but I wouldn't call myself 'experienced,' and I'm worried the game might get slowed down if everybody sees something different. Especially if I'm passing notes, because I want to keep the meta knowledge as low as possible in this campaign.

Necroticplague
2016-02-16, 03:32 PM
So these are a lot of good ideas and they make me really want to give everyone more unique forms of perception. But my main worry is that it will start to get confusing giving everybody different vision and senses, especially if the players choose very diverse races. I've done games in the past but I wouldn't call myself 'experienced,' and I'm worried the game might get slowed down if everybody sees something different. Especially if I'm passing notes, because I want to keep the meta knowledge as low as possible in this campaign.

It being confusing (at least, on the player side) sounds like it would help the tone you seem to be going for. Simply keep a description of objects on you, some footnotes about how it appears to different sense, and hand out little index cards to the ones with appropriate senses. So, based on senses, each person might get a completely different view of the object. Yeah, would slow it down a bit, but that's not always a bad thing.


Some extra sense possibilities:

Light: Some creatures might convert chemical energy from food they eat into light, like fireflies. Especially how you've stated that being stunned by light would be a relatively common trait, this also might serve as self-defence (I imagine they might flare up like a flashbang when pressed).

Heat: Some cold blooded creatures might be able to detect heat like pit vipers can in real life.

VoxRationis
2016-02-16, 03:56 PM
I'm always in favour of swarm PCs, and that's a beautifully blunt solution to being blind.
I also really like active extra senses. I want to cultivate a creepier feel to this campaign, and passively knowing when they are being snuck up on might hurt that a bit (though on the other hand it could make them complacent which is also an excellent advantage for me). But if the players have to actively feel around and it can help with feelings of paranoia, as well as terrifying revelations if they 'turn on' their senses at the wrong (right) time.
Yeah, make sure to emphasize the vulnerabilities of active senses: passive senses can pick up on active senses from outside the effective range of those active senses, so turning them on at the wrong time can be a very bad thing.



could be an undead squid. Make the fighter poke it.
...
Plus constructs and undead and other fantasy creations mean opportunities are endless for messing with senses.


I'd keep the undead to a minimum if they don't set off the normal senses. If undead are common, creatures wouldn't have evolved senses that can't distinguish them from a rock.

Parvum
2016-02-20, 10:00 AM
Light: Some creatures might convert chemical energy from food they eat into light, like fireflies. Especially how you've stated that being stunned by light would be a relatively common trait, this also might serve as self-defence (I imagine they might flare up like a flashbang when pressed).

Heat: Some cold blooded creatures might be able to detect heat like pit vipers can in real life.
Actually hadn't though about the light-making races taking advantage of omnipresent light blindness, but that actually works real well. Plus it's easy to fit in if I go with simple vision too.

I'm also not sure how far senses should extend, either in the simplified darkvision model or the complex senses one. I assume the game standard of 60/120 is there for a reason, but it was also made that way with the assumption that darkness is an obstacle and not the norm. Light is how most of the population sees towns and cities from a distance, since it stands out like beacons in the dark. But out in the wilderness, is 60 feet of vision enough? Is 120 feet too much?