Darkvision Ruins Dungeon-Crawling

[TiQuinn]

To the point of "oh darkvision has the big drawback of disadvantage on vision checks, no color, etc etc." honestly in practice it's such a PITA to make sure that you're including consequences for relying on darkvision that I'd rather not have it... But I'm not the kind of GM that enjoys punishing players.

It feels like the "gotcha! You didn't specifically say you were being quiet so the ogre heard you stomping around!" style of play, which is not for me. "Ha! You didn't carry a light and were just using darkvision so that puddle you stepped in is actually a black pudding/ochre jelly, surprise!"

Again, id rather just not have darkvision in the first place than have to add in those extra punishments for relying on it. You could look at it in a positive way, that it adds more challenge and depth, but in practice to me it's juice that's not worth the squeeze.

I agree - darkvision is not something that the players have to manage. It's something the DM has to manage in respect to encounter and adventure design. It's one thing when it's an across the board consideration. But when I have to remember than players 2, 4 and 5 have darkvision, but 1 and 3 don't, that's when I want to start handwaving it. Handwave it enough times and you wonder why it's a consideration at all.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I agree - darkvision is not something that the players have to manage. It's something the DM has to manage in respect to encounter and adventure design. It's one thing when it's an across the board consideration. But when I have to remember than players 2, 4 and 5 have darkvision, but 1 and 3 don't, that's when I want to start handwaving it. Handwave it enough times and you wonder why it's a consideration at all.

Yes I haven't explicitly thought about it this way, but this is really one of the most annoying things about it. Some (most) players have it, some don't, but the overhead is exclusively on the DM.

 

[Mannahnin]

I agree - darkvision is not something that the players have to manage. It's something the DM has to manage in respect to encounter and adventure design. It's one thing when it's an across the board consideration. But when I have to remember than players 2, 4 and 5 have darkvision, but 1 and 3 don't, that's when I want to start handwaving it. Handwave it enough times and you wonder why it's a consideration at all.

I strongly suspect that this overhead (and DMs handwaving it to ignore the overhead) is why Darkvision gets the reputation for being too good and making light sources and darkness in dungeons irrelevant.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I strongly suspect that this overhead (and DMs handwaving it to ignore the overhead) is why Darkvision gets the reputation for being too good and making light sources and darkness in dungeons irrelevant.

Yes. And...

...I'm just finding that I love the absence of darkvision in Shadowdark.

 

[Mannahnin]

Yes. And...

...I'm just finding that I love the absence of darkvision in Shadowdark.

Yup. As I enjoy it in The Nightmares Underneath and His Majesty The Worm.

 

[TiQuinn]

Yes. And...

...I'm just finding that I love the absence of darkvision in Shadowdark.

Yep. It’s a perfect example of taking something that is a flawed subsystem and sacred cow in the D&D realm and changing it to become a key part of the way the game works. It drives part of the adventure design there.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yep. It’s a perfect example of taking something that is a flawed subsystem and sacred cow in the D&D realm and changing it to become a key part of the way the game works. It drives part of the adventure design there.

Is darkvision a sacred cow?

 

[TiQuinn]

Is darkvision a sacred cow?

It’s not one of the commonly cited examples but I think it qualifies even if it’s gone through iterations such as infra-vision.

 

[GMMichael]

Is darkvision a sacred cow?

It's the D&D dungeon crawling motto: Doors & Darkvision.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Is darkvision a sacred cow?

I was going to say that if they got rid of it the internet would blow several fuses. Don't know if that means it's a "sacred cow" though.