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<blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 9362817" data-attributes="member: 6877472">Been diving into a lot of older D&amp;D lately and while the exact implementation has changed over the years (infravision, low-light vision, darkvision, racial bonuses to Perception, free proficiencies in the same, racial bonuses to Wisdom, etc.), many races, and in fact, most of the &quot;core&quot; races in the game have some kind of special visual acuity beyond what humans possess.And very few playable races (if any) have vision worse than humans.&nbsp; Thinking about what this means, in most D&amp;D settings, exploring the wilderness, the unknown, and dark places is the norm.&nbsp; And humans are poised to be a major race in most settings.Yet compared to most other species, humans are effectively blind, limited by torches, lanterns, and possibly magic to see anything, making them effectively blind in comparison.&nbsp; How did humans even evolve when having to compete with not only monsters (most of whom can see in the dark, and in fact, in OD&amp;D, all could) let alone all the other species who can engage in nocturnal combat far better than they can, like goblins or orcs?Sure, perhaps those species have light blindness, but many don't, and are equally capable of functioning in both day and night.In our world, the answer is fire.&nbsp; We have it, nocturnal predators don't.&nbsp; But in a D&amp;D world, humans are not the first to have discovered fire, nor do the have an exclusive monopoly on it's use.I know the Doylist answer here is &quot;because that's how D&amp;D is&quot;, but I'm curious what a Watsonian answer might be.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="James Gasik, post: 9362817, member: 6877472"] Been diving into a lot of older D&D lately and while the exact implementation has changed over the years (infravision, low-light vision, darkvision, racial bonuses to Perception, free proficiencies in the same, racial bonuses to Wisdom, etc.), many races, and in fact, most of the "core" races in the game have some kind of special visual acuity beyond what humans possess. And very few playable races (if any) have vision worse than humans. Thinking about what this means, in most D&D settings, exploring the wilderness, the unknown, and dark places is the norm. And humans are poised to be a major race in most settings. Yet compared to most other species, humans are effectively blind, limited by torches, lanterns, and possibly magic to see anything, making them effectively blind in comparison. How did humans even evolve when having to compete with not only monsters (most of whom can see in the dark, and in fact, in OD&D, all could) let alone all the other species who can engage in nocturnal combat far better than they can, like goblins or orcs? Sure, perhaps those species have light blindness, but many don't, and are equally capable of functioning in both day and night. In our world, the answer is fire. We have it, nocturnal predators don't. But in a D&D world, humans are not the first to have discovered fire, nor do the have an exclusive monopoly on it's use. I know the Doylist answer here is "because that's how D&D is", but I'm curious what a Watsonian answer might be. [/QUOTE]

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