As for the light/dark thing, one way to make it matter is for an area to be the result of a wish/miracle/etc where the wording was something like "I wish this room/floor/cave/etc be dark for everyone/thing except me." (for those wish legal eagles, go with the intent rather then exact wording). The wish caster is long dead but the darkness remains. In this special area, darkvision, Continual Light flashlights, torches, etc., just don't work. Lets you have a place where those darkvision folks are just as screwed as everyone else. Yet avoids the tedium of torches, lanterns, spells, etc for the rest of the expedition.
I remember the early years where you had to(not the entire list): listen at the door, check for traps, check for poison, which way does the door open?, is it locked?, then attempt to open the door. Followed by prodding the sheep through the door with the 10' pole to check for traps and waiting critters on the other side. (Yes, that really was a thing.) We quickly rolled that all up into SOP(standard operating procedures) at each place where it seemed needed. What was a 5 minute real time tedious pause at each door for multiple die rolls became a single quick GM die roll to see if we missed anything. No real desire to return to the many die rolls at each door/stop era. Much better for the GM to say "Ok, folks. This place seems weird. Everyone needs to make their own checks." Yes, it is some meta gaming but play time is precious and we don't want to waste an hour or so each session on repetitive door checks.
I remember the early years where you had to(not the entire list): listen at the door, check for traps, check for poison, which way does the door open?, is it locked?, then attempt to open the door. Followed by prodding the sheep through the door with the 10' pole to check for traps and waiting critters on the other side. (Yes, that really was a thing.) We quickly rolled that all up into SOP(standard operating procedures) at each place where it seemed needed. What was a 5 minute real time tedious pause at each door for multiple die rolls became a single quick GM die roll to see if we missed anything. No real desire to return to the many die rolls at each door/stop era. Much better for the GM to say "Ok, folks. This place seems weird. Everyone needs to make their own checks." Yes, it is some meta gaming but play time is precious and we don't want to waste an hour or so each session on repetitive door checks.
