D&D General Wearing a lantern on your belt?

[Edgar Ironpelt]

Shown being worn on the belt unlit, shown being held in the hand while lit. It frees up your hands if you don't need the light.

And look at how flashlights are used today. Flashlights are sold with provisions to wear them on your belt, and "flashlight holsters" are a big thing, with a web search revealing lots of people trying to sell them to you. But they're not intended to hold a flashlight that's turned on while on your belt. The flashlights intended for hands-free operation are headlamps.

 

[LordBP]

And look at how flashlights are used today. Flashlights are sold with provisions to wear them on your belt, and "flashlight holsters" are a big thing, with a web search revealing lots of people trying to sell them to you. But they're not intended to hold a flashlight that's turned on while on your belt. The flashlights intended for hands-free operation are headlamps.

Military had hands-free flashlights for quite a few decades.

One from WW2
1943 WWII GITS Military Flashlight -122- Tested & Working - Original WW2 Army | eBay

 

[Edgar Ironpelt]

Military had hands-free flashlights for quite a few decades.

A touch, I do confess.

Although it would be a better touch if you could give examples of common, in practice, hands-free-on-the-belt use of these angle-headed flashlights, as opposed to you-can-use-this-on-your-belt Good Idea Fairy marketing claims.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Military had hands-free flashlights for quite a few decades.

One from WW2
1943 WWII GITS Military Flashlight -122- Tested & Working - Original WW2 Army | eBay

I have not been in the military but I used these while farming and I found they worked best when clipped to a breast pocket.

 

[Willie the Duck]

I'm honestly not sure what's actually being posited anymore in this microtangent. The existence of hands-free flashlights does not negate that typical flashlight holsters are designed to hold flashlights to you while they are not in use (few have methods of maintaining rotational orientation). That itself is only an example case towards what looks like the larger point that the illustrations of lantern holsters before appear to be for holding onto the lanterns when not in use (not that those illustrations preclude the possibility of other belt mounts which more clearly were for in-use lanterns).

 

[CleverNickName]

I'm not opposed to a character having any hands-free light sources, just not lanterns. A burning object that close to one's clothing and skin sounds like a bad idea to me.

But I'm not gonna be a hardass about it. If a player at my table reeeeally wanted to wear a lantern on their hip, and I couldn't talk them out of it, I'd arrange for them to find something we could both agree on. Maybe they find a Driftglobe in a curio shop. Maybe a traveling merchant shows up up with an enchanted lantern that can cast the Light cantrip. Maybe they can adopt a pet fire beetle. Or whatever.

 

[LordBP]

A touch, I do confess.

Although it would be a better touch if you could give examples of common, in practice, hands-free-on-the-belt use of these angle-headed flashlights, as opposed to you-can-use-this-on-your-belt Good Idea Fairy marketing claims.

Here you.

TL-122 Flashlights - Paratrooper.be

 

[LordBP]

I have not been in the military but I used these while farming and I found they worked best when clipped to a breast pocket.

We used them on the pockets when you were without web gear, but usually in the military, you had on your web gear and we would attach it to that in whatever position you needed at the time (sometimes it was the belt and sometimes it was the suspenders).

 

[LordBP]

Some more German ones.
German Signal Flashlights

Extremely long thread on WW2 flashlights (you will have to translate it though)
Zaklampen info's (2WO) Fake - orginal...ect

 

[UngainlyTitan]

We used them on the pockets when you were without web gear, but usually in the military, you had on your web gear and we would attach it to that in whatever position you needed at the time (sometimes it was the belt and sometimes it was the suspenders).

I guessed as much but I was not wearing web gear.