brash_barbarian
Villager
I wouldn't allow a lantern on the belt for practical reasons and to keep light management relevant. It's clunky, easy to break, and makes light too trivial, especially for something like a Lantern of Revealing.
D&D General Wearing a lantern on your belt?
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EzekielRaiden
Follower of the Way
Oh look.
Another thread where we have people insisting that the only realistic thing is that you can't have belt lanterns...when belt lanterns, particularly dark lanterns (ones you could move a shutter to set its illumination level), have been around for at least 400 years....and some of them definitely have belt-clips on them.
But remember folks, verisimilitude is all about doing things as close as possible to what they are in our world, other than the obviously supernatural things! It's not at all about the mere feeling of truthiness regardless of what was historically true or technologically possible or actually done by real human beings. Definitely not at all about that.
Another thread where we have people insisting that the only realistic thing is that you can't have belt lanterns...when belt lanterns, particularly dark lanterns (ones you could move a shutter to set its illumination level), have been around for at least 400 years....and some of them definitely have belt-clips on them.
But remember folks, verisimilitude is all about doing things as close as possible to what they are in our world, other than the obviously supernatural things! It's not at all about the mere feeling of truthiness regardless of what was historically true or technologically possible or actually done by real human beings. Definitely not at all about that.
Paul Farquhar
Legend
I think we are going to need some citations for that claim. There are plenty of historians on this forum. What fuel did these lanterns use? D&D lanterns are explicitly oil. Does the clip indicate it could be used whilst clipped to a belt, or was that just to store it whilst off?
GrimCo
Hero
Yes, it's oil. But what oil? Also, what material is lantern made of? D&D is far from simulation. It's a fricking game. With magic, imaginary exotic materials with all kind of weird properties, with tech levels ranging from early middle ages to industrial revolution, with magitech (artificers making their power armors). In such a game, mundane lamp clipped to belt really isn't that big of a deal or immersion breaking.
EzekielRaiden
Follower of the Way
A website, specifically geared toward the discussion of things related to TTRPGs, which shows museum pieces, historical documents, and other items displaying the use of lanterns of this type.
They were in use from at least the late 17th century up through the turn of the 20th century. Items we have been able to hold onto (which, naturally, few survive from the earliest periods) show that they could in fact be used while worn on the belt, and we have evidence that combat manuals suggested their use in combat. (But, as the website notes, this is at least slightly far-fetched unless already open and simply shone into the opponent's eyes, as you can't both hold the lantern and operate the shutter with just one hand.) One such dark lantern, which I will agree does not have a belt-attachment on it but does show that lanterns of this general type were in wide use, is specifically Guy Fawkes' lantern, the one he used when he attempted to blow up Parliament.
As you can see from the historical advertisement for one of the lamps shown on that page, that specific lamp was designed to use whale oil or lard "exclusively"; presumably, lanterns made in the 16th to 17th century would have needed to rely on lard or other sources, as I don't think sperm whales were harvested in any meaningful quantity until the 19th century.
So yeah. Functioning lamps, which we know for at least some periods were in fact worn (or at least wearable) on belts, did in fact exist at the very least by the early modern period, and may date back as far as the late Renaissance--perfectly in keeping with plenty of other social and technological elements of D&D.
Firefly powered lantern was the first thing that sprung to my mind.
I don't see what's so objectionable about lanterns on belts. London's Metropolitan Police wore signal lanterns on their belts c. 1860. The earliest versions used candles, before upgrading to whale oil, and eventually kerosene.
I know post-industrial revolution tends to be outside the anachronistic mash-up of medieval and renaissance that is vanilla D&D, but Dwarven structural engineering as typically depicted is on par with the Victorians, and I can easily see them creating such a device even with darkvision.
Then you have the fact that Light is a cantrip, but that's okay because magic and yet people complain about the superiority of casters.
Having an unlit lantern attached to your belt is fine. The picture shows them with the lantern being held in their hand when it was lit.
Edit - same with picture linked to on this post D&D General - Wearing a lantern on your belt?.
Mod Note:
The smug condescension displayed here seems to prioritize something other than effective communication or education.
Maybe consider the dynamic this engenders the next time someone reacts poorly to a post - we all have control of, and responsibility for, the atmosphere we create.
For me, it has nothing to do with verisimilitude or historical accuracy, merely if the game uses light as a factor in play, where operating with or without light changes what your character can do or see. D&D does this - having a light source has advantages and drawbacks. If the game didn’t have that, I wouldn’t care if you carried a lantern, wore a lantern, or rode a lantern.
