Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="MNblockhead" data-source="post: 9700703" data-attributes="member: 6796661">I'm willing to allow anachronistic head-worn, hands-free lighting, especially with fantasy cultures known for engineering and mining. But worn on a belt, backpack, or chest gear, I'm inclined to rule against that. While it is perhaps not entirely out of the realm of possibility, especially in a fantasy setting, there is a reason that humans world wide never seemed to do this.  I mean there have been some amazing innovations like the Edo-era Japanese gyroscopic lantern (Gando), which had a gimbal to keep the candle upright, shrouded to project light forward. It allowed illumination of objects while keeping the user’s face hidden, similar to a flashlight. There are medieval manuscripts that show lanterns mounted on poles, which I suppose could be fastened as a wearable. But that would still be cumbersome and hazardous, which is why they are also depicted with the poles being held by hand.In bog-standard modern D&D I don't much see the point as light is made trivial with magic and with how common dark vision is.I run WFRP in which many places in the setting are more Renaissance-level tech than medieval.  Mining helmets with candles or special lantern helmets exist, but are not common outside of specific use cases (mining). It is just more practical to carry candles and lanterns.If it is really something a player is into and if they come up with an idea that doesn't totally break immersion in the setting, and have the skills, and resources to invent something, I'd try to find a way to make it work. There was a time when I was an annoying GM who enforced reality-based rules on torches (short lifespans, choking fumes and smoke in poorly ventilated and confined spaces, etc.), but in most fantasy games most players just hand-wave that away. If I can hand-wave the common use of torches in fantasy games and accept magic, I don't see why I should poop on the possibility of some ingenious, wearable, fantasy lantern.</blockquote>

Verification