[RPG] How to help players frustrated by darkness in Roll20’s dynamic lighting

battle-mappathfinder-1eroll20vision-and-light

I recently moved my pathfinder 1e campaign online. After some experimenting I decided that the Roll20 dynamic lighting system was worth the investment. However during our first session using the system they found it cool but frustrating.

Most of the players' frustration came from an issue of not being able to see what was next to them. The situation was as follows.

  • I am using Legacy Dynamic Lighting with Advanced Fog of War (updated has too many bugs)
  • The party were trying to sneak up on a group in the dark, hence extinguished their lights.
  • One character has darkvision the other 3 members have low-light vision.
  • They decided to hold hands and move in a line following the character that could see.

This is where they encountered an issue and some frustration. Due to the way darkness is handled with the dynamic lighting tool there was no way for the players to follow the movements of the character with darkvision.

What they wanted:

L L X D . . . .      . L L X D . . .      . . L L X . . .      . . . L L . . .
. . . . . . . .  =>  . . . . . . . .  =>  . . . . D . . .  =>  . . . . X . . .
. . . . . . . .      . . . . . . . .      . . . . . . . .      . . . . D . . . 

X = player token (low light vision), L = Ally with Low light vision, D = Ally with Darkvision

What they saw:

. . X . . . . .      . . . X . . . .      . . . . X . . .      . . . . . X . .
. . . . . . . .  =>  . . . . . . . .  =>  . . . . . . . .  =>  . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .      . . . . . . . .      . . . . . . . .      . . . . . . . .

As soon as the players entered the darkness they could no longer see the characters immediately next to them and therefore couldn't follow their movements in a line style. This led to frustration, and the players without darkvision commenting "I can't do anything since I can't see".

While not being able to see their opponents and having to carefully manage their light was the goal of using this system. Frustrating my players and making them not enjoy the game is an unacceptable consequence.

How can I configure the dynamic lighting system and player tokens to enable them to work cooperatively in darkness?

Goals:

  • Force players to think tactically about use of light (they have indicated they want this)
  • Use Advanced Fog of War for automated map reveal (reduce load on GM)
  • Allow players to move in the line formation without requiring the GM to move their pieces for them

Best Answer

I'm going to give the solution I came up with following some experimenting with my player following the game. It isn't perfect and somewhat mitigates the challenge of darkness but seems to be the best compromise to increase player enjoyment.

Give all players a 3ft Light Source

Under token settings set each player's token to emit a 3ft light source that only they can see, also set the dim start point to 0ft so the only dim light is emitted. This allows them to see halfway into the next square and identify where their allies are to move cooperatively. They can see:

. L X D . . . .      . . L X D . . .      . . . L X . . .      . . . L L . . .
. . . . . . . .  =>  . . . . . . . .  =>  . . . . D . . .  =>  . . . . X . . .
. . . . . . . .      . . . . . . . .      . . . . . . . .      . . . . D . . . 
X = player token (low light vision), L = Ally with Low light vision, D = Ally with Darkvision

Advantages to this solution

  • Simple to implement
  • Allows players to work cooperatively
  • Requires no management from the GM

Drawbacks

  • Also allows players to see enemies they potentially shouldn't be able to see

Why 3ft?

I choose 3ft after some trial and error testing with my players. Initially I went with 5ft but with the way Roll20 blend light into darkness this actually enabled them to see into squares that were 10ft away. Next I tried 2ft but the range was so short players had difficulty seeing tokens in diagonal squares. 3ft seems to be a happy medium that only reveals as much as they need of the adjacent squares.

Conclusion

Overall I plan to use this solution going forward as it provide a good balance between player enjoyment and the challenge of darkness management.

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