Darkvision in game

How are people using Darkvision in game? Cuz you cant really put "Has light on" effect, otherwise the other tokens would be able to see in the dark.   Thoughts?

It all depends on your ruleset and how regimented you are about enforcing such rules ;)

For the Dwarf in my 3.5e game I simply gave him a 60' light emission with a 60' dim radius... 'but what about when there are torches or other light sources that would affect his dark-vision' I hear you cry, well 'meh' is my response. It certainly isn't game breaking that he can see 60' in the dark even when it isn't truly dark... hell i've barely even read the rules on dark-vision... fight the man!

All of that considered I'm probably now going to go read the rules and see if i can improve things, i'm already thinking that giving him a 30' light/30' dim but with a 2x modifier might work as it would still give him the 60' dark-vision but would also mean that the dim light from other sources would be bright and the effectively 'dark' to normal eyes bit around another light source would be dim to the token with dark-vision.

Hmm, more questions than answers there... sorry!

[edit] turns out the 3.5 dark-vision rules are surprisingly simple for a change... my initial set up covers it fine =D

I set my players tokens to have 80' of light with dim starting at -10'. Make sure the "All players see light" check box is NOT checked.


Some people set the multiplier, but I didn't like the way that worked on lights farther out of sight.

The players then walk around in dim light unless there is a light source or someone has a torch.

I do similar set light, BUT, remember if the person ALSO has low-light vision, then you have to set your light radius to 1/2 of normal if you set Multiplier to 2. This allows them to see further with light sources but still their darkvision only goes to the limit it should.
For instance if they are a dhampir with 60' darkvision and low light vision,then set light to 30 and multiplier to 2.

Ziechael said:

[edit] turns out the 3.5 dark-vision rules are surprisingly simple for a change... my initial set up covers it fine =D

Heh, yeah, I was about to say something about light not affecting darkvision... :P

chris b. said:

I do similar set light, BUT, remember if the person ALSO has low-light vision, then you have to set your light radius to 1/2 of normal if you set Multiplier to 2. This allows them to see further with light sources but still their darkvision only goes to the limit it should.
For instance if they are a dhampir with 60' darkvision and low light vision,then set light to 30 and multiplier to 2.

The problem with using the multiplier is that it only works when used at the origin but light sources further away are now twice as large. I played with it for a while but ultimately decided that it wasn't going to work for my game.  

i thought they were supposed to be twice as large. oh... i just double checked and only the low light area is supposed to be doubled.
oh well.. we just make our home rule to match roll20 :)

ok so... 5e ruleset,  they dont have lowlight vision anymore.  just Darkvision.   what am i putting the "emits light" to.   60/0  or 60/60?   dont think i need to put a multiplier in there do i ?   
thanx all for replying back to this :D cheers!

Light Raidus /Start of Dim / Angle. So if you set it to 60/60 he will see darkness as bright light. Better with 60/0. But I suggest you try marking the token of the player and pressing Ctrl+L - then you can see the result of the different settings yourself.

I personally use 60/-5 for 60ft darkvision in 5e.  If you use API scripts, here's a macro (originally by Ziechael) that handles a bunch of different vision and lighting options for 5e using TokenMod:

!token-mod --set ?{Vision|Torch, light_radius#40 light_dimradius#20 light_hassight#yes light_angle#360 light_otherplayers#yes|Lamp, light_radius#30 light_dimradius#15 light_hassight#yes light_angle#360 light_otherplayers#yes|Bullseye Lantern, light_radius#120 light_dimradius#60 light_angle#60 light_hassight#yes light_otherplayers#yes|Hooded Lantern, light_radius#60 light_dimradius#30 light_hassight#yes light_angle#360 light_otherplayers#yes|Candle, light_radius#5 light_dimradius#=0 light_hassight#yes light_angle#360 light_otherplayers#yes|No light source, light_radius#5 light_dimradius#=-5 light_hassight#yes light_angle#360 light_otherplayers#no|Blinded, light_hassight#no light_angle#360 light_otherplayers#no|Darkvision, light_radius#60 light_dimradius#=-5 light_hassight#yes light_angle#360 light_otherplayers#no|Darkvision (90'), light_radius#90 light_dimradius#=-5 light_hassight#yes light_angle#360 light_otherplayers#no|Warlock Devil's Sight, light_radius#120 light_dimradius#=120 light_hassight#yes light_angle#360 light_otherplayers#no|No light source(Dusk), light_radius#120 light_dimradius#=-5 light_hassight#yes light_angle#360 light_otherplayers#no }

Ziechael's script is nice, The Aaron.  I just manually adjust the character lights to either 60/-5 if they are in a lightless area (dungeon or cave) and 60/30 if they are outside at night. Beyond that I don't worry about visibility other than keeping hidden things on the GM layer until they get spotted.

The Aaron said:

I personally use 60/-5 for 60ft darkvision in 5e.  If you use API scripts, here's a macro (originally by Ziechael) that handles a bunch of different vision and lighting options for 5e using TokenMod:

...

That's an awesome macro. Thanks so much for sharing!

Thanks to Ziechael!  I just modded it for 5e. =D

Dang it. i wish i knew how to do macro's :( (sighs)  i envy you guys! 

Write or use or both? We're happy to help you through any of it. 

The one I posted makes use of an API script. It looks complicated, but that's only because of the API parts.  The API script's interface is:

!token-mod --set <field>#<value> <field>#<value> ...

The macro uses a Roll Query drop down to specify the field#value pairs:

?{<question>|<choice>,<result>|<choice>,<result>|...}

The Roll Query will show the <question> and have a drop down with the list of <choice>s. When you choose one, The corresponding <result> is substituted for wherever the ?{<question>} was (possible several places):

!token-mod --set <result>

In the case of the above macro, the <result> is actually a string of <field>#<value> pairs which are passed to the API. 

The macro suggestions for 5e are good ones, as is the "60/-5" - I actually do "70/-5" because of the way dim light diminishes in roll20, but either option works.

5e darkvision is imperfectly represented in roll20 because roll20 does not know the concept of an "additive" light source. So while you can do "in dark as if dim" (with that light source), you can't do "dim as if bright". Setting the multiplier to 2x doesn't fix that and does more harm than good.

There's an enhancement suggestion for additive light sources, here: https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/2628391/slug%7D