One of the great things about roll20's addition of dynamic lighting is the ability to utilize lighting to add suspense and stress to encounters, as well as add in a menacing touch to exploration etc. Roll20's lighting solution is simple and elegant; you have night vision or you don't. While that's helped me out and improved the games happening at my virtual table, I wanted to put forth something that came up recently that I think is worth considering. I'm referencing <a href="https://slyflourish.com/darkvision_isnt_as_good_as_you_think.html" rel="nofollow">https://slyflourish.com/darkvision_isnt_as_good_as_you_think.html</a> by Slyflourish. It's not something I'd ever put together as DM, but I do think it adds a ton of suspense and kind of evens the race thing of "no one plays a human, you don't have darkvision". I'll copy choice bits of info from that article to this post so you don't have to go read the whole thing (but everyone should). There's apparently three references to darkvision in D&D 5e - Chapter 8 under Darkvision says darkvision is the ability to see "as if darkness were dim light". Under Dim Light is says creatures "have disadvantage on Wisdom(Perception) checks that rely on sight in Dim Light" conditions, and finally under Passive Checks in Chapter 7 it says "if the character has advantage on the check, add 5(to their passive). For disadvantage, subtract 5." In the Dynamic Lighting section of roll20, it's a binary thing: You have "Night vision" and can see as normal for x feet, or you don't and can't see at all. This doesn't do well to address the intricacies of darkvision though, it makes darkvision a vastly more superior advantage than it should be. The trouble is, I have no way to apply darkvision as written to the game. In Dynamic Lighting options I do have a couple of sliders I can work with; namely Tint Color and Night Vision Effect - this is my current workaround: Solution as is: Character has 30 feet of darkvision without effects. A Fire Giant stands just inside her range to see - she can clearly see him. This does not reflect RAW, though I can just tell my player to ignore the Giant if she rolls poorly on her Perception. This *works*, but breaks the 4th wall a bit. Hacked solution: Night vision is still 30 ft, but I've turned on the Dimming option and it starts at 0 ft - immediately. My player (and her character) can still *see* the giant, but perhaps can't make out what it is. This is not ideal, but it's better. Wish list: Adjust "Night Vision" to provide dim light or have more of a slider in the options to "dim" visibility to take away the "I need to roll a character with darkvision so I can see." Or, as Sly Flourish says, bring out the torches!
