RPGaDay 2025 13: Darkness

Darkness seems to be a pivotal thing for an OSR experience. Darkness is foreboding and dangerous. The OSE SRD notes that “[a]ll non-human monsters and many demihuman races have a special kind of vision that allows them to see in the dark. This is called infravision.” Imagine being in a space where you can’t see anything, but everything in the dark can see you—terrifying. OSRIC on p.124 of the core rules dedicates six paragraphs to light, vision, lightsources, and the resources to keep them alit. The last paragraph specifically points out the risks of intelligent creatures realizing an approaching light means people are coming. After all of this, a paragraph is spent on infravision, noting that almost all subterranean creatures have it.

In OD&D, infravision was a 3rd level Magic User spell (p.25 of Dungeons & Dragons Book I: Men & Magic). None of the classes of characters had any infravision. By the time D&D Basic Set Rulebook (B/X)—or Moldvay—rolls around, dwarves, elves, and so on all have infravision. However, on p.B21 it does note that you cannot read with it. OSRIC, comparatively, notes on p.124 that “[i]nfravision does not detect colours and is of little help while searching or making minute examinations, so sapient creatures such as orcs may well prefer torchlight even if they possess infravision.” Basically, infravision gets strongly limited to keep darkness interesting. The AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide (1e) has a section deducated to infravision on p.59, which has some choice words on its usefulness. Most things are the same temperature within a room, so “a room in a dungeon might look completely blank.” In fact, it notes that “vision of this sort is roughly equal to human norm on a dark and cloudy night at best.” Now, I’ve trudged through my house in the dark of the night trying to reach the kitchen, and it’s darned tricky!

Essentially, these sources convince me that an OSR approach to a dungeon should be almost like old submarine movies: two groups of people trying to be quiet as they each try to figure out where the other is. How crucial light management suddenly becomes! Whether to have it lit or snuffed. How many torches you can snuff before you run out. How much light you have left to bring yourself back. It reminds me of managing oxygen in Subnautica or braving the depths in Tears of the Kingdom (which, itself, has a strong bottom-of-the-ocean vibe).

So, that made me think of scary things in the dark. What happens when there’s nothing in particular happening? What are things we imagine coming from the dark? So, here’s a table of d12 things the PCs may perceive/hallucinate when they stare deep into the darkness when nothing is there to be seen:

Look forward to more RPGaDAY posts throughout the month!