Using LoS and Lighting for Overland Travel?

[flashgordon]

Has anyone tried using the line of sight and/or lighting for overland exploration on a world map? It seems like it should be doable, but I am curious what tips people have for what settings and terrain features have worked for them.

[Zacchaeus]

You'd probably have more success (due to the distances involved) using the mask rather than line of sight. Lighting would be limited to just ambient lighting since again someone carrying a torch isn't going to light up an area measure in miles. So just mask the map and reveal a bit at a time as the party move around.

[flashgordon]

With lighting, I was thinking I would make it pitch dark and give the party token a light to simulate visibility distance

[Zacchaeus]

You could certainly do that; but that makes the entire map very dark - including the Fog of War. So the players may have some difficulty seeing where they've been.

[Risto]

Would it be possible ... or probably yes, but perhaps something to consider - have an option for rather than needing to remove mask manually, token light / vision would remove the mask as they move. So going from black (masked) to bright (where characters move) to faint (Fog of War) for places they leave behind?

[Zacchaeus]

Would it be possible ... or probably yes, but perhaps something to consider - have an option for rather than needing to remove mask manually, token light / vision would remove the mask as they move. So going from black (masked) to bright (where characters move) to faint (Fog of War) for places they leave behind?
That’s how lighting works already. If you are using lighting you don’t need the mask. The mask is a somewhat archaic carry over from Classic.

[MrDDT]

That’s how lighting works already. If you are using lighting you don’t need the mask. The mask is a somewhat archaic carry over from Classic.

Masking is still useful. Mostly because you can't use terrain stuff perfectly (no way to do this in a 2d map, in a 3d world).

Also it comes up in other things.

[Risto]

But do you need to manage the mask manually or will it give way when light / vision enters its area?

[Moon Wizard]

If you just use the default lighting and line-of-sight toggles which are on by default, then token fog-of-war will be revealed as the token explores based on their line-of-sight.

If you want to prevent line-of-sight and lighting from revealing an area no matter what, you can also use a global mask. The global mask is not needed for maps which have line-of-sight blockers applied unless you really want that capability (such as MrDDT mentions for special situations)

[EllivasKram]

There is no vision history if you relocate a PC icon onto a new map.. So it becomes problematic..

I would use MASKING/REVEAL for recording where PC's have been on a HEX grid map..

I guess you could use a different icon object for the group - then that object will never need to be moved to a different map