Shooting in the Dark

[ColoradoCthulhu]

I am finishing up the 'Blackwater Creek' scenario for my group during our next session and one of the final scenes is of the Investigators being confronted by an angry mob of torch-wielding townsfolk. The scene will occur at night in the remote rural area of the Miskatonic Valley where the tiny village of Blackwater Creek is located. There will be no visible light during this mid-November, overcast evening other than the headlights of the Investigators' car, the Investigators' flashlights and lanterns, and the light from the burning torches and kerosene lamps of the infected mob.

In Chapter 6 (Combat) of the Keeper Rulebook, page 113, there is a section on Firearm Attack Modifiers with conditions for adding both bonus dice and penalty dice to rolls. I thought it was odd that there is no specific modifier for using firearms at night or otherwise in poor lighting. The closest modifier to what I was searching for regarding this combat situation is "Cover and Concealment," for which there is a penalty die.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Otherwise, I will just add a penalty die to all firearm attack rolls due to reduced visibility until the Investigators are in Point-Blank Range (a bonus die) of the mob to account for the lack of visibility. Is there a section in the 7th edition rules that I am missing on this topic?

[klecser]

Makes perfect sense to me.  I think you answered your own question.  My advice to all Gamemasters, of all games, is always to trust yourself. If your players are hung up on whether or not you gave the wrong modifier to a firearms roll in low light conditions, you have bigger problems than your modifier choice. I'm willing to venture that most players are going to have an internal dialogue of "makes sense" and "this is a challenge to our goals!"

 

[Stormkhan Cogg of Pavis]

12 hours ago, ColoradoCthulhu said:

The closest modifier to what I was searching for regarding this combat situation is "Cover and Concealment," for which there is a penalty die.

Well, the darkness is definitely covering and concealing.