Lights

Seen on a thread about ShadowDark, where someone was asking about hanging a lantern on your backpack or belt to keep your hands free. Interesting stuff, if you haven't ever thought of it before.

First, let me acknowledge that the goal with Shadowdark is not realism. So, do what you want at your table. Also .. magic! So ...

But then let me say that I have done a fair amount of medieval re-enactment and tried out candles, oil lamps, lanterns, torches etc.

Attaching a lit torch to your belt or pack is obviously going to set you on fire. The big advantage of torches, assuming they are well made using pitch or resin soaked rope or cloth heads and water-soaked wood or even metal shafts - they are quite difficult to put out. It would take extreme winds or quite a lot of water to do so. Dropping them probably won't extinguish them unless it's into water, for example. However, they tend to be a bit nasty as they will set things on fire quite readily so you need to be careful around other people or tents or thatched roofs or curtains, they drip hot or even flaming blobs, they are stinky and smoky. If you are carrying other torches it's real easy to accidentally light all of them at once with some flaming droplets from the lit one in a moment of inattention. They tend to only stay lit and bright for 15-30 minutes and at the high end you are talking about a big, fat head on the thing loaded with pitch or such (quite a beast of a thing to wrangle).

Candles. Small, light, flexible in size and burn times can be very long (like, all night is possible). Very subject to wind and a single drop of water will extinguish them. They really only cast light to a modest distance, although, once you are well dark adapted if you don't look into the flame you can probably see OK out to Near with one. Fairly safe if you keep it away from flammables. Hard to wander around with a naked candle without extinguishing it, accidentally settings somebody's hair on fire or whatever. The tall thin ones which tend to be brightest also go out easiest and burn fastest and drip wax.

Candle lanterns. Basically, a candle in a cage shielded by velum, parchment, rawhide or something translucent. The translucent materials available tend to cut down on light from the candle somewhat. Could have a reflector side for directional light which helps preserve dark adaptation for the user and make up some of the difference in light lost to the translucent sides. Very diffuse light. Pretty robust against wind, rain etc. If you drop it though, 95% chance it will go out. Candle lanterns solve most of the practical issues of wandering around with a light source in my view. That said, if you strap one to your belt it will still burn you, it will tilt the candle and it'll burn unevenly, drown the wick and go out, spill hot wax on your legs etc. Same with attaching it to your pack - you really need to hand-hold these things - usually hanging from a cord, chain or ring - steadying it in front of you at almost arms length as you move. It's a bit of equipment that needs to be 'operated and managed' - they are not like a LED headlamp or something that you can just turn on and let it do its thing.

Oil lamps. Getting oil that burns well / cleanly is harder than you think. Even the medieval oils that burn quite robustly tend to create a lot of black soot - and burn hot. This makes them pretty hard to get working in a medieval lantern - the translucent shell quickly turns black and/or the whole thing will catch fire. Managing air-flow is an issue. And traditional oil lamps tended to just rest a wick in a pot or tray of oil - so the whole thing can fall apart or the wick can easily fall into the oil and drown if not handled carefully. In practice, these work fairly well when carried carefully by hand as open lamps - if you can get an oil that burns well like whale oil. Really though they are at their best when stationary. The oil itself isn't as much of a fire risk as fantasy makes out - if you throw nut oil on somebody and try to light it, yeah .. that's not likely. Same even if you spill it. It needs the wick to stand much chance of burning. Medieval lamp oil is more like cooking oil than gasoline.

I think there is a very important reason that we don't really see portable glass oil lanterns everywhere until the 1800s. Kerosene (or similar) with brass or tin pressure vessels, widespread availability of glass, adjustable flat wicks, ventilation schemes etc. This is also when we start to see stuff like lamps rather than candles on miner's hats/helmets. It's a whole other level of technology. These lanterns became very bright, reliable in a wide range of conditions and relatively safe.

A niche quirk of history is the renaissance lantern shield. However, as you can read in the wikipedia entry these were mainly a gimmick intended to put an opponent at disadvantage in a duel, not for general illumination.

So, if we're trying to be somewhat consistent with medieval technology .. the practical reality is that light sources need to be managed and operated by somebody who is carefully hand-holding them.

I don't really care about ShadowDark that much, because it's especially focused on dungeon crawling, which I dislike. But who cares? This is a good summary of an issue that applies in any fantasy setting. People don't really understand about oil too. It's not nearly as flammable as most people treat it as. Without a wick, you can't set it on fire at all, and with a wick, you get a tiny, smoky flame, not a gigantic conflagration.