“Light! More light!”

The latest batch of figures I’ve painted.

There’s a ton of good stuff at Philotomy’s OD&D Musings. One thing I’ve been intrigued by lately is that in OD&D, demi-humans could not see in the dark. The ability to see in the dark was a big motivation for me when I made nonhuman AD&D characters way back when. Because we rarely got to high enough levels to worry about level limits, there was usually no reason to be a human unless you wanted to play a human-only class like a Paladin or Monk. Being able to see in the dark (with “infravision” in AD&D, or with more logical kinds of night vision in later editions, which followed the lead of pretty much every other RPG in this regard) far outweighed the nominal benefits of being human. When I read about the original restrictions on infravision in Philotomy’s essay, it helped me make sense of the many several old D&D figures that appear to be demi-humans carrying torches and lanterns, not to mention certain classic illustrations of the AD&D Player’s Handbook .

What do AD&D dwarves need with a torch?

I really like the idea of denying demihuman PCs infravision. And not just because it would encourage the use of awesome torch and lantern bearers, but that is certainly part of it.

A Citadel Dwarf. He was actually made for their fairly recent boxed set of Warhammer Fantasy Battles (“Battle for Skull Pass“). There is a whole unit of miners with candles on their helmets in that set, which is totally awesome.  A lantern plus three candles on his helmet…this guy is gonna light up a hallway.  And with that beard, may spontaneously combust.

An old Citadel Dwarf. One of my favorites, although almost every Citadel Dwarf from the late 19080s is pretty cool, pumpkin-sized heads or not.

That’s one HELL of a nose, too.  Also n.b. that old school Dwarves are not always carrying those iconic* axes.  Why don’t more Dwarves carry swords?  They’re expert smiths, and making an axe is not exactly the high water mark of the weapon smith.

A Grenadier hireling from the hirelings set, circa 1980?

A Heritage Dwarf adventurer, circa 1979 or 1980, from the Dungeon Dwellers line. N.b. she has no beard. Sorry about the blurry pic.  She has a crossbow, which is not a bad idea for a hireling.  No sense rushing in to close combat.

The group from behind.  Note the backpacks.  All dungeon delvers should have backpacks.

The lone human, also a Grenadier figure from the Hirelings set. The camera is looking slightly down on all these guys, making them look a little distorted, but only slightly more so than they really are.

The quote used as the title of this post? Supposedly Goethe’s last words. And the last words of many an adventurer, I suspect.

*Every time WotC uses the term iconic character,  as if there is exactly one Platonic ideal for each race/class, I want to hammer a nail into the floor with my forehead.  I almost never actually do, though.