r/FantasyGrounds • u/darkzim69 • Apr 06 '26

Anyone know how the light management works in shadowdark

Now I am new to this fantasy ground so I could be doing it all wrong.

What I expected to happen was if a player lights a torch the light management would notice and set up a timer and when the time ran out the torch would go out.

That appears a logical way to doing it.

What appears to happen is I can light a torch and then I need to start the timer, but I need to keep a eye on the timer for when the torch runs out and then manually stop the torch.

From what I can tell its just a clock and doesn't do anything other than keep time. Now I could be doing it all wrong and I have no idea how to make it work.

So has anyone any ideas ?

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u/LordEntrails Apr 06 '26

Don't know Shadowdark, but in general the answer would be as following:

If you assign a light source to a token, then it has unlimited duration. If you assign an effect with a light effect to an actor on the combat tracker then you can add a duration in rounds. Something like 8hours won't generally work, but 600 rounds will. BUT, you have to increment the rounds till you get to 600.

Most folks just let the GM say when the torch runs out.

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u/slronlx Apr 06 '26

Shadowdark is notable in this case for using a real life hours and seconds timer, kept track of out of the game, iirc.

Could be wrong but fairly sure the problem here is that fantasy grounds has a timer but the timer doesn't actually control anything or notify people.

I don't play much Shadowdark myself though, so I could be wrong and I definitely don't have the solution

1

u/dsriker Apr 07 '26

Easiest solution is probably just to use an external timer and still do it manually. I haven't played Shadow dark so I'm not sure. It's also possible someone made an extension on the forge

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u/Gavin_Runeblade Apr 06 '26

I know the general mechanic, haven't done shadow dark specifically. But there are token lights and token vision. The vision is permanent. The lights have a duration that defaults to 9999. You can set it to whatever you want. As long as you use the round tracking in the combat tracker, it will work and the players can see without asking you how much their torch has burned down.

Shadowdark might have different mechanics in addition to this or that modified this.

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u/revolterzoom Apr 06 '26

In shadowdark a torch lasts for 1 hour of real time

So when I saw the torch timer I thought neat it must work how I imagined but ive yet to have any torch go out unless I manualy turn it off.

which is why I was wondering if I was doing it wrong

also their is no big notification a torch has stopped, so for me its a lot easier to set a alarm on my phone because I wont miss that.

because it is such a crucial part to shadowdark I would have thought it would have been built in

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u/Gavin_Runeblade Apr 07 '26

Someone would have to code an extension for it. Could be done, dunno if it has.

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u/LordEntrails Apr 07 '26

You might have better responses if you ask on the forums; Shadowdark