The One-Hour Torch
Shadowdark ties its light economy to your wristwatch, not the fiction. A torch lasts one hour of real time. Not one hour of game time, not “until the scene feels done,” not a vague handful of turns. Sixty minutes at the table, then the flame is gone.
This is the myth worth killing early: that light is flavor. It is not. Characters without darkvision who lose their light source are blind, and blindness in a dungeon full of things that see just fine is a death sentence with paperwork. Real-time tracking is load-bearing. It converts dithering, backtracking, and endless deliberation into a resource cost, because every minute of your indecision is a minute of torch you will never see again.
Settle the ruling before the first torch is lit. Who carries light, what happens when it dies, and whether a dropped torch keeps burning are all questions cheaper to answer now than mid-argument in the dark.
At the table: Start a visible 60-minute countdown the moment a torch is lit; when it hits zero, say nothing about game time and simply describe the dark closing in.
Related
Daily field notes, weekly Issues. Follow @ItsAlrdyWritten or subscribe via RSS.