Dark? Light?

[Ed Reppert]

So the Kobolds are hanging around in their lair just shooting the breeze or whatever. Would they have light in the room? After all, they all have darkvision, so they don't really need it. If they don't, then if the PCs, after they finish with the Xulgaths, come to that walled up area with the small holes in it, and shine a light from their side so they can see into the lair, won't the kobolds notice that?

Apparently the BB avoids language problems by ignoring language altogether, so I guess the assumption is that everybody speaks Common (I hate that term) including the kobolds. But in the full game kobolds speak Draconic, which is presumably what they'd be speaking just hanging around in their lair. So at least one of the party members would have to speak draconic, or they wouldn't be getting any information by eavesdropping (Hm. Isn't there a spell that would help?) Anyway, not a problem for the BB, it just struck me as an oddity.

[Dancing Wind]

Page 6 in the BB GMG has the following section about light. It's part of the description of Room 2 "Drop Into Darkness"

Quote:

Light

From this area onward, the chambers are completely dark
unless their descriptions state otherwise. Characters who have
darkvision from their ancestry or heritage can see normally.
Others need to provide their own source of light so that they
can see. As long as one character is holding a torch, most of
the rooms are small enough that the torch illuminates the
entire area. More precise rules for light can be found on page
63 of the Hero’s Handbook, should you need them.

The barricade in Room 4 that opens the path to Room 5 might be a good place for the GM to bring up the possible outcomes of shining a torch into an area where characters can "hear a faint clattering noise coming from beyond the barricade".

And yeah, when the adventure gives exact quotes of what the characters hear, I'd say they're intended to understand whatever language is being used, without any special aids, especially since languages are explicitly not a part of BB rules.

You're applying a different ruleset to an adventure written for GMs with a lot less knowledge. You know too much about CRB kobolds and are applying it to BB kobolds. In the BB, everybody understands everybody else. Magic!

[Ed Reppert]

I'm not applying anything. I did acknowledge that there are no language barriers in the BB, after all.