I was at a dungeon recently where the ambient lighting in the play spaces was pretty much all red. There was a little white light coming from the ceiling, but the primary color in the area was red. I was, to put it mildly, not a huge fan. I understand the point of a color scheme and setting the mood, but if the light is red it’s a lot harder to see what kinds of colors you’re putting on someone.

I noticed, doing my first scene that night, that the DMs were walking around with little flashlights, and as they passed each scene they would flash their lights on the bottom (regardless of what position they were in), I guess to determine if first aid was necessary and if safety protocols were being followed. That’s all well and good, but flashing my scene partners’ butts was distracting to me. (Fortunately it wasn’t distracting to the bottoms, because they were facing away from the flashlights.) The last thing I want is something that’s going to pull me out of a scene I’m doing, which is difficult enough when (as happened that night) the next scene over is a needle scene and because I’m right-handed I kind of have to face that direction.

I also had a small flashlight in my pocket; I used it primarily to go through my bag and find implements, as well as flashing it on my scene partner’s bottoms if I thought there was broken skin. If I’m doing it, it’s okay, but if other people are doing it, it’s distracting.

There’s another dungeon I go to where the lights are primarily blue and green, and again it makes it difficult to see what’s going on on someone’s body, although less so, because red contrasts with blue and green. But still, my ideal dungeon lighting is white light (soft white, for preference), dimmed a fair bit but not so dim as to not be able to see what’s going on. The old dungeon in Atlanta did have some colored lighting, but it was primarily white light to see by. At TASSP, the dungeon is in a large ballroom and the overhead lights are dimmed just enough. At T3WD, the lights were again your basic half-lit overheads, so it was easy to see what I was doing and what effect I was having on my scene partner. And when I host parties at my house, I don’t put colored bulbs or light strips in any of the rooms; all the lights are dimmable in every room, although in one of them I have to put in a smart bulb and pair it to the smart home system.

I understand atmospherics. I really do. But the best dungeons I’ve been to have had white light with color accents, and the white light is the primary color to see by.