Night Vision clarification

[Doctor Agenda]

This isn't new to 6th Edition, but Night Vision is bought as +4 Sight Per, Only vs. Darkness Penalties, and it is described as working in total darkness, except that it doesn't work against the actual Darkness power. In the past I have ruled this as not applying in pitch blackness such as deep underground with no light source and a normal person can't see their hand in front of their face. That is, I've interpreted Night Vision as not applying under those conditions because there are no darkness penalties, you simply can't see. On the other hand, there's the 'total darkness' thing. Is the official intent that Night Vision work in conditions beside 'darkness fields' where light effectively does not exist (barring the stray photon here and there)?

[Steve Long]

The official intent is that Nightvision is built to negate the -4 Sight PER penalty for "dark night." However any given GM wants to interpret it beyond that is up to him; I'm certainly not going to send the Gaming Police after you (or anyone else) if you rule that it doesn't work deep underground (for example). But I should point out two things:

(1) Those of us who dwell in cities, and in this age of cheap and omnipresent artificial lighting, often don't understand just how impenetrably pitch-black a "dark night" can truly be.

(2) In published writeups of characters who live in or frequent lightless areas (underground, the deep ocean, etc.), I often use Nightvision to represent their ability to see. (OTOH, such beings often have other Senses like Sonar and Detect Vibrations as well, or instead.)