I was also wrong about torches
I made some pretty declarative statements about torches in my last torchpost, and they didn't sit well with some people. I still stand by the over-the-shoulder carrying technique, but I recognize that a three foot torch is less than ideal for tight spaces1.
This is partly because a torch is less than ideal for tight spaces.
We run into a realism vs pulp convention issue pretty quickly with light sources. In my games I tend to change which of those I privilege based on whose turn it is; the goal is for players to be able to accurately apply their own framework of understanding to the game world. But we usually use torches.
Torches have a couple benefits for fantasy adventure games that no other light source offers. They don't go out if you drop them, you can douse and relight them, and they provide you with a sturdy, burning stick you can wave at giant rats. They also make for an interesting object to manipulate in game: if players have to squeeze through a hole in a cave, they have to decide if they push the torch through ahead of them or pull it behind. They need to be careful around books and spiderwebs and straw, or maybe less careful if it is strategically advantageous to do so2. Most importantly, torches are cheap, they allow for experimentation and risk-taking.
The fact of the matter is that every problem with torches (open flame, smoke, bulk) has already been solved by the introduction of the lantern. But lanterns are boring. They only do light source3.
Candles bring as many problems as they solve. Sure you get a smaller, more controlled flame, but it goes out if you run. The light is dimmer. You leave little drops of wax everywhere. Lamps, candles' close cousin, have the issue of basically being a bowl of hot oil that you have to keep steady or else it burns too fast, goes out or spills on you. Again, you solve almost all the problems with a candle by putting it into a lantern4. It doesn't even need to be an expensive lantern, carve out a turnip, give it eyes5.
Liechtenauer brought up the good point that "The separation of candles and torches is illusory, like the separation between life and death and between pants and no pants." This may have just been a shitpost, but does reflect my experience as I tried to flesh out this post. There's a whole array of combustible fuels: liquids like olive oil work in a lamp, solids like tallow can be made into candles, Pretty much any of them can be soaked into some jute and bound around the end of a stick with wire to make a torch, but also, sometimes a torch is a lamp or candle on a stick. Sometimes a torch is just a piece of burning fatwood. Jared put me onto rushlights which are basically a cheap, robust candle and probably what you actually would have used as a premodern spelunker.
This is all to say that there is plenty of complexity without even getting into bioluminescent or magical light sources. Shoot, if we have wizards, we can probably have Van de Graff generators and Leyden jars powering arc lights, or the fantasy equivalent of a glowstick or an emergency flare. Additionally, Sam talked about light sources having statistics, and as I fiddled with those I quickly realized there were some things we wouldn't count as light sources that those statistics would obviously apply to: a low-light, high smoke candle? That's incense baby! An extremely high-heat, extremely short burn time? That's a bomb.
What I'm saying is I'm cooking on a giant table of light sources6 and I'm posting the frontmatter of it today because I don't want to miss a day again.
...
Reading: Werebeasts of Hel by Asa Drake
Listening: Starship Velociraptor by Galactikraken
As if you people aren't marching your players through 10' corridors for most of the campaign. If you have enough room to swing a greatsword, you have enough room to carry a 3' torch.↩
Floor covered with sawdust? Angry goblin on floor? Torch? Angry goblin on fire!↩
I'll concede that lamp oil has a fair number of uses (lube yourself up to slide through a narrow tunnel, set a lake on fire, vomit up a trap potion fast).↩
Candle lantern is the default light source in Sam's excellent book Lowlife.↩
Now it has the benefit of driving off evil spirits!↩
And light source accessories.↩