I don't use conical lighting either. But to your point, there are(were at least) some game systems which consider facing changes as spending a movement point for each change(so turning 180 degrees on a square grid would cost 2 movement points.) This mechanic would penalize players from doing this in some cases.Full Bleed wrote: I rarely use conical lighting because players just end up whirling the lighting around and looking anyway, so I don't have much of a horse in this race...
Of course, there are other ways around this from a player perspective(as a group), such as a triangle formation with each of the leading sides of the triangle having their lanterns pointed in slight offset direction to reveal more area to both left and right. But then this has it's own implications of each player having to carry a light source and number of game systems require some type of action to set down a light and draw a weapon that makes this not the most advantageous approach. For example, if you are carrying a light, you may not have a two handed weapon, bow, or crossbow drawn or likewise mages may not have material components in their hands or some such. Again, it really goes back to the system in use.
I could be wrong since it was a LONG time ago(late eighties or early nineties), but I seem to think Rolemaster had a movement penalty for changing facing(though it could have been one of the other countless games I tested out during that time).