secret doors

[ken]

rode your first bike in 1956 - HA, you're old. hehehe

As far as the movie goes - I don't even recall hearing any commercials about that one. How
did you find out about it?

Well, its a British film, so its quite possible you wont have heard about it in US. Its actually a remake of a film with Alec Guinness as the original George Smylie, Master Spy, so that dates it. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a 1974 British spy novel by John le Carré, featuring George Smiley. Smiley is a middle-aged, taciturn, perspicacious intelligence expert in forced retirement. He is recalled to hunt down a Soviet mole in the "Circus", the highest echelon of the Secret Intelligence Service. In keeping with le Carré's work, the narrative begins in medias res with the repatriation of a captured British spy. The background is supplied during the book through a series of flashbacks. The sun is well over the Yardarm, so,

[Daedalus]

Happy belatated Birthday, Ken. Perspicacious...had to look that one up. Been schooled by the old man.

I'm on torilen's side of the secret door rule. I prefer a little more realism in this area, so searches are house-ruled with a die roll. If a secret door must be found in order to continue a Quest, then it is automatically found as per the standard rule. I didn't limit the number of attempts to search one area, as I use a wandering monster rule as well. Otherwise, there would need to be a limit of 1 search attempt per room or corridor, as with treasure searches. Pointed out earlier, endless die-rolling to get the same results as the original auto-find rule is not desirable.

Here's a link to said rule. -edit

[wallydubbs]

I think the direction of the secret door doesn't matter and can be spotted and opened from either side (unless the quest notes say otherwise).
However the only difference this makes with my game play is in using the Clairvoyance spell from WoM. With this this spell, in my group, Zargon has to include traps and secret doors when laying out the contents of this room. But if the secret door opens from the other side I do not have to lay it out.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

I think that the default position is that a secret door can be found from either side, as has previously been stated on this topic (but Quest Designers can vary this by adding Quest Notes if they wish to create a particular effect)

For me personally I hate the boredom caused when Heroes have to endlessly back-track to locate a secret door that has been missed (or alternatively search 'everything' when most of the time there is nothing to find) so in Quests that I design I only ever use Secret Doors to provide a shortcut or easier route, or a side room with bonus treasure, so that if they are found there is a bonus, if not found then they don't prevent the objective being reached.

Part of the confusion is around the poor iconography of secret doors, they are ‘doors’ (the clue is in the name), but the difference logically is that they are not placed on the board as per normal doors until they are found. However rather than using an icon like a door which seems the obvious approach, the official icon is one that covers a square, which spawns a lot of confusion around which side can it be searched on, does it make a difference whether the icon is on the corridor side or the room side, what about LOS through a secret door

I would suggest two possible approaches, the first more in keeping with the original, the second a little different (but better – me thinks)

1. Both sides / either side - on the Quest Map, mark both squares that a secret door can be found from i.e., the corridor and room (or two different but adjacent rooms) with the secret door icon. This way it is clear which squares the door can be found from and where the door is located i.e., between the two. You could also place two secret door tiles on the board when a secret door is found, one of each side. This could also open the possibility if a Quest Designer wants a door to be found from only one side, then they could indicate which by only placing one icon on the Quest Map on the side it could be found from- (although I would suggest that a belt and braces approach of using that iconography AND quest note would be best)

2. New Icon – replace the existing iconography with a new secret door icon that is located like a door (possibly a standard door icon with a large “S” at 90 degrees crossing the centre – those who enjoy making icons, feel free to post some suggestions – I’m not precious as long as they are clearly distinguished from normal doors so that we “Zargons” don’t accidentally put them out on the board prematurely) and then, once discovered, a standard door is placed on the board in the location indicated, after all a secret door that has been found is just a door.

The second option also has a bonus, in that it frees up the formerly secret door tile (and the secret door icon on the Quest Map) to be used as a new feature – the hatch.

The Hatch

A hatch is a sliding or hinged door that is flush with the surface of a floor, ceiling or roof. A hatch is placed onto the board when visible like any other door or piece of furniture, unless it is concealed (see Secret Hatch and Hatch as a Trap below). The rules for hatches, also known as trap doors (I’m deliberately not using this term to avoid confusion with traps, trapped doors and even trapdoors as a trap and trapped trapdoors!) also cover grates that have similar functionality.

In terms of the tile to use, you can create your own or use one from another source or purchase the original ones from Kellar’s Keep (which represent closed hatches), for open hatches I just use the secret door tile from the original game, as I represent found secret doors with a normal open-door piece as under Second Edition rules they are not placed onto the board until found and once found they are automatically opened so there is no real need to use the secret door tile (and I find this actually works better as logically a secret door that has been found and opened is just an open-door it isn’t secret anymore!)

For the purposes of game play a hatch consists of 3 parts
• the square containing the hatch itself
• any mechanism for climbing up and down (generally a ladder, rungs built into the wall or knotted rope, but for the purposes of the examples below we’ll assume a ladder)
• the square directly below the hatch containing the foot of the ladder (referred to as the “landing square”, generally this will be marked on the Quest Map “X”)

Opening a hatch
To open a hatch, you need to move onto an adjacent square, declare you are opening and allow the EWP a moment to lay out what has been revealed, same process as any other door.

Moving through a hatch
You can move through a hatch on your turn, but you cannot end your turn on any square that is part of the hatch, either the square having the hatch itself or the landing square. If your move would result in your figure ending up on either of these squares or a square already occupied by another figure then you may not make that move.

Climbing up or down through a hatch uses your action for the turn, so your turn when passes through a hatch would be as follows;
• Either move and action: Moving across the room or passage to a square that is adjacent to the hatch (as movement) then using your action to climb through the hatch, up/down the related mechanism, and end your turn on a square adjacent (orthogonally) to the landing square
• Or action and move: If you start your turn adjacent to a hatch or a landing square then you may use your action to climb up/down through the hatch placing your figure on a square adjacent to the hatch or landing square ending your action, you may then take your movement as usual.

Secret Hatch
A hatch can also be secret (hidden or concealed) in which case it isn’t place on the board until the square is stepped on or a search performed at which point it is placed on the board in an open state and the revealed room or passage is laid out by the EWP (as per your own rules for discovering secret doors which vary between editions)

Hatch as a Trap
Secret Hatches can also be rigged as traps. These are secret so are not placed on the board until the square is stepped on or a search performed as with a normal secret hatch, but at the point that the trap is activated treat the fall as though the character has triggered a pit trap* but instead of placing the pit tile, you place the open hatch tile and the fallen character is placed on a square orthogonally adjacent to the landing square (EWPs choice if more than one is free) and their turn ends.

You may choose to climb down into an open hatch or alternatively you may opt to jump over it using the normal “jumping a pit” rules

*The original rules for falling into a pit are that you lose 1BP but I get the EWP to roll 2 combat dice and the character loses a BP for each Skull rolled, so if you use this house rule then for falling down a hatch hole you may wish to roll 3 combat dice, like the Spiked Pit Trap.

[Kurgan]

Yeah the door is either pushed open or pulled open if you really want to get technical about matching the image to what's supposedly happening. Zargon could give a hint to the heroes in the above scenario as to where they have NOT YET searched (not telling them exactly where it is) if they are getting antsy.