Searching Corridors

[Bareheaded Warrior]

My house rules don't allow searching in passages, traps and secret doors are handled through the house rules that form part of the Movement section of my rulebook below;

Secret Doors & Traps

Note: Secret Doors and Traps are not placed on the board like normal. Secret Doors are only placed on the board when spotted (in a room or passage) or found by a search (in rooms only) on either side of the wall in which they are located. Traps are only placed on the board when triggered.

Spotting a Secret Door or Trap

If a player characters movement takes them through a space marked as containing a secret door or trap on the Quest map, the evil wizard player must check the total of the movement dice rolled for that player character (not the spaces moved but the dice total) and if that total is six or less then the device has been spotted, otherwise it hasn’t.

If a secret door has been spotted then the evil wizard player must stop the player character’s movement on that space, by stating "You have discovered a secret door" and place a normal open-door marker in the appropriate position and the player character may choose to proceed with his movement as usual including passing through that door if he so chooses.

If a secret door is not spotted the player character continues his movement oblivious to the presence of the door. If subsequently that or other player characters cross that same square, then the same rules apply.

If a trap has been spotted then the evil wizard player must stop the player character’s movement on that space, by stating "You have discovered a trap". The player character must then attempt to disarm the trap and whether successful or not it ends his turn.

If a trap is not spotted, then it will be triggered, and the player character must suffer the consequences.

The Dwarf spots secret doors and traps if his total movement is seven or less.

Monsters cannot spot or trigger traps or secret doors. They may move freely though squares that contain secret doors or traps. Once a trap or secret door has been placed on the board, monsters must follow the same rules as characters.

Disarming a Trap

To disarm a trap, roll a standard die on a roll of four or more the trap has been successfully disarmed, otherwise the trap has been triggered.

The Dwarf and any player character equipped with a Tool Kit gets to add one point to his total rolled for disarming traps. This is cumulative so Dwarf players equipped with a Tool Kit gets to add two points to his total.

Disarming a trap does not count as an action but whether successful or not does end the player characters turn.

[HispaZargon]

I will explain below how I deal in my games with these open topics from the thread Search - The Binding Topic:

#20B Assumed movement ignores movement limits flaw

Problem statement:The assumed movement inherent in a trap search can be up to 25 squares long despite your basic maximum movement being 12 this is made even worst by the fact that you could, at a junction, use your action to ‘search for traps' with your assumed movement covering 25 squares in one direction and then roll and move up to 12 squares in another direction, your figure covering a total of 37 squares of movement (assumed and actual) in a single turn.

#20C Unrevealed Monsters flaw

Problem statement:The assumed movement could cross a T-junction and beyond where there are unrevealed monsters along the other arm of the T. You can discover traps located past the junction without revealing the monsters (as the movement is assumed) but paradox warning - if you then moved down the corridor to disarm a found trap you would discover the presence of the monsters and their presence should have prevented you from searching for the traps that you have already found.

In my games, when a hero searches for traps or secret doors in a corridor, I assume he is searching only in the board area between two corridor corners, including the squares just in the corner. This allows the hero to search in a maximum length of 13 squares, which is not too far from their maximum movement squares (12), so I accept it because most of the corridors in the board are much less long than 13. In the case of existing multiple traps in such inspected area of the corridor, I also follow the rules I already ecplained in this other post.

Additionally, if the hero who is searching finds a trap or secret door, I also allow the hero to automatically move next to it or even to the same square of the trap. This makes sense because such hero should have been already there to find the trap/door and it also speeds up the game if he wants to disarm the trap or cross the secret door during his next turn.

This rules fixes avoid most of the weird situations mentioned above of passing through a double corridor with mosters during a search action without placing the mosnters onto the board. Maybe you could inspecting the corner squares could led to the same situation, but you could always assume that such dead end is inspected by the hero from the last adjacent square hidden for the monsters, without alerting them. Nevertheless, if the hero finally decides to move to one of the squares just placed in a corner of the corridor and it discovers one or more monsters, they are of course inmediately placed onto the board. In other words, the heroes should take care with that.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

In my games, when a hero searches for traps or secret doors in a corridor, I assume he is searching only in the board area between two corridor corners, including the squares just in the corner. This allows the hero to search in a maximum length of 13 squares, which is not too far from their maximum movement squares (12), so I accept it because most of the corridors in the board are much less long than 13.

Would this "splitting the long passageways at junctions" logic apply only when searching for traps and more generally, would it for example affect monster placement or other rules that apply to the 'room or passageway' that you are in, as you would no longer be 'in' the other half of the passageway, if that makes sense?

Whilst this would reduce the very long 26 square passageway to 13 square passageways, which is an improvement, it only mitigates this issue. For example if I move 2D6 squares to end of one of these 13 square long passageway and search (and find nothing), then I covered 20+ squares there and back again. So on my turn bearing in mind max move of 12, average of 7, then I will have covered ~4 turns worth of average movement or ~3 turns worth of maximum movement, which whilst an improvement is still excessive. Maybe consider the search to be one-way movement, for example (if there is nothing to find) then you end your search on the furthest square of the search area, or if there is something to find then on that square.

This would reduce the movement to ~3 turns of average movement or 1 average and 1 maximum.

In addition you could consider making the search 'action' a full-turn action that incorporates movement (as it incorporates assumed movement already) so you wouldn't get to move as well as search but move and search as your turn.

This reduces the maximum movement on your to around that of normal movement.

Additionally, if the hero who is searching finds a trap or secret door, I also allow the hero to automatically move next to it or even to the same square of the trap. This makes sense because such hero should have been already there to find the trap/door and it also speeds up the game if he wants to disarm the trap or cross the secret door during his next turn.

This is interesting, if you extend this logic further (and combine it with your 'find only the nearest trap/secret door' rules) and state that movement to the nearest trap/secret door found is mandatory and in passageways, if you don't find anything then you are simply placed at the end of the search area, as above, then you are only one step away from my current ruleset...