Ye Olde Inn

As I was browsing through the various quest books, I noticed how especially the Elf Pack seemed to feature traps directly behind doors - including Falling Block Traps, sometimes even at a door to a room that has no other exits.

According to the official rules, you can only search for traps in the same room or hallway as the character doing the search. I've searched the forums, but couldn't find much about this specific topic. As it is, with the official rules, traps behind doors are pretty much sure-fire traps. The Falling Block Traps are especially deadly in this respect, if there is no other exit and the Hero decides to jump sideways instead of backwards through the door he came into the room (a backwards move which by the EU rules is actually forbidden). In my opinion, this seems to make those traps more dangerous than elsewhere on the board.

Also, it seems a bit ... weird that a Hero wouldn't be able to search a tile directly on the other side of the threshold, while at the same time if a Hero stands on one corner of the long hallway at the outer edge of the board and there's a trap all the way in the other far corner, that the Hero would be able to detect it by searching just fine.

Thoughts? Or if I am late to that party, where has this particular issue been discussed before?

I'm considering a house rule during play to allow Heroes to check tiles directly behind a door - but that doesn't remedy the situation if there are monsters on the other side, as that prevents searches of any kind.

My thoughts are exactly the same as yours.
I added one nifty little exception to triggering rules: a trap orthogonally adjacent to a door is only triggered when a hero ENDS their move on it.
It's not perfect, but it remedies at least the reproach of "Duh, muh fairness!"

Yes that is bad style.
The falling block trap behind the door, I would replace it with something fairer.
Also I allow traps to be found behind doors, but that's not so important as I also like to replace them with creative things.

Maurice76 wrote:Also, it seems a bit ... weird that a Hero wouldn't be able to search a tile directly on the other side of the threshold, while at the same time if a Hero stands on one corner of the long hallway at the outer edge of the board and there's a trap all the way in the other far corner, that the Hero would be able to detect it by searching just fine.

Because the lever, cables, what ever, just happen to be right next to him. Alternatively, once the area is emptied and searched, it can be considered fully explored, regardless to square model is standing, unlike an unexplored room. The search action could be moving to any space and back again but the act, in game, simply isn't needed.

The Helmet comes in handy, the wearer should move through doors first.

I believe it also adds the importance to earning gold to buy the Elf potion, VISION!

I understand what you mean, but it steps over the possibility of monsters standing in the hallway that branches off of that long one. In fact, any T-split in the hallway could lead to this issue: traps discovered in the second part, beyond the T-split, without triggering monsters in the side hallway seems weird.

Maurice76 wrote:I understand what you mean, but it steps over the possibility of monsters standing in the hallway that branches off of that long one. In fact, any T-split in the hallway could lead to this issue: traps discovered in the second part, beyond the T-split, without triggering monsters in the side hallway seems weird.

You could include after the T split as a separate corridor. I'm not sure on the official rules on this but that's how i'd play it. When we played modular, using AHQ boards, the search was each section, card piece. I use 'Area' to refer to room or corridor.

As for the monster being in the way. A hero can't search in the presence of monsters and the lever, traps mechanics could be this side of the hallway.

If designing quests i wouldn't do the traps behind the door, it's cheap, unless i'd come up with some specific unique requirement in the quest. Ideas like needing to catch a Goblin with a NET and use DRAG to get him to a Torture Rack. The quest would be specifically designed so the Heroes would die, if not doing this. Quite like The expansions, it's to add importance to the need of gold to buy Vision. Not quite as involving but i see what they did.

I change the rules on that a bit - I've always considered searching a door/lock for a trap different
from searching a room or hallway. The trap would be rigged with the door and someone entering
in mind.

If it is a pit trap...that is a little different...that would certainly be the floor tile just inside the
door, and I would think - to be fair - allowing a sudden jump to avoid falling might be in order.

I like the idea of connecting the trap to the door. A search from one side of the door could hint there's something fishy directly on the other side.

The vision potion is a good one too, though I should probably stress it to the players. We've still to restart HQ, having not played it for over 2 decades or so , so I can't remember how easy gear and money progression was. If money is no issue at that point, I guess I should press them on getting the vision potion.

Tough, the Hero triggers the trap if they go through the door. If it's a falling block then don't choose to go into the room.

The Admiral wrote:Tough, the Hero triggers the trap if they go through the door. If it's a falling block then don't choose to go into the room.

I understand that assessment.
Plus, Pass through Rock.