by Daedalus » Tuesday September 20th, 2011 6:48pm
A secret door tile that straddled the wall equally would clear up the confusion of where it was located- namely, on the wall. The European rules state that a secret doors are found by a search on either side of the wall in which they are placed. drathe's interpretation is directly supported by this.
The wording of the rules is a bit stranger in the NA Instruction Booklet. Having not read the thread of the other site, I'm making an assumption that your disagreement is based on the NA rules. That booklet states: "...Zargon will then disclose any secret doors located in the room or corridor that you are in by placing a secret door tile on the gameboard square where the secret door is located...." That would place the secret door tile on a square in the corridor beyond the empty room, as indicated by the Quest map. As that square is the location of the secret door, it stands to reason that the location of the secret door must be found from the corridor, not the empty room.
The next paragraph states: "The door is not considered OPEN until you move adjacent to it and declare that you are opening it...." No real problem there. A Hero could be adjacent to a secret door square on the other side of a wall, and thus open the door. Finding it is the issue.
Unlike the 'flow' of secret doors in a Quest that open in the direction of likely travel by the Heroes, I think the wording of the rule is counter-intuitive. It could have stated things better: "...Zargon will then disclose any secret doors located in the room or corridor that you are in by placing a secret door tile on the gameboard square that is on the opposite side of the wall where the secret door is located...." That would allow for the location of the secret door to be in the empty room, while being marked in the corridor by a secret-door tile. As things stand, it's up to the players to figure out/accept that the secret door is located on both sides of the wall where the tile is.
Of course, drathe's simple interpretation is best, as the rules weren't worded effectively. My own group years before came to the same interpretation, which we recognized was more workable. Also, sometimes it is more convenient to place a secret door on a less-cluttered side of a wall.
That all being said, I think it would be cool to have some secret doors found normally or more easily from one side, while the 'back' side could be harder to locate. A house rule or Quest notes could cover such special cases easily.
.. UNCLE ZARGON
WANTS.. YOU