D&D 5E The Art of the Secret Door

[Mistwell]

I posted this a long time ago elsewhere, but I felt like it was worth discussing again with the 5e release.

[1] Do you design secret doors with mechanisms which require specific verbal instructions from your players to discover and unlock? If so let us hear the details of any you devised that you were pleased with.

[2] How important is it to you to leave clues for your players, to let them know in advance of the possibility of a secret door?

[3] Do you often hide both the door, ans the means of opening the door?

[4] What is you favorite example of a secret door?

I always liked the secret door play description from the AD&D 1e DMG:

[sblock]I always liked the example in the AD&D DMG Page 99:

[Players have a clue that there should be a way out of a room they've arrived at from a smudged map they found]

DM: The place seems to be about where the blotched area is, but there are no passageways out of it.

LC: Let's tap along that south wall, especially in the center 30' to see if it sounds hollow. The cleric, gnome, and halfling will do the tapping, while the magic-user and I watch back the way we came.

DM: (Rolling a few dice behind the screen several times, knowing that tapping won't show anything here, as the secret door is 10' above the floor: ) "The entire wall sounds VERY solid. You spend a full 10 minutes throughly checking, even to the far east and west, and all three are convinced that it is not hollow beyond. However, the gnome, who you placed in the middle, noted some strange holes in the wall. These were square places cut into the natural stone, each about half a foot per side, and and a bit deeper. There were two at the 20' and two at the 30' line, 1 above the other, the lower at about 3', and the higher at about 6'. He found some small splinters of wood in one.

OC: "Does the smudged area [on the map] give us any clue as to what the holes could be for? Let's feel around inside them to see if there are levers or catches or something..."

LC: "Yes. Look at the map, and carefully check those holes with daggers first - we don't want to lose fingers or hands!" (When all that comes to naught: ) "Can anyone think of why there would be wood splinters in the holes? That must be some sort of a clue!"

OC: "The only thing I can think of is that the holes are sockets for some sort of wooden construction -"

LC: "Sure! How about a ramp or stairs? How high is the ceiling in this place?"

DM: Oh, it must be at least 25' or more."

LC: Let's form a human pyramid and see if there's a secret door higher up on the wall - right here in the center where the passage seems to go on southwards. I'll form the base, and the rest of you help the gnome and the halfling up, and hold them there (use the pole!), while they tap. What do they discover?

DM: "The halfling at the top of the stack has a 1 in 6 chance of slipping and bringing you all down." (A roll of 4 follows, so: ) "But it doesn't happen, and both the gnome and the halfling manage a few taps, and even that feeble work seems to indicate some sort of space beyond."

LC: "Let's change the plan a bit. The cleric and I will hoist the gnome up and hold his legs firmly while he checks around for some way to open the secret door. Meanwhile, the halfling and the magic-user will guard the entrance so that we won't be attacked by surprise by some monster while thus engaged."

DM: "You accomplish the shuffle, and let's see if anything comes - " (A d6 roll for wandering monsters again gives a negative result. ) "The guards see nothing, and what is the gnome doing now?"

OC: (The gnome): "I'll scan the stone first to see if there are marks or some operating device evident."

DM: "Some stone projections seem rather sooth, as if worn by use. That's all you are able to note."

OC: "Then I'll see if I can move any of the stone knobs and see if they operate a secret door! I'll push, pull, twist, turn, slide, or otherwise attempt to trigger the thing if possible."

DM: "The fist-sized projections move inwards and there is a grinding sound, and a 10' X 10' section of the wall, 10' above the floor in the center part, swings inward to the right."

OC: "(The gnome: ) I'll pull myself up into the passage revealed, and then I'll see if I can drive a spike and secure my rope to it, so I can throw the free end down to the others."

DM: "You get up all right, and there is a crack where you can pound in a spike. As you're doing it you might be in for a nasty surprise, so I'll let you roll a six-sider for me to see your status - make the roll! (Groans as a 1 comes up indicating surprise. The DM then rolls 3 attacks for the ghoul that grabbed at the busy gnome, and one claw attack does 2 damage and paralyzes the hapless character, whereupon the DM judges that the other 3 would rend him to bits. However, the DM does NOT tell the players what has happened, despite impassioned please and urgent demands. He simply relates: ) "You see a sickly gray arm strike the gnome as he's working on the spike, the gnome utters a muffled cry, and then a shadowy form drags hum out of sight. What are you others going to do?"

LC: "Ready weapons and missiles, the magic-user her magic-missile spell, and watch the opening."

DM: "You hear some nasty rending noises and gobbling sounds, but they end quickly. Now you see a group of gray-colored human-like creatures with long, dirt-and blood-encrusted nails, and teeth bloodied and bared, coming to the opening. As they come to the edge you detect a charnel smell coming from them - 4 of them, in fact."[/sblock]

 

[Paraxis]

For my games it works something like this.

Step 1: Compare passive perception to a predetermined DC to find a clue that they should look more closely at an area. If the passive perception is high enough give them the clue.

Step 2: If working on the clue given in step 1, or on their own they decide to investigate the area the players tell me where they are looking and make an investigation roll or perception roll whichever they want to use. If that roll is successful then they find the hidden object, clue, secret door.

Step 3: Normally they investigate the door for traps before opening.

That is pretty much it. They don't describe knocking on the walls, lifting rugs, or holding torches up to see if a draft is present unless they want to, some of my players like to add that sort of thing into describing the success of a roll some don't and I will add the flavor instead of them.

 

[Henrix]

I always disliked the 'take 20', or passive perception solution to secret doors.
If they are not more important or interesting than that I prefer to skip them.

(If they are only there to reward the PC's high perception scores with a bonus treasure or such, well, fine.)

An secret door should be interesting, have clues and a reason to be there.

Give some clue, make it more or less evident that there is something missing. There really ought to be a way to get from here to there. The villain must have had some way to escape.

Reward the players for being smart, but don't make it a show stopper.

That said, the example given above is a bit tedious.

 

[Mistwell]

Reward the players for being smart, but don't make it a show stopper.

That said, the example given above is a bit tedious.

Which one, the one from the AD&D 1e DMG, or the passive perception then investigate one?

For my money, the AD&D 1e one is the encounter in that scene, and I love it. Thinking my way through an encounter like that is at least as fun as fighting monsters, for me.

 

[GMMichael]

[1] Do you design secret doors with mechanisms which require specific verbal instructions from your players to discover and unlock? If so let us hear the details of any you devised that you were pleased with.

[2] How important is it to you to leave clues for your players, to let them know in advance of the possibility of a secret door?

[3] Do you often hide both the door, ans the means of opening the door?

[4] What is you favorite example of a secret door?

1] I'd only require specific descriptions if I placed those descriptions, in written form, elsewhere in the adventure. Otherwise, I'd be pretty flexible on it. For example, I placed a vault-door in a floor, and it had a three-number code lock built into it. The key to the code was written, (or known, can't remember) in riddle form and held by the PCs. Not a secret door, but the solution was available.

2] Placing a hidden door without any clues to its presence is a big waste of time.

3] The opening mechanism must be hidden, or else you don't have a secret door. And you'll need other clues if both door and mechanism are hidden.

4] First one that comes to mind: an otherwise well-hewn tunnel becomes a "broken" tunnel. Why is it "broken?" Well, time to investigate!

 

[Rhenny]

I like this thread. Some of the basic events that we encounter in the game need easy solutions.

I like the idea that perceptive players or ones that make higher investigation rolls will find clues.

One thing that is bugging me is that the adventures so far (Phandelver and Horde of Dragon Queen...and others) don't actually provide maps made for players so the secret doors are marked on the only map that is available. I've been scanning and using them in RPGTO and Fantasy Grounds for my online sessions, but I don't have the time or technical ability to redraw the maps or cover over the "S" that's clearly marked on the map.

Theater of the Mind works much better when the map is only a DM copy.

 

[Henrix]

Which one, the one from the AD&D 1e DMG, or the passive perception then investigate one?

For my money, the AD&D 1e one is the encounter in that scene, and I love it. Thinking my way through an encounter like that is at least as fun as fighting monsters, for me.

Sorry, I mean the DMG example. (The passive perception is just boring.)

It is a bit long for just a secret door, but indeed if you think of it as an important encounter, then yes.

So, can I change my mind?

 

[Kai Wren]

Kind of a 'door', kind of a trap I guess... years and years ago I was running a dungeon which had been designed by a magician who enjoyed aggravating his enemies purely for the sake of annoying them. The party were working their way up his tower full of pink dye oozes and whistle-blowing golems when they hit the midpoint, where the door faded behind them and the 'tower' was replaced with a featureless grey plain stretching infinitely in all directions.

The only way to break the spell was to give up on trying to move on. At that point, the stairs up and down reappeared. It wasn't dangerous in itself (the players had ways around starving), and in real life time it only took about five-ten minutes for everyone to get huffy and 'well then there's nothing I can do! I sit down and pout!'

It was a very memorable 'secret exit' though, and it said a lot about the personality of the wizard. They really enjoyed throwing him off the top of his damn tower when they finally caught up with him.

 

[pedro2112]

Mist, that was an awesome read in the DMG back in the day. However, the problem is balancing the players descriptions of what exactly they are doing and not allowing a PC with a high wisdom or intelligence to find something that the player themselves wouldn't. In other words, a "genius" wizard with an 18 intelligence might very well know exactly where to search (investigate) in a room to find an assumed secret door, but if the player themselves has no clue, then the DM would be making their attribute worthless in the situation if they require the specificity of the AD&D DMG.

I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts on how to balance that. Perhaps if the description is good enough, they can make the check with advantage? But that could mean an average intelligence Cleric (who's Player is a sharp gamer) would be constantly out smarting the genius wizard played by the salt of the earth player.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I have always stolen my secret doors from old movies;

• The revolving/sliding bookcase or fire place.
• The huge wine barrel that is a door after the first ring, before it, it holds wine.
• The door in the back of the wardrobe.
• The mirror door, look like a framed mirror on the wall.
• Stairway door, stairway lifts up to reveal the door or stairway down.
• Table/statue/object that is pushed one way to reveal stairwell.

I think speed is the factor for locks, you want something that you can do fast and close before you are found out.