D&D General D&D Dungeon Map Design: Good and Bad

[Dyson Logos]

If I am going to use a map for TotM, I sometimes go with "each square is about 2 paces."

Bingo.

I draw my maps primarily to be a DM tool to describe a space to the players. A lot of people don't understand why I make such detailed maps when ALL my D&D play is done theatre of the mind. I draw them to assist DMs running games like the ones I play and run, and I find that a nice detailed map makes it easier to describe a scene.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

We should talk a bit about secret doors in dungeon maps.

Secret doors are better if they're not really secret. Indeed, they're practically useless otherwise. If they're never revealed then at best all they can do is add to the general confusion of a typical dungeoncrawl. The dungeon above would be best if Players go into it knowing there are lots of secret doors to look for.

Not really secret doors come in different forms. The most basic form is the Random Secret Door, which is an actually secret door that Players just randomly decide to look for and find without any clues or reason to do so. Another is the Open Secret Door which is revealed because it is unconcealed. Yet other not really secret doors are Mapped Secret Doors which are indicated in a note or on a map that the Characters have. There is also the Implied Secret Door found in dead end corridors and between rooms.

Secret doors are meant to be revealed.

 

[jolt]

Old adventures often assumed you were always consciously looking for traps and secret doors. I seem to recall the baseline was it took 10 minutes to move 10' as it assumed you were checking the floor and walls for secret doors and traps as you went. You could go quicker, but it was a risk. Most treasure wasn't mission critical either and the adventure didn't care if you missed things.

Many maps at the time made a difference between a door that was secret as opposed to just concealed. A bunch of the classic dungeons were originally designed for convention/tournament play which needed a more linear design.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

Yeah, but I remember that part of older adventures as not being fun. It was not fun searching every wall for secret doors and every door for secret traps. Heck, now that I think of it, traps might be more fun if they are not really secret. I think traps and secret doors might benefit from being known unknowns rather than unknown unknowns.

 

[Hussar]

Well, in older D&D, much like newer D&D, you detected traps pretty much automatically. An elf in the party meant you had an automatic chance regardless of your speed. IIRC, the best chances were about 50/50, so, if you brought two elves with you, then you pretty much get all the secret doors.

Now, it's based on passive Perception, which means that if you have a decent Perception score, you find virtually all secret doors automatically.

 

[Reynard]

Well, in older D&D, much like newer D&D, you detected traps pretty much automatically. An elf in the party meant you had an automatic chance regardless of your speed. IIRC, the best chances were about 50/50, so, if you brought two elves with you, then you pretty much get all the secret doors.

Now, it's based on passive Perception, which means that if you have a decent Perception score, you find virtually all secret doors automatically.

Map design should facilitate looking for secrets -- secret doors, hidden alcoves, traps, etc... -- by enticing the players to wonder why this particular area feels different. If we are just reducing it to automatic die rolls, what is the point?

 

[Mannahnin]

Well, in older D&D, much like newer D&D, you detected traps pretty much automatically. An elf in the party meant you had an automatic chance regardless of your speed. IIRC, the best chances were about 50/50, so, if you brought two elves with you, then you pretty much get all the secret doors.

Ah, no. You couldn't automatically detect traps or secret doors in TSR versions of D&D. You've misremembered the rules and are conflating four different ones in this bit.

Dwarves in OD&D, AD&D, B/X and BECMI have an enhanced ability to find "room traps" (as B/X labels them) while actively searching. 2/6 instead of the normal 1/6 (AD&D makes it a bit more complicated and limits it to stonework features, though of several kinds), see 1978 PH 15-16, 1989 (PH p21), but that's the short version.) No passive detection ability.

"Treasure traps" / small mechanical device traps you need a Thief to actively search for. No passive detection.

Elves in AD&D, B/X and BECMI have an enhanced ability to find Secret Doors while actively searching for them - 2/6 instead of the normal 1/6. OD&D stands out as more generous, letting elves find them 4/6 and others 2/6, and offering an optional rule for elves to have 2/6 passive detection (Book III: TU&WA p9).

AD&D adds a second, easier-to find category of hidden doors, called "Concealed Doors" (definitions quoted below). And it gives elves a 1/6 chance to automatically notice Concealed Doors by passing within 10', not Secret Doors. It also gives a 50% (3/6) chance to find a Concealed Door while actively searching.

AD&D 1E DMG said:

Concealed Doors: These are doors which are hidden in some way -behind a curtain, covered with plaster, a trap door under a rug, etc. They differ from a secret door in that once their concealment is uncovered they are obviously doors.

Secret Doors: These are portals which are made to appear to be a normal part of the surface they are in. They con possibly be sensed or detected by characters who are actively concentrating on such activity, or their possible location may be discovered by tapping (though the hollow place could be another passage or room beyond which has no portal in the hollow-sounding surface). Discovery does not mean that access to the door mechanism has been discovered, however. Checking requires a very thorough examination of the possible secret door area. You may use either of two methods to allow discovery of the mechanism which operates the portal:

1. You may designate probability by a linear curve, typically with a d6. Thus, a secret door is discovered 1 in 6 by any non-elf, 2 in 6 by elven or half-elven characters, each character being allowed to roll each turn in checking a 10' X 10' area. This also allows you to have some secret doors more difficult to discover, the linear curve being a d8 or d10.

2. You may have the discovery of the existence of the secret door enable player characters to attempt to operate it by actual manipulation, i.e. the players concerned give instructions as to how they will have their characters attempt to make it function: "Turn the wall sconce.", "Slide it left.", "Press the small protrusion, and see if it pivots.", "Pull the chain."

It is quite acceptable to have a mixture of methods of discovering the operation of secret door.

 

[el-remmen]

Personally, I think the best way for PCs to know to look for/find secret doors is to have enemies (or allies) use them when appropriate.

 

[Mannahnin]

Personally, I think the best way I for PCs to know to look for/find secret doors is to have enemies (or allies) use them when appropriate.

Yeah. I also like the device of having a trap or secret door early in the dungeon left open/fired, maybe with a body lying in it, as a clue for the PCs to be on the lookout for more. The Lost City is a classic module which does this.

Edit: I think a fun variation on this is to do it in a large (maybe mega-)dungeon several sessions in. Having a door suddenly there, ajar, that they've walked past a bunch of times without knowing it is great bait and a great reminder that there are secrets they haven't found.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

Clues to secret doors come in different forms; leaving them open is a clue and it also makes the dungeon seem alive, so to speak. I think it may be smart to think about a secret door as the clues that reveal it. Each secret door should probably also have a workaround.