How to fortify a Dwarven Mine? (Elfblood Wanderers players, don't read this!)

[Corinth]

You need more than one foot to swing a pickaxe. You need about a yard. You also need the space because you're dealing with airflow issues, which larger tunnels deal with better, and you need larger tunnels to allow for the easy removal of the rock and ore that the miners strike free from the walls. The larger tunnels also make it easier for the polearm-equipped troops to get around, as they can bring up the tips of their weapons when they round corners. The 10' ceiling is quite believable for a dwarf mine.

 

[mmadsen]

You need more than one foot to swing a pickaxe. You need about a yard.

How tall are real mining tunnels? Or rather, how tall were real mining tunnels when miners still used pickaxes?

 

[Bob Aberton]

*Bump* and good advice, all. Keep it up...

How much room you need to swing a pick would depend on how long the handle was, methinks...

Also, the miners would probably mostly use chisels and hammers and chisel the ore out, and you don't need that much room for chisels and hammers.

Still, maybe the ceilings should be taller...at least in the main tunnels...

Still, I'm taking all this under advisement...

 

[Broken Fang]

Whatever the size may be...dwarves using one handed weapons and shields should have some advantage over taller races using one handed weapons and shields. Thoguh the DMG does not have rules for this I would make them.

I agree Dwarven tunnels should be smaller...no reason for huge tunnels. If they import materials (lumber) they could have a very protected entry way where all materials/guests arrive. They dwarves would then use carts, etc to move the material into the lair.

 

[mmadsen]

How tall are real mining tunnels? Or rather, how tall were real mining tunnels when miners still used pickaxes?

Bumbling around on-line, I found a web page recounting an adult's stories (in 1930) of his childhood days (in 1879) exploring an old mine. He mentions the ceiling of the main tunnel being "the height of a man's head" -- so I guess a Dwarf tunnel would be the height of a Dwarf's head.

Another web page describes some old tunnels near Manchester, UK, where they cleared out the silt. The entrances are about 8' feet high; the tunnels are about 6' high, "although taller people have to bend their heads in places."

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

One of the things I find most irksome about published adventures is the over-sizing of rooms and other places - including mines.

30' by 30' rooms seem standard, but if you think about it, a room that size is huge! I remember a 2e TSR module with a castle with a 1-story tall, 200' by 200' room, with no support pillars. Geez.

I did some searching on silver mines in Europe and found some interesting maps - sadly I no longer have the links. I was most struck by the maze-like appearance of the mines, and their non-uniformity - no 90 degree angles in sight. Mostly a criss-cross of narrow passages, with certain areas untouched (likely due to their being no evidence of ore). They'd have been hell to map or attack, if anyone had tried.

 

[Bob Aberton]

They'd have been hell to map or attack, if anyone had tried.

Thats sorta my point...

 

[mmadsen]

One of the things I find most irksome about published adventures is the over-sizing of rooms and other places - including mines.

Very true. Imagine mapping out the typical American home. How many corridors are 10' wide? How many rooms are 20' x 20'? Now realize that a modern home is much larger than older homes (with much larger closets) -- and it doesn't have to be carved out of rock.

 

[mmadsen]

30' by 30' rooms seem standard, but if you think about it, a room that size is huge! I remember a 2e TSR module with a castle with a 1-story tall, 200' by 200' room, with no support pillars. Geez.

Ideally, large rooms would be a sign that you'd found ruins from the fabulous First Age, or of pre-cataclysm Atlantis, or of Rome before the fall, or whatever. Really, a 30' x 30' room is larger than a castle's Great Hall; it's only easy to build with modern methods.

 

[mmadsen]

I did some searching on silver mines in Europe and found some interesting maps - sadly I no longer have the links.

If my Geas works, you'll come back after finding those links...

I was most struck by the maze-like appearance of the mines, and their non-uniformity - no 90 degree angles in sight.

Just like those hard-to-map, burrowed corridors in some adventures.

Are mines largely level, or do the corridors slope up and down? (Obviously the shafts go straight down...)