How to guard a teleportation circle

[Hand of Evil]

Murder hole - It is walled or in a pit with traps around it. Traps; burning oil that can be poured into it or just flooding it with water but at least having arrows rain down on travellers.

Because of the limited access, it would be easy to inspect and tax goods as they go in or out.

 

[Asmor]

I have some caveats for teleporation circles when I use them...

To use a teleportation circle, you need to know its glyphs. This is a lot like having to know someone's phone number to call them. If you can limit knowledge of your circle's glyphs, you can limit access.

Teleportation circles are very helpful for commerce, and every large city has one or more. However, the circles are always a distance from the city's walls. In order to enter the city, you still need to go through the gates.

Most cities have outright bans on teleportation circles within their walls, with harsh punishments for violators.

And finally, a teleportation circle must be complete to be useful. They can be built such that the circle can be taken apart, thus disabling the circle until it's restored.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

If I were going to have a teleport circle inside a city I think I'd guard it with a rock. The circle would be in an underground room with the only exit guarded by closed gates and antimagic. The rock would be the ceiling of the room, tightly fitted to the walls, flat on the bottom, and weighing at least a few thousand tons. A counterweight and pulley system would allow raising it and lowering it quickly. The rock would normally rest on the circle, keeping it inactive (I dunno if this is a 4E rule, but it would be if I ran a 4E game). If you want to port in, you use a communication magic to request that it be opened. If anything untoward or even unexpected appears in the circle, it's immediately dropped.

This is not a bulletproof system. A hostile individual could impersonate someone trusted to get the gate open. Stone shape could prevent the smooshage, xorns can use travel through rock, and so on. But theses approaches will probably be enough of a pain that the hostile will just seek another avenue of entry.

 

[DanotheSlender]

Mind you my experience with teleportation circles is homebrew from 2nd ed. as compiled by our entire group including the DM. we tossed around several ideas for protecting the area from outsiders. One was a passphrase, upon porting in a passphrase must be uttered within a few seconds or rays of disintegration, designated with no save, would criscross the pad, so anything standing more than a couple inches from the floor, or even magicly suspended up to 6 feet would be struck. another was a dual receiver within the pad, so a note or item with a signifying glyph would appear, the glyph would complete the larger part of the circle, or deactivate the defenses and allow those following to complete the port. Our group used glyphed rings, and occasionaly the scrap of paper or even a peice of bark inscribed with the glyph. note the rings etc were non magical until they were inside the confines of the circle, also circles were only on the receiving end, you could port in from deep within a dungeon, and unless you found an area where you could inscribe another ring for safe return, chalk rings and sand drawings etc. were acceptable for more versatility of the spell, to get back you had to take the long road.

Game On!!

 

[Janx]

This is not a bulletproof system. A hostile individual could impersonate someone trusted to get the gate open. Stone shape could prevent the smooshage, xorns can use travel through rock, and so on. But theses approaches will probably be enough of a pain that the hostile will just seek another avenue of entry.

That sounds like a good system.

I don't think an RPG security system should be perfect. that would defeat the fun of players coming up with an exploit for a vulnerability they discover,

 

[Storminator]

That sounds like a good system.

I don't think an RPG security system should be perfect. that would defeat the fun of players coming up with an exploit for a vulnerability they discover,

My players are closing in on Paragon, and they're going to have to start worrying about teleportation circles. I like the idea that you basically can't guard them, nor can you see who's coming before they arrive. It makes them inherently dangerous and risky to put in your "castle." Our game is in Eberron, so there are lots of factions that could be operating TCs - Dragonmarked Houses, nobles, cultists, churches, governments - which makes finding and hijacking TCs an interesting sport.

PS

 

[LostSoul]

In 4E:

Magic Circle.

You can put a Magic Circle against "all" around the Teleport Circle, but that would "break" the circle (since no one could use it). I'd probably allow a magic item or other, specific ritual to act as a key - it unlocks a portion of the circle, breaking it so that creatures can pass through until it's "locked" again.

Also remember that, in 4E, each permanent Teleport Circle has its own code. Without that code you can't use Linked Portal to access the circle. These codes would be closely-guarded secrets. I'm sure there's a good plot device there.