On Dungeon Doors in your OSR Campaigns

    Characters will always want things to be easier than they should be to get to the goodies, rescue the princess or whatever. Maybe even loot a tomb. In BX the issue of dungeon doors is always interesting in that doors are always stuck for players and not monsters. As per page B21 of the Basic booklet.

"Doors in a dungeon are usually closed, and are often stuck or locked. A lock must usually be picked by a thief. An unlocked door must be forced open to pass through it. To force open a door, roll Id6; a result of 1 or 2 (on Id6) means that the door is forced open. The roll should be adjusted by a character’s Strength score adjustment. The number needed to open a door can never be less than 1 nor greater than 1-5.

Once a door is opened, it will usually swing shut when released unless it is spiked or wedged open. Doors will usually open automatically for monsters, unless the door is held, spiked, or closed with magical spells."

It appears the dungeon works against you as a party. The mythic underworld concept works in that it does as the very environment is against you in your quest or journey and the denizens operate to a special set of rules as adversaries that you player characters do not and are thus at an advantage in their strange under world. I borrow a bit from Labyrinth Lord in my house rulings and allow that not all doors automatically close behind adventurers but some door, its all situational. With resource management very important at low levels it becomes even more important as a trail of iron spikes gets more expensive if the loot has been evasive or light for the adventuring party. Not to mention an actual trail for wandering monsters to follow.

This moves along to Locked Doors as well. Allowing characters to simply bust down a locked kind of makes a lock worthless doesn't it? Another obstacle to overcome and how to overcome it quickly. A Thief or Tomb Robber in group gives the simple pick the lock option and to the more brute minded parties more time busting stuff. How much time to allot to breaking a lock on say a Tomb designed specifically to keep tomb robbers at bay? Also making a Knock Spell in the Dungeon more valuable for time constraints as well. I knock it and we rush the room or whatever. Acid dissolving the lock allowing a Force Doors chance or working on a lock for 3 turns with a crowbar. All good options and then the need to force open the Stuck Door after removing the lock.

Also, as everything else in your campaign do not be afraid to give weird options the players come up with a chance and never be afraid to say No either. An obstacle is just that, an obstacle and if it is easily overcome is no obstacle at all. A variety of stuck doors, locked doors and missed secret doors make the party progress unique to others who may come behind them in your campaign. As with everything your mileage may vary but pay attention to the doors even if your party does not.

#OSR #MindsGaming #BX #DnD #BXDnD #LabyrinthLord