Describing doors is one of the biggest changes in my gaming life over the last two years. After two decades of asking for perception checks, describing good doors (and exits) is a fun challenge that I've really tried to embrace. And anything in the text that keeps me from saying "it looks like ... well, every other door you've seen here" would be a plus.
Not the original poster but here are my two cents.
- Make the door be as large as it has to be for the dungeon inhabitants and no larger. E.g. if it is part of a kobold lair, make the door kobold sized.
- Stronger doors are used to keep things in or out. Place them where it makes sense.
- If doors are magical, they should not look ordinary. A door that will only open when you answer a specific riddle will not be made out of normal wood.
- Add a clue to the door to inform what is behind it. This can be markings, smells, sounds, damage to doors, footprints on the floor, blood, etc. In case people left warnings, you should probably know who left the warning.
- It is sometimes easier to draw a picture than to explain the door in words. This is especially true when people have painted signs on doors, etc.
- For every room with more than 2 exits, you should have something for every exit.
Solid advice. Seen a lot of criticism of Gradient Descent for example, where the exits are often left to the imagination, based on a map symbol and don't have any clues or decision options. I found myself adding in windows to airlock doors so players could peek at what's next or signs written above doors based on the room key names, just so players had better information for decisions.
It’s always challenging to carve out space in layout for this stuff, but for me I really want this kind of information if it can be fitted in! I’ve written stuff before that doesn’t utilise exit descriptions (due to space), but I’ll always fit it in if I can!
I'm quite fond of adventures that include a "default" preamble that describes usual walls, floors, doors and ceilings to dungeon sections so the exit details can concentrate on what's different, unusual and foreshadowing adjacent areas.
If there were some way to get from one room to another that didn't have a door between them (a stairway or a hole in the floor) you wouldn't think twice before describing it. Why is it that we balk when it comes to a door? It can also make remembering things easier for the players "We go back to the huge oak door with the gold lock" or "It was behind the rusted door, you remember? The one that looked like a jail cell?"
These things make your job easier as a GM and more interesting as a player.
I totally agree that there is a high Return on Investment for prepping a few lines per door.
Excellent article ... Doors really need some love 🙂
Looking forward to Inkvein...
One query ... will there be a "light" mode?
With my eyesight, I find black text on white background very much easier to read than white on black. And if I print out a page, the paper is dripping with ink 😕
Almost all pages in Inkvein are black text on white :) there are a few exceptions but you can use a little trick if you want to print those out. If you grab a screenshot of the page you can throw it in a colour inverter online! It will get the black and white to switch places!
Just ended playing a short Errant campaign and the master (running his own module) did exactly this and it was very useful for us as players. For taking educated decisions and for immersion purposes as well.
Describing doors is one of the biggest changes in my gaming life over the last two years. After two decades of asking for perception checks, describing good doors (and exits) is a fun challenge that I've really tried to embrace. And anything in the text that keeps me from saying "it looks like ... well, every other door you've seen here" would be a plus.
Not the original poster but here are my two cents.
- Make the door be as large as it has to be for the dungeon inhabitants and no larger. E.g. if it is part of a kobold lair, make the door kobold sized.
- Stronger doors are used to keep things in or out. Place them where it makes sense.
- If doors are magical, they should not look ordinary. A door that will only open when you answer a specific riddle will not be made out of normal wood.
- Add a clue to the door to inform what is behind it. This can be markings, smells, sounds, damage to doors, footprints on the floor, blood, etc. In case people left warnings, you should probably know who left the warning.
- It is sometimes easier to draw a picture than to explain the door in words. This is especially true when people have painted signs on doors, etc.
- For every room with more than 2 exits, you should have something for every exit.
I love designing doors, players quickly come to fear the heavily detailed doors.
Great advice, I always appreciated it in Rotblack Sludge but couldn’t name it.
Solid advice. Seen a lot of criticism of Gradient Descent for example, where the exits are often left to the imagination, based on a map symbol and don't have any clues or decision options. I found myself adding in windows to airlock doors so players could peek at what's next or signs written above doors based on the room key names, just so players had better information for decisions.
It’s always challenging to carve out space in layout for this stuff, but for me I really want this kind of information if it can be fitted in! I’ve written stuff before that doesn’t utilise exit descriptions (due to space), but I’ll always fit it in if I can!
I'm quite fond of adventures that include a "default" preamble that describes usual walls, floors, doors and ceilings to dungeon sections so the exit details can concentrate on what's different, unusual and foreshadowing adjacent areas.
If there were some way to get from one room to another that didn't have a door between them (a stairway or a hole in the floor) you wouldn't think twice before describing it. Why is it that we balk when it comes to a door? It can also make remembering things easier for the players "We go back to the huge oak door with the gold lock" or "It was behind the rusted door, you remember? The one that looked like a jail cell?"
These things make your job easier as a GM and more interesting as a player.
I totally agree that there is a high Return on Investment for prepping a few lines per door.
Excellent article ... Doors really need some love 🙂
Looking forward to Inkvein...
One query ... will there be a "light" mode?
With my eyesight, I find black text on white background very much easier to read than white on black. And if I print out a page, the paper is dripping with ink 😕
Almost all pages in Inkvein are black text on white :) there are a few exceptions but you can use a little trick if you want to print those out. If you grab a screenshot of the page you can throw it in a colour inverter online! It will get the black and white to switch places!
Excellent... thanks for the tip 👍
Just ended playing a short Errant campaign and the master (running his own module) did exactly this and it was very useful for us as players. For taking educated decisions and for immersion purposes as well.