Wednesday 9 February 2011

Triffles (7) - A secret passage

After the summary of the first six, on into the seventh. The last included a possible secret passage, so let's elaborate on that.



sounds from an
adjacent space

|

a secret passage

/             \

access to a sealed location /            an unseen entrance    
room locked from within                   suddenly opened   



In wargaming this could take the form of entry points marked by terrain pieces or counters; when models move into contact they are assumed to enter, and may leave again from the same entrance or another at the next opportunity, perhaps on a die roll. For each movement phase inside a die could also be rolled for whether they discover the secret space - which could be a store of equipment - or are discovered from elsewhere in the network by guardians and attacked. This might be a number of hits only or fought using models: a leaf could be taken out of the roleplayer's book and a map drawn.

Roleplayers likely know plenty about secret passages, but the sounds overheard might be important. Could the adjacent space be entered by force? The room locked from the inside might well mean there is an occupant. Who or what could enter the passage unexpectedly, and could they do so at the very moment the characters are passing?

Writers in general might be interested in the potential for mystery or even horror here. Think textures, air, light and lack of knowledge as to destination.

3 comments:

The Angry Lurker said...

Definitely scope for a horror RPG, this sounds much like ths movie Vacancy http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452702/ where a couple stumble upon some evil goings on in a motel.

Paul´s Bods said...

Just one thing...when a room is locked from the inside..and the character is outside..how does it know from which side the room was locked?? If there are noises from inside...it doesn´t necessarily mean that the thing inside locked the door..it could have been locked in by something on the outside.
Cheers
paul

Porky said...

@ The Angry Lurker - That I wouldn't have thought of, but it shows how these tropes get about. Reminds me I haven't watched a recent horror in a while. I find them rather too sadistic as a rule, but I might be proven wrong in any given case.

@ Paul's Bods - Fair question. It can be mixed up however works best, but I was thinking more that the passage runs past the space the sounds are coming from. The idea with the locked room would be that the passage leads into it, and then perhaps the GM would know how the locking was done, or the key would be in the lock for example. You have the eye of a private eye - top miniature painter by day, amateur sleuth by night: Paul always gets his bod!