The Humble Door
6/10/2024
Whether loosely dangling from dank stone, or sandwiched between steel actuated by pneumatics, the door is one of the most familiar parts of the lethal job of adventuring. When your party is stacked behind such a threshold, your actions and whatever is on the other side, in combination; will fill the pockets of your party or leave one with a gaping wound from a laser pistol. Thus is the elegance of the door.
Do you listen, knock, lock-pick, break the hinges, prepare an ambush, slide something underneath, or simply turn away?
The door is my favorite teaching tool for new players of tabletop role playing games, or those otherwise not familiar with old school play.
It is well and good to inform players to “think of the world as if it was real, the wood is wood; it can burn, the walls are drywall; it can be shot through” and it is another thing to put them in a position to where an answer outside of their character sheet may intuitively be a preferable option.
Sure your thief can lock-pick, but a swarm of stirge are fast approaching down a narrow hallway, Perhaps you could bust this simple wooden door inside the police station but did you account for the security system that is now currently broadcasting your location to the feds?
Sometimes every option at your disposal is a good one, though often no option will be.
'Every wall is a door' -Ralph Waldo Emerson
