Blocked Passageways

A locked door is obviously a type of blocked passageway. In “The Craft of Adventure,” Graham Nelson observes, “Almost invariably games close off sections of the map (temporarily) by putting them behind locked doors, which the player can see and gnash her teeth over, but cannot yet open. And almost every variation on this theme has been tried: coded messages on the door, illusory defenses, gate-keepers, the key being in the lock on the wrong side, and so on. Still, the usual thing is simply to find a key in some fairly remote place, bring it to the door, and open it.”

Quite often you’ll find several locked doors in a game, and several keys. This can be at least mildly amusing, because the player usually has the wrong key. Finding a good place to hide the key isn’t always easy. Experienced players will try LOOK BEHIND and LOOK UNDER with any object (such as a bed, painting, or rug) that looks as if it might conceal a small object. You can also expect players to SEARCH anything (such as a couch with cushions) that looks to be a likely place where something might be hidden. For more on how to set this up, see Chapter 3, “Things.”

Popular variants on the locked door include chasms too wide to leap across (with or without a bridge too flimsy to support your weight), doors guarded by uncooperative characters who won’t let you pass (see “The Uncooperative Character,” below), and secret doors. The secret door appears not to be a door at all (see “Hidden Items,” below), so the “unlocking” process is mainly a matter of finding the door.

The inventory-blocking passage is a related type. In this puzzle, you can traverse a passageway freely ― but not while carrying certain items. And of course, you’ll almost certainly need those items once you get to the far side of the passageway, so this can also be considered an inventory manipulation puzzle. A fiendish inventory-blocking passageway, which (unless my memory is playing tricks on me) dates clear back to “Adventure,” is a passage through which a powerful wind is blowing — a wind that will blow out your lamp or candle. This puzzle is a cross between the inventory-blocking passageway and the darkness puzzle (see below).

It’s worth noting, however, that not all cases in which inventory can’t be carried through a passage are puzzles. In some games, the author chooses to manage the player’s inventory by making each area of the map self-contained. Inventory items may be dropped automatically when you use the passageway, or the passageway may remain blocked until you get rid of what you’re carrying. (It may not always be obvious, though perhaps it ought to be, whether the blockage is a puzzle or just the author’s inventory management system at work.)

The ultimate blocked-passageway puzzle is a single room from which there appears to be no exit at all (except perhaps a locked door to which you lack the key). This room is often a prison cell, but other variations are common. The solution may involve inspecting all of the items in the room very carefully or conversing with someone who is on the other side of the wall.