Pass Through Rock spell when using dungeon tiles

[Jasper Akhkharu]

I have been using dungeon tiles in my games and have had consistent problems with the "Pass Through Rock"(PTR) spell. The problem is that the spell is designed to work on the HQ board, where even if players know they may end up getting stuck in solid rock, they can guess fairly well about where rooms are, since they are all laid out on the board. With dungeon tiles, though, players can see where doors to rooms are, but they dont have any idea about the general layout of the dungeon. (I lay the tiles out as doors are opened and characters look down corridors, so the full extent of the dungeon always remains unknown until everything has been explored.) This means that a dungeon could be a cluster of tightly packed rooms, a series of long maze-like hallways (great for turning the barbarian into an arrow pincushion!), or a combination of the two with lots of solid rock space between rooms and hallways. Though this method always keeps players guessing about the setup, it means that PTR becomes fairly useless (even if the players know that a room exists, they dont know how big it is, so the risk of ending their turn in solid rock is high).

So, im looking for suggestions on how to make this spell a little more effective. I thought about using a rough drawn dungeon map hand-out but i get lazy sometimes and dont want to draw them all the time. The other idea is to let the PTR spell last for 2 turns so if the player ends his first turn in solid rock, he has a chance to avoid instant death (there is still a chance of this happening sinces movement distances are a random 2D6). I dont want the spell to be abused, tho, cause it would let you move twice as far, or go into a room, make an attack, and then leave on the next turn.

Thoughts?

[slev]

Also a problem is the "Clairvoyance" spell form Wizards of Morcar.

And possibly a handful of other fan content spells.

[cynthialee]

I think I may have a fix:
Instead of the wizard (or elf) getting perma trapped into the wall when he ends his turn in the wall, have the mage miss his next turn and then he is spit out of the wall from where he entered, down 1 body point.
This makes it more useful in that one doesn't get killed from unwise use.

[Gold Bearer]

A really simple way would be to say you can't end your turn in a wall, when this happens you have to move to the nearest open space. If there's more than one let them decide.

Clairvoyance maybe just keep letting them point to areas until they find a room.

[Sotiris]

I use this modular system on a fixed board, as you see, and i don't have problems with those spells.
May i see your dungeon tiles? Can't the space after a wall be measured by squares?

[Jasper Akhkharu]

Sotiris: the space can be measured (i use a mat with a standard 1" grid), but the players dont know if there are rooms in that direction or not, since there isnt any defined playing area. A pic would prob help here, may have to try and upload something later.

Cynthialee's suggestion sounds like a workable solution, having the "stuck" player get spit out of the wall. I may try having the spell last an extra turn if the move ends in a solid rock space, but the character loses some BPs as a result, and see how that works. With the BP damage, im hoping my players wont try to abuse the spell too much!

Thanks all.

[knightkrawler]

This reminds me that I have to rewrite some spells for modular boards. Goddamnit, I'll never be finished.

[Daedalus]

Sotiris: the space can be measured (i use a mat with a standard 1" grid), but the players dont know if there are rooms in that direction or not, since there isnt any defined playing area. A pic would prob help here, may have to try and upload something later.

Cynthialee's suggestion sounds like a workable solution, having the "stuck" player get spit out of the wall. I may try having the spell last an extra turn if the move ends in a solid rock space, but the character loses some BPs as a result, and see how that works. With the BP damage, im hoping my players wont try to abuse the spell too much!

Thanks all.

If you find 1 Body Point of damage isn't enough to stave off abuse, you could up the danger. For each square of movement on turns following that allowed by the Spell Card, the Hero must throw a number of a combat dice. He suffers 1 Body Point of damage for every skull rolled.

[Goblin-King]

My ...

Pass through rock is a spell that is specifically made with a board in mind. I can easily see why it would cause problems on a modular setup.
Honestly I'd just replace the spell with something else. Either invent your own rock spell, a duplicate of stoneskin or a spell from WoM.