Walls, doors, portals and cover
Drawing walls and doors, their types and channels, detecting walls from the image, portals and cover.
Walls cut sight, light, sound and passage; doors open and close; portals take you elsewhere. Combined with token vision and lights, they give real fog of war. This guide is for the person running the game; how fog and light look is in Fog, vision and light.
Where to find it
On the rail, Build level: Walls (W), Doors (Shift D), Walls by shape (Shift W), Lights (Shift I) and Portals (Shift O). Under "More", Detect walls proposes walls from the map image.
Requirements and permissions
Only the person running the game draws and edits walls. Players open doors from the map if they have a character next to them.
Drawing walls
- Choose Walls. Tap to chain segments; a double tap or Esc closes the chain. Dragging draws a single wall, and dragging a node moves it. Shift places them off the grid.
- With Doors, click a wall: it splits it and puts a door or window there. Dragging on empty ground puts a loose door.
- Walls by shape raises a whole room from a shape, and you can also ask for an exact rectangle with its measurements (Create the four walls).
- Selecting walls opens their panel, with exact measurements (length, angle, position), the map unit (feet, metres, squares, hexes or a unit of your own) and quick editing: Split in half, Split into several parts, Join in a straight line and Close the polygon.
Wall types
| Type | What it does |
|---|---|
| Wall | Blocks sight, light and movement. |
| Door | Blocks while closed; players open it from the map. |
| Window | You can see through it but not pass. Gives three-quarters cover. |
| Barrier | Sight, light and sound pass through, and flyers cross it; it only stops walking. |
| Cover | Half wall: you can see and shoot over it, but not walk through. |
| Curtain | You can walk through it, but it blocks sight and sound. |
| Invisible | Not drawn on the map, but blocks like a wall. |
A door has three states: Closed, Open and bolted (only the person running the game removes it). A player must be next to the door to try to open it; if it does not give, the notice says so.
What each wall blocks
In a wall's advanced panel, each channel decides whether it cuts: Movement, Light, Sight and Sound. The sense refines how: normal, limited, proximity or distance. You can also make it one-sided and bound its height: a low cap (railing, up to 3 feet) cuts passage for someone on the ground but is seen over from above; a high floor is a bridge you pass under. It is used with floors (Floors).
Careful. A secret wall is not sent to players: it does not block their sight or passage. It is for hidden doors and passages you will reveal later. For a wall that blocks without being seen, use the invisible type.
Detecting walls
Detect walls raises the walls from the map image. You review the preview, with adjustable sensitivity and touch-up tools (area and eraser), and apply or discard. The gaps it detects come in as closed doors. It needs a map with an image.
Portals
Portals: drag to mark an exit and choose which scene it leads to, or this same map for teleports within the scene. A travel zone makes any token that ends its movement on it cross by itself; you can pair it to create the return portal and choose who crosses (the party, enemies, everyone or the selection).
Cover
A cover wall gives a defence bonus to whoever shelters behind it: half cover (+2 to AC and Dexterity saves) or three-quarters (+5). With Automatic cover on, the table detects when the line of fire crosses a cover wall and adds the bonus by itself, noting it on the roll.
Options
| Option | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic cover | D&D: works out cover from the map walls and adds it to AC. | On |
| What players see | What players see: what their light reaches or everything. | What their light reaches |
Common problems
"My wall hides nothing from the players." It may be secret, or its vision channel switched off. Check its panel.
"A player cannot open the door." They need a character on the map and to be next to the door; if bolted, only the person running the game opens it.