How do you handle secret doors?

[dr_venture]

I'm curious how the other GMs out there handle secret doors on their FG maps. My great wish is that FG would have a map layer on which GMs could put tokens that would default to being hidden from players, but appear as ghosted to the GM, then the GM could use a radial menu to choose to show or hide the tokens to players. Only the GM could move the tokens on that layer.

...so much for dreams: I know the want list is long for FG, and dev time for our esteemed Smiteworks dudes is limited.

So in the real world, how do you guys deal with secret doors? Currently, I just include everything but the ubiquitous "S" in the map, and try to be very careful when I'm erasing the mask to not accidentally reveal the space behind the wall. Sometimes I'll put a pin on the map to help remind me that there's a secret door there.

What do y'all do?

[JohnD]

Currently, I just include everything but the ubiquitous "S" in the map, and try to be very careful when I'm erasing the mask to not accidentally reveal the space behind the wall. Sometimes I'll put a pin on the map to help remind me that there's a secret door there.
Pretty well this.

I do some graphic modification to my map files to edit out the S and am really careful about unmasking.

If the PCs find the door, I add an S token to the map.

[Zeus]

I'm curious how the other GMs out there handle secret doors on their FG maps. My great wish is that FG would have a map layer on which GMs could put tokens that would default to being hidden from players, but appear as ghosted to the GM, then the GM could use a radial menu to choose to show or hide the tokens to players. Only the GM could move the tokens on that layer.

...so much for dreams: I know the want list is long for FG, and dev time for our esteemed Smiteworks dudes is limited.

So in the real world, how do you guys deal with secret doors? Currently, I just include everything but the ubiquitous "S" in the map, and try to be very careful when I'm erasing the mask to not accidentally reveal the space behind the wall. Sometimes I'll put a pin on the map to help remind me that there's a secret door there.

What do y'all do?

In 4E, I add secret doors, traps an hazards to the CT as passive entries and hide the visibility of the tokens from the players until they trigger or the players detect them.

I also use my Enhanced Images extension which implements the layer functionality your enquiring about. This allows me as the GM to place additional tokens on the map without worrying about token stacking interference issues. It also allows me to build tile based maps in FGII pretty quickly, great for that random encounter where you don't quite have available a ready map. The extension is available from my website (see sig) and the code is freely available to the community for adaptation or porting (for other rulesets).

[Trenloe]

I also use my Enhanced Images extension which implements the layer functionality your enquiring about. This allows me as the GM to place additional tokens on the map without worrying about token stacking interference issues. It also allows me to build tile based maps in FGII pretty quickly, great for that random encounter where you don't quite have available a ready map. The extension is available from my website (see sig) and the code is freely available to the community for adaptation or porting (for other rulesets).
DrZeuss's very useful Enhanced Images extension has been ported to the 3.5E ruleset here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15647

[dr_venture]

I'm theoretically the guy working on the C&C ruleset (although I've been too swamped to spend any time on it recently) so if it's going to get implemented, it'd be by me... uh... yeah. Perhaps when my plate isn't completely overflowing with existing bugs and functionality. I'd love to have that functionality, tho.

[damned]

Doc - I will try and test it as an extension sometime this week...

[dr_venture]

I'd wet my pants if that works. Well not really, but I'd be very happy. I've tried to create an account on DrZeuss' server a couple of times, but I never get the confirmation email... and I've never had enough faith that it would work out-of-the-box to follow up about it.

On the secret door front, I haven't used tokens for the "S" before, as it's too much of a pain when characters or monsters move on top of the S token (same thing with dead body tokens). I usually just scribble a scribbly drunken "S" with the pencil.

[Trenloe]

Doc - I will try and test it as an extension sometime this week...
When I did the first conversion for 3.5E the 2 rulesets (4E and 3.5E) had different file structures, so I basically had to do a comparison of the base 4E files against the files in the extension to work out what was extra (I use the "Compare" plugin in Notepad++) and manually copy those changes over to the relevant 3.5E files in the extension.

I'm guessing you'll have to do the same for C&C.

[damned]

i generally have a player map and a gm map - the player map doesnt have S or T on it :) then it got too many windows and i thought why use the gm map at all - just use pins... dont worry - the players dont forget where the S should be once they find it :)

[leozelig]

I do something similar, but I use an arrow pointer instead of a token. Lately, I have been leaving a little space between the wall with the secret door and the passage/room behind it when I create my maps, so unmasking is easier.

[Griogre]

Like Leozelig I leave a one square space. I often use a secret door token after then find it, sometimes just scrawl an S.