A Lock With No Key: Designing Obstacles for OSR Play
Introduction
Hello again, Gentle Reader! Today I want to talk about obstacles in OSR and other challenged-based adventures and what I increasingly think is best practice as far as designing them goes. I think a lot of GMs and designers can be pretty dismissive about obstacles in OSR games. It's pretty common to hear such maxims as "It is your job as GM to set up problems, not to provide solutions". This is a sentiment I mostly agree with, but today's post is about why, like most maxims, it should not be dogmatically adhered to.
A few months ago, I got into a mild disagreement with a GM whose game I play in because I argued that an obstacle he set up in his dungeon should have a means to solve it within the dungeon: a statement he disagreed with. It was a type of obstacle that, generally speaking, OSR players are expected to solve by having the right spell at their disposal. These sorts of obstacles, proverbial locks without keys, are what I want to discuss today.
Types of Obstacles
I'm going to borrow the terminology of Arnold K. and Sersa Victory (and probably some original video game design source that I can't find to cite) and talk about obstacles as being either Hard Locks or Soft Locks.
A Hard Lock, in this context, is an obstacle that requires a specific solution, or Key, in order to overcome. An enemy that is only vulnerable to a specific material such as silver is a Hard Lock. A door that is sealed with Wizard Lock is a Hard Lock. Ironically, I'm going to disagree with Sersa Victory and say that a locked door is not a Hard Lock because it can be picked, battered down, pins removed, eaten through with acid, etc.
Instead, a locked door is a Soft Lock, which for my purposes is a type of obstacle that can be overcome in a variety of ways, often by utilizing Tools. A powerful enemy that controls an area within a dungeon is a Soft Lock. A 20-foot chasm in the middle of a room is a Soft Lock. Many of Arnold's classic OSR-Style Challenges are Soft Locks.
The Problem With Hard Locks: A Lock With No Key
There is a video game subgenre called Metroidvania that is probably the best example of successfully using Hard Locks. The space within the game is generally large and interconnected, and as you pass through areas you will notice places that are gated off by Hard Locks that you can only access upon a return visit after having discovered the right Key: sometimes literal keys, but more often items and abilities that overcome particular types of Hard Locks. Now, this works great in Metroidvanias because they are a closed system where the player only has access to the abilities they can gain from exploring the game world. This falls apart in your average OSR game because player abilities are often an open system in the sense that they bring to the table spells and class abilities and are not only reliant on what the game world provides them.
In particular, spells like Knock and Remove Curse aren't just Keys in the sense of solving a particular Hard Lock, they are Skeleton Keys in the sense that they will solve all Hard Locks of that type. The reason this rubs me the wrong way is that designers have a tendency to not include specific Keys within their adventures because of the existence of these Skeleton Keys, which means that such Hard Locks are a matter of logistical problem-solving rather than a creative endeavor. Do you have a spellcaster in the party that memorized the spell? Congratulations, the challenge has been trivialized! You don't have a Magic-User who memorized the right spell? You are completely out of luck.
Now, I will admit that part of my distaste comes from playing games where you don't have the luxury of a "shopping list" style spell selection system. If you don't have an easy way to obtain Knock then an adventure gating content behind Wizard Lock is pointlessly cruel. The same can also be said for an adventure that is meant to be run as a one-shot.
Honestly, though? I think leaving Keys in a dungeon is more fun regardless. Casting Knock is a rote action. Realizing that the homunculus servants on the 3rd level can open the door sealed with Wizard Lock because of special sigil stones they keep on their persons is a well-earned solution.
When to Use Hard Locks
Now, it's not that I think Hard Locks are all bad game design, or that there aren't certain contexts where they work better than others. I think adventures spaces that are designed to be visited multiple times are more forgiving of having Hard Locks. Your classic Megadungeon is a great example, as is the West Marches as it was originally described by Ben Robbins. Finding a Wizard Locked door in that context is a lot like finding a pit 200 feet deep: an invitation to come better prepared next time.
The problem is that I still think they are more satisfying when they have specific Keys instead of simply being solved by Skeleton Keys such as Knock or Remove Curse. A great use of a Hard Lock I read recently comes from the Megadungeon Arden Vul.
Spoilers for Arden Vul in the next paragraph.
In that dungeon, one of the teleportation systems you can find involve special tiles that, when placed in different combinations, act as addresses to different teleporter circles throughout the dungeon complex. Your first challenge is finding a full set of tiles, but even then you must discover the sequences either through dangerous experimentation or finding sources of information on them. A hell of a lot cooler than casting Knock, eh?
Spoilers over.
If you are going to use Hard Locks, I think treating them like Secret Doors is best practice. Don't put anything "essential" to your adventure behind them. Better yet, make it so the Hard Lock can be opened by more than one type of Key.
My favorite type of Hard Lock come in the form of monsters that are immune to certain damage types. Ghosts are great and you shouldn't try to fight one without a magic sword. Even with one it should be unwise. How do you make it so ghosts have Keys? Put their bodies in the adventure area somewhere and let players put them to rest.
How to Use Soft Locks
Soft Locks as an obstacle type are a little harder to pin down than Hard Locks. Any enemy, trap, hazard, or even a whole faction can be a Soft Lock, but aren't necessarily. I think the best Soft Lock obstacles are ones that don't have an obvious, perfect solution, but many potential solutions. In a sense, they are also often Locks without Keys, but because they have more than Skeleton Key solutions this turns that fact into a good thing. I think of these possible solutions as Tools. The key distinction between Tools and Keys for me is that Keys are a surefire means of solving a Hard Lock, but Tools are just things that you can leverage in an attempt to overcome the challenge of a Soft Lock. Some tools you might have in your possession already, while others you will find in the course of an adventure.
For example, a powerful faction that controls a territory, but that has obvious (but not painless) avenues for befriending or betraying them, is a great Soft Lock. Fighting them directly is too dangerous, so what can you leverage to deal with them? The #1 reason I prefer Soft Locks in most instances is because they encourage lateral thinking and creative problem-solving. Even if you happen to have an amazing Tool in your inventory that is almost perfect for a situation, the fact that you have to make that connection yourself makes bringing that resource to bear more satisfying.
Something I will note, though, is that just because Soft Locks don't have perfect solutions doesn't mean that you should assume that PCs will be able to solve all with the Tools they have at their disposal. Just like I think that Hard Locks are better with specific Keys scattered about to find, Soft Locks benefit from having Tools present in the adventure area that can be useful if creatively leveraged.
You can also have Keys for Soft Locks. Traps that have puzzle elements are a good example. If you solve the puzzle you can disarm the trap and it is no longer a concern, but you can also just be clever and use the Tools at your disposal to bypass or neutralize it.
I will note that I think Soft Locks are generally more satisfying for all types of OSR games, but especially for one-shots and with systems that rely heavily on randomized inventories to determine character abilities. Even with a classic adventure game like OD&D, Soft Locks are generally better because the Skeleton Key spells I mentioned previously don't trivialize them as an obstacle.
Conclusion
Both Soft Locks and Hard Locks have their places as obstacles in OSR games. Adventures meant for long-term play, designed for Retroclones, and that heavily emphasize logistics can get away with more Hard Locks, but the best Hard Locks can't be thoughtlessly defeated with spells or class abilities.
Soft Locks work better in one-shot adventures and in systems with more randomized item selection but are great for all systems because they reward lateral thinking and creativity.
Regardless of which type you use I think it is a good idea to include Keys and Tools that can be leveraged by clever players to overcome obstacles. Hard Locks without Keys are the least interesting type of obstacle in adventure design because they either stymie all progress or are trivialized when using a retroclone (or classic) OSR system by Skeleton Keys.
That's all I have for now. May all your locked doors have keys.
Or vats of acid stored six rooms away with a trap in-between. Whatever works.