Mothership - On Doors

02 Nov, 2024

One of the key features of OSR-style play is creative problem solving, but for players to have fun creatively solving problems, they must have a firm grasp of the problem they're trying to solve. This is easier in medieval fantasy settings because everyone knows things like "a wooden house can be burned" and "stone can be chiseled away", however in sci-fi this is less of a given since the logic behind many common-place objects is often hand-waved away.

In my Mothership sessions, this has been happening over and over with doors. Players often ask stuff like "can I jam this door open?" and "can I shoot it down?", and though I usually default to a "sure, why not?" posture, I find it often results in inconsistent fiction of some kind ("if this door can be shot down, why didn't the colonists do so in the first place?" or "why can this door be shot down, but not the others?"). This has also happened in some actual plays that I've been listening to (such as NWTB's Moonbase Blues).

So here are 3 sci-fi doors and a random table for generating more.

The Usual

"It's like a door, but in space."

• Steel door with visible hinges.
• The usual pick for space stations and modular habitations.
• Opens by handle, but usually locked by a digital panel next to it.
• Fail-safe: in a power outage, the door unlocks.
• Sounds like: hieeennnnnn

The Slider

"More style than resistance."

• Slick and smooth. No handles or screws.
• Often used in offices and deluxe buildings.
• Opens and locks by digital panel next to it.
• Fail-secure: in an outage, the door locks.
  • Manual override is hidden behind a panel in the wall.
• Sounds like: woosh

The Hatch

"It won't budge... for better or for worse."

• Bulky and sturdy. Nothing gets through it.
• Encountered in airlocks and other high-security areas.
• Opens by handle. Can be locked by valve wheel or digital panel.
• Fail-secure: in an outage, the door locks.
  • Manual override is the large valve wheel.
• Sounds like: whiuoooooon-taktaktak

Forcing your way in

• Manual override: Once a door's electronic components are shut down, it activates the fail-safe/fail-secure, locking/unlocking the door. Then, it can only be unlocked/locked through the manual override (if one exists).

• Shooting: The doors are all made of steel and shooting them achieves nothing. However, shooting the electronic panel is a way of activating the fail measures.

• Hacking: If the door is connected to a digital panel (default to yes) and the PC has a portable terminal, they can attempt to hack it.

• Body slam: Only The Usual is vulnerable to body slams: Strength Check or 1d5 DMG.

• Unscrewing: The Usual doors can have their hinges unscrewed in 10 minutes. The Hatch can be unscrewed in 1 hour.

• Blasting: All doors can be exploded away, except The Hatch.

Random doors

#mothership #post