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Oh dear. I approved a trap, but I didn't look too closely at what the trap was or the mechanism. I just assumed building standards would be adhered to in the trap's creation.

Oubliettes are not allowed because they're a de facto PK. However, this was not an oubliette (even if it looked like one), rather it was a room that was designed to be a trap (no issues with traps in general), but built in such a manner that provided an advantage based on OOC knowledge (that's definitely an issue).

I just wrote a note to staff reminding them to please ensure we follow the building standards that any object in a player's environment needs to be accessible to them in an ICly reasonable manner or have an obvious explanation regarding why the obj isn't accessible. Hidden exits aside, the OOC controlling of someone's capability to interact with their environment has no place on an RP game. It's exactly like not setting reasonable keywords on an object a player can see just to prevent them from picking it up - but if they can see it, they should be able to refer to it.

With hidden exits - if there is a hidden exit, it should be findable by reasonable means. The magical means to create portals is lost. I agree with the OP's note that if the hidden exit made use of a particular, detectable thing in their environment, it should be just that - detectable with the right clues and able to be found.

I've also asked staff if we think portals should be included in secrets and how that might play out if the answer is yes. In the meantime, staff shouldn't be building things that don't have any reasonable mechanism of existence in play. For that, I apologize to the OP.

*resurrects this thread too*

i've been struggling with how to hint at/keyword my own phome's secret doors - i don't want people to be able to go through and try keywords one by one to figure out all my secrets right away, but it's no fun if nobody ever-ever knows about your secret passages and spinning fireplace doors and why your phome is the ideal filming location for the next scooby doo movie. i wouldn't mind giving one or two secrets away to observant guests if they wanted to work for it and go to the trouble of sneaking around and using the threaded search command.

i like the idea of hidden ed descs that can be searched for. maybe as part of the setup for hidden portals and objects that can't be found like hidden exits, we need to write a short hidden ed desc that can be found by searching and overtly references the portal, container, or object's keyword, and just make it really difficult to find.

like, in andruid's case, it'd go like

search
(...)
Andruid gives the area a final look-over.
Looking more closely at the drawing, Andruid sees a bird in flight. Its wings point subtly downward, pulling their eye to a loose board in the floor, which is part of a hidden trapdoor.

and then the keyword would be 'trapdoor'?

Hidden doors don't need obviously IC visible mechanism or hint in descriptions because 'search' arbitrates if someone will find the secret exit. It is good, however, to have them in terms of making a believable space and understanding the physics/reality of a the phome. THat is, staff shouldn't let a person make a secret door in a basement that pops them across Lithmore, and going back through the door returns them to a bakery - not unless the door is described as a one-way portal.

If you have a lever in a room, however, that opens a door, it needs to have the keyword 'lever' not 'mysecretpassword' or something.

It seems a bit like just using common sense, but sometimes when you're building, particularly if you're just crunching out player requests, it takes a pause to stop and think about what it is a person is asking for and how that actually works.