Exposed Pits & Shafts
Exposed pits and shafts are dangerous vertical spaces that would not normally be accessible but have been created or exposed in fictional ruins or damaged buildings. These spaces may have once been elevator shafts, vertical city corridors, or collapsed stairwells which now pose a risk of fatal fall to any explorer. Fictional exposed pits and shafts are often dark places but may have flickering lights part of the way down to help showcase their depths. If not, characters in narratives often toss torches, glowsticks, or other sources of light down them to illuminate their size.
| Synonyms: broken shafts |
| Example Mythonyms: old mineshaft two |
Designing Fictional Exposed Pits and Shafts
Archetypes
Overview
Fictional exposed pits and shafts are often spanned by perilous bridges allowing them to serve as dangerous but traversable terrain hazards. Alternatively they may be successfully traversed using ropes and/or rappelling gear. They may be one way of moving between different sections or floors of a partially collapsed structure.
Designers working with structures or other elements that have collapsed or come to rest in orientations that are not normal may wish to consider if this new orientation has created vertical spaces that would not have otherwise existed. This may be especially true for elements like crashed spaceships or toppled skyscrapers, where hallways and corridors that were once horizontal may now be vertical.
