ST of Elevator doors

[Jeminai]

In the typical cinematic scene where the hero uses his hands (or a crowbar) to force open elevator doors, what ST should be used to open the doors? Let's just assume typical elevator at the Nakatomi building.

Is there some sort of general rules for this?

[Nereidalbel]

Hollywood always uses "whatever the hero's maximum effort is" for elevator doors. In reality, there is either a locking mechanism you can't break without specialized tools, or, you can force the doors open with one foot.

So, use whatever ST score would be dramatic enough.

[clu2415]

Generally, opening elevator doors is done with a hinged tool that activates a catch inside the door. Basically a mechanical switch that triggers the "door open" mechanism. Without activating the switch, you can get the doors an inch or two open, but beyond that you have to break the gears and whatnot holding the door closed.

Source: worked three years in a hotel with buggy elevators.

[Captain Joy]

Originally Posted by clu2415

Generally, opening elevator doors is done with a hinged tool that activates a catch inside the door. Basically a mechanical switch that triggers the "door open" mechanism. Without activating the switch, you can get the doors an inch or two open, but beyond that you have to break the gears and whatnot holding the door closed.

Source: worked three years in a hotel with buggy elevators.

Word: the GURPS forums rule.

I'm also not beyond making these kinds of things a simple role against ST based Forced Entry.

[ericbsmith]

Originally Posted by Captain Joy

I'm also not beyond make these kinds of things a simple role against ST based Forced Entry.

+1. My basic rule of game drama is to keep it simple and keep it moving. You want the players to have a chance of success, a chance of failure, and you want the action to continue on whichever way it goes. If success is guaranteed it doesn't matter, just let them do it with some time. If time is of the essence make them roll and if they fail ratchet up the drama and force them to double-down or make a different choice.

[Anaraxes]

Instructions for forcing elevator doors, with pictures, including various sorts of restrictor mechanisms. Intended for firemen, but that's pretty close to "adventurer", except for the part where it's usually the adventurers setting the buildings on fire. They recommend a pry bar and a tool that can drive that pry bar into small spaces, but apparently huge ST isn't required so much as catching the right mechanical bit.

http://www.fireengineering.com/artic...d-to-know.html

Maybe also worth noting that there are usually two sets of doors for pretty passenger elevators like in hotels. One set is mounted to the elevator car and travels with it, and the other set is mounted to the entrances on each floor. The doors per floor sometimes have a key to open those as well, often found in one of those "in case of fire break glass" boxes near the elevator bank.

The door sets have an interlock to make them operate together, but if the elevator car isn't conveniently aligned with the floors, you'll need to open them separately. This is what the hatch on the top of the elevator is for. It's safer to go up the hatch and out the partial door above the car then it is to squeeze through the hole at the bottom of the elevator and the top of the floor below, as the second way risks falling down the open elevator shaft.

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

... The door sets have an interlock to make them operate together, but if the elevator car isn't conveniently aligned with the floors, you'll need to open them separately. This is what the hatch on the top of the elevator is for. ...

Assuming, of course, that there is a hatch on the top of the elevator. Not all elevators have them.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by robkelk

Assuming, of course, that there is a hatch on the top of the elevator. Not all elevators have them.

Most places have building safety codes that require them. Those also tend to set the maximum force the doors can be closed with, often to something quite low (30 lbf is typical), not so that people can force the doors in an emergency, but so that the door physically can't close with enough force to crush somebody no matter what screws up with the safety stop switches that are supposed to prevent that.

Once the door is all the way closed though, you *do not* want it to be easily opened other than by the mechanism that is supposed to open it, because giving people who do not know what they are doing access to the open shaft is idiotically unsafe. There will be a lock that engages after full closing that is at least as hard to force as any other door designed to keep you out of something that can kill you.

Edit: So essentially, once you disengage or break the lock that stops them from opening the first inch, which is going to be designed to be as close to impossible for a normal person to break as the engineers could get the cost estimators to sign off on, it's easy to push the doors fully open, rarely more than ST 3 or 4.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Instructions for forcing elevator doors, with pictures, including various sorts of restrictor mechanisms. Intended for firemen, but that's pretty close to "adventurer", except for the part where it's usually the adventurers setting the buildings on fire. They recommend a pry bar and a tool that can drive that pry bar into small spaces, but apparently huge ST isn't required so much as catching the right mechanical bit.

http://www.fireengineering.com/artic...d-to-know.html

That seems like a really cool link but doesn't appear to be freely accessible.

[NorphTehDwarf]

Luck/Serendipity might factor in. I was able to push open stuck elevator doors on like two separate occasions, in one case while the elevator was moving (I was a little drunk; the elevator stopped as a result). I can't be more than ST10, so I must have gotten lucky both times.

Anecdotes=! data, so ymmv.