Maps without secret doors

Hi, my friends and I have been enjoying using roll20 for our D&D games. We play Basic, 1E and 5E. The problem we have been running into is all the maps to our modules have secret doors written on them. So when we use those maps in our games, all the players know exactly where to search for secret doors. How do you deal with this ? We like to play many of the old time classics from 1E so they are very common modules. The pdf's that I buy on on dndclassics.com have only one set of the maps and those are with all secret doors. Les

You can always remake the maps either via Roll 20 or programs like Gimp/Photoshop. I use many of the cool assets from the talented artists here to recreate dungeons all of the time. In particular geomorphic dungeon tiles really allow you to create many of the old school dungeons pretty easily. Also slight room size differences are unlikely to really impact the experience of the dungeon. You can also use tools like Dungeon Painter Online to create simple layouts then use the assets on Roll 20 to spice it up. Before diving headfirst into the premium assets on the Roll 20 marketplace I would make a basic layout using Dungeon Painter, then add things like altars, tables, benches, etc... from the library searches.

I always drop the old game map and then redraw over it. for secret door and such I simply recreate a square that looks similar without a secret door and copy it over (if possible using Paint). The best way and most time consuming way is to redraw the map using Roll20 tool set. It always look better anyway.

Using the map as a guide for redrawing it is what I usually do, too.

I do the same as Black Falcon said. If it's a black-and-white map, then use the White color on Roll20's rectangle tool. Just draw a white (background color) box over the $ secret door symbol, on the map layer. Then draw a black line to reconnect the wall. (Then put a red $ on the GM Layer if you want to remember where the door was as-GM without your players seeing it). Do the same for Pit Traps, and the DM numbering on the room numbers, if you want to. It's pretty quick compared to rebuilding the whole map.

Cool. I like the idea of uploading my maps. I get the pdf's from dndclassics.com, go to the website <a href="http://pdf2jpg.net/" rel="nofollow">http://pdf2jpg.net/</a> and convert the pdf module to jpg page files. Then upload the jpg to roll20. The only thing I need to learn is how to make the jpg monochrome (eg black and white) as some of the maps are like blue and white. I am thinking of doing the editing in paint as then I can get right down to the pixel level. Then upload the edited jpg. I like the idea of leaving the room numbers in place, so as players make a treasure list, then will be able to describe things like, "gem from area 23" because in my games I don't tell players the value of the gem found, they must find out at a jeweler/trader when done the module. A bit more real life as chrs are not professional jewelers. That is just how I DM my games :)

I think I found a cool solution, Print from Foxit to Cute PDF (print to pdf utility) and tick off the Grayscale box. Once you have the pdf in black and white then convert it to jpg, then go into paint and erase the secret doors and paint over with gray line, over the door holes. Works well and super easy :)

Latest solution sounds good! Another free graphics editor program is called The GIMP and it is almost like Photoshop, lots of capability.

A "Clone Tool" is very handy in graphics editing programs. I like Paintshop Pro(long-time user) for map editing, but GIMP or Photoshop works just as well. You can make things completely disappear using the surrounding area of the image to "fill-in" suspect imagery. What secret door?