Updated October 24, 2026 (Version 14.369)
Table of Contents
Key Concepts
Walls are straight-line barriers that you can add to a Scene and connect together. A Wall can "restrict" any combination of light, sound, movement, and sensory perception.
Each of these restrictions can be configured independently, so you can control exactly what the Wall does. Any Wall can also be a door that is either open or closed. If you want to get a bit fancier, more advanced wall configuration options are available as well!
Wall Restriction Types
Walls affect gameplay by "restricting" one of the following things:
- Token movement
- Light and darkness
- Token "senses" such as vision
- Sound
A typical "solid" Wall represents something like a brick or stone wall which blocks everything, but each of these four restriction types can be configured independently. For example, you could create:
- A thick curtain that does not block movement but does block light, sound, and vision
- An invisible magical barrier that only blocks sound
Wall Restriction Levels
The only "all or nothing" type of restriction is for movement because a Token can either move through a Wall or it can't.
For everything else, four different levels of restriction are available to choose from:
- None
- The Wall does not interfere in any way.
- Normal
- The Wall is fully blocking.
- Limited
- The first Wall with a Limited restriction in the way does not interfere at all, but the second Limited wall is fully blocking. See terrain walls below.
- Proximity
- The Wall is blocking, but only for tokens that are far enough away.
- Reverse Proximity
- The Wall is blocking, but only for tokens that are close enough.
Top: GM view Bottom: Player view
For more information about Proximity and Reverse Proximity restriction levels, see Proximity and Attenuation below.
Doors
Any Wall can also be configured to be a door or a secret door. Typically, both players and GMs can see the icons for doors on the map, and can interact with them to open or close them with a click.
- Doors
-
Doors are always visible to players that have vision to their location and they can be open, closed, or locked.
- When Closed, a door behaves like any other Wall with its usual restriction types and restriction levels.
- When Open, a door's restriction types are all temporarily set to None.
- A Locked door is closed and players can see it in the map, but cannot open it. If a player attempts to open a locked door, the door plays a rattling sound instead of opening.
- Secret Doors
- The icon for a secret door is never be seen by players. Secret doors function just like any other nondescript Wall for them, and the GM needs to open the door when it is discovered through gameplay.
Tip: GMs can lock or unlock a door by right-clicking its icon.
Foundry VTT also allows you to configure doors to use custom textures, animations, and sounds. Free assets are also included to help with this. For more information, see Customizing Doors.
Scene Controls
The Scene Controls are on the left side of the UI, where you can click Wall Controls to switch to the Walls Layer. While on this layer, all Walls and their endpoint nodes are visible.
Wall Layer Tools
- Select Wall
- You can click and box-drag to select multiple Walls at once. Double clicking a Wall endpoint in this mode will open the Wall Config to adjust the individual Wall properties. Dragging a selected Wall endpoint moves that node.
- Draw Wall
- Click and drag on an empty space to draw a Wall with the current configuration.
- Solid Wall , Terrain Wall , Invisible Wall , Ethereal Wall , Door , Secret Door , and Window
- These buttons each represent a predefined "type" or "category" of Walls, such as Solid Wall, Terrain Wall, and Window. Each of these buttons changes the Wall properties for new Walls you draw. These categories are the most commonly used but not the only possible setups for a Wall. More information on these types can be found below (see Wall Type Presets).
- Force Snap to Grid Vertices
- While toggled on, endpoint nodes you drag or create will snap to the grid space corners.
- Palette
- The Palette is an additional application that helps to work with multiple Walls at once or consecutively. The functionality of the Wall Palette depends on whether you have the select tool active or are creating new Walls. If you are creating Walls, the palette controls the initial values of each new Wall you place. If you are selecting existing Walls, the palette functions as a mass-edit tool, allowing you to adjust many selected Walls at once.
- While you have one or more selected Walls you can change the palette's fields then click "Apply" to make those changes to all selected Walls. The "Clone" tool will commit all the currently selected Wall(s) properties into the palette, which can then be used with creating new Walls. Reset will remove any current changes you have to the palette to the current properties of your selected Walls.
- Clear Walls
- This button deletes all Walls on the current Scene Level.
Note: Modules and systems may add additional controls. If you see something not listed here, please consult their documentation for more info.
Wall Type Preset Controls
- Solid Wall
- Solid Walls will block sight, sound, and movement. This is the default behavior of walls and likely the most common type you will use.
- Terrain Wall
-
Terrain Walls block movement and sound, and only block sight beyond the second wall. This is useful when you want a token to see an object but not see beyond it (such as a building or tent).
For example, this can be a great choice for a "terrain" obstacle such as a large bush or boulder. This method allows the player to see and understand what's actually in the way, while still obscuring the expected area.
- Invisible Wall
- Invisible Walls block movement but allows sight and sounds.
- Ethereal Wall
- Ethereal Walls allow movement but block sight and sounds. Great for false walls and secret passageways for your players to find and explore.
- Door
- Doors have two states, Open and Closed. An open door allows movement, sight, and sounds. A closed door blocks movement, sight, and sounds. Players can interact with Doors. Doors can also be set to locked, preventing players from being able to open them. Doors can only be locked when closed.
- Secret Door
- Work exactly like normal doors, except players are unable to interact with them, only GMs can.
- Window
- Windows block movement, and only block sight and sound beyond a certain distance. The closer a token moves, the more it can see and hear; the further away a token is, the less it can see and hear.
Placeables Sidebar
The Placeables sidebar tab has tabs for each Placeable Object type, including Walls, which is synced to the choice of layer in the Scene controls. Here, you can see all Walls in the Scene and filter by viewed, level, or category.
Walls are aggressively categorized, so even if a Wall does not exactly match the default properties for a category, the closest match will be found. One category not represented in the scene controls is “Blank Wall”, which is used for Walls that do not restrict any of vision, light, sound, or movement. Blank Walls are useful with Regions when you create a new Region, and create a shape using the Create Shapes from Controlled Walls button. For more information about this tool, see Scene Regions.
You can click Walls to select them, or hold SHIFT to select multiple Walls at a time. This works well in combination with the Palette tool which will allow you to perform edits to all selected Walls.
Wall Config
While on the Walls layer, you can double-click any visible Wall on the canvas or its entry in the Placeables Sidebar to open its sheet.
Updates are only saved when you click the Update Wall button in the footer, however the Wall will preview adjustments as you edit the fields.
Unlike other placeable objects, all core-provided fields for Walls are also available in the Palette tool; consider using that instead, especially if trying to edit many Walls at once.
Customizing Doors
You can customize your doors to use custom textures, opening animations, and even configurable sounds. These are all entirely optional, but they are surprisingly easy to set up and can add a satisfying and immersive element to your Scenes.
Foundry has several door assets packed with the software inside Core User Data —> canvas/doors/. In
order to select a door asset, you must first set "Animation Type" to one of the available options: Ascend, Descend,
Slide, Swing, and Swivel.
Once you select an animation type, you will then be presented with additional configuration options.
- Door Texture
- This lets you assign an image or other asset for the selected door's appearance. There are several types of assets shipped within Foundry that allow you to customize the look and feel of each door placed.
- Flip Door Texture
- This option allows you to flip the texture of the asset you chose as if it was reflected in a mirror. This can be useful if you want to have the metal texture of a door facing the exterior of a building and a wooden panel facing the interior.
- Double Door
- This option determines whether a door should appear as a single door, or be stretched into a double door. This is independent of the asset chosen and will automatically split the asset to create two doors when enabled.
- Open Direction
- This option allows you to determine which way the door will open (this has no effect on the Ascend or Descend Animation Types). This can be useful for determining if a door should open inwards or outwards.
- Animation Duration (ms)
- This determines how long the animation of a door will last in milliseconds. This can be great when you want a door to either fly open quickly, or reveal slowly. You could use it for a hidden stone entrance that slowly sinks into the ground once the appropriate mechanism is activated to reveal the entrance.
- Animation Strength
- This determines how far the door will move depending on the Animation Type selected (this has no effect on Ascend or Descend Animation Types). A setting of 0 will have no visual animation, whereas a setting of 2 will pivot the door 180 degrees when using Swing or Swivel types, or will slide the door twice its length when using Slide.
- This value allows 0.05 increments so you can customize the final positioning of the door as desired.
Proximity and Attenuation
If any of these restrictions are set to Proximity or Reverse Proximity, you also need to set the distance from the Wall (in grid units) where the restriction is applied to Tokens.
Optionally, you can also check the Proximity Threshold Attenuation checkbox so that the restriction provides a more gradual effect rather than a strictly binary one.
- Proximity and Attenuation
- The restriction starts to ease once the Token moves closer than the configured distance from the Wall. When the Token is immediately next to the wall, no restriction is applied at all.
- Reverse Proximity and Attenuation
- For Reverse Proximity, this effect is inverted. When a token is immediately next to the Wall, the restriction is fully blocking. As the Token moves away from the Wall, the restriction is gradually eased until and is removed entirely at the configured distance.
As the restriction eases, a small but increasing radius of light/darkness, sound, or vision is allowed to pass through the wall.
API Reference
To interact with Walls programmatically, consider using the following API concepts:
- The Wall Document
- The Wall Config Application
- The Walls Canvas Layer
- The Wall Placeable Object