For my part, I see absolutely no need for the "stairs up" symbol to exist. I find it perplexing. How do I know which direction is up? Why not simply use the "stairs down" symbol as the symbol for all stairways, and orient it in the proper direction to indicate up and down? For example, if I want to depict a 30' eastbound hallway leading to a stairwell down which terminates in a door, it would look like this:
Conversely, if I want the same hallway to end in a stairwell leading up to the same door, it looks like this:
So simple!
Moldvay Basic agrees with me on this; the dungeon mapping icon list on p. B58 shows "stairs" looking like this:
I am not sure why Moldvay thinks we need the "U" and "D" symbols there, though I appreciate his thoroughness.
Interestingly, Holmes seems to swing the other direction, utilizing the "stairs up" symbol for a stairwell leading down into the sample dungeon on p. 42 of his rulebook -- his description on p. 41 says that "The stairway from the surface leads twenty five feet straight down [. . .]." To be fair, Holmes' sample dungeon does not provide a map symbol key; obviously Dr. Holmes simply drew what looked like a stairwell to him and then relied upon the dungeon's descriptive prose section to elucidate which type of stairwell it was. A reasonable approach, but perhaps not the most efficient or visually functional.
Does anyone want to defend Gygax's use of the separate "stairs up" symbol or explain to me why we need it? I am genuinely interested in the answer and willing to be persuaded. But for my own part, I will likely keep using the single "stairs down" symbol to represent all stairwells until someone convinces me there is a reason to do otherwise.
