Traps

any examples of overdesigned and unexpected traps like that which actually leave people alive?

Wh-what happened to the guy all the way on the left? What's that line that's apparently cutting him up supposed to be?

File: Bridgetspriteani.gif (63KB, 196x239px) Image search: [Google]

63KB, 196x239px

>>44640591
i'm planing to use a Bard Trap

>>44640625
Watch Cube.

>>44640613
go watch wile e coyote

File: 1445007325135.png (46KB, 662x459px) Image search: [Google]

46KB, 662x459px

>>44640812

File: f3fcbc918b6cb33ca587aa2e271963f7.jpg (4MB, 2350x2350px) Image search: [Google]

4MB, 2350x2350px

Are vampire demon traps the best traps?

File: 1386299507296.png (223KB, 647x908px) Image search: [Google]

223KB, 647x908px

>>44640826

File: tmp_31105_13891543812592103730230.png (283KB, 1232x2429px) Image search: [Google]

283KB, 1232x2429px

>>44640834
yes

File: trap appreciation.png (22KB, 1383x155px) Image search: [Google]

22KB, 1383x155px

>>44640591
wouldn't the pointman immediately detect the rocking floor unless that entire section of trap (ie, over 75% of it) was designed with almost exact precision?
which isn't something you want to have to do for an ordinary trap, you could put that effort into making the ceiling simply fall down on them instead - it'll be vastly easier to reset than that clusterfuck, after all.
there's a lot of other things wrong with that trap, but those were the two points that stood out to me

either way, most of my traps are pretty basic and i try to keep them sensible and practical, although it's always nice to sperg out once in a while with a ridiculously overdesigned dungeon built by precursors or whatever with waaay too much time and resources on their hands

dwarf fortress and the fun things people make in that are a good source of inspiration for both ridiculous and sensible traps - not only are ordinary weapon traps pretty fun, but you can do a lot with bridges and stockpiles.
i had an idea a while back for an invader crusher that would lock them in a room and drop a shitload of boulders and sharp objects onto them, although the only problem with that was resetting it
an alternative was a trap that used either water pressure or some other crafty shit to squeeze a whole bunch of goblins into a tiny pit, and then have dwarves dump a load of boulders on them

never actually got around to building those in-game though. mite b fun.

>>44640625
something along the lines of monomolecular wires - wires so thin and sharp that even touching them can give you a cut.

>>44640591
When using traps, I employ a few rules:

-They must not be insta-kill traps
-There must be a hint pointing to the possibility of there being a trap
-They must support creative solutions

The ideal is a trap dungeon that softens up the players for potential enemies, or traps that frustrate them when dealing with enemies. Things that chip away at that health and resources if they handle them poorly. "Perfect" traps designed to screw the party are for autists.

File: 1445120020712.png (5KB, 266x195px) Image search: [Google]

5KB, 266x195px

>>44640916
>-They must support creative solutions
this is a pretty important point, and not just for traps - i've encountered a lot of times over the years where the DM has come up with a trap or monster with a very specific solution in mind, and when nobody came up with it got angry at the players
one of the dumbest examples was one of the more freeform RPs i used to hop about on, the setting was that some monster tower or something had appeared in the middle of a town and adventurers were trying to explore it
after the first few floors we came up to a 'boss' room - a huge, open room with some benches at the walls and a single, solitary undead cyclops standing in the center
so we looked around, and couldn't find any way out that wasn't a locked door, and confronted the zombie. it pretty much immediately attacked us and our response was to fight back
nothing we did to the zombie did any real damage - we tried a hell of a lot of stuff while this zombie rampaged about, attacking whoever it could
we toppled it and stabbed its eye, we slashed it all day, the mages tried every spell they could, i peppered it wherever i could with arrows that did nothing (and eventually i just sat down on a bench and watched) and eventually the guy running the dungeon says 'fuck this' and has some NPC leap into the room, cut it in half and call us idiots

naturally the 8+ people there immediately go 'what the fuck?', whereupon the DM explained that the obvious solution was to retreat back up the stairs, where the zombie would get stuck due to its size - and then we would be able to kill it
this is after a whole group of people just tried stabbing it to death, mind.

everybody got mad, everybody called him out, and everybody left.
the RP's server was empty the next day, and the DM disappeared a while after.

a long story, but tl;dr: your players are not psychic, and what may seem obvious to you might not be obvious to anyone else

>>44640916
I love classics. A locked room that starts flooding at an obvious trigger is great.

Once had a kao-ta waiting in a room that had a slick floor and water dripping down the walls when they walked in and they were still surprised when he pulled three levers in sequence and the room locked and started filling with water. When it got waist deep evil squid attacked them too.

>>44640648
As that would matter to a bard

File: bard logic.jpg (396KB, 728x1036px) Image search: [Google]

396KB, 728x1036px

>>44640648

>>44640648
That's not a trap at all. It's cristal clear: everyone's gay for Bridget.

>>44640916
>-They must support creative solutions
Once we had a monk character that had magic items that turned his hands into adamantine. He walked down a hallway full of spear traps by putting his hands up against the wall on the level of the holes for the spears.

File: archery-trigger.jpg (21KB, 500x325px) Image search: [Google]

21KB, 500x325px

>>44640812
This piece of shit always annoyed me, because it can be beat if you know anything about archery.

>>44642066
It also relies on the medium doing its work for it. Anyone picking that thing up would figure it out as a useless piece of crap immediately. And if not, testing the bowstring wouldn't cut your fingers off.

It's DM metagaming, pure and simple. You might as well say your party goes into sepsis because they haven't taken a shit in days.

>>44640835
I actually like this one. It somehow manages to resist both being silly and being over-designed.

>>44642956
Except that the rope would probably break

Why not just have an intentionally flimsy rope? Simpler and would achieve a similar effect

What I really don't like about these traps is how many of them are either ridiculous to begin with or have tacked on exceptions to things that would avoid them. It is like the designers didn't understand the purpose of traps in a pnp rpg

>>44640625
Razor wire, possibly a net of it.

>>44640648

Bridget actually looks like a dude there. A cross-dressing dude.

>>44643117
That one would foul up a pc's hands though, possibly stopping casters from using somatic components (or causing a concentration check due to pain), making it harder to use weaponry, and a bunch of individual little nasty effects like that. Makes them easier prey for a monster pit.

>>44643117
Honestly, the damage to a pc's hands is more interesting to me than the fall, and I probably wouldn't make the pit all that deep. "You lose X hitpoints from getting spiked and Y hitpoints for falling" is boring compared to "You mangle your hand and will be at a disadvantage to using it until you can get it looked after". Hell, I'd probably use a trap like this in Fate more than in DnD, since the wound becomes an Aspect rather than just a negative modifier.

As for the spiked rope breaking, it's got a steel cable at it's core, I think it can take the weight. Unless you mean the actual rope bits will fray off really fast, leaving the spikes exposed? That one is a genuine concern, but nothing insurmountable.

>>44640591
I always struggle with this - I want some ingenious traps to use on my players, but I wonder which to use or how to make them. Some of the ones posted seem really vague in their execution gameplay wise.

I guess I just want to get better at traps all around, and make better traps / puzzles than "1d6 damage spear trap"

>>44643293
im guessing the rope is a one-time-use anyways. Unless this is some sort of ancient temple, the people who are with someone who got tricked will know not to use it after seeing the effects of it. Than all you have to do is get rid of said individuals and replace the rope on the chain

>>44640591
Poison gasses, hidden explosives, high voltage capacitors, good old caltrops and razor wire, high powered lasers, sudden decompression, napalm, toxic darts, malware, liquid nitrogen, acid, trash compactors, CAS, and orbital death beams.

If you guys want some more.... "practical" suggestions, check out "Mantrapping" by Ragnar Benson. It's a (serious) guide for hunting people by a /k/ style innawoods nutcase survivalist guy. I think he did a sequel book, and a whole bunch of other survivalist stuff as well.

>>Mountain-side dungeon
>>Golem is deactivated and has nine slots for keys in its chest
>>Golem blocks the path down a corridor (corridor cannot be seen at first)
>>PCs find keys in the dungeon and slot the into the Golem
>>Golem wakes and speaks to them jovially
>>"Ah, that's better! Thank you for waking me. I will allow you further into this building, but first you must answer my riddle"
>>"What is smaller than I and will never leave this mountain?"
>>Golem makes two slam attacks and breath weapon against the person standing closest to it

Traps that the PCs think are treasure or other beneficial things are fun.

>>44643601
>Go through the trouble of helping an NPC
>it immediately attacks them
This is how you get murderhobos.

File: Mimi.png (60KB, 450x450px) Image search: [Google]

60KB, 450x450px

>>44640591
For once, everything actually IS a Mimic.
The chests, the doors, the ladders, the bosses, it's all mimics.
And the boss loot chest is also a mimic, the true boss, queen Mimic of the Mimicry Kingdom.

>>44643601
That is bullshit of the highest caliber.

>>44643601
I love that.

>>44640812
>use a thumb ring

I guess losing a slice of your forearm, if you're of the "BOWSTRINGS NEED TO SLAP MY FOREARM-school of archery" ain't as bad as losing fingers?

>>44644611
Forearms are notably less complicated than the fingers and as such, a cleric can simply spend a short time mending your wounds, versus either wasting a high tier mend spell or spending a long time on one low-grade mending.

>>44643657
I love mimics, but find them somewhat annoying. I tend to put them in a campaign I run once, and only once. Just a one time 'gotcha' moment that they can then kill and loot and move on.

First campaign I used them in was during a competition used to recruit troops in a private army of a deposed royal house trying to regain their influence. The goal was to locate a specified item before the other team. The player walks into a room and sees a chest on a small podium and instantly thinks he's got the goal. Runs up, opens it, reaches in and bam! Bastard bites down like the Thing.

Second time was much more straightforward. They just find a chest while looting a dungeon. The fighter opens it, for fear of it being trapped as he had the most health and good con. He finds a large and elaborate looking greataxe within. The players shouts to the heavens with glee, as he is easily excited about these things, and grabs it wholeheartedly and without hesitation. The hilt of the axe promptly wraps around his arm and polymorphs into a large tongue, pulling him shoulder deep in as it starts gnawing on his clavicle as he begins to scream in terror.

He actually killed it by picking up the entire mimic and bashing it against the stone floor repeatedly while the rest of the party put the boots to it.

>>44644735
>picked up the mimic that was latched onto his arm and beat it to death with the floor while rest of party kicked it.
That is comedy fucking gold.

Also, the reason EVERYTHING is a Mimic is really simple:
>Goblin dressed like a sideshow host is riding along in his caravan and sees party.
>Stops and offers to them "A portal to a magical world full of treasure beyond imagining."
>They accept and he gives the warning "Be warned, travellers, for nothing is as it seems here. Simply ring this bell if you ever want out."
>Bard gets a small jade bell.
They enter and everything seems perfectly normal in this kingdom, cows grazing, sheep frolicking, a chest half-buried in the ground, farmers doing whatever, and a bear sitting on a doorstep to a guy's hovel. A grand castle looms in the distance. The castle itself is not a mimic.

>>44644859
Is the bell a mimic?

I have a question, real-talk for you /tg/:

How hard would you whine, cry, and temper-tantrum if your DM included a trap in a dungeon and your character fell victim to it?

"I wouldn't" is not a choice, because we all know it's not possible.

>>44645999
Not very hard. Traps are just a part of life for an adventurer.

>>44645999
I wouldn't, unless it was a hilariously forced trap.

>>44645999
First of all, nice trips. Second of all, it would depend on the tone of campaign.

For example, I'm running an old school dungeon crawler. Everyone already has like 2-3 extra characters rolled, and prepared for the worst. There are traps that straight up kill you in there, but the clues are there, if you pay attention. They've adapted to the dungeon - one of my favorites is they like to roll a wheel of cheese down long passages to prevent being surprised by gelatinous cubes.

That said, its a whole different situation from being trapped in a big story driven campaign. If my characters is one of the great heroes of light destined to save the world, I would be pretty upset if he bit it to a spear trap.

>>44646302
That said, I'm a forever DM, so I would probably just use the chance to try out another character concept from the stockpile I've assembled.

>>44646237
Have you ever been on /tg/? Discussion about using traps in a game will only ever result in complaints that "There's no way I could have figured that out, this is dumb", or "This is stupid it's just an arbitrary excuse for me to take damage, it doesn't accomplish anything", or worse "You're just railroading people so they have to experience your 'clever' trap even though it's pretty obvious they would always be completely aware of their surroundings even if they didn't specifically say they were paying attention to it".

In concept, traps are fun challenge that will make the players more cautious and engaged in their own survival. I practice, all it will ever do is make the person who has to fall victim to it angry and pissed off that they had to have their precious character hurt by the evil DM who just wants to throw damage dice at them to make everything worse.

>>44643601
Fuck I'm using that one.

>>44646356
Sounds like you're not very good at setting up interesting traps for your players, and just want to vent that your players don't like being told "you fall in a pit, no, I already rolled your notice checks and you failed."

File: Tunnel paint.jpg (7KB, 320x180px) Image search: [Google]

7KB, 320x180px

Smoked three parties with this.

>>44646589
You've never played a game of D&D, have you?

>>44647209
You think your experiences are both universal, and always someone else's fault if bad, don't you?

>>44645926
No. Cause it didn't come out of the Mimicry dimension.

>>44646889
kek

What are your favorite traps, /tg/?

>>44648240
My DM

File: Elf White Mage Sleep.jpg (1MB, 1200x1200px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1200x1200px

>>44648240
A nice young elf wizard or cleric that travels with the party. If anyone tries molesting him, then the deuterium in his gut will be compressed causing a nuclear fusion reaction. Combined with the Plutonium 239 booster lining his intestines, the resulting thermonuclear explosion should teach them all a lesson of keeping their hands to themselves.

File: 1431309234289.jpg (318KB, 2048x1536px) Image search: [Google]

318KB, 2048x1536px

>>44645999
I don't think I would cry. Whenever something bad happens to my character, I feel vaguely disgruntled. Like the time my paladin got her arm cut off. "Well, now that I've lost this arm I can be cool like Guts, but I didn't want to lose that arm /yet/."

Is it an instant death trap? I'd be a mad then. I would like at least a little warning before I die, a chance to get the fuck out of there or continue doing something stupid. Traps in games should not be like real world 'you're fucking dead now' traps. They should be made to wound and maim.

Otherwise, traps are part of the game and part of the fun. I want to feel like I should stay on my toes - I want to feel like I'm forced to adapt and learn with the dungeon if possible. Slap on a bandage, heal or deal with the poison, continue playing the game.

>>44648404
wut

>>44648467
I think instant death traps are fine, so long as there is sufficient warning. And they have knowledge that shit like that exists.

If room 1 has dust on the floor and peddles fall to the floor as they open the door, they better prepare for some rocks to fall on their head for X amount of damage.

If by room 10 they force the door open to groans, sagging support beams, and thick dust littered with rocks on the floor, don't be surprised when the ceiling collapses and kills anyone inside.

>>44648404
You aren't funny or clever.

>>44640916
I add a forth condition:
- I must have an explanation for how every single character in the dungeon beyond the trap got there.

>>44648692
That's actually pretty smart. Got any examples?

File: Mines and Booby Traps.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

>>44648567
My only problem what that - since it gives ample warning and does larger and larger amounts of damage instead of a straight instakill - is that there's no real way to counter that trap.

Long before room 10, I would just get the fuck out of there. And it's not fun to leave a dungeon half complete.

>>44648800
Well in the example stated, in my dungeon at least, the room would have more to it than that (specifically, that room had two door in it, and both had to be opened for the ceiling to collapse).

And more importantly, I let the players work it out. I don't see an instant death trap as a long awaited chance to kill a character, so I have no problems if they come up with a clever way to bypass it.

That's something a lot of infamous "rocks fall, everyone dies" DMs get wrong, in my opinion. If they start arguing how it can't be bypassed and someone dies, then it all goes to shit. If one of the characters brings one of the large logs present in room 6 and uses it to braces some of the more worse for wear beams or something, then the trap is bypassed (for now) and everyone leaves happy.

Caution is more the name of the game in my scenarios. It when the party is running around at combat speed is when people start dying.

>>44640591
Why is grimtooth so brutal?

File: Bloodweed.png (1MB, 1320x3098px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1320x3098px

natural traps = best traps

Any resources or suggestions for traps that work underwater?

>>44648467
>Is it an instant death trap? I'd be a mad then. I would like at least a little warning before I die

Why do you deserve to know there's a trap, just because it's a lethal one?

Why do you think traps shouldn't be lethal? What's the point otherwise?

>>44650334
Mainly for the sake of having fun. A lich, I can fight against or run from. Same with most monsters. But if I spring a trap by accident, and it's deadly enough to kill me outright, I can't fight that.

Badly wounded, knocked unconcious, or even steadily injured until I'm on death's door, I can handle. But death with no save is no fair.

In an in-universe sense, the traps could be merely to hinder progress, or might not be designed to kill outright. If you manage to wound a guy's foot, he can't march - that can ruin him as a soldier and take him away from the front lines, and in a war that's as good as killing him.

>>44650435
So should a DM consult with you beforehand to determine how lethal you are ok with a trap being? Should he make sure he asks every player how much damage they are ok with their character taking and make sure they know that they should expect to look for traps, so it doesn't surprise them?

I mean, I'm having trouble understanding the point. Everything the DM does to the players, should always have the intention of being lethal, otherwise you lose the point of the fight. If every challenge is designed to SEEM lethal, but never BE lethal, what is the point of having them?

>>44650198
thats creepy as fuck man

>>44650528
You gotta remember that this is not DM vs. the players, man. If you take joy in killing off a character and adding another tally to your "kill list," you're doing something wrong.

>>44650435
Not true, wounding soldiers is better than killing them in war. A wounded soldier consumes the enemies resources for medical care.

>>44650659
Holy shit how are you not getting this. It has nothing to do with "taking joy in killing a character".

If there is a fight, someone has to lose. If there is a challenge, there has to be failure. If the only outcome for failure is "Well you get hurt, but it's fine just keep going", then there is no reason to ever pretend you feel threatened, because you no that no matter what happens, you have plot armor.

If there is a fight, a trap, whatever, there has to be the chance for death, because otherwise you're only filling one side of the equation.

File: that's it goodbye.gif (760KB, 259x214px) Image search: [Google]

760KB, 259x214px

>>44650528
I think there's a misunderstanding here - by lethal, I mean 'kills me outright without a chance to defend or heal myself after.'

If it was something like 'You get hit by the acid and you die,' that's not fair. That's outright killing me without giving me a chance. It if was 'the acid you get hit by does 3d6 damage to you, that's enough to take you well past the health you're at now, you're dead.' Then that's at least a little more fair. I just failed to take the right amount of damage that would leave me alive, but badly injured.

I agree with the ideas of my last few DMs - if you do something stupid that leads to your death, then you just fucked up. But if it was something you didn't intentionally bring on yourself, there should be a chance to cheat death. And a player death or a TPK is always hard to deal with, and if badly done, is not fun. It forces a player to roll up a new character, takes away a member of the group that may have had a dynamic with other characters, and so on. So DMs should not be trying to kill their PCs unless they make it clear it's a game where PCs die often.

>>44650198
no, it's fine, I wasn't going to sleep tonight anyway

>>44648240
The reverse kind.

>>44650756
>if you do something stupid that leads to your death, then you just fucked up.

Not properly checking for traps is, by definition, the player's fault. They have all the tools necessary, they just choose not to do it.

A lot of times they cry that the DM didn't give them warning that they should be actively investigating every hallway for traps and shit, but if they knew to do that, there would be no point. Traps are SUPPOSED TO BE unexpected, hard to find, and if you know where and how to look for them, they're not doing their job right.

So when you're in a dungeon guarding some ancient secret and the floor opens into an acid pit, it's your fault you didn't think it might be a good idea to keep an eye out. Just because you went 10 hallways with nothing in them doesn't mean the 11th shouldn't, it means you're too dumb and complacent to realize it.

>>44640591

The most effective trap I've ever seen used was 'Monofiliment Claymore mines' in a game I was in.

Nothing super fancy. Just set up the claymores, wait for something to walk around a corner.

>>44650853
Now the question here is - do you think that a simple "I roll to check for traps" should work, or should the players figure out the trap from the clues given to them?

>>44650198
This is great. Any more like it?

>>44650911
Of course not, do you? What is the point of having a narrative game if all you're going to do is mince words to intentionally avoid having to think about things and solve problems on your own?

>>44650853
A sliding tile over acid, I can see how there wouldn't be an obvious sign for that trap. But most traps have to risk some obvious sign of their existence in order to have a trigger to activate the trap or to lure the victim into activating the trap themselves. What about traps with tripwires? What about a chest that when you open it, it explodes or turns out to be a mimic? A piece of loot that, when you take it off its pedestal, takes weight off of a trigger that causes a a burst of flame to come from a small hole in the wall behind it?

If the players go through something obvious like that, of course they'll check carefully for traps or the signs of traps - especially if they're smart enough to notice that you've given them what to look for. But you have to set a precedent first, before just springing a trap that can kill them on the spot and going 'ha ha, you should've checked for traps even though I didn't make you check before!' That's just being a mean DM, even if it makes sense in universe. You gotta be willing to throw your players a bone in that case, it's just making things fair for the players in a game sense. Have one of those tile traps, but with spikes that will just wound instead of kill, in the 5th hallway before they reach the acid trap in the 11th, so they know to look out for tiles.

And even then, what if they don't pass a roll to detect the trap or a perception check? A sliding tile trap isn't one that's obvious to exist, and you can't check it by poking it with a ten foot pole or knocking something over that might be the trigger or trying to slice a suspicious looking string. Is it really fair to let them fall into an instant death trap when they went through all the right steps, took all the right precautions, and just missed something minor and crucial that they may not have known to look for?

>>44650528
there's a difference between lethal, and instantly lethal, particularly with no warrning.

What's the point in playing if the GM is hust going to abirtarily kill you out of the blue with a trap you had no way of detecting, and no way to defend against?

>>44651130
Why do you assume you had no way of detecting it? Just because you were caught in a trap doesn't mean you couldn't discover it, only that you didn't.

Are you the kind of person who complains that just because you didn't manage to avoid something, it means the DM didn't give you the ability to and he's just out to get you?

>>44644859
Are you going to finish?

>>44651157
>Why do you assume you had no way of detecting it?

becasue that was the type of trap the person you started arguing with was complaining about.

File: TheEye.png (1021KB, 1880x3324px) Image search: [Google]

1021KB, 1880x3324px

>>44651039
nothing specifically trap related, although I suppose someone with a little imagination might be able to do something with this

File: 7aqJN1R.jpg (512KB, 2937x2203px) Image search: [Google]

512KB, 2937x2203px

>>44650334
because springing a 'gotcha, there was an instant death trap there all along!' on a player is dumb
it makes sense if the vaporized player is being a dumb idiot and barging straight into a room to get his grubby hands on the idol standing in the middle without thinking for even a second, but part of me thinks that you know that isn't always the case, and you're just trying to be contrarian.

>>44650853
>>44651071
what is the point of having a narrative game if you're going to try your best to gotcha players, anon
there's two sides to the coin here

the point is that traps shouldn't be too hard OR too easy - a game shouldn't come to a grinding halt with the players having to tap every single stone with a stick to make sure they don't spring the DM's next murder tool, and it shouldn't be a breeze where characters walk through the traps like it's nothing because >eh 1d4
you seem to think that the latter is the case for everyone arguing against you, and your point of view is starting to look a lot more like the former for the rest of us

tl;dr traps are tools

>>44651157
because that was what was being complained about in the first place
pay attention son

>>44651184
All I ever see is players complaining that they had "no way of detecting or defending against" a trap or encounter, but all it ever really means is just that they didn't successfully detect or defend against it, and now they're mad.

>>44648567
Easiest way is to just have npc guide die horrifically in front of them to a trap mid-conversation when he was walking in front. Especially if you make them think s/he was gonna be important to the story or useful later. They are for sure gonna be paranoid after

The best traps are the ones that scream TRAAAP! to any player with half a brain, but that still manage to net themselves some suckers. Let the players own greed doom them, show them something that is very obviously too good to be true, and then feed them enough rope to gas themselves with.

I like to use traps to fuck with players. A favorite is a free-hanging underground hallway. It's got a big cavity in the stone around it, and anywhere else it'd just be built to bridge the gap that cavity leaves so it doesn't need to be filled in.

In this case, though, there's a pressure plate hooked up to a grindstone against the outside of the hallway. The grindstone is made of a weak type of rock, weak enough that it's not cutting a hole into the hallway before it needs to be replaced, but resilient enough that it makes a loud grinding sound when it's triggered.

At the very least, it makes the players paranoid; if they detect the pressure plate, it serves as a warning sign that there are traps. If it gets set off, the sound it makes scares the shit out of them, and the fact that they can't find the source, or what it changed, makes it worse. I've also used it as an alarm system, to call enemies to them; the enemies hear the sound of stone against stone and come running.

Other stuff I've used to good effect is stuff based off of video games where stealth is key. Dishonored has a shit-load of traps that are really useful for this. A scoop on the end of a pressure-activated lever with a pressure-sensitive explosive, like a thunderstone(explodes when thrown against the ground, sonic damage, radius), or a flask of burning liquid, like alchemist's fire, in it? Dangerous enough to freak players our at low levels; being deaf, or on fire, does that to you, y'know?

There is a pillar in the middle of the room. The pillar has a button on it, with a sign saying "Press me" just below. If you press the button, a boot springs out of the pilar, kicking you in the crotch.

There is another pillar in the dungeon, with the same set-up. The only difference is, if you press THAT pillar's button, rods will shoot up out of the floor (except for the area just surrounding the pillar), which will stop right about everyone's crotch-level.

How do you find the right balance of not making your players roll to detect every before every step and just letting them walk though.

Because the characters would be aware of their sroundings and would i think notice if something was out of place.

File: Zombie.png (3MB, 1882x1440px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 1882x1440px

>>44651039
>>44651199
and just because I like this one

>>44642105

This. You'd pick the fucker up and instantly notice that the bowstring isn't a fucking string.

It's like calling a rock carefully carved and painted to look like food a trap, under the assumption that someone would pick it up and immediately start chomping on it full strength and break their teeth.

>>44651542
You are incapable of coming up with a scenario that you have outlined.

>>44640591

At one point I killed my entire party (roughly 10th level) with a gelatinous cube and a ladder

>>44640648
Best trap

>>44648788
I generally run sci-fi campaigns, so my examples are usually along the lines of: The NPCs know the code to let them bypass the traps.

It's just that I got fed up with dungeons consisting of:
- Rooms with traps that would be time consuming/impossible to reset.
- Rooms of enemies behind the trap room. Enemies that need to eat, but have no way to get food because the only way in is the trap room.

Treating the occupants of the dungeon as full characters forces you to do things that would benefit creativity. For example, those inside need food. So someone has to go through the traps to bring the food. So they can ambush the food bringer outside the trap and interrogate him to find out how to get through.

>>44650435
>In an in-universe sense, the traps could be merely to hinder progress, or might not be designed to kill outright.

Plus a lethal trap would likely kill quite a few of the dungeon occupants as they trigger it by mistake long before any adventurers come knocking.

>>44651999
devious

File: bear trap.jpg (85KB, 1300x974px) Image search: [Google]

85KB, 1300x974px

>>44640591
I know elaborate traps have been apart of D&D and a multitude of RPGs since forever, but they really are incredibly gay ways for a DM to instantly fuck a party over without really getting to do anything very fun. Sure they looked cool in the Indiana Jones movies, but when the concept was imported into RPGs, it fell incredibly flat on its face. Games are usually stronger if they don't bother with anything more elaborate than a tripwire,a concealed pit, or a bear trap (or basically anything that's anything that's actually used in real life).

File: IS BOMB.jpg (339KB, 996x1386px) Image search: [Google]

339KB, 996x1386px

>>44640591
Chechnya.

Just Chechnya.

>>44650725
>If there is a challenge, there has to be failure.
Exactly, there has to be a challenge.

A lethal trap is fine if there is some warning, or some way of knowing about, avoiding, or defeating the trap. Without those elements, there isn't a challenge.

>>44650268

Steam Vents,

Cage of crustacean designed to rip light rigging and vulnerable parts if not carefully dealt with.

Smog, lots of it. impaired vision is a bitch underwater.

>>44640826
Holy shit.

I don't think I understand the point of traps. Do you WANT your characters going "before entering the room, I look around the room using a mirror on a stick, and before stepping in, I push the tiles at the bottom of the doorway with a pole" every single room? And every time they encounter an item they can pick up, they spend ten minutes detecting magic on it to make sure it's not cursed? And every time they go to open a door, they use a spectral construct to open it while they stand behind a shield wall?????

File: mOTHgnfl.jpg (57KB, 640x640px) Image search: [Google]

57KB, 640x640px

>>44646889
Simple and effective. Works in real life too.

>>44650268
Oil cloud.

Kelp net, pulls you upwards.

Carnivorous fish.

>>44656512
No, but you do want them being cautious, bordering on paranoid, breaching and clearing every room, one room at a time, and always looking over their shoulders. "Dungeons," as a concept, are dangerous places, and gallivanting around like idiots will, always, get you killed.

Did a pretty complicated series of rooms designed to split up my party. Not sure how well I can describe it using just words though.

>Party enters a T-shaped room from the bottom of the T. At the end of the room opposite to them, they see a single portal
>As soon as someone enters the portal it closes trapping that person inside a single room with a lever in it
>Pulling the lever does three things: opens up another portal left of the original portal, begins slowly heating up the room with the lever in it and releases a boulder from above where the party entered the T-shaped room. They have to roll initiative to get out of the way to the left segment of the T. The boulder will hit the wall and roll down a gentle slope to the right.
>If the party assumed that they could escape into the new portal they were wrong as that also closes as soon as someone enters the room, meaning one person would be safe but the rest get crushed by the boulder. Getting to the left segment of the T is the only safe way out
>From there its just a series of rooms with puzzles in them, each ends in a switch that opens a new portal for another party member to enter alone and conquer
>This culminates in a portal leading to a room with a long hallway, with each tile activating a trap. There's no way for the player to cross the hallway fast enough (the original room that released the boulder has been heating up this whole time). This portal however does not close behind the player
>However, if the person in the hot room pulls the lever again, they'll release another boulder that will go through the portal into the trap hallway room and the boulder will activate and tank all the traps letting that player pull the final switch
>Final switch opens back up all the rooms and lets the players progress into whatever comes up next

File: IMG_0066.jpg (76KB, 600x784px) Image search: [Google]

76KB, 600x784px

This is my favorite trap.

he is actually a living bomb

File: PazMGSV.jpg (13KB, 500x299px) Image search: [Google]

13KB, 500x299px

>>44657798
This is my favorite trap

File: 29ed2cb7-9322-4eaf-aece-7bec8aa2aae3..gif (23KB, 300x221px) Image search: [Google]

23KB, 300x221px

>>44640613

>>44642105
In a magical world though? Who's to say that light glow doesn't make the metal string act like a regular one that's just extra durable.

I hate to be that 'magic is the reason' guy but come on. Same thing for the metal frame, you'd touch it, and be like damn that's not going to flex, but it's magic, so maybe it's enchanted to do that.

>>44657490
Wouldn't a death trap be retardedly obvious from the various corpses that would be around it, though? I mean, even if scavengers could get most of the loot, there would still be sections too dangerous to retrieve stuff from if only because it's on the god damn trigger.

>>44640812
That wouldn't actually work.

>>44657861
Imagine having to confront a DM about that second bomb.

>>44659761
Not necessarily. Could be something like a kobold mine, where they know, exactly, without needing to risk it, where the trap is, or are too light to trigger it, or the trap is only set to trigger on non-kobolds. They might just drag the corpse away, loot it, boil the flesh off, and leave the bones outside the entrance to scare away potential intruders.

Other races might just have a sort of informal, "language," like in that vietcong trap guide part-way up the thread, so they know where the trap's trigger is, possibly what kind of trap it is, and how to avoid it.

File: 1449351757118.jpg (89KB, 600x600px) Image search: [Google]

89KB, 600x600px

>>44643584
>>44643584
Good book. Some of the surplus military trap manuals are really good too. Seriously Fucking crazy people though.
Real examples:
>dead rat is bomb
>candy is bomb
>toilet paper bomb
>gun is bomb
>bomb is bomb.
Just start a boobytrap thread on /k/ and watch the magic happen. If /k/ hasn't gone completely to shit yet.

>>44649855
My guess is bad childhood. Or antmans earlier trip.

>>44651199
see, now I'm thinking about keyholes, and the possibilities of keyholes.

>>44653620
I think I've done certain things along those line. I'm building a megadungeon, and there are plenty of other characters running around besides the party.
Reasons they got past and the trap still stands are things I have to think of.
>the goblin tribe from floor two resets it to capture new victims.
>there are actually several alternate passages, but they are hidden / guarded
> Other adventurers themselves have sabotaged it (two near comic relief ones dropped a portcullis cutting off passage to the left side of the dungeon after the party unleashed a monster in the right side)

>>44643601
Holy shit this

>>44640648
I would like to hear more

File: Bridget.600.1060080.jpg (78KB, 600x600px) Image search: [Google]

78KB, 600x600px

>>44662996
What would you like to hear?

>>44663013
Elaborate on the bard trap, what will you use him for? What sort of shenanigans do you expect? How cute and innocent is he?

Also about to go to bed, so I may not reply for a while after this

File: mio nervous.gif (555KB, 480x270px) Image search: [Google]

555KB, 480x270px

>>44650198

File: 1261158982661.jpg (8KB, 190x200px) Image search: [Google]

8KB, 190x200px

http://theangrygm.com/traps-suck/

>The problem with traps is that they are “all or nothing.” If the party detects and disables the trap, they get away without expending ANY resources. And that FEELS wrong. They are supposed to drain resources. By the same token, most GMs also feel that traps should give the PCs experience points. But, if the PCs don’t take any damage, those experience points haven’t been earned.
>But that ISN’T the point of traps at all. If you are viewing traps like a resource tax, like something the party should have to suffer, you’re already using them badly. A trap is a challenge that the party can overcome with 100% efficiency. That is to say, if they are smart and deal with it properly, they get all the XP and none of the resources. A trap is like the goddamned Daily Jeopardy. Double your money or lose a bunch, but no one can steal it from you.
>You HAVE TO have that mentality. They don’t work any other way. Traps already pretty much suck and should be used sparingly. You can’t tack that emotional baggage on them too.

Discuss.

>>44663449
>damage is the only relevant resource
>traps can't be set up to force the players to spend resources either way
Stupid implications t b h

File: How to play bard correctly.png (707KB, 1200x2568px) Image search: [Google]

707KB, 1200x2568px

>>44663189
>what will you use him for?
pic related
>What sort of shenanigans do you expect?
Him wading through a sea of broken hearts as he keeps adventuring.
>How cute and innocent is he?
Very cute, but not innocent at all. He'll be a maximum tease.

>>44640812
Would this be better if it was a normal wooden bow, except it has a thin metal piping on the inside, and in the piping, half of the bowstring is hidden, with diamond studded wire, while the shown string is normal? A small contraption triggered by a pulling on the string can pull that part in, switching it with the sharp half, which would quickly cut off fingers. It would be placed, with an arrow, on a table, in a room with a locked door. Above the locked door would be a Zelda-style mark, seemingly there for you to hit with the arrow to open the door. It would seem normal until it was used. How is this?

File: 1444068116013.jpg (87KB, 800x593px) Image search: [Google]

87KB, 800x593px

>>44648404
>Mage's Disjunction

>>44663482
This.

Also, 4e style traps that are used in conjunction with actual encounters.

>>44650268
gas pockets. If they swim into an area with a higher level of gas dissolved in the water, they'll sink right to the bottom.

>>44640812
This would be like putting your fingers on a knife and pushing until they fall off. Not a trap if you are dependant on someone willingly mutilating themselves.

It'd be a funny gag item to make a steel bow that doesn't work because it's steel and has no give, though

>>44663532
>Very cute, but not innocent at all. He'll be a maximum tease.
Best way to play him
Hopefully he'll tease the wrong person and all slapping will do is get him pinned down and snu snued

>>44640834
Shit anime.

>>44667950
>shit
>anime
That's redundant.

>>44648800
>stuff like this
this a better reference than most d&d fantasy trap manuals

traps should create tension and urge caution, not kill everyone.

Real traps are very dangerous and lethal, but they are not overblown Goldberg machines of death. They are simple, which makes them all the more devious. Anything can be booby trapped. Be paranoid.

Maybe the player characters never even encounter the trap, but just knowing it could be there creates the tension needed to tell a compelling story.

my party managed to defeat the Basilisk, but not before about half of them got turned to stone. fortunately there was a scroll of Mass Stone-to-Flesh in a chest nearby. unfortunately the castle turned out to be constructed from thousands of petrified gelatinous cubes.

>Party finds a scroll case
You know those pull poppers? Basically little tension-fired firecrackers with string at either end that can be tied to booby-trap doors, boxes, etc, so you know if someone opens it?

One of those, but it's something more nasty. Depending on level, it could be a single-use item that blinds and stuns you when it goes off, or it could be a fireball bead.

>Party finds a sword
Sword has an airtight hollow inside it filled with a strange, harmless gas, with a glass tube inserted into it with a second substance that the gas reacts with. On a critical hit, the glass tube ruptures, and a few rounds later, something happens.

Maybe it explodes, spraying shards of metal everywhere. Maybe the two substances cause it to rapidly rust from the inside and attack anything else made of metal within the holder's square. Maybe the grip dissolves, leaving them holding a sharp metal tube that's leaking acid, or poison, across their hands. Up to you.

>Party finds a shield
Similar thing as the sword. Alternatively, it's an animated object/mimic that can easily just bite down and latch onto their arm.

>Party finds a potion
Poison is obvious, but it's obvious for a reason. Make it a reactive poison; if they drink another potion later, it metabolizes the base of the first into a toxin. Or give it a side-effect; yeah, it does what you think it does, but it also does second, negative thing.

I'm having a hard time thinking of other things for the party to find, and how to trap them.

>>44640591
I love having Kobolds set up really elaborate traps

>one hallway into the chamber, player must pass through chamber to get to the treasure hoard at the end of the dungeon
>entire 80ft long hallway is littered with caltrops which are covered in hay and sprinkled with some lantern oil
>player pick their way through it to the chamber
>floor of chamber is covered in lantern oil
>in the center is a very large, seemingly empty glass jar
>when players enter room, kobolds release a large log and alchemist fire to ignite the oil and release the grey ooze inside the jar
>room is on fire, path out of room is on fire and littered with caltrops
>small room rapidly filling with thick black smoke forcing suffocation
>Grey Ooze is immune to fire and can melt non-magic weapons when hit with them

Surprisingly, only an animal companion died, but the fighter was pretty upset about losing his entire collection of 14 silver and cold iron longswords.

That is why you never underestimate Kobolds

I'm designing a dungeon I refer to lovingly as "Knife Dungeon." Everything in this dungeon has knives. Nothing fancy, just basic, simple, yet sharp knives. For example, instead of spears pooping out of the walls, it's knives tied to sticks. The spike pit has knives tied to the spikes. Some of the tiles have knives concealed in them. The chest at the end i rigged to stab the player when they open it.

Oh yeah, the chest is also full of knives and possibly rigged to explode.

>>44672266

Ballista trap. A crossbow launcher with a marker crystal that helps the bow aim at the sweet spot of an adventurer. Depending the kind of gem, it will either go for the classic vitals, aim so it's poison of choice does it's magic or make them weaker or nasty side effects. (like a rusting arrow to make armor more brittle, or something that causes itchiness which makes leather type armor unusable).

>>44640834
>smug vampire traps: the anime

I am going to regret downloading this aren't I

>>44674688
>siege engine traps
I had something similar for a dungeon once. Someone had basically built several trebuchets using the supports of the lower level of a multi-level room(including the free-standing beams), some counter-balanced weights behind the walls and under the floors, and flat sections of floor instead of scoops.

It literally functions on a hair-trigger that the inhabitants are too light to trigger, being kobolds, and flings you into the walls and ceilings before automatically resetting when triggered. Entire room is trap, comrade. Entire. Room.

>>44640834
I thought they were lolis.

Is it strange that I'm less turned off by them now?

>>44676507
Yes, but not here.

>>44676507
>less turned-on by non-lolis
>4chan

Nah. More people are than aren't turned on by lolis on here.

>>44645999
It would entirely depend on why i got trapped, was it because of a decision i made? Fuck me, i shouldn't have been that dumb.

Was i forced into it with little to no chance to avoid it? Fuck the dm that's stupid.

>>44643657
How bout Mimics that hide inside vaginas

>>44672707
>entire collection of 14 silver and cold iron longswords
drawfags please

>>44645999
I wouldn't.

I'd argue, sure, if it made no sense to put the trap where it was, or it was just arbitrarily very strong against my character specifically. But if it made sense, and I was just a victim of unlucky rolls, I'd sigh, say, "that sucked," and make a new character.