FATDRAGONGAMES
First Post
What are some of your favorite traps to spring on your players? I'm running out of ideas and have to come up with something new for Saturday night's game.
What are your favorite traps?
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Agent Oracle
First Post
Traps that give players a choice are my favoirtes, especially when coupled with a riddle.
My most frequently used (and adapted) trap is my good old "room 21"
name originates from a casino heist "quest". (it was back in high school, and i had a city on my world map patterened after vegas)
The players were all rogues (by coincidence), and they decided to rob a casino. Here's where I admire them, they went out of their way to really, really go "oceans 11" on the place.
They found out everything, Guard shifts, money transfer times, number of guards and their assigned posts... they even got the blueprints for the place (which featured 20 rooms)
1-7 were public areas (casino floor, showroom, etc.)
8-11 were private and heightened security, but could still be accessed with the right amount of money and / or VIP status.
12 was the "fake" vault, (a massive trap intended to fool up robbers) which the players knew about thanks to a carefully bribed (i.e. they way overpaid him) guard.
13-20 were security rooms on the way to the REAL vault. which were ingeniously designed by a architect who had mysteriously died shortly after the building was constructed.
They brilliantly manage to evade or counteract all the traps in those rooms (we were kids, jumping puzzles seemed like a good idea!) when they made it through the last room in thel ong hall, they came to... Room 21.
It wasn't on their map. They quadruple checked. It was a big, hexagonal room. one entry, five exits. In the center of the room stood a statue of a six-armed goddess, posing dramaticly. Five of her outstretched arms pointed to different doorways, the sixth held a tablet down so the PC's could read it.
"When wandering in this Dark Knave's land, choose the path of the best hand"
Each of the other five hands held five playing cards, which i showed to the players.
One hand was a royal flush, another was a "busted" flush. The third was filled with junk cards (more on that later), the fourth had aces and eights with a 3 of hearts to spare, and the fifth was two pair with a queen high.
The players, completely misunderstood the riddle though, and chose the path of the royal flush. THe floor tilted, they got dumped into a very pretty pit with a whirlpool at the bottom, and they were royally flushed down into some archaic sewer... all but one character died (the only one with a decent CON score, interestingly, everyone else drown)
Rewind. You ask yourself "if a royal flush isn't the best hand, what is?"
Heh, see, they were thinking of the wrong game. Read the riddle again: "Dark Knave" = "Black Jack" Because the cards below queens but above 10's are also called 'Knaves" (as anyone who has ever read Great Expectaitions can tell you)
the garbage hand was... let me think..
2,4,5,9,Ace (any suits)
In blackjack: that's 2 + 4 + 5 + 9 + 1 to make 21.
it's rare, but it does happen where the player goes up to five cards without busting.
My most frequently used (and adapted) trap is my good old "room 21"
name originates from a casino heist "quest". (it was back in high school, and i had a city on my world map patterened after vegas)
The players were all rogues (by coincidence), and they decided to rob a casino. Here's where I admire them, they went out of their way to really, really go "oceans 11" on the place.
They found out everything, Guard shifts, money transfer times, number of guards and their assigned posts... they even got the blueprints for the place (which featured 20 rooms)
1-7 were public areas (casino floor, showroom, etc.)
8-11 were private and heightened security, but could still be accessed with the right amount of money and / or VIP status.
12 was the "fake" vault, (a massive trap intended to fool up robbers) which the players knew about thanks to a carefully bribed (i.e. they way overpaid him) guard.
13-20 were security rooms on the way to the REAL vault. which were ingeniously designed by a architect who had mysteriously died shortly after the building was constructed.
They brilliantly manage to evade or counteract all the traps in those rooms (we were kids, jumping puzzles seemed like a good idea!) when they made it through the last room in thel ong hall, they came to... Room 21.
It wasn't on their map. They quadruple checked. It was a big, hexagonal room. one entry, five exits. In the center of the room stood a statue of a six-armed goddess, posing dramaticly. Five of her outstretched arms pointed to different doorways, the sixth held a tablet down so the PC's could read it.
"When wandering in this Dark Knave's land, choose the path of the best hand"
Each of the other five hands held five playing cards, which i showed to the players.
One hand was a royal flush, another was a "busted" flush. The third was filled with junk cards (more on that later), the fourth had aces and eights with a 3 of hearts to spare, and the fifth was two pair with a queen high.
The players, completely misunderstood the riddle though, and chose the path of the royal flush. THe floor tilted, they got dumped into a very pretty pit with a whirlpool at the bottom, and they were royally flushed down into some archaic sewer... all but one character died (the only one with a decent CON score, interestingly, everyone else drown)
Rewind. You ask yourself "if a royal flush isn't the best hand, what is?"
Heh, see, they were thinking of the wrong game. Read the riddle again: "Dark Knave" = "Black Jack" Because the cards below queens but above 10's are also called 'Knaves" (as anyone who has ever read Great Expectaitions can tell you)
the garbage hand was... let me think..
2,4,5,9,Ace (any suits)
In blackjack: that's 2 + 4 + 5 + 9 + 1 to make 21.
it's rare, but it does happen where the player goes up to five cards without busting.
lukelightning
First Post
I like good old reliable guillatine/scythe blades that swing from the ceiling.
The Sigil
Mr. 3000 (Words per post)
The "Acid Door" trap has always been one of my favorites. A glass door, painted to look like wood, which contains a super-strong acid. Kick in the door and get a shower of glass and acid all over your leg.
But then, I've always had a soft spot for Grimtooth's stuff.
But then, I've always had a soft spot for Grimtooth's stuff.
FATDRAGONGAMES
First Post
Agent Oracle said:
I love it!
There are some realy nice traps in part 1 of the "Age of Worms" series in Dragon.
The best I think is the exit to a room looks like a trap had already sprung and a block fell from the roof. The trap is actualy when you move the block it lets loose poison gas from a vent in the floor below it.
The best I think is the exit to a room looks like a trap had already sprung and a block fell from the roof. The trap is actualy when you move the block it lets loose poison gas from a vent in the floor below it.
Another vote for mean old Grimtooth here. That series of books is the best resource a trap-happy GM could ever have.
My own favorite is nasty because it anticipates what the PCs will do, and uses their paranoia against them.
The trap is called "For a Case of Fire."
That series of books is the best resource a trap-happy GM could ever have.My own favorite is nasty because it anticipates what the PCs will do, and uses their paranoia against them.
The trap has a clearly visible plaque on the wall, and a lever next to the plaque which reads "For a case of fire, don't pull lever." There's also a silent pressure plate that gets triggered whenever anybody gets close enough to read the plaque. Basically, the lever actually disarms the trap, so characters who follow the plaque's advice are fine. Those who assume the plaque is trying to mislead them let the trap go off- and when it does it's lethal. It slams plates of solid steel down on either side of the corridor the lever and plaque are in, and douses the area between the plates with oil right before starting up flame jets to burn everything there to a crisp.
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