Is it a good idea to pull a lever in a dungeon?

[EricNoah]

By the way, I was faced with something similar in today's game. We were walking by a very very deep sinkhole. I decided to toss a copper piece in. A purple worm came out and swallowed me and eventually three of my companions before we slew it. It was the most entertaining event of the game.

 

[Vague Jayhawk]

You are missing my choice.

Of course you pull the lever! How else do you find out what it does?

Of course I have a below avg wisdom.

 

[Nifft]

Yes, because it is dangerous, and because my character's value is not greater than the value of the game as a whole.

Doing stupid stuff and getting into trouble is what stories are all about. Well, and getting out of trouble.

-- N

 

[TheEvil]

Module or homebrew?
How well do I know the GM?

 

[NilesB]

Levers are almost always trapped.

When you pull it, you do so only if you have to.
And when you have to, you either summon a monster to pull it or you have the PC whose player didn't show up pull it.

If you're playing in Tomb of Horrors, just pull it. That way your torture is over quicker.

Explain to me why it makes sense from a security standpoint to put trapped levers in your dungeon.

It doesn't, trapped levers make sense only as a metagame constuct, and very little even as that.

 

[Wild Gazebo]

I'm pro lever.

 

[LostSoul]

And that's probably the best answer I've seen. I don't play games to sit around and do safe stuff all the time. Check the lever for traps, take reasonable precautions, but, by all means, pull that lever.

Otherwise it's just boring.

Hell yeah.

 

[AuraSeer]

Explain to me why it makes sense from a security standpoint to put trapped levers in your dungeon.

It doesn't, trapped levers make sense only as a metagame constuct, and very little even as that.

Occasionally it does make sense. Not all the time-- probably not even most of the time-- but every so often it fits.

Sometimes the "trap" is caused by a malfunction of the lever's intended purpose. Maybe the lever is supposed to free a counterweighted pulley and raise the portcullis, but the pulley's axle is rotten, so when you pull the lever the whole mechanism comes crashing down on your head.

Perhaps the dungeon is a tomb, the final resting place of a king and his wealth. The builders intended the place to remain sealed forever, so anyone entering is assumed to be grave robber and therefore worthy of death. Some of the traps could be placed on attractive or interesting objects, like shiny levers and golden idols, so that greedy or curious intruders would activate them and get themselves killed.

For intentional traps in an inhabited dungeon, sometimes the affected area includes the lever, but leaves enough of a delay for an informed user to escape before it hits. E.g., there's a lever at the bottom of a long stairway, next to a shallow alcove. Pulling the lever releases a huge boulder at the top of the staircase, which rolls to the bottom in two rounds and crushes anybody in its way. This was intended to be a lookout station; if the lookout spotted somebody coming, he would pull the lever and dive into the alcove, and would be safely out of the way when the boulder passed by.

Occasionally, a trap will be designed for a specific lever-puller who is immune to its effects. Constructs are very popular for this. Stick a golem at the door to the treasure room, and order it to pull a lever if anyone tries to enter without saying the password. Pulling the lever makes it the center of a fireball or cloudkill or some other effect that will harm intruders but leave the golem unaffected.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Well, this is certainly interesting and entertaining.

Having admitted on multiple occasions on the other thread that I would (and have, far too many times) pulled the lever, I don't find it astounding that people would realize that the lever is something bad and still pull it. When I played Tomb of Horrors lo these many years ago, I killed all of the major characters in the back of the Rogue's Gallery, the DM allowing me to play them in parties of four, just because I wanted to see what would happen if.....

I have also admitted that I don't personally use traps like the one in Q's poll (or at least, I haven't since running 1e modules, anyway). While I don't find those sorts of traps unfair[/] (I didn't cry over the Tomb of Horrors), I realize that there is a certain level of fun involved in setting a trap off.

So, I suppose another tangentially related question becomes: Is avoiding the trap a Good Thing?

And, a second tangentially related question: If avoiding the trap is not a Good Thing, if you knowingly set off the trap, are the consequences your fault or the DM's fault?

RC

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

No.

Unless something bad is already happening. At that point, it could help, and if I'm going to die anyway, it probably won't hurt.