EzekielRaiden
Follower of the Way
Because it isn't a puzzle if there's only three ways to do a particular thing and that thing comes up every other session. It becomes "oh, another 'block the hole' scene. Look at how much fun we're having." Hence why I referenced a lack of creativity. Problem-solving is only interesting when the problem is in fact solvable, and the problem is distinct enough to require thought.True. Though I don't get why you think that is a negative. In general, there really are only a couple ways to do something.
All the "Hard Fun" "Nightmare Fuel" traps I've ever seen could be summarized on a 3x5 note card and thus obviate any actual thinking. Do the SOP for whatever standard dungeon trap it is and move on. Or--in a bitter irony, given how such DMs are so prone to fling accusations of this at other games--"think with your character sheet," just the equipment/inventory section rather than the actions/skills section.
Except that it's always the DMs who bill themselves as offering a "challenging" game that do this, IME. Because, apparently, "there's no way to win" is "challenging," as opposed to simply being unwinnable.Like anything else in the game it does very much depend on DM experience and skill. If you have a Bad Casual DM, they will just spill some Mt Dew and say "you fall in my trap!"
Casual DMs aren't interested in making unwinnable stuff, because they just want to have a good time and hang out. And then, of course, there are all the other kinds of DMs (that is, ones that aren't like your inexplicable "Hard Fun" "Nightmare Fuel" and aren't "Bad Casual"), that generally also don't want unwinnable stuff. (Of course, there will be a few who are forcing a railroad or whatever, where failure is the only option because they need the players to walk through the
That's actually a big part of why I find pure-attrition traps (and most other pure-attrition "challenges") so boring.
Okay. What, exactly, makes a trap interesting? You're quite confident you are not such a DM. What do you do? Walk me through the process of designing and using a trap. If it actually is as valuable as you say, then adding it to my own game will be of benefit.That seems likely.